Skullpture Redux

Here's a batch from the first mold I made. I decided to make a couple molds so I could make a couple skull blanks, for a small run of similar shaped pieces.

◄The first one you see here is my take on the steal your face skull. I did the sculpture and my friend Jillian did the glaze on it. She did a pretty badass job I think. I started with the full skull and then cut the lower part off, or what I guess would be considered the jaw, as the steal your face is just the top part of the skull. That allowed me to get some more precise detailing on the teeth as well.

►This is an actual shot of the mold itself. I poked around online and found a super nice lady who gave me direction on just how to do the molds. Since I'm working from a wet piece of clay, I can cut it in half and easily make the two mold parts. It causes a bit of deformity, but that can be addressed in cleaning up the mold as well as just cleaning up the poured piece.

◄This here was probably the one I was most pleased with. I put quite a bit of detail into it, and it was pretty fragile. That didn't help things much when my cat knocked it off the shelf and it busted into no less than a thousand pieces. I did quite a bit of work on it while it was dry.

Sometimes it's easier to work on them wet, sometimes I rehydrate just a small section with a little syringe and then will tool that segment. Oh well I have pics so maybe I'll remake it, if I'm ever feeling so inclined. 

►This one I did for my friend Derek just as a test. He's going to put it in his aquarium and grow some coral or zoanthids or something of that nature on it. I just did minimal shaping to the eyes and nose and made sort of a drippy looking melty jawline. I then scored the surface to give the little aquatic peeps something to grip on. I'm really hoping one of the fish takes up residence inside.

◄This is the first one I did for actual sale. It sold surprisingly quick, so I'm hoping that is a trend. I did some quick shaping to it. My intent with this one was to see just what type of detail I could put into the skull in an hour of time. I think all in all it's pretty awesome, and some kid named Seven ended up glazing it. When I'm less lazy I'll include some images to the final version of it.

►This one I decided to bring some more of the grateful dead workings back. While not the shape itself, I did have a good time carving the teeth instead of just doing outlines, so I decided to carve the teeth into this one. It's still a work in progress so I'm dallying on that end. This will probably be one for a friend or for myself due to the amount of time I've put in to it. You may also be able to tell I have a new webcam. While I do like shooting proper pictures with my nikon, you can't beat the ease of the webcam for a quick pic. especially now that I have one that can do some decent focus.

◄And here's the last one for the update for tonight. Another moderately quick one. With a bit of a stache and just general detailing work. I did take a little bit off the jaw on this guy just to see what kind of variation I can get in playing around with that aspect. It's currently for sale at the ceramic lodge. 

~fin