On the Creation of a Jackalope

Last autumn, I went out to Peaks Island with some friends of mine and we visited the Richard Boyd gallery before continuing our romp to Battery Steel. I left my business card with one of the owners and was pleased to receive an email a couple days later with high compliments for the work on this blog. I was even more pleased however, to receive another email a couple weeks ago telling me about their Creatures and Critters show coming up in July, and inviting me to submit a piece for it.

So after a little bit of brainstorming, and then realizing that the deadline for submissions was the 20th I decided to sculpt a jackalope. So from start to not quite finished (but totally getting there):

First, I construct the frame which will support all the clay.

Second, I pad it out a little bit with tinfoil, but not too much.

After that is the most exciting part. 

Getting it from there to here happens very quickly, and its awesome to see it take form.

My first set of ears collapsed under the weight of the clay and weren't the right shape anyhow.

This second set of ears proved much sturdier.

This is where my jackalope is at the moment.

His eyes are two balls of black sculpey which have been hardened with a heat gun.

The claws were also pre-hardened.

 Still more work to be done, but I hope you've enjoyed the preview of what's to come and perhaps a little insight on how I've been building these. I have to give a massive heap of thanks to the sculptor Peter König for two extensive tutorials, from which I've learned everything.