“Fledgling”, from the Ball People Series

As quite a few readers were interested in my sculpting process, I’ve decided to document the making of this piece.

A foam ball serves as the torso. For limbs I used 16 and 18 gauge steel wire from Home Depot. The legs are reinforced as they need to support the weight of the upper body. Mask tape help the paper maché adhere better.

The wire is bulked up with aluminum foil, and mask taped.
Sometimes, when I attach the finished figure to the base, I run into trouble in regards to balancing and stabilizing the piece, so I decided to do a reversed order this time.

A cast plaster base was used, with two drilled holes for the feet.

I made a groove to receive the ends of the wires to keep the bottom of the base level. I carefully stapled the wire ends to the bottom of the base. It was a bit risky, but the plaster did not crack. Of course, the base can be wood or any other material as well.

She’s standing! The legs need to be strong enough to hold all the top weight. Aluminum foil was used to bulk up the legs, and masking tape on top to keep it all together. Once I applied the paper pulp, I let them dry for 48 hrs to make sure they were hardened and bone dry. While the legs were drying I took a smaller foam ball for the head. I cut it in half. One half was used for a hat, the other for the face.

Next, when the legs had hardened,  I added the arms and the neck by poking holes into the foam ball, and inserting the wire about 1 inch, then covered the torso with paper pulp.

I covered the torso with mache, then the face and the neck. I wanted a long, bird-like neck.

Next I wanted wing-like arms, with human hands. The wire was cut to determine the length of the arms.

The hands were attached. Another 48 hours wait followed, to make sure everything was hardened before the painting process. I wanted to paint the wings pink. I used acrylic paint.

First, I sealed the piece with Mod Podge, a water-based sealer, then I painted it. I thought the pink was too strong, so I toned it down with black. Here is the finished piece:

The face: 99 % of the time I don’t know what the next face will look like. I just let my hands guide me and the personality will develop on its own. The wide face and the small mouth reminded me of the lovely Renaissance Madonnas which I thought would have been perfect for this character.

Finally I should mention that the piece was partly inspired by watching three peregrine falcon chicks grow and take flight last spring. A video camera was taping them 24/7 in the town of Boise, Oregon.

Hope you enjoyed my process and the emerging character! ❤ Visit my website for more at http://www.erikatakacs.com, and follow me on social media for new work.