armetures

[YueLiang]

hi, anyone have any advise on making a good strong ameture for hard to support shapes in oil based clay? I am just terrable at this, and i don't have easy access to any welding equipment. my stuff is pretty small scale right now, so i am hoping i don't absolutly have to weld. thanks! YueLiang

[fritchie]

YueLiang - The art school where I took classes used copper refrigeration tubing; about 3/16" and hollow, but this is expensive. It is easy to bend if you’re careful, and reasonably strong for small (up to, say, 25 inches) armatures. They did figures exclusively, and generally standing, so the armature was more or less vertical.

The armature for a human figure was supported on a plywood base, about 15 inches square, with ordinary galvanized, ½ inch pipe running up about to the small of the back, and then an elbow pipe 4 - 5 inches long to reach the center of the figure. The copper tubing was attached to galvanized pipe by a galvanized T, or a type of electrical-pipe clamp which generally is available in hardware stores. All this is a bit expensive, but it typically can be used many times.

The only variation I have used, for a long time now, is to substitute heavy gauge aluminum electrical cable for the copper tubing. A sculptor friend was able to buy a quantity of scrap cable and sold me some. This works very well. Each strand is about 1/8 inch in diameter, and the overall cable had about 6 - 8 strands which were lightly twisted and easily separated. If you can find something similar, it should work very well.

[YueLiang]

Thanks fritchie, i'll look into it. yueliang

[cletusugoabunwa]

hi yualiang,
If " binding wire" is around you, please try it.Double it,to your desired strenght, twist it like a cord and then use it.Usually good for marquettes .
Good luck, Pal.

Cletus.

[cletusugoabunwa]

hi yualiang,
If " binding wire" is around you, please try it.Double it,to your desired strenght, twist it like a cord and then use it.Usually good for marquettes .
Good luck, Pal.

Cletus.:)

[rickb]

Hi YueLiang,

Like Fritchie mentioned, pipe and aluminum wire works well and is probably the most common method of supporting small pieces of water or oil based clays.

I personally have had bad luck with copper tubing (eventually cracks or kinks if you adjust it too many times). Likewise, galvanized steel wire, though cheap and easily available, corrodes over a couple years makes a gooey mess in the plasteline (at least with chavant nsp). If you dont keep the clay around that long, however, it shouldnt be a problem.

Good luck.

RB


http://www.richardbecker.com

[Gregp]

Dear YueLiang,

There are many alternatives to using metal to make armatures. The one that I prefer most often is to use Styrofoam as a "Core" of the piece. This is easily accomplished by carving the Styrofoam and then covering it with warm clay. With a little practice you should be able to rough out something like a life size bust within a couple of hours or less!

[fritchie]

Greg - Good idea with the Styrofoam, but how do you anchor it to a base for handling? I have used expanded foam for several years in making my torso’s and similar, relatively short and full forms, as a way of reducing both weight and relatively costly oil-clay. What I do for the torso’s is make an inverted U-shape with ½ inch galvanized pipe, and I then tape sections of foam round the pipe with duct tape. I fill around exposed pipe with rolled newspaper and duct tape.

I know pipe is expensive, but these get reused a lot.

[Gregp]

Originally posted by fritchie
Greg - Good idea with the Styrofoam, but how do you anchor it to a base for handling? (Snip)
Usually with an adhesive of one type another.

[YueLiang]

I like this foam idea, but how sturdy is it? If I had something with a long arm reaching up or out, would it be strong enough to support the weight of the clay i put on it?--yueliang

[Gregp]

Originally posted by YueLiang
hi, anyone have any advise on making a good strong ameture for hard to support shapes in oil based clay? I am just terrable at this, and i don't have easy access to any welding equipment. my stuff is pretty small scale right now, so i am hoping i don't absolutly have to weld. thanks! YueLiang
Dear YueLiang,

Since you appear to be inexperienced and wanting to do larger scale work I would strongly suggest that you explore other plastic mediums first. While oil-based clays do have some very desirable characteristics they also have at least as many undesirable ones. Plaster is most likely a much better choice, it is less expensive, quicker to use, can be worked in more ways and yields a much more durable model!

[fritchie]

YueLiang - No, you don't want to use foam for a narrow projection, not without a strong wire support also. Foam is good for “blocky”, compact sculptures. If there is more open space, a wire armature of the sort suggested earlier will be better.

As for the suggestion to use plaster, that has both advantages and disadvantages. A plaster model will still need a good armature, unless it is blocky and well-reinforced with a cloth such as burlap.

The advantage to plaster is that it is strong and more or less permanent. On the other hand, permanence is a disadvantage if you want to do experimentation. Plaster can be used only once, but clay is reusable.

[YueLiang]

I have actually worked a little in plaster when i was in school, but i really don't like it. partially because you can only use it once, but mostly because i prefer adding to subtracting. i like that if i make a mistake in clay, i can redo that part of the sculpture as many times as i like.---plus i manage to get most of my clay for free at this point, he he. i love my friends. I got some aluminum wire, and that seems to be working so far, along with a support screwed into the board like people use for figure sculpture. i think now i just need practice getting it right. thanks all. yueliang

[Toby]

Square section aluminium wire fairly easy to get here, bonsai wire is said to work the same but I have'nt tried.
Usually though, the whole kaboodle sits on a plate or has a back brace, I've been reusing someone elses back braces made from electrical ducting pipe, sawn, rethreaded and assembled using standard elbow/T joints and flange plates. Works a treat on the 2'-10' scale.
Oo lovely sunrise outside window!

[obseq]

I'll toss my hat into the fray, I suppose

Mind you, my little excursion in armature was fueled solely by economic necessity. Not always easy--I did, however, walk away satisfied with the results and my wallet comfortably plump.

Starting with my base, I used a plastic 30-gallon garbage can, and depending on the piece; 3 total ranging roughly from 3-5ft in length, either 30-60 lb bags of cement.

I mixed the cement in the container and inserted 1/2 x 36 in galvanized steel pipe as the anchor. Once cured, I whittled away at the design of the basic steel-pipe armature. I think YueLiang was concerned about needing to weld? Connectors like street elbows, t-bars, cross-bars, and 45/90 degree elbows will easily suffice.

Next, I applied Great Stuff Expanding Foam along the edge of all piping and allowed to cure--It is usually work-ready within 45 minutes to an hour curing outdoors and roughly 3 hours indoors. Once cured, the foam can be easily cut or shaped with little effort. The insulating foam acts as "teeth" for the main application which was plastic wrap. The most wonderful aspect of using plastic wrap is how malleable a material it is. Granted, it requires thousands of yards of tight wrapping, depending on the size of the piece, but can allow for any shape imaginable; both straight-edges and curves without a problem. For issues of depth, simply apply additional insulating foam along the piping edge or "fill" empty gaps created by the plastic wrap. Filling in gaps requires several days of curing time due to the lack of circulation. Once the piece is wrapped and cured you are left something quite dense and sturdy.

I have to add that the foam is very toxic--Work with it outside. Additionally, it is ridiculously sticky! Use gloves if you work with it. I learned the hard way and could not get it off my skin for up to two weeks.

The last steps involve plaster bandages. The medical supply store I purchased them at sold them in bulk 12 rolls for about $25 for ~ 3in by 120in per roll. After the messy bandaging, I added a coat of shellac to the pieces to minimize some of the dust that comes off from the plaster.

A finetooth hacksaw will easily cut through your steel anchor. Fill the remaining gap with foam allow and allow to cure. Cover the foam with sufficient layers of plaster bandages.

Roughly two months after finishing the last of my 3 pieces, they have endured a rough move in the back of a U-Haul, unrestrained, and are still 100% in tact. I would estimate each to weigh about 30 pounds.

Lightweight. Cheap. Durable.

Just need to cast them in bronze. :D




Disposing of the heavy cement bases are another story/headache...!

[sculptor]

as/re armatures

here is the one for the mermaid-----lifesize-----the base is 2x lumber sandwiched between 2 3/4 inch plywoods -----mounted on 6 - 200 lb rated casters. Pipes are brazed and bolted together and glued and screwed into the wooden blocks and fit into holes into the verticle part of the base. it held well over 250 lbs of clay and then another 70-100 lbs of molding materials

[Toby]

Obseq! Marvellous! Just the sort of thing to get the cerebral cogs rotating.
Dunno if I like the idea of brazed pipes much, my armatures tend to be temporary affairs which get reused and recycled.
To be honest I have piles of scrap steel and pipe and an arc welder knocking about, but I prefer bending wire and mesh and slapping on dollops of clay.
These get to be cast so the back brace is the only part reused.

[tilt table]

You may want to look into the Artists Tilt Table www.ArtistsTiltTable.com. They have a table top that you attach your armeture directly to and I believe it would work for most all of the armetures mentioned here. It is inexpensive and lets you rotate and tilt your piece in process. I recommend you go with one of the heavier duty, like pipe armetures. They are about to come out with a new one that will work for large sculpture as well.
Laura