Head of Jo from Jane Hamilton Workshop

I attended a four day workshop recently, given by Jane Hamilton a member of The Society of Portrait Sculptors.

Portrait Head of Jo

My intention was always to have this work fired so I had to make sure it was easily removed from the support peg and needed to be hollowed out to an even thickness and pricked through with a needle so any air pockets would be compromised.

Jane proved to be a great teacher with a calm and unbiased approach.

Here’s a photo of the head in the studio at Cropredy during the workshop.

The next photo is back in my own studio having removed the peg and hollowed out and pricked through the, by now, leather hard head. At this stage I still had the clay support leg below the chest area, later to be extended forward the the base.

The finished head was then left to dry out slowly but thoroughly before firing.

Below is the head after firing!

Now I need to decide whether I will apply a patina to make it look like bronze. I may also find it a wooden base.