Frog Prince update

No, the life size Frog hasn't turned into a Prince even though he has been kissed quite a few times. But he is now finished and being assessed at uni at this moment along with all my other work. Here he is clutching his paper crowns looking a bit forlorn...

I thought you might be interested to see some more work in progress pictures showing the various stages in his creation.

I've already shown you the making of the head mould. It took 33ltrs of porcelain slip to cast it! I'm not actually communing with it here but checking that the last of the slip has drained out. 

 

The leg moulds turned out to be more tricky to use than the head mould. I would put the pouring hole in the side if I ever made such a thing again. Here they are drying in the sun with the arms and hands.

At least they didn't slump in the kiln which was my main worry. Paul, the ceramics technician at UWE, fired the parts very slowly just to be sure. They seemed to shrink even more than usual though.

 

The armature for his body is made of wood and a cut up mannequin torso. It's very sturdy!

 

 

He is padded with foam (and a lot of duct tape) to make him look rather portly and slumped.

 

Fitting his fabric covering was really difficult because the cotton I used was rather thick making the hand sewn parts very hard work.

 

 

Now he's patiently waiting for the right girl to come along!

 

 

 

A rabbit suit for Mr Messerschmidt

While the moulds for the frog prince doll are drying out I have been working on a plaster sculpture of a rabbit man. One day I'd like to make a whole man but for now I'll have to settle for a bust.

 I started by constructing an armature from polystyrene, wire and foam.

 

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I had previously cast a face in plaster using a latex mould and embedded chicken wire in the back. I attached this to the armature then built up the plaster rabbit suit slowly.

I finished him off with a surform and then gave him a stippled finish.
For the last few days he has been keeping my mother company whilst dry out on her Aga.

The latex face mould was taken from a wall plaque which is a copy of one of the 'character heads' by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736 - 1783). He was a German sculptor who suffered dreadfully with mental health problems. His head sculptures (some of which are self-portraits) are amazingly modern looking. There are 64 of them. Some are comical but some are so raw and exposed and very powerful.

 I thought the poor man needed a rabbit suit to protect him. So I made him one..