The next phase was to create a small scale (about 1/3 size) Winerstone sculpture to develop a plan of how to create the desired shape while learning some tricks and risks potential along the way.

It needed a strong frame to build upon so off to Canadian Tire I went to brouse and buy.  Whatever materials I chose had to be available in small sizes for the scale model and large sizes for the final sculpture.  Up and down the aisles I wandered with many items on the shelf inspiring possible solutions.  Eventually I settled upon two threaded rods about 85 cm long and two brackets.  Each rod would be attached to the wooden base, run from the dancer's foot then up the leg, torso and out the arm.  Brackets would tie them together at the dancer's hips and shoulders.

Next I needed some foam to build a lightweight core around the frame and chose Home Depot as the source.  Fortunately there were many types and sizes of foam available that people use as home insulation.  I loaded my cart with a few hard white sheets, a coil of flexible plastic insulation (that I ended up not using) and a spray can that creates foam to fill cracks.  Out on the back deck I sprayed foam around a test wire and was pleasantly surprised at the high potential.  Setting the dancer frame on the table, I sprayed foam aound the bottom then gradually worked my way up to create columns for the legs.  Round and round I slowly sprayed to form the torso, head and arms.  Numberous times the soft foam crumbled under its own weight but I found that occassional pauses to let the foam harden enabled me to build the entire core.

The full size sculpture will be to too large to build with spray foam so will need to have chunks of hard white foam sheets as filler with spray foam around them.

Files and sandpaper proved to be too abrasive to shape the foam but a sharp exacto knife worked wonderfully.  Gradually unwanted chunks were removed, revealing the dancer within.  It turns out the dancer is female.  I didn't know that until now.

Knowing that future layers of wire mesh and Winterstone would make the dancer bulky, I perfomed many iterations of thinning until the foam dancer looked like a grossly thin Nightmare Before Christmas character.  Feet and hands were completely removed so that they could be thin and simply made from wire and Winterstone.

Its difficult to see in this photo, but the foam core is now wrapped in metal mesh and flat pieces of mesh show where the feet and hands will be.

Finally two coats of raw sienna tinted Winterstone were applied, followed by two coats of tinted Winterstone icing.  The rough edges were shaped with coarse sandpaper between each coat.  Progressively finer grits of sandpaper were used to shape and smooth the surface.

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Trial #1: to learn about how Winterstone behaves.  I dug out an old test sculpture formed from a small galvanized steel sheet and used it as the base for trial #1.  Mixed Winterstone was much thicker than I anticipated; making me want to add more water but the instructions warned against this because it could cause shrinkage cracks and reduced strength.  The surface finish in the photo is rough but I'm sure that I can make is beautifully smooth and pure with another coat and sanding.

Trial #2: to see the raw umber colour.  For this trial I cut and formed a small piece of wire mesh to use as the base then applied tinted Winterstone.  I tried manipulating the Winterstone at various times during the three day curing process, spreading it with knife (OK), shaping with fingers (very good), filing with coarse file (chipped chunks from stone), filing with fine file (plugged file when stone too wet) and sanding (OK).  The raw umber colour turned out to be quite nice and would be dark and rich like weathered bronze in a finished state and go with many room colour schemes.

Trial #3: to see the desert tan colour.  Using the same procedure a Trial #2 but with a different tint, I created another test piece.  This colour is quite bright and striking but not a neutral which means the room colour must match of the colour scheme will scheme.

The Rotarty Club of Guelph meeting happened to be at the GYMC this week so I took the three test samples along with me to see which best suited the room decor.  White would be wonderful but tends to invite unwanted graffiti and will look dirty over time.  Theoretically Winterstone lasts about a hundred years so cleaning will undoubtedly be required throughout its life.  The desert tan colour conflicts with the present wall colour in the display room so is out as an option for this sculpture.  The raw umber will contrast the wall colour nicely, be easily viewed from the angle with a window behind the sculpture and complement the dark pipe infrastructure along the ceiling.   I decided to proceed with raw umber as the best choice when making the scale model.  We can always switch to a different tint for the full size sculpture.  The backup plan is to paint it bronze but we all know that paint looks great at the start then needs to be reapplied every five or ten years.