Ella Singh

Here she is, finished and ready to be delivered.

This view shows off her beautiful headdress and lovely snout.

Here she is at the her new home.  She has an ocean view, the lucky gal, adjacent to a beautiful swimming pool patio.

Catching a Wave

Can't wait for summer.  I have been visiting the local beaches searching for subjects to paint.  This is the third painting this week and below are the steps to making it.

Montage Beaches

"Ella-Singh" 

My little 2 1/2 old grandson gave the sculpture a hug and said, "Baba, it's finished." Too bad I didn't get that picture.  Basically finished and loving it, just need to clean up some areas and put the final protective coating on.  The collector titled the sculpture  Ella-singh.  

 It's a joyful sculpture that I am sure will be loved. Ohhh Ella-Singh.

Painting the decorations

First I primed the sculpture with Zinzer123 with 2 coats and let it dry a few days to harden.  Then I applied bronze metal coating to the darker area that you see.  With white pencil, I sketched the design and then used a specific white dye to fill in the floral design.  White is a base for the colors to come.

Wateringcan decorations are being put into clay

Glass and metal was attached to create decorative elements of the elephants head dress.  Paper cutouts of flower motifs were used to create the design that will later be painted on and inlaid with stones. 

Stones create the circle around the flowers which will be painted when all the clay is complete.  Soon I will be adding ears and eyelids.

Watering can continues

As I continue adding the final layer of clay, I laid the sculpture down to let gravity work for me.  The final clay is put over the rough texture so it will adhere well.  Into the final clay surface I create a slight "elephant skin" texture by pressing crumpled up wax paper into it.   It is easier to push clay on while the sculpture is in a lying down position than to push clay on if the sculpture were standing up.  After I get to just above the eyes, and under the handle, I will stand the sculpture up to add the decorative details and final layer of clay.  Notice the eyeball...it is a glass eye used for elephant taxidermy!

WATERING CAN-INDIAN ELEPHANT THEME

This is a design sketch of the sculpture, showing it's basic shape and surface decoration.  The sculpture will be 4'x4'

The sculpture will be made of resin clay which hardens within 4 hours and is fully cured within 24hours.  The armature was carefully designed and measured. 

This picture shows the armature from the bottom.  The netting is necessary for the clay to grab onto. 

  I  laminated the Styrofoam then flipped the sculpture over and put clay on the bottom to harden.   Then I  finished building the armature in Styrofoam and wrapped it in the plastic mesh.  A layer of plaster was then added. The picture above shows the steps.  Starting at the top: carved Styrofoam, then plaster over the Styrofoam  and at the bottom, the grey area is the resin clay.  When finished the overall sculpture will be smooth.  The texture you see in the clay at this time is there so the subsequent layers of clay will have something to "hold" onto.

This is the making of the spout.  I used a ceramic bowl as the form, draped it with wax paper so the clay would not stick and after placing it on the sculpture, closed the opening with clay.

After many hours of work, it is finally shaping up.  Very time consuming is the mixing of the clay but it gives me great pleasure when it hardens and  I get closer to what the sculpture will be.