There’s likely to be a bit of radio silence from me for a while; I am sculpting for mould making. This is one of those disciplines that takes a while on the run up. I have learned over the course of thirty years, but always remember, as I get ready for it, how truly dreadful my first efforts were for a number of years.
Having spent so many years interviewing artists, I know that there is nothing unusual in this. Many artists working in easier mediums such as polymer clays use commercial moulds to begin the process, so that they have a correctly sized model on which to base further sculpting and tweaking, I have interviewed a number of people doing this. I am also aware of a number of miniature artists using purchased kits to base a diorama on, there is also an entire industry of people dressing bought items, whether shelves, beds, dolls or anything else. There are assemblers in most branches of miniaturism, including everything from house furnishers and decorators to accessories such as prams and tables.
There is nothing wrong with any of this, one of the features that makes the hobby so welcoming, is its inclusivity. Whatever your skill level, there is room for you. If you wish to extend your skill, there’s another scale you haven’t tried yet, another era, a different fantasy and everything in the world miniaturised, which is basically, what the hobby encompasses. If it wasn’t called miniatures, it could be called cosmopoly quite nicely.
Truly original artists in all disciplines are a bit thin on the ground. Original porcelain doll artists, defined as making the original sculpture, starting with nothing, then making moulds from hand produced components, pouring them in porcelain, firing, china painting, assembling and dressing, not so many of them. People making the entire doll out of porcelain, rather than extremities on a soft body…well, there’s me.
There are artists working in other mediums that are multiple process. Of all the ceramicists, working in different clays, there are probably single figures in this country. Glassblowers, again single figures. Metal workers, a few. Wood turners a few more, joiners and house builders, several. Original needle workers, not many, picture painters, very few.
The way in which more items in the full size real world are made by computer and machine are beginning to be echoed in miniature. How much longer artists will continue to produce artefacts made by hand and eye in miniature is anyone’s guess. The instantaneous gratification of computer games could be said to be educating generations who will be unwilling to invest years of practice and learning to make something.
Undeterred by 3D printers, spray paints and other forms of magic, or by the interesting possibility of failure at every level, I am nevertheless sculpting again.
Some of the sculptures will not see the light of day. There’s an ornament already more likely to see the dark of bin. A doll that will almost certainly have a different set of thighs, even though the current set fits the calves perfectly. There’s the head of a nasty auntie that is so awful I don’t think you’ll buy her; I may or may not make a mould and do a couple but I have so few glass eyes left, I’m not going to fit them in a doll no one wants.
And there’s the rub in another direction; there’s always a book on my show table for visitors to write what they would like to see, the result of which is an encapsulation of the difference between the inside of my head and the inside of the requester’s.
One of the other considerations is the plate spinning aspect of it all. I make dolls in many scales, I make ornaments, in many scales, I do bas relief pictures. Unlike the film I cannot do everything, every scale, all at once. As soon as I feel I have the 24th scale dolls up to speed, someone will be asking why the 12th scale are thin on the ground and if there are any new ones. There have to be new ones, for collectors. Before I was a maker, I was a collector. I still am and know the joy of pouncing on the new thing before anyone else and the triumph of bearing it home and feeling for a good few seconds that my collection is complete.
I am currently sculpting 12th scale dolls and dragon ornaments. If you have requests now is the time to make them before I clean the two part epoxy putty out from under my fingernails, off the carpet, the edge of several scalpels, the ends of my fringe. I’m OK for disposable gloves, thanks to Covid, they get trashed in the process of one parting the two part putty.
Next week I will start mould making, there will be plaster everywhere.
Anything you fancy?
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