Maquette armature

I like my maquette armatures flexible so that I can move the limbs around.  So that it doesn't collapse and distort when the clay goes on, I tie the armature to a rigid back iron (pictured) which is, in turn, bolted to the base board.

I then attach expanded aluminium wire of varying thicknesses to the back iron making sure to leave myself plenty of excess material to lengthen limbs if needed.  The wire must eventually run through the middle of the  clay form.

You have probably noticed that he looks a little leggy here....this is because I have added 20mm to the heights to allow for the base modelling.  I will make the base deeper than it will eventually be for two reasons: for flexibility so that I can lengthen him downwards as well as up and, when it comes to levelling the bronze, it is easier to grind the metal down than add to it.

If you can see the figure in the armature, chances are it is in the right place.

fragment of history

1791

Matthew joins HMS Dictator and, later, HMS Providence under Captain William Bligh for Bligh's second Breadfruit Voyage.  Here they are anchored off Venus Point in Tahiti, so called because, in 1769, Captain Cook had observed the transit of Venus from here, as it passed between earth and the sun.

and...

French painter Gericault dies

Mozart write his requiem in D Minor and dies in the same year