New sculpture in the making: tree frogs on a vine

One tree frog has landed on the vine.
Soon there will be two more joining it.

I already know how and where the other two will land.
Can you guess?


My website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
My Etsy store, CritterVille.

How to sculpt critters, make bronze animals etc. 24 of my 'how to' sculpture posts: Now easy to find, all in one place.

I was trying out the search feature the other day, to find an old 'How to' post.
Seems I hardly ever used those exact words, and I know I've posted quite a few of them, so I put them all in one place, in chronological order with the oldest first.

How to make mice, monkeys, elephants, frogs, turtles, bases, and all sorts of other work in progress for anyone interested in having a go, or simply curious about what goes into this sculpting and casting caper...

Beijing Olympic mascot (unofficial) - This post shows a turnaround of my monkey turtle discus thrower as it progressed.

Making of 'Big Boy', my large Cane Toad sculpture - Two of these live on a bridge over a pond in a park in Loveland, Colorado.

Bumper to Bumper. Turtle sculpture work in progress - 1

The birth of Nosey mouse.

More mousey 'how it's done'.

Bumper to bumper turtle sculpture, work in progress - 2

Making 'Tiny mouse'.

Death of an elephant. This is just some pics of a sculpture being 're-claimed' for future sculptures.

Even more Nosey 'how it's done'.

Bumper to bumper turtle sculpture - work in progress - 3

Bumper to bumper turtle sculpture - work in progress - 4

Step by step how to make a tiny elephant sculpture.

Next steps in bringing my tiny elephant sculpture to bronze.

How to make small sculpture bases by cutting up and edge polishing black granite tiles.

Putting it all together (making micro sized bumper to bumper turtle sculpture).
Hoodrats and the black hole of doom!....making the hood ornament version of Sprightly for my car.

Hoodrats, Darth Vader, and the tree snake of death!

Sprightly mouse hood ornament-The hoodrat rides!

Final bronze elephant and more garden snake action!

My new butterfly salad toad sculpture is finished.

My secret weapon and favorite tool for creating sculpture...(worth a look just to see my secret weapon)

Race against the clock- getting new stuff cast in time for my first gallery show...

New shiny toy and new work in progress report.

How a hole in the head sometimes helps, and how to avoid one when it doesn't.

The tree frog has landed.

Well I hope you enjoyed that, there's lots of other stuff buried in the archives too of course!

My website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
My Etsy store, CritterVille.

Sumo Wrestling Toads

Voila! The large version of my Sumo Toads, which is currently at the foundry, so what you're seeing here is the clay.The smaller ones are half as tall, which makes them very much smaller volume-wise.
You wouldn't be nearly so shocked to come across them in the undergrowth as these guys.
I will have pictures of the small ones all patinated and what-have-you soon.
Since this pair of big boys wouldn't fit through the front door I had a fun time getting them out through the patio doors and then over a wall to the waiting SUV (luckily there were extra pairs of hands helping out).
I think these would look good combined with some kind of water feature in a garden.
Lots more pics of other sculptures at www.SteveWorthingtonArt.com

Death of an elephant...

In our ecologically minded world being a cheapskate can be a virtue.
Once molded the clay can be thrown away, or re-used to make something else.
Maybe some of the molecules in my body used to be some part of an elephant at one point in time.
I re-used my rabbits to make a giant toad, and I'm re-using my elephant to make some more giant toads.
Here's my clay elephant back from the foundry ready for some impending unpleasantness.
The slippery surface must be scraped back since it's all covered in a release agent to facilitate easy mold rubber release. Can't save that stuff, so it goes in the trash.
A wire clay tool, a knife, and most dangerous of all, a cheese scraper, are all you need to get the job done.
The cheese scraper is dangerous only if your co-habitants spot you using it, when it might be all you have to defend yourself with against much more intimidating weapons. It's not very effective as an offensive weapon, or as a shield. Not so slippery now, the serious business of re-clay-mation can begin.
The box is starting to fill up nicely.

Ahh, if only shedding pounds was that easy.
A remnant of his former self ends up in the trash, (foam and pipes and wire covered in clay), while the rest gets to live another day.
Might have to get a bigger box.
He died that others might live.
Very 'circle of life', eh?
It's not all bad news for the elephant, he gets to enjoy eternal life as a bronze. Which should give him plenty of time to figure out whatever it is that's on his mind.
More stuff on my website.

Making 'Tiny mouse'

Tiny is the smallest mouse I have made at the time I write this post. I wanted to do a mouse balanced on a walnut and I really wanted to use a real walnut. But it was after Christmas and I couldn't find any unshelled walnuts anywhere. I was taking a walk through the snow with Meridee and as I bemoaned the lack of walnuts in the world, there laying in the snow was a walnut! I wasted no time getting going as soon as we got home.
I started first with a very rough clay sketch of my idea and took some pics of a mouse doing her thing...
I preferred the mouse with a lower head and more arched back after checking out my model's performance, so I went with that.
The real mouse got an extra piece of cheese for a job well done, and my finished bronze can be seen with many others on my website.