Hi Folks,

I’ve begun to add clay to the base of the sculpture. It is far from complete, however I’ll be disappearing into the Holidays tomorrow, so I thought I’d give you something to think about for a few days.

This is the front of the sculpture. The Hawk will be facing this direction. I deliberately left my morning’s “Senior Coffee” in the picture so you could get an idea of size.

This is the back view, the wings and tail will be facing this direction. I’ve done a bit of texturing on this side, and although the piece is not textured over-all, it will give you an idea of what I’m trying to accomplish.

“And now for the rest of the story”. As most of you know, this is my first shot at a serious sculpture. I am also using polymer clay for the first time so I have only a limited idea of where I’m going. This whole project could end up as a very expensive pile if debris.

There are a few things I’ve decided to try. The original concept was to “Gesso” the whole sculpture when it is fired, then use washes of acrylic paint to color the bird.  I have since found that the surface of the polymer clay will be similar to PVC pipe so I’m not sure the paint/gesso will hold. There is a second option if that happens, but I’ll discuss that later if I decide to go that way.

The other thing that I’ve learned/been told, is that I can bake the sculpture in stages. If that is true, I’ll bake this base at a lower temperature to try to stablize it, then add the bird later. If this works the final sculpture may be a two piece assembly, which will make it a lot easier to transport.

Meanwhile, I want wish all of my readers

And I’ll talk to you in a few days,