This piece had some interesting mishaps along the way, however I am pretty happy with the results. I say pretty happy because there is always room for improvement.
I started with 2 , 25 pound blocks of clay. The model was a beautiful french woman who visualized herself as a mermaid...thus she became a mermaid.
After a good start and a few on going sessions with the model , in my excitement of working I managed to knock the entire piece off the rolling platform the sculpture was placed on. It was totally flattened on one side.
Now I had to work harder because the model's time is limited.
Then when I was hollowing her out, removing the inside clay, her waist collapsed because I took too much clay out leaving thin walls which could not support her upper body. After the piece was fired and I applied the patina I got carried away with the Verde green and had to rework the patina a few times to correct my error.
The good news is clay is very forgiving and allows for mistakes and corrections.
