, costs about $100-140 and is well worth it. I’ve burned up seven ordinary $25 glue guns in the past two years. This orange beast can effortlessly put out several pounds of glue a minute. It requires specific shaped glue sticks available in 11-pound boxes. You can find great deals on the web.Foil and hot glue
For the human part of the mermaid, I start with aluminum foil and hot glue. Aluminum foil is one of the best and fastest ways to sculpt really large pieces. It is possible to bulk out the human form in a few hours. Simply crumple the foil in a way that leaves the most entrapped air, then glue it to the cardboard. Build the figure slightly larger than you want. Then, using a rubber mallet, tap the surface to the correct dimensions. The crushed surface can hold a lot of weight.
My hot glue gun, the 3-M Scotch-Weld Hot Melt Applicator TC, goes for about $100 and is well worth it. I’ve burned up seven ordinary $25 glue guns in the past two years. This orange beast can effortlessly put out several pounds of glue a minute. It requires special shaped glue sticks available in 11-lb boxes. You can find great deals on the web.
Three more photos of the foiled sculpture (and my apartment) after the jump.
Armature
Here is the wire frame that establishes the shape of the fish. I have used 1-inch thin-wall square steel tube for the underlying structure.
In this picture you see a pin-and-socket arrangement. I welded a pair of small square pins to the torso side of the seam, and a receiving pair of larger square sockets to the fish side. One set simply fits inside the other, with gravity holding it in place.
This arrangement lets me break apart the big armature to into smaller pieces at the torso, the base of the tail, and each arm at the shoulder. I’m making this sculpture in my apartment, so this armature has to come up to my second-story apartment, in pieces, via the stairs, and fit through an ordinary man-sized door.
Photos of the complete armature and the tail section after the jump.
Starting to weld
A sculpture this size requires 1000+ lbs of clay and up to 800 pounds of molds. So whatever you do, the armature has to be able to hold a ton. Honestly, that is simply not that much — when you can weld!
(If you don’t have access to welding equipment, this work can also be done with wood, but it is a lot heavier. In fact, until about 50 years ago, all sculptures of this size were done with wood armatures.)
I welded this steel base and glued together the cardboard sections with hot glue. The wood struts keep them from flopping around. I folded out the centers of the small cross-sections to make them firmer.
More photos of the base after the jump.
Scaling up the model
To get the other smaller cross-sections, use a carpenter’s pin jig. The cross-sections are labeled on the body at “one foot” marks. The explanation, along with photos of the rest of the scaling procedure, appears after the jump.
Maquette acupuncture
Since I do not have the wealth to have my mermaid scanned and digitally cut from foam, I am doing this the old-fashioned, roll-up-your-sleeves, build-it-in-your-garage way.
It would cost $1,000 to have her scanned, $2,000 for the data manipulation so the CNC machine would work, and $14,000 to have her cut in foam. At that point I could apply clay to the surface of the foam and begin sculpting from there. So, $17,000 does the first quarter of the work. I can do it in steel in a few weeks for about $500.
It is necessary to get accurate cross-sections, or the Distortion Fairies will jinx your work. My cross-sections go around the body from the neck to the tail every 1 1/2 inches on the maquette, which will translate to one-foot increments in the completed sculpture. For the lateral line, place pins in the maquette right down its center.
More steps after the jump.