Sunday, December 14, 2008

Side projekt III

My buddy Björn is a rock star (drummer of excellent band Freak Kitchen) so therefore he should have an action figure.

I have never done an action figure before and I have'nt done much clay modeling since I went to art school 25 years ago so, plenty of trial and error on this one. I tried a brand of modeling clay that could be hardened in the owen. Unfortunally it was too sturdy to work with so I settled for flour clay. Cheap, always at hand and I could easily adjust the thickness by adding more water or flour. The first wire skeleton was to weak though and the flour clay too sticky so my first attempt ended up in a messy little lump. I noticed that the flour clay is unable to carry it's own weight so if I build it too thick it would slowly start sliding off. At last I made this really sturdy skeleton and started build it up in segments. Building and baking, buildling and baking... In my attempt to make it as steady as possible I made the feet a bit too big. but hey! it's steady now.

One of the arms eventually went broken. Like I kind of knew it would -the elbow joint's a weak spot. Apparently baked flour clay is not well suited for moving parts - it cracks easily. So I will make new, wooden arms as fast as I get to my parents place and the wood shop during the holidays.





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