As August 2021 draws to a close, work continues on the large (2.3m – 7’6″) human figure which echoes the words of Kahlil Gibran in Speak to us of Crime and punishment from ‘The Prophet‘.

This is a figure of a man, wracked with guilt, knocking at the gates of heaven and asking for forgiveness.

Neil working on the clay

Moulding clay onto a steel armature and enlarging from the original bronze maquette is quite a long job.  Getting the first large layers of clay on is quite easy, but then fining up the details of the muscles and making sure the enlarged dimensions ‘look’ right, can take some weeks.

That alone can be tricky simply because clay is only workable when it is moist, so when a break is needed, we wrap it very carefully in clingfilm so that it doesn’t dry out.

The workshop is now closing for the whole of September, so the wrapping is really important.  It will re-open at the beginning of October, so the next post will see the final stages.  The modelling will be very nearly complete and then we will get the sculpture ready for moulding, which is a whole new and very different process!

Click here to find out more about the original Speak to us of Crime & Punishment sculpture.

Neil working on the clay

The back view

The overall shape has appeared and looking at the work so far, it seems that the lower leg and possibly the thigh area, is too short is relation to the truck of the body.

At this stage it is important to correct that in the clay and the knee definitely needs to be higher off the ground, possibly say 75mm (3″) higher.

You will see that correction when I release more pictures of the work carrying on next week.

Click here to find out more about the original Speak to us of Crime & Punishment sculpture.

Here is the next step – applying clay to the steel armature.

The work is called ‘Speak to us of Crime and Punishment‘ and I created the original bronze maquette some years ago.

The first layer of clay

Here is Richard Clarke, a specialist enlarger, applying the first layer of clay to the stell armature I showed you in the previous post.

As you can see, at this stage it’s fairly crude, and that’s because the objective is to get the clay to stick to (and around) the steel to provide a very firm foundation for the finishing layer.  The clay is added in relatively large blobs and shaped to roughly the right shape.

The left forearm has yet to have any clay applied, so you can see the steel poking out of the upper arm.

Click here to find out more about the original Speak to us of Crime & Punishment sculpture.

This is a new blog showing the creation of a new enlargement.

As part of the centenary celebrations of Kahlil Gibran‘s ‘The Prophet‘, I’ve decided to make a number of new large sculptures.  The works are offered as a tribute to collectors and Gibran devotees, as part of the Gibran Sculpture Series.

Here is the beginning of the story for one of them.

The work is call ‘Speak to us of Crime and Punishment‘ and I created the original bronze maquette some years ago.

Here’s the maquette from which the enlargement will be made.

The first stage in making an enlargement is to decide on the finished size.  Once you have decided that, you can set up the pantograph (which is what you use to make the magnification).

This work will be life-and-a-quarter in size.

In the enlarger’s workshop

The first stage in making an enlargement is to decide on the finished size.  Once you have decided that, you can set up the pantograph (which is what you use to make the magnification).

This work will be life-and-a-quarter in size.

The next step is to build a steel armature.  This is a series of welded steel rods which give structural strength to the clay.  Without an armature, the clay would just collapse.

It may not be obvious, but the armature needs to be really accurately shaped because if it isn’t, you just can’t get a faithful, accurate enlargement for the next step which is the clay enlargement.

Working with a specialist enlarger is the best way to proceed and this work is being enlarged by Richard Clarke.

The finished armature on a plywood base.

The left photo shows the armature and the maquette in the background.  The long white angular metal contraption to the right of the picture is the pantograph, which accurately magnifies and maps the maquette to the newly enlarged size.

The thicker bits are the structural support frame used to keep the armature upright while it is being built.

The blue box is the arc welder used to join the individual rods.

Click here to find out more about the original Speak to us of Crime & Punishment sculpture.