Miracle of the bottletop Virgin Mary of butter...Bottoms up! (the miraculous bottle's topless, but the Madonna isn't!)

So Meridee and I were just in Taos sharing a croissant and cup of coffee.
Taos is full of churches and religious icons everywhere you look.
I always supposed people had made them all, but now I wonder...

I scraped the butter off my knife into a bottle cap, and squeezed it so I could pop it in the top of the bottle.
I looked away for a moment, and Meridee came over all pale and ashen looking.
Imagine my surprise when LO, the Virgin Mary herself was miraculously standing there before us, balanced on the top of the empty bottle!

A feeling of great calm spread over me as I snapped a pic of the miracle on my parrot.

We're home now, and I'm still feeling quite calm.

Unlike these guys...

This other pic will make sense to anyone who is in Grand Rapids, MI over the next couple of weeks...

 It's ArtPrize time of course, starting Wednesday.

Here's how my turtles swimming finished up, I'll post more 'making of' pics next time...

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Peter Wright's batcave and the art of crating bronze sculptures.

Recently I paid another visit to Peter Wright's batcave.
He's the man who offered to take on the risk of casting some of my larger pieces in exchange for half of what's left when they find homes after the gallery cut and casting costs are subtracted.
For which I am, of course, extremely grateful.
He's also a fine glass artist in his own right (no pun intended!). I love the colors he uses in his pieces. For me they are quite exquisite. (click HERE to see his work).

And he has a secret bat-cave, which is where you're seeing him here!

That big crate has got my Sumo Wrestling Toads in it.
I've never seen Peter in a cape, but he can appear and disappear very quickly, and he's always talking by phone from some far flung part of the country or other, so I keep wondering just how he does it...

We're sending Sumo Toads to the Natural History Museum in San Diego (for the Society of Animal Artists 50th annual show) and another pair to Grand Rapids, Michigan (for ArtPrize), along with Big Boy, and some other toads.

The Sumo's are crated, with cross bars inside to keep them from wobbling around. Some kind of plasticky rigid foam is glued to the crates, and the cross bars, and other sheets of it are wedged in here and there.
Everything is marked and coded with numbers and letters so anyone who un-packs it, can later re-pack it exactly the same. The cross bars are screwed in from the outside of the crate.

Big Boy is put in a double thickness corrugated cardboard box, with slabs of softer foam that's more squashy. Each is numbered with a hole in it, so when they're all stacked together horizontally Big Boy nestles cocooned inside his new world of soft foam.
Super thick heavy rope handles round out the procedure.
This is how Peter sends his glass as well. It would take a pretty determined person with a fork-lift to do any damage to it (oh no, I haven't just jinxed it have I?).
Of course everything's also insured, just in case...

My Bumper to Bumper is part of the National Sculpture Society's 77th annual exhibition in Brookgreen Gardens, SC.
Since the base is granite great care is needed for the packing process.
The wooden crate has a foam lining, and sides which slot into place allowing no movement.

The foam top locks it all into place, and the lid is screwed on.

Again, everything is very carefully marked and coded so anyone can re-pack it correctly later.

Besides that, here's a table full of recently patinated bits and pieces which will all hopefully be enjoying life in their new homes very soon (if they aren't already!). Looks like it's almost time for a new tin of paste wax (for brushing on the bronzes while they're freshly hot from the patina process).

As you can see I indulged in a little beer towel thievery during my student years. How could I resist, after all, it had my name written all over it!
I think this one came from my local in Portreath, Cornwall at the time, the Waterfront Inn.

Oh, and don't forget of course, the end of this month is the DEADLINE for entering my latest win-a-mouse contest (click HERE).

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

'Bumper to Bumper' bronze turtle sculpture accepted for NSS show

This week I was delighted to learn that the National Sculpture Society accepted the large version of my 'Bumper to Bumper' turtle sculpture as part of 2010's annual show.
Unfortunately this year the New York part of the show won't be happening since they've moved offices, so it will only be on display at Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina.

Exciting news none the less, it has to be one of the most prestigious shows in the country, and I feel extremely honored to be participating for the fourth time.

Speaking of four, I've previously posted four 'making of' demo's of my large 'Bumper to Bumper'.


If you'd like to check them out, click HERE for a post which has a whole bunch of 'how to' posts listed within it, including the Bumper to Bumper ones.
Or instead you could type 'Bumper to Bumper' in this blog's search bar if you like!

I've also made it in two smaller sizes.

Incidentally, I just recently got my medal and certificate from Brookgreen Gardens for the 'People's Choice' award from the 2009 annual show, for my large bronze, 'Sumo Wrestling Toads'.
I was told it was very popular with the security guards at the New York location too!
Brookgreen Gardens had sent the medal and certificate many months before, but they'd got lost in the mail.

So, a pretty good week I'd say!

I have other exciting things going on, but I'll save some of that for future posts...

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

My secret weapon and favorite tool for creating sculpture...

A few months ago I answered the question 'What's the one tool you love above all others?' on a sculpture forum.

Here's my answer...

'My computer attached to the internet!
Great for finding reference of everything.
Living creatures, skeletons, anatomy, you name it.
I have a few choice books but you can't beat a computer.'

And here's one great example (click the pic)...

Digimorph is priceless for learning your way around skulls and skeletons.
It's kind of become my secret weapon.
I'm making some more turtles. A stand alone, and a mid sized 'Bumper to bumper'. And probably a new turtle piece or two beyond that.

Being able to spin around skulls and skeletons for an x-ray look inside just can't be topped. It's on a par with having the actual skeleton in your hands.
Better: It's like having a pair of x-ray specs that actually work.
And since the critters are all scanned intact, you don't have to second guess how accurately the skeleton has been re-assembled, since it's still inside the body in the first place.

My website.
My Etsy store.

Putting it all together (making micro size bumper to bumper turtle sculpture)

In our last exciting episode we watched from the edge of our seats while our intrepid hero risked life and limb to fearlessly cut up pieces of granite tile and polish the edges.
All without the use of a safety net.
This time those tiles get pressed into service as small sculpture bases.
I used a DREMEL engraver (it vibrates a pointy end to break up surfaces and engrave things).
Some JB Weld, which is a top notch epoxy resin recommended by my main man at Advanced Casting, Frank. He casts my tiny turtle parts. A white chinagraph pencil, and some paperclips and other stuff to mix up the epoxy round out the list of stuff I'll need.
I mark the turtle positions (inside the boundary of each piece) with the chinagraph pencil onto the granite surface.
I use the extremely ominous looking DREMEL engraver to hammer on the granite to roughen it up. This provides a 'tooth' for the epoxy to adhere to. Of course I use all the relevant safety gear (see DREMEL instructions for more info). You don't want granite dust so fine it looks like smoke drifting into places on your (or anyone else's) person it doesn't belong.
That is one noisy tool for something so small! It sounds like a road crew with pneumatic drills has broken in and is trying to smash up your kitchen sink.
I rough up the bottoms of the turtle parts then mix up the epoxy and stick 'em on the granite.
I like to wait overnight for the epoxy to fully cure. Of course I allow my attention to wander a bit during this phase: perhaps towards the tv for instance.

The next day, self adhesive felt dots and a signature are added...
Viola! A micro sized version of 'bumper to bumper'.
Ready for its close up.


Here's my elaborate photographic set up. A bit of blue gray paper propped up, some Lowel Ego lights, a reflector, and a bean bag for the camera to rest on. I learned a lot from Gary Regester's site on lighting with Lowel Ego's. You'll get better photo tips from him than me!

I tweeked the contrast a bit in photoshop to blow out the background more towards white, and I also set the camera to over expose one stop when I took the pics.

The rest of my bronzes are all here on my website.

'Bumper to bumper' turtle sculpture - work in progress 4

I got the pieces back from the foundry nicely patinated, picked up the granite base, had some holes carefully drilled in it at the relevant positions and have assembled 'Bumper to bumper'.
Voila!
Finished.
The above pics I snapped at home with my Canon powershot, the one below was done professionally.
More stuff on my website.

'Bumper to bumper' turtle sculpture-work in progress 3

Well my turtles are cast, and patinated too thanks to Kristen's handiwork at Bronze Smith foundry in Arizona.
We have collaborated on several pieces now, most recently my elephant in Rodin's thinker pose.
The pics from the foundry aren't perfect for color, you can see the difference in their appearance from the two shots of the main turtle both indoors and outside.
I think that browny colored background inside is white (or neutral gray).
Strangely he grew an extra claw on his back foot during casting!
Actually, there was a rod running around the outside of the claws to allow the metal to flow to the ends, and it seems the end of the rod got confused for a claw at metal chasing time.
All better now though, my turtle now sports the correct complement of claws on his feet.
When I get the partly submerged ones they will need to be attached to the 32" long polished granite base so they can be reflected in its shinyness.
They won't be arranged like this either, you can see what they'll look like in my earlier post.
I'm pretty keen to finish putting them together and see them all done.
Lots more stuff on my website.

'Bumper to bumper' turtle sculpture-work in progress 2

I got my waxes back from the foundry and with the cunning use of a griddle (in background of photo) to melt down my critters, and some clay to work on new necks, legs, tweak heads etc, I'll have a nice crew of semi submerged turtles to take back again.
Here it is a bit further along (notice the front one has no legs yet).

Once finished and at the foundry they'll each be molded, from which new waxes will be pulled to be invested in ceramic shell, and then the waxes will be replaced with bronze.
If the foundry takes any pics of the progress I'll post 'em right here.
More critters at SteveWorthingtonArt.com

'Bumper to bumper' turtle sculpture-work in progress 1

I am currently making a 40" long or so sculpture of some turtles in a traffic jam (more of my work can be seen here).
I already made a miniature version just a few inches long (seen here), now I'm doing a larger one. I'll post its progress over time.
First stage is to make a master turtle (which, unmodified, I can also cast as a stand alone edition).
From that I'll get a mold made, and get half a dozen or so wax reproductions of his shell and head so I can make the variously submerged turtles with different head postions, feet where appropriate, etc added with wax based clay.
Each of those will then need its own new mold, from which the pieces will emerge as waxes, to be cast as bronze after that, patinated, and attached to the black granite 'water'.
I haven't finalized the rest of the base yet. Could be a piece of wood so you'd put in on some furniture, or maybe a custom designed table or stand of some kind, as suggested in the picture at the top of this post.
Something for me to think about while things proceed...
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