Advice on how Sculpting for my daughter

[EddieWalker]

She is 12 years old and has some talent in music. She writes songs, sings and plays the piano. She's better them most kids her age, but to be honest, there are a few in the area that are better. We're encouraging her and want her to have fun with it, so there's a fine line on this too.

Lately, she's started creating animals with colored pipe cleaners. She twists the wire and builds it up to create the shape she's looking for, and it's suprisingly good. I mean, it's really good. Her contours and proportions are VERY, VERY ACCURATE!!!

With Christmas almost here, we want to get her something to build on this. She's never tried sculpting with anything else. We're going to look for a class that she can take, maybe we'll all go, who knows.

Does anybody here have any experience or knowledge about sculpting? She's been doing animals, so that's a start.

Clay is probably the most common, but wax would be needed for bronzes, is we went that route. Maybe just sticking with wire and seeing what's out there for that too?

Any thoughts, advice and suggestion would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[bamatoolmaker]

You should be able to find at an arts and crafts store a clay called "sculpy".You shape it and then bake it in the oven.Its cheap, easy and books are available for projects.

 

[MarkV]

I would think clay would be the best starter and you could include the appropriate sculpting tools with the gift. If she is doing so well forming wire, paper mache would be an extension of that.

There are also some fabric hardeners that allow you to sculpt fabrics, generally over a wire frame, that when cured are even weather proof for outdoor use. Search the names Powertex and Paverpol to get an idea.

MarkV

 

[Lloyd_E]

I would buy her different materials to play with; soap stone - small pieces, bees wax,
balsa wood etc. She can file, cut with knife - with parent supervision. The experimental situation will allow her to find her 'medium'. Copper wire, coat hangers, house wire - stripped are all good and cheap materials for building. She can make an armiture (wire sub structure) and build clay over top or use play-dow (sp?).

She could even use house hold hand soap for carving too!

Good luck...

Lloyd

 

[EddieWalker]

Bama,

Thank you, we never heard of Sculpey, but have found it online and think it looks like a great Christmas gift for both kids.

Mark,

I forgot about paper mache, but used to love playing with it as a kid. I spent an untold number of hours building scenery for my train set out of it, and liked building mountains with it more then the trains. Using wire for a frame and applying paper mache over is genious. We'll try that for sure!! Thanks.

Lloyd,

Very creative. Thank you for all the ideas. We have some of those things and it wouldn't cost much to get the others. We're going to have to try them all, and maybe even take a littel tour around Walmart to see what else we can think of.

This just might turn into some fun family time!!!!
Thank you,
Eddie

 

[MarkV]

Eddie in a past life I ran a recreation center where we had a number of great arts and craft teachers. Look into the fabric hardener. You can do much more detail than you can with paper mache. Take a look at this site;

Medusa's Garden-About Fabric Sculpture


MarkV

 

[davitk]

Teach her to weld.

 

[MossRoad]

She is 12 years old and has some talent in music. She writes songs, sings and plays the piano. She's better them most kids her age, but to be honest, there are a few in the area that are better. We're encouraging her and want her to have fun with it, so there's a fine line on this too.

Lately, she's started creating animals with colored pipe cleaners. She twists the wire and builds it up to create the shape she's looking for, and it's suprisingly good. I mean, it's really good. Her contours and proportions are VERY, VERY ACCURATE!!!

With Christmas almost here, we want to get her something to build on this. She's never tried sculpting with anything else. We're going to look for a class that she can take, maybe we'll all go, who knows.

Does anybody here have any experience or knowledge about sculpting? She's been doing animals, so that's a start.

Clay is probably the most common, but wax would be needed for bronzes, is we went that route. Maybe just sticking with wire and seeing what's out there for that too?

Any thoughts, advice and suggestion would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Eddie

Wire sculpting is a great way to start. My dad was an architect and artist. He used to bring home scrap pieces of 25 pair telephone cable and strip the main jacket. Then out of the colored wires, he would sculpt people and objects. We all got into it. Very fun, super cheap material and great way to get used to using your hands and fingers and getting them to do what you are thinking.

I would also encourage drawing classes as well as anatomy. My mom got her degree in education specializing in Biology, with a minor in art. She went on to be an elementary school art teacher. The background in biology helped her understand what was under the skin of animals and humans as well as plants. It is important to know muscle structure for accurate animal sculpting and drawing. Otherwise, you may sculpt someone with an 8 pack or 4 pack instead of a 6 pack.

Get her a large pad of paper, some charcoal and pencils and let her draw her sculpture ideas first, then put them in 3D with wire.

Don't forget about paper mache'. Making a cardboard frame and then covering it with newspaper mache is fun, messy and hands on. Good stuff!

 

[MossRoad]

Well geez! I should have read the rest of the replies before I replied!

All of the things had been suggested already.

 

[AlanB]

Ask her what she want's to try next.

Try and find local folks doing that type of stuff, and see if you can arrange a day with them / her.

Might be out there, but we were just talking 2 weeks ago, one of the best places in the world I know of for learning things like that is the John Campbell Folk School.

John C. Campbell Folk School

That place is just INCREDIBLE, it has been several years since I went blacksmithing there with my dad, but we still talk about it regularly. (unfortunately it often revolves around us being the truants of the class, and our "forge welding" episode)

If you can do the family vacation there, it is really neat.

Good luck.

 

[ToadHill]

Wood carving can be very rewarding, I've been teaching my 2 grandsons and they have a ball with it.

 

[arrow]

Glad to hear she's entertaining herself. The benefit of clay is that it is both additive and subtractive in sculpting modalities. It is a great medium to discover which type of sculpturing are the most enthralling for your daughter. There is only one thing you need to be careful of and believe me I do not mean this like it was something that was definitely going to happen or that you were not aware of of it already. I've just seen it happen many many times. A kid shows an interest in art creation. The parent or the teacher immediately jumps on this and in their attempts to bolster or enhance or develop this interest, it becomes a duty for the child rather than a recreation. The fun and enthralling part gets taken right out of the equation and instead, a pressure to produce takes its place. I would ask her if at your nearest art school if she would like to take a tour. She will see many types of things going on that she just might want to explore without a whole bunch of media being thrown at her to have to make something with. This way she formulates her own path on her own time and interest schedules. Sometimes formality sucks the creation right out of the creator so allow her to tell you where she wants to go as they apply to lessons, media, classes and any additional formal training. Also allow me to give advanced apologies if I've stated something you as diligent parents already knew.

 

[Mark_G]

My daughters both enjoyed using the scroll saw. Its kid safe, and they can make many things.