Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a good break over the festive season, mine was filled with fun, family and a tonne of fabulous food! Needless to say, with the wedding in… 4 months 2 days (!!!) my diet has well and truly begun!
So, did you make any New Year’s Resolutions? I try to avoid being too unrealistic or having too high expectations of myself but I am hoping to eat less, move more, stay up to date with my emails and make more creative time so I can move on with a few projects.
Which brings me to this – my latest model. Some of you may recognise the face of this little lady, it is the model I sculpted as a mini-bust a few years ago, called Pickle. Just as a reminder, Pickle has been released in two versions – V1…
…and V2…
The overall edition is 125 copies and the current total, including V1 and V2 stands around the 80-85 figure, leaving me about 40 copies left in the edition to play with. My original plans were to make a third version into another mini-bust with a fancy Arabian style halter (headcollar/bridle? – my tack knowledge is as good as useless!), but ever since the thought of making her an entire body popped into my head I’ve just not been able to shake it.
Last night the muse struck in spectacular style thanks to having read a few recent blog posts from two very inspirational ladies, Lynn Fraley and Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig. Between them I felt I should take on a new challenge outside my comfort zone, aim to work much faster than I usually do, not get caught up in the details too early (I always do that!) and try a medium that will force me to change my sculpting habits and embrace a new style of working, also to complete some projects in the studio that I have been putting off.
So I grabbed Pickle V3 as she has been stood for a good year or so now…
… got some tools ready and a block of a clay I’ve not used before, Chavant Le Beau Touché - a non-sulphur* clay in a much softer grade to the Chavant NSP hard grade clay that I usually use.
*clays with sulphur reacts with silicon rubber, this is important info if you plan to sculpt for casting!
Four hours later, after a bit of an education on the new clay, Pickle V3 started to come to life:
Now, please don’t worry if there are many obvious glaring issues with her so far (there are, lots!), I’ve been working solely on getting clay onto the armature and just squishing and moving things about to find a pose and a “feel” that I like. She may well change pose subtly or drastically, I’m after something sassy but not show-ring, if that makes any sense? I love that I already have a her head, it’s a great confidence-booster seeing one bit that is practically finished!
The original “vision” I had when sculpting Pickle V1 was to portray a mature mare that has been there, done that, perhaps a broodmare or a mare that simply acts as matriarch for her pasture-pals. She has an air of attitude that says “I am capable of great love but am happy to provide a sharp nip on the backside should it be necessary”. I always pictured her in my mind as standing at the gate waiting for (or perhaps demanding) some attention. I would like to sculpt her as a more “Crabbet” style Arab, though my knowledge is limited on this, I will need to do some homework on this type (any suggestions, links or pics gratefully received!), I may make some changes to the head where necessary too, though I don’t want this model to deviate too far from the original Pickle models.
I was really pleased with progress last night, I couldn’t sleep as I was so excited and am looking forward to working on her more tonight. The new clay has obviously allowed me to work very very fast but I am avoiding any hopes of completing the model too soon as I think I may struggle a little further down the line in getting those details in there. Lynn Fraley has a tip of using brown modelling wax for the smaller details so I will see how I get on and may try going to a mixed-media approach at some point.
Pickle V3 is going to be renamed, even though she is part of the Pickle edition. I’m hoping to be able to cast her myself, but we will have to see how things go as I’ve never cast anything of this size before.
I’d love to hear any comments or suggestions you may have on pose, style, etc – either by email or by leaving a comment on this post. I appreciate there are many, many Arab resins out there already so would love to hear from any collectors and get your thoughts on what you would like to see this model turn into.
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