CLAY

The process of creating a sculpture of clay which later will be cured by baking in a kiln at the temperature of 1250 Celsius.

From the very beginning, I would like to highlight that there are many methods of creating sculptures of clay. I am providing you with my proven method, which I successfully use in each of my sculptures that I bake.

Clay is a very delicate and demanding material, so you need to understand how to work with it so that you don’t destroy your project while building, drying or baking your sculpture.

How is a clay sculpture made in practice and how long does the whole process take?

  1. I have an idea of what I want to sculpt, which I translate into a very simple sketch. I gather the materials I will need to represent my design, such as human anatomy, to make the correct proportions.
  2. I draw a die-cut for my design at a scale of 1:1, which is how I would want to sew a garment. The die-cut includes several parts. In the case of the bust, there will be three parts: the head, neck and chest including the shoulders. I do this intuitively, thinking about what it more or less needs to look like to make it work in three dimensions. I cut out the design from paper.
  3. I roll out the clay to about 1 cm thick and use it like fabric, which I cut out based on my paper design. The thickness of the clay depends on the size of the sculpture. It is important that the clay maintains its moisture content while working, so throughout the building process, I sprinkle the clay and cover it with plastic foil tightly during periods when they are not working on it. I sometimes create a sculpture for several weeks, so it is very important to ensure that the project is properly moistened and covered tightly.
  4. I build each piece separately, the clay is very heavy so the individual pieces can’t be too big because they won’t hold up, the clay will bend and break because it is hollow inside. It has to be hollow inside to bake it in the kiln. That’s why it’s important to divide the project into several parts, which I will combine in subsequent stages. I often work on each piece separately pre-finishing it before combining the parts. This gives me more flexibility in any changes to the design.
  5. Once I have the elements connected I work on the final symmetry, aesthetics and composition.
  6. I set the sculpture aside to dry, first under a leaky foil cover so that it doesn’t dry too fast or it might crack. Once it is sufficiently dried I remove the foil and set it aside for several weeks. I need to know that the sculpture is 100% dry before I put it in the kiln and subject it to baking.
  7. Baking takes about 48. The time it takes to heat up the kiln to 1250 degrees and then cool down takes quite long. The size of the sculpture is limited by the size of the kiln, in my case it can not exceed 60 cm in height.
  8. I paint the baked sculpture with water-based oil paints. This makes it even more interesting. This is a very fascinating process, because it gives my sculpture a unique character. To achieve an even more interesting visual effect, I often wax the individual elements thus giving depth of color and shine. Painting time depends on the size and sophistication of the project usually takes about one week.
  9. I photograph and put up for sale the finished sculpture.


It is very important to me that each step is done with heart, accuracy and without any haste. The process of sculpting is like bringing yourself out into the open. Each sculpture is a specific message, telling a story, revealing emotions. The process of sculpting is very revealing, you need to understand the clay to work with it.

Sculpting is like a deep conversation, you need to listen to your interlocutor, be a watchful observer and let yourself be guided to bring value to this conversation.

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