Porthos Is In The House!

[Hyn Patty]

This is Porths, my first version of this sculpture I started way back about 2007, almost completed in 2009 before illness derailed my studio for a while.  At any rate, I FINALLY finished this boy last year and released him in a resin edition.  I've since gone on to do a 'hairy' Pasture Porthos who's a bit chunkier, and with more feather, thicker legs, long mane and swishy Fabio tail who's casting in a resin edition this year.

Anyway, I've been busting butt to make MOLDS for these two versions of my Porthos sculpture.  Currently I am having the hairy Pasture Porthos molded and cast in England in fine bone china, though I'm also about to start testing slip and settlers for fine bone china pieces here in my studio later this year.  Meanwhile I'm focusing first on using finely ball milled earthenware with talc to cast some pieces.  This first one I've molded right here in studio is what we call Curio scale, a large mini in size.  He's my test cast to see if my mold worked (it did first try!) and to help me figure out how I want to rework and clean up my mold pieces to work even better.  Then I'll be making rubber molds starting next week of each plaster mold piece so I'll have a master from which to cast as many plaster replacement molds as I ever will want, later.

So here's my first ceramic bisque of Porthos with his original docked tail version (mane flights to be added later), an American Percheron with tail bows.

Edited March 29 by Hyn Patty

[Hyn Patty]

Now, to give you a sense of what 'curio' scale means here is the same bisque shown in my hand.  Here I have airbrushed on underglaze in greys and black and I am now dappling him.  Once fired with a clear glaze over this underglaze, he will be a dappled grey!  This is a sales piece that I will be offering at auction probably next weekend while I'm at a live show event.  But for now there's a lot of work to do to him to get him ready to be the new sample of my sculpture in ceramic!  I'll post more photos as I go so you all can see the finished boy when he's done.  I work in many layers, fire a number of times, and will also work in over glazes.  The upright mane ribbons will be added later after he's completed and are going to be enameled metal but I haven't finished making them yet.  They each fit down into little  holes I have drilled down his neck.

I am also making mold pieces for a larger 'traditional' scale version of this boy that stands about 8 inches tall.  I hope to have that one casting by June in time for a huge international event I'm attending in July at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY.

Edited March 29 by Hyn Patty

[Jeff Longtin]

Beautiful work Hyn Patty. Can't imagine molding it.

Years ago a gent sculpted an Akita dog with as much detail. About the same size as your project. Nightmare project but he was happy with the molds when it was completed.  (He was a breeder and brought several dogs when he picked up the molds. Super strong animals but very well behaved.)

Have you ever heard of Breyerfest? For several years I worked at a pottery shop that made promo mugs for the event. Had no idea what it was until I looked it up. 

Here in Minneapolis the big collectible was little porcelain buildings made by Dept56. Had no idea there was another type of collectible out there.

 

[Denice]

I am so happy that you are able to spend so much time in your studio.   I hope you are able to get some big bucks for your works of art.  It is always nice to know that someone appreciates your work and are willing to pay for it.  I think I will make a sculpture of my dog when I finish making some repair tiles for a mural.  He is a Chiweenie  so he is on the small size,  I could fit a life size sculpture of him in the kiln.  My last dog would go crazy when I was working on a portraiture sculpture.  I'd better start taking some photos,  he looks like the dog in the old RCA ads.   I think I will try that pose.   Denice

[Hyn Patty]

10 hours ago, Jeff Longtin said:

Have you ever heard of Breyerfest? For several years I worked at a pottery shop that made promo mugs for the event. Had no idea what it was until I looked it up. 

 

Yes!  I've gone off and on to Breyerfest since the mid 90's and that is indeed the event I am attending this year in July.  So I want to have a few of these in both sizes and both main versions produced in time to take with me.  I'm also flying out to California to judge a show of equine art and of course want to take some there too.   I also do a number of fine art shows once in a long while but shipping can be VERY costly and I have moved away from paying gallery and show commissions on my sales.  I get plenty of people willing to fight over the pieces I post to public auctions online.

Thank you both for your kind words.  I would love to see your dog pieces, Denise!  I used to sculpt a few dogs as well so if I ever have time I plan to get back to doing that once in a while in between equine pieces.

You are right Jeff that molding a piece like Porthos /can/ be crazy - if I was determined to cast him entirely in one piece, whole.  The issue of his sharply turned head and neck, and the close proximity of his back cocked leg that actually crosses over partly in front of his other back leg, would be ... very challenging to say the least.   So I cut up my 'master' I was molding and I actually cast Porthos in a few pieces.  With practice, assembly and clean up of such a sculpture goes pretty quickly.  I can demold the pieces into a wet box, allow them to firm up a bit, then do the old score and slip-stick routine.  Since I'm the sculptor it is no trouble whatsoever for me then to clean up and redetail those areas I had to attach.  That way it's actually not that difficult to mold such a sculpture as long as you don't mind some assembly.  I can easily put a piece like this together and do all the initial clean up and resculpting in about an hour or less.  Then back into the wet box for slow drying to prevent cracking as he has some uneven thickness in some areas.

To facilitate easier molding I can also flood some minor undercuts such as the tail bow, and simply go back and hand detail those pieces again after casting and assembly.  It does mean I spend a lot of time with post casting but on the other hand I get thousands of dollars per piece once completed so it's well worth my time to make them the highest possible quality I can. 

Edited March 29 by Hyn Patty

[Hyn Patty]

Here's a quick shot of one of my wet boxes.  It's just a plastic box with a lid that I happened to pour a little left over plaster into.  I keep it wet with distilled water with a few drops of bleach in it so things won't mold.  A layer of paper towel helps keep the plaster clean should I want to use it with different kinds of clay pieces.

You can see I have already attached Portho's head to his neck, then his neck to his body.  Due to the angle of the head and neck with the shoulder, and the muscling of the neck swelling in and out in the curve, it would be difficult (but not impossible) to mold that area to pour as a single piece.  It would require multiple internal small mold pieces. So much easier to simply cut his head and neck off and mold them separately.  It only takes a few minutes to score and slip stick all of his various pieces together once I have cleaned off the seams.  I do this when he's firmed up nearly leather hard.

Once he is leather hard and actually starting to dry I can remove him from the box and burnish his seams properly and do final detailing.

Edited March 29 by Hyn Patty
It helps if I actually added the photo...

[Jeff Longtin]

Years ago I found a book about Belleek porcelain. (I had never heard of the company before finding the book. Apparently, it's an old Irish pottery.)

In the book they showed beautiful porcelain figurines. To allow for variety each appendage, arms and legs, were made with a ball end. The ball end fit into a socket on the main torso form. That way the arms and legs could be arranged in different ways. A huge pain to mold but I did this for the Akita mold. Each leg had a ball like end that fit into sockets on the main torso. As the piece was small there wasn't much room, to move each appendage, but it did allow the artist to play with it as he saw fit. 

 

 

Edited March 30 by Jeff Longtin

[Rae Reich]

Absolutely beautiful, @Hyn Patty!! I really appreciate the look behind the scenes into the mystery of assembling that challenging pose. Thank you for sharing and inspiring.

(giggle) Fabio tail!

How do you scale your creations?

Edited March 30 by Rae Reich

[Bam2015]

Yes, stunning work and thank you for sharing the process as well. 

Betty

[PeterH]

12 hours ago, Hyn Patty said:

Here's a quick shot of one of my wet boxes.  It's just a plastic box with a lid that I happened to pour a little left over plaster into.  I keep it wet with distilled water with a few drops of bleach in it so things won't mold.  A layer of paper towel helps keep the plaster clean should I want to use it with different kinds of clay pieces.

Very minor point.

Domestic bleaches often contain a variety of substances in addition to sodium hypochlorite (generally known as bleach).  While baby products for sterilising nappies, bottles, etc tend to just contain sodium hypochlorite. UK brands include  Milton, which I use for purely sterilising purposes.

[Hyn Patty]

5 hours ago, PeterH said:

Very minor point.

Domestic bleaches often contain a variety of substances in addition to sodium hypochlorite (generally known as bleach).  While baby products for sterilising nappies, bottles, etc tend to just contain sodium hypochlorite. UK brands include  Milton, which I use for purely sterilising purposes.

Noted.  And sometimes I use IPA - depends which one is handier.  I've never had an issue with either one since I literally only use a drop or so in my water spray bottle of the bleach.  The generic bleach I buy only lists one ingredient and nothing added for scent.  (I also incidentally use it for phytosanitary applications like tissue culture of plant materials.)

Yes!  This method of cutting up the piece is typical for casting porcelain and bone china in the UK and Europe.  Indeed it was a few photos shared here with me from another member (who may or may not wish to be named) that helped me figure out this problem.  I also worked with porcelain sometimes and I've been working on perfecting and testing English bone china slip I've made here in my studio.  So I went ahead and produced this multi-part mold for that purpose.  It works just as well for earthenware. 

As I knock some rust off I'll be pushing to try and make more complex molds that would allow me to cast Porthos as whole and as close to one piece as possible.  Body with three legs attached most likely, with the head and neck separate and that cocked back leg.  That would take less assembly and thus less time.  And problem solving with mold making is an excellent challenge to practice if you want to get better anyway.

One of my new sculptures I have started is the 'Spider foal' that is rolling.   I'm jokingly calling it my 'spider' sculpture for now because it looks hideous!  But it's in the early 'skeleton' stage where I flesh out the proportions of the bones and set the joints as points of reference from which I will build up tendons, muscle, skin, etc over top.  Anyway, you can see that I do not like to sculpt with molding limitations in mind.  So being able to mold them in pieces and assemble ANY kind of pose or complex arrangement really frees me up to do anything I want.  

Edited March 30 by Hyn Patty
TYPOQUEEN!

[Hyn Patty]

13 hours ago, Jeff Longtin said:

Years ago I found a book about Belleek porcelain. (I had never heard of the company before finding the book. Apparently, it's an old Irish pottery.)

In the book they showed beautiful porcelain figurines. To allow for variety each appendage, arms and legs, were made with a ball end. The ball end fit into a socket on the main torso form. That way the arms and legs could be arranged in different ways. A huge pain to mold but I did this for the Akita mold. Each leg had a ball like end that fit into sockets on the main torso. As the piece was small there wasn't much room, to move each appendage, but it did allow the artist to play with it as he saw fit. 

 

 

Do you have photos of the Akita or the mold by chance?  I don't do the ball and socket thing but nice idea.  If I want to move a leg around I'm just going to resculpt it (and possibly make a mold of the leg to cast it for reuse later) and then sculpt the new attachment as needed as well.  I've already sculpted and molded some alternate pieces for another neck and leg, and I'm going to do an alternate body that's not so bent so I can do the head and neck in other positions.  Just for fun variations!  I get bored easily so it is very tedious for me to do the same thing over and over again...

[Hyn Patty]

10 hours ago, Rae Reich said:

Absolutely beautiful, @Hyn Patty!! I really appreciate the look behind the scenes into the mystery of assembling that challenging pose. Thank you for sharing and inspiring.

(giggle) Fabio tail!

How do you scale your creations?

Thank you!  Speaking of Fabio tails... With a really complex tail such as my hairy Pasture Porthos sports I may well need to cut the tail into at least two pieces and have quite a few mold pieces /and/ still have to flood, then redetail, some of the undercuts.  Oh well!  This boy will be my most challenging piece to mold to date (this is a 3D print that is mirrored to face the other direction and a different size).  For now I am cheating.  I sent this boy and his larger version off to England to be molded and cast in bone china bisque for me.  But I will be playing with cutting one up here in studio and trying to mold that tail myself just for the challenge.  BUT at least I know he'll be in production in time for Breyerfest in July even if it takes me a while to mold and cast this version on my side of the pond.

For scale I can do pretty much anything I want within the limits of my 3D printers and the quality of my scans.  Or in the case of the spider foal - larger than 'traditional' scale because I'm doing that one BIGGER than usual.  But 'traditional' scale is what most equine bronzes are normally produced in - 1/9th scale to the real horse.  Larger than traditional is usually about 1/6th scale.  Classic is about 1/12th, etc on down or on up!  Some of these scales are used so often for equine art that they have names (though often more than one name for any given size).  Porthos is considered 1/9th scale, which usually is about 7 inches tall.  But as he's a draft horse who's taller and larger his scaling down to 1/9th came to 8 inches tall.  Of course he'll shrink a bit in each ceramic media, that's just his resin size.    If you do internet searches you can find various 'model scales' or 'model horse scales' to compare.

'Venti' scale Pasture Porthos is a little smaller than 'classic' scale at 1/15th is shown with the larger roto cast white resin that is 1/9th 'traditional' scale.  Then micros are about 1/40th scale (around 1.5" tall).  Curio falls in around 1/20th scale for comparison (not pictured here).

Edited March 30 by Hyn Patty

[Hyn Patty]

I also posted this photo of first version 1/9th traditional scale Porthos with the docked tail.  This is a roto cast hollow white resin I have cut up for mold making.  I'm in the process of using colored oil clays to 'clay up' for pouring those molds in plaster.  Once the molds are poured, I test them to make a single casting like the curio bisque at the top of this thread.  This allows me to see where the mold is skimming or tearing clay off as I demold so I can trim those edges clean.  Tiny undercuts can be skimmed off the plaster mold pieces easily.  If there are air bubbles, I fill them with plaster paste or epoxy.  If there are details that are too soft, I can go back in and recut them much more sharply in my plaster master mold.

Then, rather than continue to use that first mold, I seal it with mold soap and then pour a silicone rubber mold of each plaster piece.  This will then allow me to cast as many plaster production molds as I want!  As the mold detail wears very rapidly (especially if I am casting porcelains) then I may need to be able to reproduce the mold several times over to keep every piece of my edition super crisp.

As usual, this probably belongs in the mold making and slip casting thread...

Edited March 30 by Hyn Patty

[Rae Reich]

So much care and thought has come from long experience and patience. Porthos are sculptures to be proud of and that mane is really impressive! Thanks for sharing more details. 

Edited March 30 by Rae Reich

[Hyn Patty]

Not sure if this will work but here's a video of my working on him today in studio.  I'd much rather be riding my motorcycle or hiking on this sunny day but I have a show deadline coming up fast next weekend!  

Underglazing Details on Curio Porthos

It is set public on my Facebook page so maybe you can see it.  Not sure if I can directly upload a video here though.  If you all can't view it let me know and I can see about uploading it to a blog post or something on my website instead.

[Hyn Patty]

Here is the completed piece all glazed up.  All work has been done in the kiln, completed with satin glaze and minimal china painting.  The only thing on him that isn't ceramic media are his mane flights which are enameled metal, inset with pins into tiny holes along his neck.  Completed to a light dappled grey and with an optional base I have made for him to be affixed to, this piece will be posted to public auction.  He measures 3.75" inches tall and will be a unique color and variety in an edition of not more than probably 20 or so variations.  Once I have finished editing his photos and he has been sold at auction, I'll add a photo to my gallery album with him standing on his base.

Tada!  So now you know how I make my equine fine art sculpture in ceramics.  This one earthenware but I also work in porcelain and fine bone china.

 

Edited April 19 by Hyn Patty

[LeeU]

On 3/30/2024 at 4:48 PM, Hyn Patty said:

video of my working on him today in studio

Way cool!! (yep-link works fine) BTW--I tried to find you on Pinterest but no luck--what is the name of your board? I searched for Hyn Patty.

[Hyn Patty]

On 4/19/2024 at 8:47 PM, LeeU said:

Way cool!! (yep-link works fine) BTW--I tried to find you on Pinterest but no luck--what is the name of your board? I searched for Hyn Patty.

And thank you for your kind words.  I've been doing equine sculpture and sculpture finish work since 1976, and ceramics since 1984 though I didn't have kilns of my own until 2003.  I posted (but forgot that I'm not supposed to) the links but if you didn't already get them, just message me.  I want to abide by the rules!

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:38 PM by Hyn Patty

[Hyn Patty]

To wrap up my little saga on this first ceramic Porthos - he successfully sold at auction yesterday for more than $1600 and I am quite pleased.   Yay!

Alas, I am having issues with his mold so there will be no more of this edition forthcoming until I resolve those issues or make an entirely new set of plaster mold pieces.  I master molded the original plaster mold pieces using silicone but I ended up using a shore hardness 1 step softer (30A instead of 40) and I'm having problems with the new plasters being warped and NOT fitting back together correctly.  Even though the silicone rubber pieces are each in their own mold boxes around the sides (but not the bottoms).  Grr.  I should have known better!  Moral of that story is do NOT be lured by being able to get two gallons of platinum silicone for half the usual price on sale when they are not the correct shore hardness I need.  Close, but no cigar.

Ah well, maybe I can fix the issue by making simple plaster jacket molds for the bottoms of silicone molds so they can't possibly warp from the weight/pressures of the wet plaster filling them.   I think there is a very slight gap there that's sagging so it may end up being an easy fix.  Maybe.   I'll just have to try it today and see.

Meanwhile I have already printed a replacement Porthos of the same size and version to make a new mold from.  I made the first mold set to cast him in pieces for testing my bone china slip I'm making from scratch here in studio but I also want to be able to cast him as close to whole as possible for earthenware production anyway, so back to the drawing board with claying up...  I'm also working on molding him in a larger version so I may well have the big boy casting before I have this smaller version back into production.  One never knows!  Murphy's Law always rules whether I like it or not.

Edited Wednesday at 03:26 PM by Hyn Patty

[Rae Reich]

So beautiful! I really admire the way you approach problem-solving - experience and experiment. It’s wonderful to get new information about the many things clay can do  

[Kelly in AK]

True artist. Brava!!! Brava!!!

It’s a special place we have here. Thank you for the saga. Inspiring. 

[Hyn Patty]

You are all very sweet, thank you.  Nice to have a community where we try to help each other out, share info, and encourage one other.  Many I time I've asked for help around here and gotten great input.  So I'm glad if I can give a little something back.