Final Location & Blessed with Beer

For the final destination I chose the backyard along the side I usually put my garden. It has an ivy covered fence for a background.



After the winter rains the grass has grown up a bit.



I also decided to give it a beer bath to encourage moss growth.







Just so no beers lovers are too alarmed. Note that the beer is two years + past it's best by date.

The Statue - A Work In Progress

The Statue

It all started with the film "Spirited Away". I really liked that film and much of its imagery. I like the glimpses of Japanese culture as well.

There was one statue in the film that I really thought was interesting, and a fore shadowing of a theme in the film.



In the movie the statue is shown to have a face on both sides. In this case, the faces seems to be the same. I backed and paused the DVD several times checking this.

I had thought to buy some Studio Ghibli toy that of that statue - ideally a potted plant watering device. The kind where you stick it in the soil, fill it with water, and it waters slowly over time. But I was unable to find one.

Then some one suggested, "Hey, you're an artist, why do not you make your own?"

So I pondered. Do I do a six inch soapstone?
Do I try a SuperSculpie / Fimo sculpture? How big?

Then I read about Hypertufa.
Tufa is a light weight rough stone that is easily carved and was popular for troughs and planters in England.
Hypertufa is a man made substitute. It is made from a mix of Portland Cement, Vermiculite, and Peat moss. The recipes vary but after some reading I was leaning towards 1:1:1 ratio.

Usually when I start a new material, like carving soapstone or such, I start with something small to get a handle on the material before I set out to do what I had in mind in the first place.

Not this time. I may have been a little too ambitious. I decided to build it about 3 foot tall.

What follows is the work in progress.

First things... well, whenever.

Having thought I might make my own statue with Hypertufa, I read about working with Hypertufa online.

Rule 1: Safety. Wear gloves, goggles, respirator, and long sleeves when working with Portland Cement.

Rule 2: You can work it when it is wet, or one day dry - more then that and it is like carving stone.

There is rule 3 but I didn't pick it up till much further into the process.

Having decided to make a statue, I first made sketches of the one in the film from the DVD.



I then debated how to build the interior support structure. Most of what I had seen online was how to build planters. That was basically, find a bowl, pot, or bucket; cover it with plastic so you can get it to release; and then cover it with Hypertufa.

I knew it needed to be hollow; just for the weight issue if not for the cost. But how to do that ...

I set off to the hardware stores, the garden stores, and do-it-yourself centers. Just looking for ideas. I found a great pot that was almost right but was close to $200 just for it. G'ah. Keep looking and thinking. Hyla suggested paper mache, and I thought that might work for some of it. But it would still something about the right size for an under support.

For the World is Hollow ...

After considering a variety of options for and having it sit in the back of my mind for a while; I decided to just leap in feet first. I bought the Portland Cement, peat moss, and vermiculite, some gloves, dust masks, towel, and mixing bin.

I decided to use a large plastic planter, and a 5 gallon bucket for basic form. But I needed a domed top ... paper mache! I was about ready to build the under structure.



I decided to build it on top of a circular board I had. I also put those on some cinder blocks to raise it off the ground a bit. A little painter's tape and mover's wrap ...



It almost looks like a Dalek.
But it needs more filling out. It is too tall and narrow. So I start adding newspaper to fill it out more.



I wrap all the newspaper in plastic so that it will hopefully release easier from the finished sculpture. I add a casing of chicken wire for the Hypertufa to stick to. In hind sight, I probably should have used hardware cloth, which is a wire mesh with a smaller screen size.

The Messy Part.

There is an old saying; if it is fun, it is messy.

I mixed up a batch of Hypertufa trying to stay close to 1 part cement, 1 part moss, 1 part vermiculite. I was measuring by volume though not weight. Cement is fine and packs, the others ... not so much. But I was getting a "mud Pie" consistency.

I started at the top. I don't know why.



Then I made a band down to the base and worked around the base... adding an outline for where I felt the face should be.



Then filled the rest of the open space.



I began to rough out more of the face.



I let it dry for a bit while considering whether or not I was happy with it.



I was not very happy with the results so far.

Intent vs. Results

I tried to figure out why I was not happy with it.

It is a case of being too close to the object. I was working away with out stepping back enough. When I did step back and look at the original intent I realized I had diverged significantly from the original. That was why I was unhappy with the results. One lesson I was trying to keep in mind was: don’t let fear of failure keep you from trying.

This was my first try at a large sculpture and my first try at this material. It would be pretty amazing if everything went as planned. The question I faced now was: can I get something I like from what I have?

I thought about it for a while and decided that I had too much invested in terms of time, material, and money to just chuck it and start over. I was also too far along to make that significant an adjustment to the structure to bring it back in line with what I had originally wanted. Could I reach a point with what I had that I would happy with?

I think I can. I decided that since I was no longer trying for an exact reproduction I could make some other changes as well. The statue pictured in the movie has two faces, one opposite each other. But they have the essentially the same expression. I paused and backed up the DVD several times to make sure. I could do the more traditional two faces where they sort opposite expressions. The two halves in each of us.

Also, I had become convinced that it might just break up when I tried to remove the under structure.

This is when I found rule #3.

I was re-reading some of the online Hypertufa material and came across this advice.
If you want to build something large and heavy like a trough. You should build it in place where you want it to be.

D'oh. Oh, well. Too late now.

Trying to get the face was going to be tricky. I was trying to figure out a way to get a mouth that I would like. I finally built a cardboard cut out, covered that with plastic, and used it as a hand held form and support while shaping the mouth.



I also roughed out the second face.

Trying to Get It Together

I did a bit more work on the second face and arms. I added some more material to waist and began filling in areas that had gaps or seemed too irregular in material.



Normally our dog Otsu sits outside with me while I work. She protects me from the squirrels. Today Monmon came out to check on the progress.



I feel like the sculpture is about 85% done now. I will do some subtractive work with a scraper next. I have tried that already in some areas and it works pretty good for getting a better final shape to things like mouth edges, eyes, and such. I also want to add a final cement 'wash' over it to unify the look a bit more. Then let it sit for a few weeks before trying to move it to its final site, and remove the under structure.

Hypertufa is still a pretty crude material and not suited for fine detail. My sources say that as it weathers, the moss will degrade and make the surface a bit rougher as well.

Since I hope to get some moss to grow on it, the advise is to wash it with a vinegar water mix to counter the acidity of the cement. Other moss encouraging suggestions are a beer wash (preferably a dark beer), or you can blend moss and beer together to make a moss encouraging slurry. Mmmm.... slurry.