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Jia Hern
What is a clay armature ?
In sculpture, an armature is a framework around which the sculpture is built. An armature is often made of heavy, dark aluminum wire which is stiff but can be bent and twisted into shape without much difficulty. For more info - Tutorials
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Why it is important ?
It provides structure and stability, especially when a plastic material such as wax, newspaper, or clay is being used as the medium.
How it is made for Catto ?
After some planning and designing on each sculpture, I decided to make the three cats figure out first, then slowly build the food structure around them. This way of making can ensure that the pieces would fit perfectly together, avoid small gaps that can let the pieces shake and rub against each other which can cause the sculpture to break or damage the paint coating.
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I start to bend and twist some aluminum wire to the shape I wanted. I normally use 16 gauge wire which is lightweight, yet strong, this wire is non-corrosive, completely pliable, and non-staining. After getting the shape, I wrap it with aluminum foil, it acts as the meat and muscle so I can determine how fat or thin the cat sculpture it. Also, wrapping it means that you don't have to use so much clay in your works to reduce the weight and save some cost.
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Besides that, choosing the right clay to use is also very important as different clay have different advantages and disadvantages that can affect the molding time, structure strength, detail amount, color coat, and more. For more info - Tutorials
Before clay
After clay
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