“Soul Mates”
inspiration
Years ago, a couple of friends of ours had a joyful wedding party. My husband, Brad and I were photographed in a sweet pose, heads touching, in as much of a state of bliss as the wedding couple. I look at the photo every day and remember that happy day. Learning to create faces has been one of my goals in sculpting, so in 2020 I took on the theme of Soul Mates. I didn’t use a reference for this couple, instead I thought it would be fun to just see who emerged out of clay.
technique
For each face I formed a removable oval armature of aluminum foil with dents for eyes sockets and a nose, then covered the foil with plaster wrap. Masks are often made with thin strips of gauze coated with plaster. I wet each strip and laid it over the foil to give the sculptures strength. Then I began sculpting with Apoxie Sculpt, a two part resin. The two parts are kneaded together to form a soft clay that can be sculpted for a few hours until it cures, becoming rock hard. I applied the clay to the armature, smoothed and sculpted with various tools. I gave the couple eyes first, so they could witness the process. They seemed to enjoy getting wrinkles, hair and silly, love-sick grins. I added a coat of burnt umber acrylic paint, highlights of bronze age metallic wax, and they were all finished.
materials
Foil armature, plaster wrap, Apoxie Sculpt clay, acrylic paint and Finnabair metallic wax
Dimensions for this piece: 12”H x 15”D x 6”D