Sculpture Class with Michelle

A couple of years ago, South Devon College 

offered a five-week taster in sculpture, 

which sounded rather intriguing.  

I went along, expecting to make something to
exhibit in the garden:
an enormous structure, 

probably of welded metal,
to find we were given some drawing lessons.  

Then we were let loose on the bamboo, wire and clay to
make something which reflected what we'd drawn.

Our tutor, Michelle, then encouraged us to embellish
this with whatever we thought appropriate.

This was a tiny model (about 10cm) done first as a practice, rather fiddly.
So now to think bigger ...

This was the second model, made of bamboo, 

wire and clay, great fun as it was quite big (about 40cm) to handle.

Scary mouth!

Then came was the third 

and final model, much more fragile:

This was bamboo, wire and should have been
tissue paper and was difficult to keep in shape.

I was rather impatient and took mine home and covered 

bits with newspaper, tissue paper was too fiddly!

Then it was painted - great fun as the paint went everywhere 

and the structure went out of shape when it was wet.  

Eventually I hung it on one of our lights to dry each time, 

much to David's consternation.

After several coats of paint, eventually the desire effect was achieved. 

 Look at the end of this item to see what was the inspiration.  

The inspiration:

A shell from Paignton beach - about 5cm long.