Hi Everyone,

Here’s my very first sculpture video and it’s of Beautiful Dreamer.  I love the crispness of the clay details and wanted to show it all to you.  The best way is with video (either that or a ton of pictures).  I like video because emotion can be conveyed with the movement of the camera, the spin of the sculpture- almost like dancing, and then accompanied with lyrical music.

Beautiful Dreamer in Clay

She fired perfectly in the kiln and I liked her so much crisp and white, that I added no color, just wax.  She is an off-white color with speckles here and there from the clay showing.  They are like beauty marks to me.

Underneath her chaise lounge, I wrote the words of Stephen Foster’s song, “Beautiful Dreamer.”  I like the heirloom feel it gives the piece, to have the hand signed words written on it.  I just really enjoyed making this sculpture.  I’m glad to share it with you via video. I’d  like to do more videos of my sculpture too.  Afterall, that’s half the fun of making sculpture, to share it with everyone else.  :-)

Hope you’re having a wonderful fall.  It’s so pretty this time of year.  Except for the yardwork (had to blow lots of leaves today) it’s a lovely time of year, with the rustling of the leaves and coziness of the cool weather (by staying indoors, hee, hee).

~Tamara

]]> http://tamarabonet.com/blog/2013/11/27/new-video-beautiful-dreamer-in-clay/feed/ 5 http://tamarabonet.com/blog/2013/07/19/book-sponge/ http://tamarabonet.com/blog/2013/07/19/book-sponge/#comments Sat, 20 Jul 2013 03:05:21 +0000 Tamara Bonet http://tamarabonet.com/blog/?p=2028 Book Sponge

It’s been awhile since I posted anything on my blog.  Hi everyone Today I share with you “Book Sponge” as my husband just named her.   This sculpt came about after having a close friend come over to work (staining my redwood benches/arbors) and brought her eight year old daughter (the last of her seven daughters!) with her.   Her Little Mo Mo, as she likes to call her, wanted to earn some money too as a model for me. 

The other day I told Mo Mo that I wanted to do some quick sketches for fun of her and she wanted to do it right then, as kids are, spontaneous. But she had to wait for the day that her mother came over to stain.  Here’s the result of my session with her below.  I sure had fun sculpting her.

I thought it would be more enjoyable for us all to be outside together. That way Mo Mo could get to watch her mom working while I was sculpting her and it would give her something to do. Well, that sounded nice…..

I brought out my sculpture stand, clay, tools, spray bottle.  Had to get out of the gazebo a nice big cushioned lounge chair for Mo Mo to sit on.  Put the music on for all of us to enjoy and the weather was holding out okay.  But then our shade tree kept moving the light and we were getting hot and the wind was kicking up……

Mo Mo was cute in that she wanted to model but you want to know how long that lasted?  Well, the sitting still part lasted for as long as I could take photos of her around in a circle from each angle.  (Although, at first she said she could keep that pose forever, her choice of position,  as it was so comfortable for her to sit in that flexible position.) She was a typical squirmy girl, albeit as cute as pie.  She thought that if she just sort of held the same position it would be alright.  Maybe for another sculptor it would be, but I was having trouble because she’d move so much.

How do sculptors of children do it?  Ha!  And I have a lifesize children sculpture to do coming up that will be composed of two children, probably in a playing pose, not a much easier pose like this one sitting down.  Thought it would be good practice to work on a little girl sculpt and get my feet wet so to speak and get used to the body differences of little girls versus women.

It wasn’t long before Mo Mo was standing up with me at the sculpting stand, and I was working from the photos on my camera (just looking at them while the sun shone so warmly on us) and she was “sculpting” the face for me.  I let her work on the face while I worked on the body.  She decided she wanted her portrait to have pigtails instead of how she was wearing it- mid-length and wavy blonde down her back.  So keeping with her wishes, I decided to add pigtails later on another day when I was finishing her.  She’ll be excited when she sees that the sculpture has them, although they look a little different than the ones she put on, lol.

It was funny because I had only been at the portrait for about a half hour and she made the comment: “That doesn’t look like me.” Tough critic. Well, I hadn’t even started to do the portrait but was just roughing in the figure.  Kids do not have patience, I know!  Thank goodness I have patience though, hee, hee…  

Her blouse read “Roxy” but that’s a brand name and I decided to put “Princess” on it instead.  Every little girl is a princess to their mother (and a twirp all wrapped up in one).  She is a cute little girl with a dimple in her chin and round little body.  Oh, that reminds me…. she can eat! ….

We were into the sculpting session maybe ten minutes and she tells me she’s hungry. Then goes inside and comes out wiping her mouth (not sure what she found) She had just before this had a plum fresh from the tree.  Now she told me she really wanted a tuna sandwhich and lots of mayonnaise.  Well, having clay all over my fingers wasn’t conducive to making her a sandwhich, so first I asked her mom if it was okay, she reluctantly said,…. if I want to .  So I asked my hubby to do the honors and he gladly did and spent some time with her inside in the cool house.

She had a tuna sandwhich, a big one, and then another plum.  Then a bit later another plum!  Her mother tells me she can sure eat some groceries and now I believe her!  With a big appetite like that, she has lots of energy.

Pretty much that was it.  I didn’t get that far on the sculpt that day but Mo Mo made some money and I got to take pics which help me create this sculpture.  She didn’t want to leave when she finally had to go, so I guess she had fun in spite of not liking so much the sitting still part.  I can’t blame her. I’m sure at eight, sitting still would be the last thing I’d want to do too!  She’s a cutie alright.

Oh, the size of the sculpt is small, about 6 1/2″ tall  by 10″ wide (from foot to foot).  I can always make a larger one off this maquette size. After I fire and patinate her, I might put her in the Winter Show at the Patrick Ranch Museum in Chico, CA or if someone is interested in her, please contact me.

Thanks for watching and reading my blog,

~Tamara

The last step before molding is sculpting the base with flowers and note.   (See finished clay pics and promotion and bronze photos).

First off, to determine the right size of base, I cut out a circle in paper and carefully placed my lady on it.  I wanted it to be as small as possible so that she wouldn’t look bottom heavy. Also, the smaller the base, the taller the sculpture will look.

Next, I needed to put the edition number, my signature and copyright between the chair legs, so I sketched these details on the paper to see what size they should be.

Cut paper circle to see how big I wanted the base.

Then I rolled out some clay to a uniform depth of about 3/8,” remembering that it shrinks because it’s water based clay. Using a rolling pin and a couple of porcelain tiles, I rolled the clay in between to an even depth.  Then I cut the clay circle out a little wider than the paper circle to allow for shrinkage.

Cut out the clay circle out of the rolled out clay.

A thin film of plastic wrap works great for signing my name and then poking my signature through the plastic.  Then I connect the dots and have the signature right the first time.

My signature is poked through the plastic with little pinholes.

Getting a feel for how big the note should be . . .

Deciding how big I want the note to be and where to position it.

I wanted a small bouquet of flowers to add to the story line for her.  She may have picked them herself and then wrote the poem while relaxing in the garden, or perhaps she was given the note and flowers. Let the viewer decide.  Laying a few rolls of clay helped me see how big the flowers should be. It looked good having the flower stems over the edge of the note, with flowers extending past the chair leg.

Trying out a little bit of mockup flowers on the edge of the note.

The goal was to give some life to the paper, rather than flat on the ground.  One edge curling and a few waves in the paper helped.  I had to pack clay underneath the edges to help with de-molding during casting. Deep undercuts are not good for a mold, because the rubber will get stuck.

Could only fit a few words on the clay paper note.

The note could only contain a few words because it’s so small, so I wrote it out on plastic wrap, and then free hand wrote it into clay with a sharp pencil.

Decided to freehand write the note rather than poke pinholes through a pre-written note on plastic.

Clay note with poetry from a song my dear friend wrote.

Incidentally, a dear friend of mine wrote the words included on the note. It’s a portion of a song she wrote, and sang with her soprano voice and accompanied by her guitar many years ago.  I love that song very much and it brings back great memories of when my mom and I sang the song, harmonizing with her. She gave me permission to include a portion of the song for this sculpture.  A bit of her art combined with mine is special sentiment. I thought that the words could have a lot of different meanings, like poetry often does.

A garden rose and wild flowers bouquet is loosely wrapped in a string ribbon.

“Look into the window of my heart, this is what you’ll find”…. Has special meaning for me.

Well, that is the conclusion of the sculpting portion of this work in progress of Garden Reverie.

Next I will begin applying rubber to the sculpture.

Thanks for following along!

~Tamara

Sculpting the seat cushion is next.  She’s almost finished!  (See finished clay pics and promotion and bronze photos) 

Chair back and chair legs will need to be fabricated at the foundry.

The back of the chair and chair legs will be added by the foundry so I needed to add registration marks to show the metal worker where to attach.

On a side point, here is the braid all finished. Also, you can see how I’ve added some wire under her arm to figure where the chair touches her arm and her back.

An indention under the arm marks where the chair back should go.

Smooth chair cushion will have texture added.

Her chair seat is now sculpted in clay and smooth.  Next, the texture is added.

Registration marks are added to the chair seat.

Registration marks are in place as seen above.  She is mounted on an oil base clay tube which will serve as a pour spout for the mold.

Funnel for reproduction mold is attached under the chair.

Impressionistic floral pattern is barely discernible and is a contrast to the tight and smooth modeling of her skin and dress.

Impressionistic floral pattern gives contrast to the smoothness of sculpture.

Next is the final step before molding. Yay!  I will be sculpting her base, with the written note and  bouquet of flowers.

Glad I entered some competitions this year!  Decided to see how my sculpture Garden Reverie would do in a few competitions.  If she was able to win something it would really help with promoting her.  Well, I was so excited to get a phone call from AWA (American Women Artists) that I had won Grand Prize in their online 2013 competition!  I won $400 cash, 1/4 page ad in Southwest Art magazine and an automatic entry into their November 2013 juried show in Texas.  That made my day!  I was so excited that I did the dance of joy.  Yay!

Then I had hopes for how Garden Reverie might do in the other competition that I entered, ARC (Art Renewal Center).  This is the finest competition that I know of and is international.  I just found early this morning the results. Thankfully, I was a finalist in the Sculpture category for “Garden Reverie.” She was one of only 30 finalists in sculpture. I was in good company as a finalist with such well known sculptors as Angela De Le Vega and Philippe Faraut.

• http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/salon_winners.php?contest=2012-2013%20Salon&page=Sculpture

Well, these awards make for a nice finale to my sculpture project.  She was a lot of work and so having the recognition from top awards really makes me satisfied of a job well done.  Accolades do feel good and mean something to me, especially coming from such good organizations as ARC and AWA!

Thanks for all your support and comments.  They have always been a big support to me and keep my spirits up during difficult periods of sculpting.

~Tamara

My favorite patinas are usually ones that show the quality of the bronze metal in all it’s glowing glory.  Some sculptures look best with an opaque patina and some look great with a bronze patina.  I happen to favor Garden Reverie in bronze patina, with color on her dress and flower etc..

Details:

• Pre-cast promotion is here.   She’s being offered in two different patinas. One is an bronze patina with color as seen below or the other option is an opaque monochrome patina. 
• To view all work in progress posts for her, click here
• ARC awards finalist in the Sculpture category for her. She was one of only 30 finalists in sculpture. I was in good company as a finalist with such well known sculptors as Angela De Le Vega and Philippe Faraut.  http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/salon_winners.php?contest=2012-2013%20Salon&page=Sculpture
• Grand Prize winner for AWA (American Women Artists) in Sculpture 2013 competition for Garden Reverie.

Front full view of Garden Reverie Sculpture in bronze with color.

Side view of Garden Reverie showing her blue-green
patterned dress.

The dress has patterns of teal blue, green, and some rust.  It is semi-translucent which allows the bronze to show through.  Her chair has a touch of burgundy tone in highlight areas.

Closeup view of face of bronze Garden Reverie.

Her hair is a lighter shade of bronze.  We decided not to add color to it but rather to take color away from it.  Her dress ties are rubbed back so that they stand out from her skin color.  The flower in her hair is burgundy red color with a pale yellow bronze center.

“Look into the window of my heart, this is what you’ll find” note
in bronze.

The bronze base is very beautiful (thanks to the wonderful patina artist, Bart, at Parks Bronze in Enterprise, Oregon) with a swirly rich brown pattern that resembles brown marble.  The pattern  goes well with the dress pattern.

Variegated patina colors on her dress.

And that’s the conclusion to this project but I will continue to post the remaining blog posts for my work in progress of her, including mold photos and foundry process pictures.

Thanks again for watching!! Now I’m free to work on my lady with the hat reading a book.  :-)  Just in time for sunny days to inspire me further.

Have a great day,

~Tamara

Hi everyone,

Finally have some pics to share with you of Garden Reverie in monochrome.  The patina is called a pastel patina, meaning that a white base is used and then color is slowly built up upon that.  I wanted her to look warm and soft so we used warm colors of rosy salmon, tan, off-white and grey.

Pre-cast promotion is here.   She’s being offered in two different patinas. One is an opaque monochrome patina as seen below or the other option is a bronze patina with color (see pics here).

To view all work in progress posts for her, click here.

• ARC awards finalist in the Sculpture category for her. She was one of only 30 finalists in sculpture. I was in good company as a finalist with such well known sculptors as Angela De Le Vega and Philippe Faraut.  http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/salon_winners.php?contest=2012-2013%20Salon&page=Sculpture
• Grand Prize winner for AWA (American Women Artists) in Sculpture 2013 competition for Garden Reverie.

Her face shows up very well in this light patina whereas the bronze with color patina choice has more of a rich and exciting feel.  My patina artist did such a good job that I love each of his patinas!

She is 15 1/2″ tall which includes her base.   The black granite base is 1 1/4″ and has an ogee edge.   Just a little bit fancy touch for the ogee edge base as opposed to a simple round edge.

Garden Reverie in monochrome “white” patina

Her pupils came out very well.  I didn’t carve out the pupil which can depict a dark color.  By leaving the iris on the same plane as the sclera (white part) it gives the appearance of a light colored eye.

Detail areas like eyes, lip lines, eyebrown lines and fingernails are all important to me.  My Oregon foundry did a good job to keep this areas in tact or replicate them if need be.  The metal chaser said this is the first time he ever got out a razor blade to chase in detail areas like lip lines.  So happy he did such a good job.

Chose a lavender background to go with the springtime feel.  On my monitor it looks pleasing but will be nice to see how it reads on different computers- perhaps greyish.

This is the note that is below her.  It reads “Look into the window of my heart, this is what you’ll find.”  It can mean different things to each person.

Stay tuned and I’ll be posting the bronze patina photos of her shortly.

~Tamara

Sculpting flowers is something I really enjoy doing.  Adding one to my garden lady seemed like a great  thing to do.   (See finished clay pics and promotion and bronze photos) At first I didn’t know how many flowers to add.  Should I have a variety of flowers or just one? Didn’t really want to cover the wavy curls in the front of her hair or cover her ear.  Played around with adding some clay petals to determine what mass I wanted in that area.

Playing around with the size of flower to add.

Decided to sculpt one large flower.

Decided to do a big single flower (nothing too busy looking), one that had a romantic, lacy feel to it.  Because clay shrinks, the flower kept getting smaller, and so I had to add more to the edges in order to get it to be the right size.

Will need to back fill clay behind petals so rubber mold will release.

When making ceramic roses, I can have the petals very thin and dainty. But for bronze, I have to thicken the petals so that the flower will de-mold well.  Maintaining the dainty look can be tricky. I back fill behind the petals with clay, but kept the edges as thin as possible.  Below is the finished rose.

Flower is complete.

Next, I worked on getting her dress finished out with ribbon ties and bow.

Bow has trailing tendrils.

Wavy hair, flower, and ribbon ties…. that oughta do it!  I love swirly, wavy anything! Lol.

Delicate and fine straps for her dress.

If the neckline tie is too fine, the foundry workers might remove too much metal, and the tie would disappear.  I continued to add more clay until it was just thick enough.

Continue to build up thickness of dress ties.

In order to work on her bodice area, I had to remove the arm once again.

Had to remove arm to work on dress bodice.

Wavy and delicate dress bodice.

Next I’ll work on her chair cushion.

Thank you for your interest in following this sculpture to completion.

What a wonderful time I had going to my new foundry, Parks Bronze, in Enterprise, Oregon.  Want to share my foundry experience with you along with photos of Enterprise and the nearby town of Joseph (5 miles away).

First off, I’ll share some about the town of Joseph.  Here’s a photo entering Joseph, Oregon.

The town of Joseph, Oregon is nice little town.

My husband had a fun time making a little video that we’ll put on YouTube of him giving his version of this sign.  These people really do feel like they live in Paradise and I can see why!  They say to slow down but we were crawling along so I bet they’d be glad if we went a little bit faster.  Lol.

Welcome sign in Joseph, Oregon made us laugh!

There is one bronze foundry in Joseph, OR called Valley Bronze and two foundries in Enterprise, OR : Parks Bronze and I don’t recall the name of the other one. With all the local foundries it is no wonder that there are several bronze public art scuptures to enjoy. Some sculptors live in the area, including sculptor Rodd Ambroson who makes very beautiful figurative women sculpture.

“Attitude Adjustment” by Artist : Austin Barton

The town of Joseph was named after Chief Joseph and there is a historic monument for his graveside outside the city near Wallowa Lake.

“Chief Joseph” looks over the city of Joseph along with several other bronzes.

Chief Joseph- Hein-Mot too-Ya-la-kekt

Lake Wallowa, seen below, is gorgeous with it’s snow capped moutains, red barn and deer in the foreground. I got hailed on just a few minutes after this pic was taken.  The deer were coming up to me so curious and friendly.  I hear winters get minus degree temperatures so I’ll save my visits to the spring or summer.  It was cold enough as it was in mid April as you can see with snow on the ground.

Gorgeous Wallowa Lake in Joseph, Oregon with a deer in picture.

Now to the foundry…. here is point number one to just give an idea of the quality of the foundry…. see how clean this eagle is out front of Parks Bronze?  They must get out there and wipe the dust off regularly.  Good sign for the attention to detail they do otherwise as well.

Eagle outside of Parks Bronze is so clean!

I get so excited when I go to foundries and this time was no different except in one crucial way …. usually my initial excitement is replaced with stress due to all the corrections I have to make to the bronzes but here I am seen twirling around in a whirlwind of happiness.

Whirlwind of excitement getting to work with my new foundry.

Later, in my work in progress for Garden Reverie, I’ll share bronze process photos.  I love looking at sculptural works in the foundry and would have loved to share stunning patinas but was not allowed to take photos of other scuptor’s work.  The foundry said I would have to get permission from the artists.  Respect is given and that’s a plus!

Other high points to this foundry:

• Bronzes required very little refining. When I arrived at the foundry, my two bronzes looked great!  I’m used to circling with a black marker pen all the areas the metal chaser needs to give attention to but there was little to do.  This was partly due to the fact that they sent nice wax photos and then metal photos for me to critique, so that when I got there, little was left to do.  Their work is careful and conscientious.

• Plastic bags cover sculptures.  I’ve never seen a foundry that cover the finished sculptures with clear plastic bags so that dust does not accumulate and potentially mess up the patina.

• Foundry workers sweep for 10 minutes at end of each workday! I was shocked to see the metal guys with masks on and going to town, so to speak, with their big brooms sweeping the floor of metal dust and debris. You mean foundries can actually be clean?!

• Patineur Bart is fabulous!  He first requested that I send him photos of my patina idea for Garden Reverie so that he could start “thinking” about how he might approach doing the patina.  When I arrived, he didn’t want to leave my side, even though it was his lunch time, because he wanted to be there in case I had further questions or concerns.  I finally had to tell him it was okay to leave for his lunch and that I’d be okay with checking out the bronze and circling the things on it that needed some touchup.  He’s so nice!

•  We talked about the patina and he had already prepared a few test plates for us to begin a sample patina on.  This is so much better then working on the actual sculpture and then regretting your choice of patina later.  Here’s a pic of Bart beginning one of the test tiles.

Bart at Parks Bronze making a test tile sample.

Patina artist Bart worked meticulously on my patina.  He has a good artistic eye for subtle variances, color tones to create a mood and how a sculpture reads.  He analyzed carefully and thoughtfully and consulted with me along the way.  Soon I’ll be taking photos and share the patinas he created.  I can not imagine them being any better, he did a wonderful job.

• Bart made a final sample tile for reference.  I don’t have to worry about the next cast having a patina that will look a lot different because Bart made a final sample tile plate that has all the variances of tone for each patina.  I had a monochrome patina and a bronze with color patina and so he has two reference tiles to be kept on file for my Garden Reverie!  This is so much better then using photos or written notes alone to recreate the patina.

• Bronzes were mounted and felt tabs applied to bottom. Bronzes were waxed and mounted on the granite base with felt applied to bottom and this was all ready for me to take home.  Bart was polishing Garden Reverie very carefully like he really cared about it.  He then offered to bubble wrap them and then put them in a plastic bag for our trip home.  We said it wasn’t necessary as we had blankets to wrap them in.  He delivered my sculpture to our car and made sure that it was lying on the correct side of the sculpture for the trip home.  He waited for us to get in and then waved goodbye to us with a smile!   Service clear to the very end as we left!  Can’t ask for more with a foundry.  I highly recommend them for doing high quality work.

Foundry always has so much to look at.

The owner Steve Parks playfully sticks out his hand, to receive cash for our picture together.  Secretary Jackie plays along.  She is such a hardworking lady and carries many hats around that place, not just answering the phone.  In fact, we saw her with her telephone head set on and spruing wax on a sculpture (see her work apron on). In between calls, she works!  She’s very nice, honest and articulate- a good communicator- which is very important in a long distance foundry.

Owner Steve Parks (Jackie looks so innocent) is taking my whole life savings! lol

Finally, here are some pics of the semi-domesticated deer.  A herd of 12 deer were casually grazing in the back yard of some residence in Joseph, Oregon. They lie down in peace, unafraid.  We loved seeing them up close and it was like being at a wildlife park or imagining how Paradise would be with all the animals of the earth at peace with mankind, yay!

Herd of 12 deer gather like they live in Paradise at peace with people.

Deer peacefully lie down in back yard of Joseph, Oregon home.

In a nutshell, the goal is to find a foundry that can work in my absence and have me trust them to do all the things I need them to do and maintain good quality casts.This can be done with a foundry 2 hours away or much further away, it really doesn’t matter. The initial introduction needs to happen so that they know what is needed and desired. By documenting this info, the foundry can then reproduce the next sculpture cast to look the same.

Parks has one more cast to make and I have confidence they will do a good job on it as well. My good friend Lynda Sappington has been working with them for years and has great results. She’s the reason I tried out this fine foundry because of her recommendation. Thanks Lynda!

(See Garden Reverie’s finished clay pics and promotion and bronze photos)

Once again, refining her figure is what I’ll be showing today but this time for her legs.  Keeping in mind the shape of the bones, such as in the knee, is important.  There are many complex features to a knee.  Two large bones join there and then a knee cap and tendons, muscle and fat all play a part.  When a knee is bent, the knee cap gets pulled downwards.  Our bodies are so wonderfully made and learning the intricacies of it is an ongoing process.  I keep several anatomy books close on hand to refer to while sculpting.

(See Garden Reverie’s finished clay pics and promotion and bronze photos)

Her rough toes need much work, and her foot needs to be narrowed, among other things.

Each leg is removed and sculpted in detail.

Above, you see her size in relation to my hand.  She’s going to be about 16 ½” or thereabouts, with her black granite base.

Her finished leg and foot is ready to be attached to her body once again.

The crossed leg is relaxed, with a bulging calf muscle due to pressure put upon it from the other leg.  This relaxed leg is contrasted with a leg in flexion, with a contracted calf muscle and flexed foot.   There is a dichotomy ever present with this lady; her relaxed, dreamy state is contrasted with her physical need to support her coquettish pose through tension of limbs.

Next, I’ll show the process of sculpting the flower in her hair.