Hyn Patty

This is my 'curio' scale Porthos in hand so you can have a better sense of what 'curio' scale really means.  He is essentially a large mini sculpture - and I produce them much smaller than this as well, all the way down to 'micro'.    Here I have airbrushed on grey and black underglaze and am dappling him to be an American Percheron in show ribbons.  See my white bisque photo of this same sculpture for further details about this piece which is also being produced in a larger 'traditional' scale in earthenware, porcelain and English fine bone china.  Sculpted by myself, Hyn Patty, I have also molded and cast him though sometimes I have pieces produced for me outside of my studio for some of my editions.  I can't do them all or I wouldn't also have time to sculpt new work.  Once I have fired on a few layers of underglaze I will clear glaze him, finish up his color with over glazes (china paints and enamels) and then add the metal mane flight ribbons once I have enameled them.   I will also be doing other versions with other manes, tails, and in other pose variations.   See more at hynpatty.com or in this album. 

This sculpture by JH Slick is a Cybis 'Nashua' Thoroughbred racehorse produced in porcelain.  A client of mine wanted me to replace the huge, clunky base it originally came with to which he was epoxied.   So I sculpted a new base and cast it to fit this particular commission.  Then I claybody customized the mane and tail by resculpting them and low fired them.  I then went onto reglazing the piece -  which already had a very flat matte bay finish that was rough textured and captured dust so that it was impossible for her to keep clean.   My client wanted this piece slick finished and have lighter highlight areas and dappling with more white markings than the original.  So I painstakingly refired this sculpture many times to first lighten up his base color, then to dapple and redarken using a combination of opaque enamels and translucent china paints.  Whew!  He measures a bit over 12 inches tall by 14 inches long and has a brass halter ring.  Overall his surface area is four times as much as my usual pieces.   Private collection.

In this second photo I have progressed my oil clay relief sculpture a great deal more.  It is still in a very rough stage, working out final compositional elements before smoothing and detailing.  Working from real horse reference photos and my own sketches, relief sculpts like this are a great way to practice sculpting and making your own fairly simple molds for slip casting.  Be very, very careful of undercuts!  This piece eventually will be used for a small resin cast edition as well as a porcelain edition - it measures 5.5 inches tall at this point.  A piece like this can easily be sculpted on a piece of glass as I have done here, or a glazed ceramic tile.   I intend to use this as one of several show awards I will be giving out for a judged event that includes classes for pieces of my own work.  I also take a lot of step by step photos to help me see how the piece is progressing, flip it horizontally to check my design and make my brain see it anew, and later can use the documentation to write up how to articles for publication.

An older piece of my custom glaze work, this is 'Rising Hopes', a foal sculpted by Dr. Nanse Browne-Czipri and produced in fine bone china by Alchemy Ceramics of England around 2004.  This is a rather large piece, larger than 'traditional scale' for table top sculpture for a foal.   This piece measures something like 7 inches tall by 9 inches.  Only approximately 7 pieces exist of what was supposed to be a 50 piece edition, four of which I glazed myself to various colors.  This one I did to a bay tobiano using underglazes and finished with clear satin in 2007 - private collection. 

'Dante' sculpted by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig and made of earthenware ceramic. This boy came to me as a damaged bisque with two broken legs which I kiln repaired. Then I custom glazed him to this high contrast dappled bay going grey with coppery haunches for a client. He is completed with a high gloss finish and is a large mini in scale, standing 4 inches tall by 4.5 inches long.  All work fired in the kiln cones 04, 06, and 016. See more at hynpatty.com

English fine bone china 'Loco Motion' sculpted by Chris Jolly and shown here in progress being custom glazed by Hyn Patty, 2021. Here the first layers of underlgaze have been airbrushed on, masking latex removed, and the overo pinto pattern all cleaned up and detailed for first firing. This piece was initially fired in my small Olympic Doll E kiln. As it is mounted on a base, the piece is stilted so that the base and the horse don't cool at different rates that may cause the legs to break if the base remained hotter too long. Mane and tail were claybody customized with earthenware added to bone china bisque before underglazing which is a very touchy process I won't go into here. I use a much larger kiln for other pieces or groups.

English fine bone china 'Crusher' sculpted by Kitty Cantrell and produced by the Horse Gallery of Horsing Around of England.  Claybody customized to add mane, braid, stud bridle and shoes myself, then under glazed to a dappled grey.  Finished in satin glaze with low fired yellow gold buckles and white gold bit and shoes by Hyn Patty, 2006.  Piece measures approximately 8 inches tall by 10 inches long - Private collection, sold for just under $4k at public auction.  2007 Realistic Equine Sculpture Society Best Custom Glazed Ceramic and People's Choice Awards.

Shown here without the 10 liter porcelain jar, this is my Shimpo Ball Mill I use to make my own slips. Both a custom earthenware for fine art casting as well as for refining my English bone china slip.