need help and suggestions

[meenaa]

HI,

As part of my Visual art portfolio i need to do sculpture. I have chosen to do a sumo wrestler. i am having problems trying to keep the weight balanced. I am also having problems trying to mould the stomach region.

Do anyone have suggestions.

I was thinking of putting a big ceramic pot inside and building the clay around would this work.

help please

thanks

meena

this is the image i am trying to do

[Emmi]

I don't think you could use a ceramic pot because you're going to have to fire the clay in some way most likely, and I'm assuming that firing at that high a temperature would break it or something (even if it didn't from the heat alone, building on the outside of the pot might make it too thick and have the clay explode. I would suggest using a thick balloon and blowing it up, and sculpting the clay around that. Leave a small little hole, and once the clay has dried enough that it will support its own weight, you can pop the balloon with a pin or something to remove it.Then you'll have just the clay and it probably won't get damaged in the firing process. Hope this helps

[nopnop]

I suggest using a synthetic clay material - like Fimo.

These can be air-drying and therefore you can stuck whatever wires inside you need to balance the sculpture.

There are types of polymer clay, which are unbelievably light - allowing you to create far more delicate pieces than with water based clay.

They are however more pricy than the classic type of clay, so watch out for that.

Hope it helps