#polycarving

Some sculptures are so big, you can’t see the end of them. This was a possibly the largest set I have ever had the pleasure of building. I sculpted the original model for this volcano that features at the finale of ‘Wonder Woman’ by Warner Bros. Every rock feature was sculpted as a precise enlargement of the original maquette by a team of 20 sculptors under my supervision.

This week we focused on carving our statues. Taking them from blocks of polystyrene to fully realised 3D objects ready for the next step.

First we began by using the wire cutter again from last week to carve out along the outline of the piece. Like before, the lines were numerically check pointed to avoid miscuts. As we cut each area we would tape them back together using masking tape making sure it wouldn't be in the way of future cuts and that the piece would be properly cut and stay in one part whilst we finished cutting. This was done so we were able to cut the outline of the model out fully without having to rebalance it as we went.

From here we would gradually knock back the poly to allow the statue to begin taking shape. Along the way we would have to make sure we were being extra careful to not carve out too much otherwise it would need to be stuck back on with contact adhesive. I witnessed many others accidentally breaking or overcutting their models having to remake an entire section to account for their losses. In some cases full sections such as heads or legs.

The carving process was done with a combination of knives, files and scrapers. These would allow us to chip back the surface at a steady rate so our carving earlier with the hot wire needed to be as accurate as possible. Complex cutting with the hot wire may have been more difficult but it reduced the scale of the work in the hand carving stage. Once we felt happy with the piece we would use rough grade sandpaper to smoothen the surfaces of the statue. By this point the amount of poly 'snow' that had been made had covered us and the workshop in a blanket so wearing my jump suit didn't seem as pointless as initially thought. Our normal clothes and belongings didn't come away everyday covered in white baubles if we had taken this precaution though.

Using the measurements and our sketches we had acquired at the museum the day before, today we set out marking up polystyrene. We began by assessing the pre-existing polystyrene supplies. Individually we worked out the block we would require and began to search for blocks to make up the starting block we needed. When we had found the blocks we would attach the pieces together with contact adhesive. (Apply to both pieces, wait until tacky, stick together with applied weight.) Once dried we marked up the blocks with sharpies and metre rulers so they would be ready to cut into shape.

Using a makeshift system of wood planks and nails we positioned the blocks onto a podium of wood. (So the hot wire could go straight to the bottom in a straight cut.) Then stuck the marking boards into the poly in line with the cut marks using the nails that had been hammered into the board. We applied masks and turned on the extractor fans so as to not inhale any toxic fumes that were to come from the poly melting.

In pairs we slowly cut the poly making sure the wire was reaching the designated checkpoints as we sliced it through the material. -These checkpoints are numbered points put in place along the cut line to stop the wire from miscutting. Once the material was cut we began the process of marking out.

We began marking out by placing tracing paper over printed images of the subject. Once we had divided the images into an even number of squares we were ready to move on to the model. (I made the mistake of trying to work out measurements at different scaling for each of the individual pictures and try matching them up. Failing to realise you simply needed to keep dividing the squares into halves (2,4,8,16...))