Making mainly jewellery, when thinking of something to make a male friend, it is quite a poser. Few men wear any jewellery and if they do, then its mainly a small cross or a ring or a small earring etc. But if they aren't really into jewellery, then what I do is largely useless.
Anyway, this year I had a friend who was going to attain one of those '0' birthdays. We thought and thought about what we could get him and searched the shops, but to no avail. Men, I find, are notoriously difficult to buy for unless they have a very obvious hobby or interest. I'm sure you get where I'm coming from here.
Anyway, we knew our friend is a big Tolkien fan and so, stupidly, I decided to have a go at making a small sculpture of Bag End from Lord of the Rings. As it wasn't being sold, copyright issues weren't a problem. I decided to make it so that it could be used as a mobile phone stand or a letter rack.
The first thing to do was make a basic shell onto which I could add the detail. I think the final sculpture ended up being about 7" long and about 3.5" high with a slot in the back.
The greenery - representing grass and shrubs - was textured using the tip point of a needle tool. I tend to do it in a circular and plucking motion as you want it to look as fluid and irregular as possible. Just having lots of tiny holes poked into the clay doesn't cut the mustard and looks unrealistic.
Gradually, the grass, shrubs and flowers were built up. Whether doing this or jewellery with delicate leaves and flowers, I do a small section and then bake for a short time - perhaps 10 - 15 minutes. Then cool and add a bit more and bake again. The shell was baked for over an hour initially and then there was perhaps a further dozen short bakings. I bake often because it is too easy to squish the raw clay while working on another part so baking preserves what you have already done.
You can see here the parts of the house being built up - the greenery and flowers, wood and the brick surrounds of the door and windows ...
The flowers are just tiny balls of clay indented in the centre using a needle tool. You can also see the shading in the greenery caused by the mixture of two different greens. And so the foliage is gradually built up.
The door, steps and path came next and moss and weeds added to the cracks in the steps and path.
The windows were the bit i was least pleased with. The time I had to complete it didn't allow me to experiment. I would have loved to print out the windows on acetate, but in the end the best I could manage was glass cabochons painted on with gold acrylic paint. Not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but passable.
The remainder of the front of the house was small details ... a garden bench, a flower trug, flowerpots, a pumpkin, chimney pots and a light over the door. I wanted it to look like Bilbo Baggins was around and picking flowers, but had been called away for some reason.
The final stage was to add a backing to the front of the house and then another piece at the very back to form a slot for a phone or letters. the base and inside of the slot were then covered with bottle green felt.
It was a lot of work, especially as I am a very slow worker, but every minute was an absolute pleasure to work on and, apart from the windows, it ended up pretty much as I had envisaged it and was very happy with the result. Photos have a habit of magnifying things, but in reality the finished house looks smaller and more delicate than in the pictures.
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The bench, trug or flowers, plant pots and pumpkin ...
The finished sculpture of Bag End, Hobbiton ...
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