I've been working on "Lami" for a few weeks now, in between the clay drying sessions, and I'm calling her done. The first photo is the finished version, followed by the process, then another finished one. She is 9" tall, much bigger than I meant for her to be, made of paper clay, acrylic paint, and collage. I didn't create her from any particular class or reference. I had an idea in mind, but she kind of created herself as I tried to manipulate the clay.
She has character and a place in my heart! Now to find just the right place in my house for her...
Lami started out as wadded up newspaper wrapped in masking tape, then tin foil. The head and bust are reinforced with a wooden dowel piece inserted into the neck.
I inserted shaped armature wire into the head, cupped them, and covered them with painters tape and began adding clay, marking the facial features as I went.
She is all covered in clay here and I've worked on her ears, eyes, and nose some. I also built her forhead and the top of her head up more. The clay dried over the next few days. Somehow the ears lost their cupping when I added the clay and wound up flat. :(
Here I've worked wet clay over dry trying to bring out her features more. It took multiple trys, but she has a mouth now!
A few more days of drying before I work up the nerve to give her some hair/wool, but she's got some now!
A couple more days before I start painting her, but here she is with some base colors. My husband and my friend wanted me to leave her like this. They liked it and were afraid I was going to mess her up if I painted her like I intended to.
Hubby informed me that the blue eye shadow messed her up, but I liked it and kept it! Trying to decide what I want to do to her dress here. Whether to add wide white stripes, white dots, or paint a scene similar to some I have seen on Pinterest.
I added another layer of paint all over, toning down some of the intensity. I also painted her ears from the faun color back to her wool color and warmed up the pink inside. Her eyelids are actually a bit more red oxide than they appear here, more like her lips. I decided I wanted a scene on her dress, but was too lazy to paint one, so I collaged a napkin scene onto it and gave her black choker necklace, which should be a bit wider, but will suffice until I can find one. The verdict is still out as to whether I add some tiny pearls or white dots to her eyelids.
Lami from the back. I know her ears look a bit like airplane wings, but that's ok. She seems happy with her mis-shapen lamb ears and I can live with them. Some people stain/antique these kinds of sculptures, and that looks great, but, at least for now, I'm opting not to use a stain.
Lami is very flawed, like me, and I'm in no way a pro sculptor. I'm sure I made many mistakes during my process and I know I didn't get her face just right, but I guess she turned out how she was supposed to, and I love her. Hubby and my friend also love her now! Now on to the next project!
I'm thinking about taking Jeanne Marie Webb's class on paper clay characters, because I love her work and I know I could learn a lot from her! I've already taken her Painting on Teabags course, which I loved.
Anyway, until I have something else to share, stay well and keep creating! The world needs all the good stuff it can get!
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