A trip to Sculpture Supply Store to pick up more Winterstone, icing and mesh was followed by a trip to Canadian Tire to buy threaded rod 6 feet long and connectors then off to Home Depot to buy foam sheets, spray foam, plywood and 2 by 2 lumber.  The top of the wooden pedestal was the first item made and the threaded rods attached.  Bending the rods proved to be a test of my strength but I managed to win the battle. 

At this point the sculpture looks like it belongs on a construction site.

Chunks of white foam were cut to shape and wedged between the threaded rods at the body then white foam was sprayed to hold them in place.  I soon ran out of spray and had to run to Home Hardware to buy more, which happened to be orange colour. No worries, it's all going to be hidden by Winterstone anyway.  Another block of white foam was located for the head and held in place by surrounding spray foam.  In case you're wondering why I used both spray and foam blocks, I couldn't use just spray foam because it didn't have enough strength to hold its shape for large volumes and I couldn't use just foam blocks because it would have been too difficult to get the threaded rods thought them and have a tight bond.

Now the sculpture looks like a swamp creature froma sci-fi horror flick.

Using a sharp knife, the excess foam was shaved away to reveal the female shape within.  Once I could see the final form I shaved another 0.5 cm from it to make room for the next applications.

Now the sculpture looks like a flag person dressed in a bright orange safety suit waving for me to stop.

Wrapping wire mesh around the sculpture proved to be more difficult than anticipated.  The hands and feet looked disproportioned.  The flat wire mesh resisted forming into smooth curves and kept springing out of shape while the sharp wire ends repeated stabbed my fingers.  You can't see the blood spots in the photo but be assured that they are there.  With needle nose pliers I painstakingly grabbed individual strands, pulled them into place and wrapped them around other pieces of mesh.  Pain in my wrist and forearm forced me to stretch this step over several days.  By the end my wrist had had lost all flexibility and ached whenever used.  It took a week of rest and icing followed by deep massage and stretches to get it rehabilitated.

At this point the sculpture looks like she's wearing a medieval chain mail outfit.

The first coat of Winterstone went on well but took several days to apply so I invited my dad over to assist with the second coat.  It went so well that I invited him back to help apply the icing coat tomorrow.  Now there's a good reward for being a good helper... you get to help even more.  I wonder if he'd be as co-operative if he knew that it was leading to an endless series of helping me.

After each application, the sculpture is sanded and sprayed with water for curing then covered with a plastic bag to prevent drying out.

Now the sculpture looks like someone trapped inside a plastic bag (which happens to be one of my fears... suffocation).

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The base was coated with Winterstone icing tinted black then the entire sculpture was sealed with semi-gloss concrete sealer (left over from when I sealed the driveway this summer).  The base looked patchy so another coat of sealer was applied.  Success!!!

To check that all was OK and ready to begin the full size sculpture, I made an appointment with Brenda where we discussed final details.  The stairway landing was selected as the preferred destination because it was a magnificent focal point for people using the stairway and would also be visible from upstairs, downstairs and outside the window.  This offered an abundance of headroom for the sculpture but limited the base width.  Challenge... to make the base sturdy enough to prevent someone from inadvertently toppling the sculpture.

The sculpture was named "Celebration", signifying a person jumping up in celebration after completing an artistic performance.  One question that arose is "Where are Celebration's clothes?"  She is actually wearing a dance leotard but the lack of detail infers that she could be naked.  Hmmm....  Arts tend to be very accepting of the human form and celebrate its beauty but is Celebration too risqué for the youth of the GYMC?  I could easily add a small skirt to the form.  After discussions with several people, I chose to let the sculpture decide.  I'll build the form of the full size sculpture similar to the scale model then try adding a skirt at the wire mesh stage.  If it adds to the visual the skirt stays but if its heavy weight distorts the balance the skirt will be removed.

Celebration is presently standing on our kitchen counter in front of a window that causes her to look different as the outdoor light changes.  So beautiful.

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