Sculpture - Crafts

The dictionary says that sculpture is "the fine art of forming figures or designs in relief, in intaglio, or in the round by cutting marble, wood, granite, or by making molds for casting in bronze or other metal." But to the amateur who plans to try sculpture as a hobby, it usually means building things out of clay or cutting objects out of soap.

There are tricks to learn about handling clay, and the best place to learn them is at a pottery school. After you have learned to prepare your clay, it will behave very well for you. It is easy to work with, for you can add clay or take it away as you progress with your figure. After your object is completed to your satisfaction, it may be baked in a potter's kiln, drying it out to produce what potters call the biscuit. The biscuit, which will be white, gray, red, brown, depending upon what kind of clay is used, may then be decorated with a glaze before a second firing.

Soap sculpture is more difficult than modeling with clay, and you are likely to cut up several cakes of soap before you get a satisfactory result. This will happen because it is impossible to replace a bit of soap that has been cut out in error. The only way to correct such an error is to recarve your figure in a smaller size. You'll waste many cakes of soap that way. When you do finish a successful sculpture, the best way to preserve it so that it can be wiped clean with a damp rag is to paint it with colorless nail polish.

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