Swan Lake part 1

Since I had too much trouble at my skynet blog since the last update a couple of months ago I have decided to start a new blog here.  Let's hope the service is a bit better and things are a tad easier !

So I will be placing the work in progress pictures on my ballet sculpture inspired by the Swan Lake here.  Hope you will be following me all here now.

This is a sketch of how I want it the sculpture to look in the end.  It's not a fine drawing, it's only to outline how the two figures will interact with one another.   I will however make the man a little bit taller.  Think that will look better.  I may or may not change more things as I go along.

The wire armatures are made with 1,25mm wire.  1mm will do just fine too.  You can find this wire in any DIY store.  These armatures are just my template.  They can be used for further sculptures.  As you can see I have labeled them.  On the label I have written the size and the sex of the dolls.  So if you want to make another doll in this size, you can pick up the armature, pose it like you want it and then you can move on.

Soldered armatures with brass tubes.  The arms can still move forward and backwards.  His arms are made out of twisted wire and tubes that fit over the wire.  Her arms are made out of ordinary knitting needles.   The can be adjusted as the sculpting moves forward.   I put some dirty clay on top for try out heads, just to see how it all fits ( or doesn't fit ).

Apoxie has been added for extra strength.  This will prevent the sculptures from cracking.  Don't add too much apoxie.  You have to keep in mind that clay will be added.  If you can't add enough clay it tends to crack during baking.

Some foil has been added to bulk out the figures some more.  You don't want to add too much clay in the end.   The foil core will also heat the clay from the inside, thus giving you a well cured end result.  Everything has been covered with tape.  That prevents the clay from becoming dirty.  Not that his arms have not been completely covered.  At this stage I want his arms to be partly removable.   Her arms have not been covered yet either.  But will be towards the end.

I'm willing to try out everything at least once.  So here I'm trying the sculpted skulls I have seen on Mark Dennis' blog.  You can find a link to his blog on this site.  I must say it worked out rather well. I used some dirty clay to make these.  It doesn't matter that the clay is dirty since they will be covered by fresh clay later.   The eyes are made out of fimo, one part white fimo, one part transparant fimo.  I have a push mold to make the eyes.  That makes it easier to create perfectly round eyes of the same size.  Mixing the white and the transparant gives a realistic result.   In the end all I have to paint is the iris.   The skulls have been cured so the clay can be added.

Sideview of the male head.   No ears yet.  I'm not quite sure what to do with the eyes.  I may close them so to get more feeling and passion in the end result.  As you all know Swan lake is very emotional it's all about love...