All four figures went through many changes during the long and interrupted sculpture period.
Anna went through the most drastic of changes, and the main reason for this was that I had no actual reference for her. I relied on my flawed instincts, photographs, and memory.
Hence mistakes were made since the very beginning, starting with a greatly oversized armature. This resulted in the need to start over with her form onto a wire frame, and the fabrication of a new and improved armature. Later I would also decide on the need to surgically replace the wire frame with the new armature, in order to be sure that everything fit correctly before casting.
Left to right: Isolde, Russeau, Anna, Madame Fontaine
Anna in her tall beginnings
Everyone needs a pair of eyes
By this point I had decided she was just far too big for a 12 year-old. She was abandoned.
Here she has some acrylic paint on her, as that day I had fantasised over the idea of animating painted wax figures, and avoiding silicone and casting.
Starting over. I was driven, and hence too impatient to wait until morning to go buy some stiff steel wire. Instead I used some aluminium wire I had, which is great for animating, but far to soft for this purpose. I also didn't consider the way I was quickly and indelicately wrapping it around screws to fix it to the base. This bulk in the ankles would prove to be a problem later on.
From left to right: Anna (previous version), Anna (newer and younger), Isolde, Russeau
Looking for a face
fingers
Don't recall how she traveled to Italy. She wasn't in this box...
Until now the pictures have been from Cardiff. Here Anna stands on my parents' table in Assisi, Italy.
Again, she was too tall.
Her bust was too long for her legs.
surgery
stitched back together
Shortening arms
Looking for a face again
The new armature. Made in the hope that it would fit the measurements (very hard to take), of the new three-dimensional sculpture. For this armature I went straight to John Wright with my design.
The guys at John Wright's studio in Bristol studied my design, and wondered if one 3mm double ball joint wouldn't work better than two awkwardly fixed single 5mm joints, as Tobias and I had made previously. They were perfectly right.
Anna, Isolde, Madame Fontaine
Isolde, Russeau, Anna
Travel to London
Back to the UK, working in Teddington.
Again, shortening the arms
I started to worry that the armature and the figure might not match
Traveling back from a couple of days in Swansea, where Liz worked a day, I dropped by John Wright and made a modification to reduce the way the clavicle joint protruded so much.
I thought about giving her one fixed hand, in a chosen position, as I had worries about success in realistic movable hands
wire getting in the way
Believe it or not, but shoes are ridiculously difficult to sculpt!
five fingers. Why?
And hands are impossible to sculpt properly when they are attached to a fragile body
There is an ancient Samurai helmet that looks something like this.
She seems finished. But.....
The closer I felt I was to finally being able to make moulds of the three unfinished characters, and cast them, the more worried I became that the armature might not fit in the figure, in places such as the wrists, as I had sculpted her onto wire, and it was virtually impossible to accurately make measurements of the figure.
Therefore I decided to open the arms and insert the armature.
Removing the wire like tendons
To accurately see if the arms would fit, it was necessary to fit the shoulders, and hence why not also the all important clavicle.
Not exactly a seamless fit. The arms were scrapped.
And by now I decided to go all the way. Besides, now with the weight of the upper armature, the soft aluminium wire bones in the legs, which were already problematic and needing support, just would not do.
Anna was sliced down the sides...
and laid out to dry.
I tried to salvage her feet and shoes, but the bulky twist of wire inside clung to too much flesh.
Might as well start over again.
Lost her arms, lower legs, feet, shoes, and some weight.
But I enjoyed putting her back together again, onto a solid standing armature.
It was good to give her her destined feet (courtesy of Professor Donald Holwill)
A view to the clavicle joint.
Thin ancles, finally!
Her cafe held together, as I had to carve out her brains
distanced her feet, in preparation for mould-making.
And, though I don't recall the exact details, the hands were too problematic to merge with the armature, so I must have started again with them too.
After lowering Isolde's eyes, for a moment I thought to do the same to Anna. But I had second thoughts, and she merely winked.
Still finding arms and hands, as she is wrapped in silk ribbon for costume measurements.
Anna, ready to travel to Lauder.
Laying face down for her mould in Moat House.
Because of the drastic surgery she had undergone, her body remembered her scars, and she split in two during demoulding.
Foam costume mannequin casts of Russeau, Isolde, and Anna
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