I ended up remolding the face again, I think maybe twice more. The 10th one was actually okay except that I realized her chin was like five inches from her neck when I photographed it which made her look like a sphinx so I cut it off again. Here's that nonsense on which I wasted five hours:
I finally figured out how to do it. Eleventh try is the charm! I ended up putting the clay in the mold and pulling it out two hours later. After that I cleaned up the face because, for the mold, you have to block in all of the undercuts with polymer clay so that you can pull the object out after casting. What this means is that for all twelve faces, I had to remake the eyes and nose holes, both of which take way longer than one might think. Then I let the thing air dry/harden for another two hours except for the outer portion of the back of the face which I covered with plastic. I then hollowed out the face and let it harden yet again so that when I went to push it on, it wouldn't warp. I carefully laid the faceless girl torso down on her back and slipped and scored the head hole (hmmm) and then did the same for the back of the cast face. I pressed the face onto the hair using all of the dips. So, what this means is I pressed under the eyes, under the lips, and under the chin, and used my palms to lightly press the cheeks. Before cleaning up the face again (because when I pressed it slightly deformed) I let it dry, yet again. Took another two hours to make the ear and then I carefully cleaned up the face and at the advice of my husband, stopped f*cking with it. Viola! It's still maybe 3% weird but I'll take it.
Because of all of the issues, I had a bunch of faces that I'd cut off of the sculpture so I putzed around some and made some other things from the faces for the rest of the day on Friday. I loved the little nose mouth tile and ended up making a bunch of them. Cow-Boy is my favorite of the heads.
My husband's father and step mother came in for a few days and so I took some time off to do fun things on Saturday and Sunday. We went to see Shakespeare's Midnight Summer Dream at the Shakespeare theater and it was awesome. They left on Monday and I came down and prepared the legs for assemblage on Tuesday.
On Tuesday 2/21 I assembled the shorts, legs (which had been air drying except for the ends since Friday) and shoes. I used dowels to act as the leg bones to keep a vaguely natural posture and stance, except that I made the knees slightly knocked because that's how little kids stand. I let it dry for an hour and held my breath and tried standing it up. Holy crap! It worked? No way.
YES! This thing is standing on it's own two feet.
It feels really weird to be finished with this part of the project. I've been in the studio so long I've gotten used to doing this every night and that feels good.
I've been looking at books for inspiration for my next project. I really love Beth Cavaner and Pamela Earnshaw Kelly's animal sculptures. I love monkeys/apes/gorillas. Since I can't have one and rarely get to touch them, I might make a few to hang around the house.
I've also been thinking about one of my closest friends and old band members today. Knox (or Kayte, or Kate now?) moved to New York last summer. We used to do hilarious crazy stupid fun psychedelic shit together and she is one of the most unusual and awesome people in the world. We recorded this song together with my husband for a songwriting challenge that we participate in sometimes. She can sing like a mofo. Our friend Jodi wrote the lyrics. I MISS KNOX. I wish I could reach into the internet and pull her through it to Chicago. She will come to see us March 24th! I cannot wait.
Cornhole:
I also want to add that when I'm downstairs in the studio, time makes no sense. Twelve hours feels like an hour. My studio is magic.
