Updated on
11.18.04

The Creation of a New Sculpture and its Mold

A tiny armature for a tiny pony

Unlike larger sculptures in which I use a soft non-hardening clay, I am using a wax to sculpt with at this small scale. She's rather small and fun to cup in your hand, so I started calling her "netsuke" after the intricately carved Japanese objects. That soon got shortened down to "Netzky".

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April 6, 2003 Claying up for the first piece of a plaster mold.

Since this piece is only about two inches tall, I had to devise an armature system that doesn't use plumbing parts. So, I took six strands of 18 gauge steel wire and literally braided them together to form the upright support. From there I measured and marked as we do in workshops. The really sweet thing about this method of having the armature mimic the skeleton was that when it came time to see if she would stand up (I still always have doubts!) all four tiny hooves met firmly with the base. For a working base I just drilled a hole in a piece of wood, the vertical support (handle at this scale!) drops through the hole and the sculpture stands on it's own four feet.

"Netzky"
Late February, 2003
Not quite finished, but close.

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Lynn (novice mold maker) roughs in the basic shapes.