03.17.10 New Sculpture Update

It was a good night of sculpting, Tuesday night.  My friend Leslie came over with a couple of projects to work on, so while catching up on the news in each other's lives, we both got a lot of work done.  A really good night.

This is where I left off with my new sculpt on March 3. Sad to say that in the two weeks since the last time Leslie was over for a sculpting night, I had not carved out anytime to work on the new fella.  :-(

Tuesday night's assignment was to start in on the legs.  If you've been reading along for awhile you'll remember that while working on Iko the mule I mentioned that I had switched to using a hard wax for the legs.  I think it's a fairly unusual process, at least it's one that I've never been taught, I've just developed it more and more through the years.  So I thought I share it with you today.

*Warning*  Longer than usual post ahead!  Grab your favorite beverage, maybe a snack, then settle in for a few minutes.   Ready?  Here we go!

First, I coat the wire with a bit of wax.  For this sculpture, I'm working with a mix of hard red sprue wax that was mixed with softer, stickier brown microcrystalline wax. 

Thanks to the stickier quality of this wax mix, the rectangular strip of wax that I want to "weld" to the armature will stick to the base coat of wax.  This is just for positioning, the bond between the two parts is not yet strong enough to  withstand further sculpting.  It's really just barely hanging on.

Do you see the little dimpled marks along the seam line between the wire and the little stick of wax?  (Any of these photos can be enlarged by just clicking on them.) That's where I've taken a hot tool and melted the wax on both sides just enough to weld the two parts together.

Now I'm repeating the process on the next section of leg.

More wax was welded on below the wax coated wire, with an extension past the elbow joint to form the skeletal part of the elbow, the ulna.

About now I start to think that horses are spiders -- eight legs!  Well really, you get done with one side, then you have to sculpt the other.  Four legs, two sides each = eight legs in my book.

Repeat the process with the hind legs.  Again, adding an extension past the hock joint to form the calcaneus, the point of the hock.

I mentioned a "hot tool" earlier.  That's a fancy name for a soldering iron!  The key though is that it's plugged into a rheostat (fancy name for a dimmer switch) which controls how much electricity flows to the tool.  The less electrical current, the less heat is generated.  This is actually a critical point. A soldering iron simply plugged straight into a wall outlet generates quite a bit of heat.  Heat that will melt the wax much too quickly and get the darned stuff smoking.  Nasty.  With a rheostat you can dial back the current/temp to a point where the wax is just barely melted to get a nice slow drip.

Gravity of course is the other main component of the equation here.  I'm holding the sculpture in my lap to drip wax on the joints and build them up a bit.  My rheostat (remind me to get a picture of it sometime) is a home made deally; an outlet box, wired to a dimmer switch, all mounted on a board so that it's portable.  Much more elegant versions are available commercially, most of them seem to be made for jewelers and are pretty expensive.  One, a "dial temperature control" is a stripped down model that is marketed to sculptors.  I haven't used it, but am thinking of getting one to try out.

Speaking of jewelers, I use jewelers' wax as the core of hooves.  A much harder wax, the temperature it starts to melt at is above the smoking point of the red wax.  Nasty.  But, with a sturdy core, I find it's easier to keep hooves in place.  I'll add the red/brown wax over the honey-colored jeweler's wax to form the outer shape of the hooves.

Three and a half hours later, Leslie and I have exchanged news, solved a few of the world's problems, had some great laughs, and oh yes, made progress on new sculpts.  A really good night.

~ Lynn

03.18.10 -- Update on Hot Iron Temp Controller --

Sandra Garner just pointed me towards a bi-metal regulator (not a rheostat evidently) that stained glass artists use, a soldering iron control  Thanks Sandra!! We want to research it a bit  more to see if this version goes to a low enough temp :-)

For those inclined to DIY, Barry found a website with instructions for making a dimmer switch/rheostat like I use now; www.instructables