Creative Woodworks & crafts 2000-10, страница 41

Finished acanthus carving and the clay reference model.

wood, having a clay mode) can give you confidence. Use a three-point caliper to compare the depths between the clay and the wood.

Modeling in the round often calls for an armature, a wood and/or wire core to give the clay stability. Aluminum wire works best. It can be easily bent and twisted into (he shape needed. When making an armature for an animal, for example, a good procedure might be to consult an anatomy book. Use the diagrams of the skeleton to make the armature. By-studying the bones, you can make the joints bend in the proper places and get clear measurements from one skeletal part to the other. A carefully built armature gives you a correct foundation on which to build the model.

After the wire is shaped, it is then attached to a wooden base. The same anatomy book that gave you the skeleton for the armature might now give you the animal's muscle masses from which you can develop your model. If at some time

you might want to e xperiment with different poses, the aluminum wire is easy to bend.

It isn't always necessary to complete the model in clay before carving it in wood. Sometimes all a carver needs to do in clay is pose the figure to make the blocking out easier. That accomplished, there may be no further need for the clay model. Sometimes, only a difficult feature of a statue is modeled in clay. For example, if a carver had never done a particular hand pose, it may be useful to model just the hands in clay before carving them on the figure.

Whether you have a simple leaf that you want to visualize in three dimensions before you carve it, or a complicated figure with jutting parts that you need to adjust and plan for, making a preliminary model in clay can save you much trial and error as you are carving the wood.

Besides, modeling clay is, in itself, fun and interesting, sri

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Photograph, clay model, and completed carving.

A selection of clay modeling tools.

October, 2000

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