Cake and Clay

Well not actually clay and not very often cake but my awesome sculpture class, lifeline to sanity (though I wouldn’t claim a sane member in the group).

Started going to sculpture class in Cootamundra very early in my time at Wallendbeen, as early as the second week there I think. No it wasn’t sculpting clay, it was winterstone, the beauty of which is you just mix the powder with water; slap the paste on your armature; shape it; and wrap it in cling film to dry. Okay it was a little bit more complicated but that was the general idea.

First you make your armature, the skeleton of your sculpture. You do this out of whatever material you have handy; chicken wire, newspaper, polystyrene… then on goes the winterstone. This actually takes a fair bit of time to get to the right thickness and smooth enough not to take weeks finishing it. When it’s all dry and finished you sand it down to a nice smooth surface and then the fun bit. No, it’s all fun but choosing your finish is great. Do you wax it? Varnish it nice and white? Put icing on (no not edible) a shiny bright white? Paint it bright colours? Or play with chalky pastels then add a finish? So very much fun to be had.

And the wonderful people! Quite completely crazy. Mainly a bunch of women who were so much fun! Tea on Tuesday would generally be eaten at sculpture whether it be from someone’s pot, take away or just Cadbury Mini Drops with Sally. And some ‘proper characters’ mainly Gemma who was ‘teacher’ to us all. Completely crazy which led to a very fun day at Cootamundra Picnic Races, where we spent the entire day wandering around selecting candidates for the best dressed competition. Very entertaining but another story entirely.

Back to sculpture and our random experiment with the green putty… It was supposed to mould to create casts. What we didn’t know was exactly how to use it. Instead of letting it shape and setting it in sand to dry in shape, we tried to dry it first. Needless to say they distorted and dried it unusable body part casts. But they did create beautiful, distorted ‘sculptures’. Mine splatted in bright paint on the greeny background, skin follicles still visible. =)

But if you are ever in Cootamundra and all the town benches have turned into brilliant chairs, go and tell the sculpture class that they’ve done a brilliant job. Tuesday 6.30-9pm at the Art Centre. You know what, actually, go and see them anyway =)