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(the gold one)It's made of homemade marble...On top of a no weld armature design that I came up with 'cause Joseph wouldn't let me weld...A gallerist broke the hand one day when she picked up the hand part (it's in 2 parts) & dropped it because she was surprised by the weight of it...The inside is heavy due to the steel rods & bolts & aluminum mesh screening...Also marble is heavy...But I left the break because it shows how an integral steel armature keeps marble from shattering...It is an important difference when a sculpture has an internal armature that is solid...lasts longer & is easier to fix when dropped...Covered in a real gold powder mixed with latex adhesive milk, brushed in al fresco (while marble was soft still)...It also went into the oven at 300 degrees Farhenheit for several visits...I found out, while trying to repair the crack, that cooking the marble turns it into sort of porcelain...So it seems that porcelain is really just cooked marble...Neat eh? (accidents always happen for a reason don't they? Never would have discovered this if the marble hadn't gotten dropped)...)

 
 

nnnnarmatures inside the marble to right...steel rods, bolts, copper strapping, aluminum mesh, copper wire, not welded but threaded instead! (Sari's idea)...
 

(left)This is a thumb & index finger prototype...I am starting again, again...This time I am going to cover this armature in black Plasti-Dip, a flexible rubber coating that will still allow the joints to move...The point of this complex armature is that it bends at all the finger joints & at the wrist...I really don't know if I will be able to make prosthetics that can be usable, but I figure it doesn't hurt to try, right? 

Sari's Homemade marble recipe: Circa 1850 powdered resin, Aragonite sand, 3/4" alkaline resistant glass fibres, water...On top of no-weld armature: 10-24 threaded steel rods, bolts, 1/2 inch copper strapping, wrap with aluminum screen mesh tied on with copper wire...Last step: patina al fresco with real gold powder & resin with water...Notes: I cooked the piece later in the oven on low, which made the marble set better...Warnings: wear a respirator when working, the glue fumes are headachey...



Notes:Ok so Powdered resin means powdered glue...You can actually use liquid glue too...Liquid glue is way easier to find in stores! Aragonite sand is calcium carbonate sand-you get this at pet stores, I got mine from Petsmart in the reptile section...Aragonite is a form of marble, so Aragonite sand is basically marble dust...But buying a bag of marble dust is really not easy at all...So go to the fish reptile section of your pet store & look for calcium carbonate sand or aragonite sand...That is marble! The alkaline resistant glass fibres are another strange beast...You can find these either at a sculptor supply house or from a company that specializes in cement supplies...The cement guys have the 3/4 inch version...The sculptor suppliers will have shorter one likes 1/2 inch...The glass fibres really help your marble hold together better, even just while you are applying it...It really is worth finding...It makes your sculpture a million times stronger...



Material Choices: M---, that is a question I ask myself all the time...Myself, I started with traditional materials...My mother stuck me in a ceramics lab at a local Y when I was just a dumpling...There were real potters there...I learned the feel of clay, how to turn something on a wheel, how to make patinas & how they turn out if you fire them...Clay is hard & you learn that many shapes are not practical...It slumps...Colour is hard to guess...But it is a good learning ground for touch...That stays with you...Years later I wanted to be more serious...I got several large pieces of alabaster, I mean LARGE...I got a chisel & hammer & decided I was going to carve pieces of a human body, to be strewn all over an outdoor garden...Carving like that is very robust, very physical...But wow you have to sand things...Sanding takes like months...I didn't like the sanding part...Plus I was frustrated that arms & legs couldn't protrude-they break if they are not tight into the work...Some more years later a product called Winterstone came out...It is basically a concrete type powder you mix with water...You build like a frame, am armature, then put mesh on that, then cover that mesh with the Winterstone...It comes ready to go...It is nice...This was more flexible for me...But it got expensive & I thought maybe I could figure out how to make the powder myself...Found out they call this "Ferrocement"...There are books & groups you can join for Ferrocement...It is another "accepted" medium...I learned & designed my own custom mix, then I learned how to make an armature without welding...Then I decided to use my knowledge to make marble instead of cement...Cultured marble is also accepted...But my husband thought my armatures were so cool he said I should leave them bare...No marble or cement...But I wanted colour so I started knotting coloured rope onto the frames...Which is sort of accepted as an art form, there are steel & nylon sculptures, but it is still a little out there...I am out on that limb right now, trying to decide whether I should go further with the rope & steel or whether it is too out there...In the meantime, I still have a homemade marble sculpture that for some reason I am covering pats of it with artificial grass & moss...It is looking a bit now like those outdoor garden landscape sculptures-which are very chic right now- the ones with real grass & moss! So I am getting more ridiculous & less "accepted" in my media as I move forward...I think possibly this is how that progression works...I am actually careful about perceptions that way...I like to be original but not so much that it is just weird...Polymer clay is really really cool to work with if you want to make prosthetics or miniatures...But yes, some artists are snobby about polymer-it is a niche group...Two part epoxies like Apoxie Sculpt are very much like Winterstone- a concrete type material...I love that stuff too! A little pricey for a large work ...Blowing glass is HARD...Wood is a niche too-I feel guilty about using wood so didn't really go there...Made a cheese board once...Alot of sanding too...Bronze is a million dollars...You work in wax then often someone else casts for you...Then artists snob out that you didn't pour the bronze yourself...

A spare hand project, some of the prototypes...( for someone who is missing their left hand, born that way...

Thanks to Gwylym Owen @iliteratepoet on twitter for helping me come to the newer lighter more simplistic spare hand design...Gwylym spent many hours researching prosthetic hands for me, which helped me to coalesce the concepts...

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