Orcas Island Solstice 2001 Sun Creation

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2001 Summer Solstice Sun Parade Piece
Orcas Island, WA

The inspiration for this year's summer solstice sun parade piece came from Maria's pendant, which she is wearing. All her jewelry pieces have a sublime character, so I thought in solid gold, it would look like a stoic sun. After last year's plaster cast, I discovered a new way to build a large piece. Create in positive all the way. To build up bulk for the mask, we used a 5# bag of kitty litter in a pillow case and then layered on clay in 1" thick slabs. Here, Maria smoothing out a beginning layer. We worked outdoors at the Farmer's Market in Eastsound Square, where she had a booth to sell her jewelry.

Maria directed the sculpting, while I rolled out coils of clay or worked under her direction. I kept looking at her pendant trying to recreate it exactly, while Maria wanted to work directly from the inspiration of the large figure. It became a sort of joke after awhile, but under the right situation, she might have decked me! At 1 pm, she said, "Gotta go! You're on your own!" She left me with a 1" pendant face that only slightly resembled the real inspiration. We wheeled the cart with the face a block to Laura Gibbon's quaint cabin porch to continue sculpting. Several hours later, the clay is sculpted, sealed with light plastic and covered with a mummy layer of fabric and Matt Medium. This dries overnight.
The next day, I apply the first layer of CelluClay, a craft papier-mache. When you get the mixture right, it slides on and spreads with a satisfying creep. If too dry or wet, it's sticky or lumpy like oatmeal. All in all, it's not as gratifying as working in clay. But the darned CelluClay is hard and light. It sands down somewhat. As the ceramic clay is still underneat the mummy wrap, the whole thing is cold and does not dry quickly. Next year, I'd keep the clay under it for both coats of CelluClay. It will keep its shape better, and it's easier to really lean in to the work with pressure.

But did we wait??? NO!! A few days later, Laura and I scrape out the ceramic clay.

Below is the mask with just one layer of CelluClay. We later added a second layer, which dried quicker because more heat could radiate through the back.

We actually could have stopped with this granite texture, but I want to take it to smooth, seal it, then spray paint it gold. If all goes according to plan (and my memory of how this worked when I was a set designer), the face should look like solid gold. Stay tuned!.

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