Three Sisters, a Work in Progress 1

DESCRIPTION OF SLIDESHOW
Klick here to view the show:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Marica.Hefti/THREESISTERSAWorkInProgress

Each “panel” measures 6’x 8’ and is composed of about 12 – 16 sub-panels. I sculpt each sub-panel on a slab of about 24”x 24” laid on a 2” thick 24”x 24”piece of styrofoam insulation covered with newsprint. (The idea is that as the clay shrinks the paper will shrink with it, preventing cracks in the clay.) The still wet finished pieces I cut into “manageable” smaller pieces for easier handling and firing.
Each “sub-panel” is subsequently laid out to dry on 6’x 8’ slightly slanted tables and assembled like a puzzle. The photos do show “a work in progress”.

Panel 1: Some of the sub-pieces on the panel are fired and some are still green. The fired ones are darker in color. They lay on the table itself while the green ones are still on the styrofoam squares. The cuts are now very visible because the clay is shrinking.

Once all the pieces are fired the sub-panels will be cemented together with thin-set of the same color and glued on frames of expanded steel. Those will in turn be bolted and/or welded to upright steel frames. The now solid sub-panels will be “free floating” inside their 6’ x 8’ steel frames. There will be “negative” spaces within the panels as well.

Panel 2: Only the most important narrative images have been sculpted and are laid out to dry. More will follow soon