Snow Angel

Looking around, I see the unfinished projects; The Puffin Project, sitting propped against the wall. Kami, in pieces, lying on my table next to the sewing machine. The Christmas project, still in random pieces strewn all over the far side of the couch. There's more, but I'm not as interested in those. I feel a bit of guilt, having neglected these projects in my time off, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

I don't know why and I don't know what compelled it, but I woke up needing to sculpt this lady. A symbol of comfort to those around the world who lives have been adversely affected by the snow this season, and a symbol of winter to those who, like myself, haven't really experienced the snow and ice of winter this year (at least until today).

As I pulled out the boxes of clay and tools, my family, including the cats, looked at me disapprovingly. More stuff out, making more of a mess in my already chaotic space. I know they don't understand why I'm about to begin yet another project. It's okay. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

Bending a wire armature, I set out to make a beautiful woman; tall and slender, smiling, gentle, offering a hand of comfort through the cold. I blended 2 parts Premo pearl with one part of SculpyIII pearl blue; sparkly and icy blue, covered her torso and threw her in the oven to bake.

The irony of putting the icy woman in the oven wasn't lost of me. If she had a head, she'd scream before she melted. I thought about Winter and realized I found no comfort. I like the snow and its beauty, but Winter is more than snow. Winter is cold, and dark. Winter, with its icy stare, brings death to the land.

I felt different about this sculpture than I did a few hours before. I began to doubt my choice of colour for her body. If I was seeking to bring comfort, then I should have given her a warm natural flesh tone. I contemplated calling this new project a failure and going back to one of my unfinished projects, (it was too late to change colours now, her body was blue) but I couldn't compel myself to put her down. I continued on with my original plan, not as excited about the project as I was when I started.

I sculpted her head next, and was distraught with the results. This creature was not beautiful. She was tall and slender, but not beautiful. Nor did she bestow feelings of comfort. She was cold and harsh and a little bit scary. I pined over why I couldn't seem to make her beautiful and called myself a lousy sculptor (which is just fine since I'm a fibre artist). I was about to smash her head down and start again when the thought, "let it be what it wants to be" filled my head. She was everything I had just thought about Winter.

Legs and arms followed, and soon the clay became a whole person. I'm fairly please with her. She's not beautiful, but she has good features, she's proportional (okay, maybe her butt's a little big, but she'll just have to live with that), all the limbs match in size, and she sits steady on a flat surface. There's no glaring flaws like air bubbles or the like in the clay. Most importantly, unlike the last clay doll (Candy) she looks like a female!

Wings were next. I'm known for my faerie wings, but angels have bird wings. Having never done these, I spent hours looking at photos of angel and bird wings and studying ornithology textbooks. I wondered what had possessed me to work in clay and not fiber, because I know exactly how I'd execute wings in fiber. In the end, I've made a pair of wings, and I think they're lovely.

Last came the hair. I think I was still stuck on the idea of sweet and pretty, because I wanted her to have human coloured hair, auburn or maybe blond. I even tried it, and it looked ridiculous. Let her be who she wants to be, remember? Cold, dark, death, ice. Icicles! White, of course, white. Her hair needed to be white. A blend of white, transparent and pearl clays got transformed into hair. All my dolls have curly to wavy hair, I've yet to have a good reason to make them otherwise. This one was to be no different.

So, that's her. With a bit of paint, some sparkling powder and some clothing (of cloth, not clay) she'll be all done. What have I learned? I prefer working in fiber, but clay can be fun too. If you don't like something, either smash it down and try again, or be willing to let the clay transform itself. SculpyIII is much softer than Premo. It's too soft for me to sculpt precisely with, so either don't use it again or leech the clay before starting. The 1 or 2 days it would have taken to leech the clay would have been worth not having to bake every part of the body separately or even multiple times as it went on the armature. I learned about bird wings. I also found that a clay figure was fun to perfect ideas for a fabric figure; I can bend and mold the clay freely until it's the way I want, and then have that sculpture as a template for cutting out fabric shapes.