The Sacred heart Orphans. Meet Margaret and Frank.
The Sacred Heart Orphans
My little girl and boy are from The Sacred Heart Orphanage. Their story is very sad. Their dear mother died when she toppled from a train platform and was crushed under a Steam Engine barreling through Philadelphia’s 30th street station in 1942. She was there to find a home for here newest baby. They were desperately poor and she had decided that she wanted this newest child to have a better life . She found a nice Irish woman waiting in the train station and asked her to hold her baby while she went to the ladies room. She then climbed out the window, leaving her baby with the Irish woman. She tried to hurry away unnoticed failing to see a large brown bear asleep on the platform. She tripped over him and fell under the passing express train. Her husband was grief stricken when he heard the news that he had lost his wife and new born child.He went stark raving mad!
So the remaining two children were sent to the Sacred Heart Orphanage.The very same place where I grew up many years later.
It’s not a nice place. The Sisters of the Sacred Heart are cruel.
Margaret and Frank have to be adopted together because at this point they have gone through too much to be seperated. I know what it’s like to be separated from your brothers. I was separated from my four brothers and even though you fight and scrap , you still love them and miss them.
The girl is about 3 inches high. So she is no trouble at all. She eats very little but her little brother can be a handful, as boys tend to be.
They are made entirely of porcelain and china painted with Mongolian sheep hair. The clothes are hand sewn by me. They took longer then the sculpting of the bodies! They will soon be for sell in my Etsy shop!
Audrey Hepburn
You just can’t get more perfect beauty.
My next sculpt is Audrey Hepburn. I’ve almost got her head done which is the hardest AND the most fun part. I started out doing it in super sculpt because I got this great new book.
“Doll Making- One artist’s Approach by Robert McKinnley.
Great book BUT I found out I hate, hate, hate sculpt now that I am spoiled by porcelain. So I scrapped that first head and reworked her head in luscious porcelain. Now that her head is done I really have to decide what pose and outfit she will be wearing AND how much of her will be jointed. Decisions, decisions …I also hate making decisions. They are so, ummm, final. Sigh. But there comes a time when it must be done and now is the time.
The wonderful thing about Audrey, and there are many wonderful things about her, is that she knew how to wear clothes. I so admire that since I am a totally failure at clothes wearing. But Audrey is , well a star in that department. Let me show you what I’ve narrowed it down to and maybe you can help me decide?
1. Breakfast at Tiffanys- which has been done by everyone but there is a reason for that.
Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
2. Roman Holiday-
I wonder if I could make a Vespa Scooter from clay?
3. Sabrina-
Fresh back from Paris, Sabrina turns heads in this suit by Givenchy. This is a lovely scene where David Larrabee offers her a lift, failing to recognise her.
The camera pans up, first taking in her rather stylish luggage and dog with a sparkly collar:
See, poodles are very chic! (I have a standard poodle).
I could make all the little suitcases and everything.
Could be good? What do you think?
The suit is quite boxy across the shoulder, with a nipped in waist. It appears to be double breasted. Kick pleat in the back of the pencil skirt:
Isn’t she adorable?
Close-up of the hat, which although appearing to be a turban of draped fabric is actually rigid.
4. Funny Face
This is a very classic look for Audrey. But is it the right one for me to do?
Jeff, my little brother , memorial sculpture
Its finished, the memorial sculpture I did of my recently decreased little brother who died of a massive heart attack at age 51. Very sad but somehow making this little sculpture of him helps- a lot. I’m thinking that I might start doing this for other people too. It would be a very nice way to remember a loved one.
Porcelain doll finished!
After many months of work,I gave my oldest daughter this doll I made for christmas.
Her hair was cut from her owners head.
Her burlesque costume was hand sewn by me from recoiled clothes.
Her bustle is removable by unsnapping. She throws it to the audience during her strip performance.
Her eyes are set-in glass eyes. She was hand sculpted by me. I didn't use any molds. She started out as just a lump of white porcelain clay.
Relaxing before a performance.
Preventing cracks and EXPLOSIONS!
After spending hours, sometimes days on a piece, there is nothing worse than having it come out of the kiln cracked or worse yet exploded into a million pieces which are stuck all over everyone else’s master pieces!
This page looks at problems related to casting and drying.
How you cast or dry your piece is the most common reason for cracking and warping.
Hanging out to dry:
Ceramics contain clay which can absorb and hold water.
Before firing, it is important to remove all of the water so that the piece will not crack or explode when heated.
This is often accomplished in steps with firing being the last stage.
Understanding Drying/ evaporation
When you first make…say a doll head, the clay particles are far apart with lots of water between them. That’s why you can push it around and shape it into stuff.
As your doll head is drying, the water doesn’t want to stay there all trapped between the clay particles. Water wants to be free! So it chances its form and evaporates into thin air! Good trick, huh? Don’t you wish you could do that?
So, with the water leaving the particles settle down and huddle closer together. (that’s why there is shrinkage). Your doll head stops shrinking when all the water has left and the particles are touching each other.
Drying Tips
Sometimes you don’t even know your doll head is ruined till it comes out of the kiln and has cracks or is warped.
They are usually caused by drying too fast or unevenly. If the piece is not completely dried and is heated too fast, the pressure from water vapor inside the piece can cause cracking.
- Warping can be caused by uneven drying. If one side is drier than the other.
- When one surface finishes drying, the piece is now too stiff to recover and the warping becomes permanent and this can lead to cracking.
- Pottery and ceramics made of very plastic clays or having a high clay content need to be dried uniformly and slowly.
- Thicker walled pieces will often have a greater tendency to warp or distort because the outside usually dries before the inside does.
- Laying the piece on its side and using a fan on low will help the piece to dry more evenly.
Care needs to be taken to allow for uniform air movement around all sides of a piece to avoid drying problems. - Sometimes drying must be slowed down to avoid cracking by loosely draping a piece of plastic over the piece, or placing the piece in a cooler room.
- Handles on cups can have a tendency to pull away from the mug.
- Doll heads and chest cavities may cave inward.
Reduce Warping and Cracking
- Dry slow and even from all sides.
- Don’t dry a flat object on a wet or cool surface like a formica, plastic table tops or damp newspaper. If you do, the piece can only dry on one side.
- Dry objects on something porous like wood or plaster and set them so air can circulate around them.
- It helps to turn the pieces over during drying for a more even result also.
- Slow the drying of thick walled pieces and hand built wares.
- Support areas during drying that might cause stresses to build up, such as a part of the piece that sticks out past the main body of the piece.
- Slip cast ceramic pieces, may warp or crack if pulled out of shape when removed from the mold.Even if the piece is gently returned to the original shape, the created stress will ultimately cause the piece to warp or crack.
- Wheel thrown pieces should not distort during drying unless they are subjected to more shaping once they have started drying, let the piece dry naturally on a bat or shelf and it should be fine.
- Thick hand built pieces need to be dried for a very long time before they can be fired or it may explode during firing.
- Several days may be required or a low heat drying in an oven may be necessary to remove all the water.
- Pieces should not be dried in a kiln, the moisture can damage the kiln.
- Even drying is particularly important with plates.
- Warping can cause the center of plate to fall or arch up.
- Rims and centers must dry evenly to prevent warps, humps and cracks.
- Drying tiles can present a particular challenge because it can be difficult for the piece to dry evenly.
- Usually air is passed over the top of the tile.
- This results in warping because the bottom of the tile remains wet.
- Drying tiles in tile racks or on screen shelves can help air movement for a more even drying.
- Don’t be in a rush when drying your pottery or ceramics, a good way to check to see if the piece is dry, is to touch parts of it to your wrist, if it feels cold it is still wet and if it feels warm it is dry.
- Remember haste makes waste and one wet piece in a kiln load can make junk out of the whole load if it blows up!!!
Stages of Clay
Stage 1-Fresh Clay Stage – in the beginning you can add and form clay,
What you can do in this stage:
- throwing on the wheel
- hand building
- molding elements
Things to Remember:
- pay attention to the space inside of your doll head – you are shaping the empty space first, and will make the walls around it match. Keep the walls an even thickness.
Still can make changes and build on to your doll.
What you can still do:
- changing the doll’s shape
- adding onto the doll
- other additions (fingers, noses)
- texturing surface
Things to Remember:
- slip and score all joints
- compress joints with a metal rib or wooden tool
- perform any bending of the walls or altering of curves
Stage #3- Hard clay, feels like hard cheese
- trimming and refining your doll, now is the stage where you can’t add clay to it anymore, only cut off or scrape off clay.
Processes Supported:
- trimming
- rasping away areas of doll
- cutting away clay
- carving patterns
Things to Remember:
- basic form should not be altered
- perform subtractive processes to lighten form or add aesthetic elements
STAGE#4: Hard but not completely dry (feels like stale cheese)
Only do dry shaping
Processes Supported:
- clean surface up
- lighten form further
- soften edges
- trimming or scraping with rib
Things to Remember:- just before the piece is bone dry, it responds very well to having its surface scraped or trimmed
- if the work has become bone dry, you can sponge it down to do some of these processes
STAGE#5: Bone dry
it feels warm to touch
What you can do:- sponging
- some light carving
Things to Remember:
- sponging the form down reduces sanding, erases unwanted marks, and softens edges
- don’t add too much water!
Sculpting a foot in porcelain
My first attempt at filming myself sculpting a doll’s foot so i won’t forget how to do it. Yeah, my memory is that bad.
2 sisters for 2 sisters
The 2 pretty sisters dolls are almost done. All that is left is the hands.
Double vision sister BJD dolls
Sculpting Eyes
I thought I had a good way to make eyes for my little sculptures, until yesterday.
- I would hallow the head out once it was hard enough to do so without collapsing.
- Then I would smoosh in eye bals from the back into the eye holes.
- I would lay down skinny, tiny srips of clay above and below the eyes to make the lids
- Let it stiffen up a bit and then carve in the iris and pupil.
- WaLa! A nice eye.
From Drawing the Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis
Watch this guy do it. I bought his book. He is REALLY good. But he works much bigger than I do. Maybe I should work bigger? It sure would be easier.
Here’s some other eyes instructions by Gene Van Horne
:
Sculpting eyes is actually quite easy…
1. Create an eye socket using a ball burnisher type tool. Not too deep, not too shallow, just a nice little dent.
2. Where you want the corners of your eyes use a pin and poke in each corner straight in to the head. This causes the putty in the socket to bulge up some and creates your eyeball.
3. Use a sharp small tool, I use a .032 piece of brass wire that has been pounded out and sharpened and buffed smooth. See http://www.perfect-t…m/newpage11.htm and click on the SUPERFINE PRO METAL TIP TOOLS picutre. Look at SFP-4J Straight Spatula (fourth tool down from the top) and that’s basically what I use for creating the eyelids. Take the very tip of the tool and very carefully make four marks, each starting from the holes you just poked, angling up for the upper lid and angling down for the lower lid. Pull out a tiny bit of putty from each mark you make to create your eyelids. Like this… <> I usually start on the inside upper corner and work around clockwise. Don’t push in hard or you’ll sink in the eyeball. It’s all about pulling OUT the eyelids. Look at one of Werner Klocke’s figures and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
4. Finish off by pressing up and in lightly with either a clay shaper or a spoon type tool, a little above the eye to create the browline. If you want an eyebrow push in and down very lightly with the same tool, a hair above the browline to define the brow. You don’t need to deliniate hairs on the eyebrows unless they are bushy. If they are really bushy you’ll have to add putty and then texture them.
Eyes almost never stare straight ahead, but commonly look a bit to left or right. I find the informality of a slight sideways glance simplifies the overall problem and makes the eyes more attractive.
A video of making eyes by Joanna Mozdzen http://www.joannamozdzen.com
The gift of the raspberry
I went to Boston on a rainy day and walked to the Holocaust Memorial.
There I read a quote that really moved me to create. It is:
“Ilse, a childhood friend of mine, once found a raspberry in the concentration camp and carried it in her pocket all day to present to me that night on a leaf. Imagine a world in which your entire possession is one raspberry and you give it to your friend.” – Gerda Weissmann Klein
The sculpture is made from white clay and then bisque fired. I painted it with under glade and the it was fired again.
I constructed the barbed wire from wire. I stabbed my hands with the sharp barbs repeatedly while making it and got blood all over the place, but it seemed like nothing compared to the real suffering that went on during the war. I lived in a catholic orphanage , that was nothing compared to Gerda’s horrible journey. And yet , I feel I have, in a very, very small way ,shared a few of the same emotions that she did.
Here is a video about Gerda’s story.
So sad.
This is me at the Memorial. In each tall cube of glass, the numbers of inmates of the concentration camps are inscribed in the glass. Maybe that’s why I hate numbers so much.
Getting closer
Ry vs. clay head
Now, I feel better. I’m getting closer to what I want. I suppose if I worked bigger it wouldn’t look as grainy but for now I like working little. Doll size. Now I won’t look at it till tomorrow so I have fresh eyes to see what I need to do to refine it just a bit more. Oh how I wish life had an undo button. It’s just like the old days when just the tiniest slip of the hand or mistake from my faulty brain and WHAM! hours of work down the toilet. But it does add an element of danger. Like walking on the edge of a razor sharp rock high in the mountains where one slip would end my life with no undo button. I did that once, up in Maine. I took an ecology college course, left my four kids with Danny (my husband) and took off for an intense 2 week course. One week in the mountains (where I walked on that razor edge rock risking my life) and then one week at the ocean dragging up saline which I then drew and recorded and wrote poems about. I sure have a wonderful husband, don’t I? He has always supported me in any crazy thing I want to do. How did I get so lucky?
Frustration
This face should not be so hard.
I’m trying to sculpt Ry, and I am frustrated. I just can’t seem to get him to look how I want him to. GRRRRRR! I’ve reworked it several times. Even started over a little bigger. That one is worse. So I’m going to let it set, till the frustration mellows into a new idea of how to push this mud around to look like an eight year old boy.
I can do this, I know I can, I know I can. Even if I have to redo it 5000 times till I get it. I think one of the things that really drives me crazy is the eye thing. When I paint I always paint the eyes first to they can keep me company. I HATE being alone. Maybe that’s what is wrong. Maybe I should go down to St. Peters Village and sit on the deck and sculpt. It is a beautiful day. I wonder if it is too windy. My pottery teacher, Sandy Malamed, said that the wind dries the clay faster than heat.
That’s the fun and frustration of learning something new. I don’t know what works or doesn’t work. I know what I want, what’s in my minds eye, I just don’t know how to get my hands and materials to come together to create that image? I do love a challenge.
everyday art by Kathy O'Connell 