Intro to sculpting

[Stevem]

Hey everyone,

I've been talking to some of the community centers around where I live and I am going to start an intro to sculpting class in the fall. Today I was talking to the director of one of the centers and they suggested I put together a course description and a list of materials I would need for the class. The director also suggested I come up with a project for the class to work on instead of a free for all, to better help the students since it will be an intro class. As this will be my very first attempt at teaching my question to you is- do you guys and gals have any suggestions for what kind of project I should start a class on? I mean a bust is a little too advanced they said, they asked me to mold the class to a unexperienced and untalented student, so could I illicit a few ideas from my friends here? The class will be an adult class two hours a night for two nights a week and 8 weeks long.

Thanks for your help,
Steve

[Aaron Schroeder]

When I was a kid a travelling group of puppetiers came to our town and conducted a workshop that had us all make puppets and put on a puppet show. It was alot of fun and it was figurative. The materials: Shopping bags ( paper ), loads of masking tape, glue, more paper, clothes hangers, markers, etc.

The instinct to do figurative sculpture is strong in just about every one. I wouldn't shy away from it. Just keep the materials simple.

[Merlion]

Community centers mean they are adult learners, part-time? I went through this type of course. This class was based on clay modeling, not steel welding.

It started with bas relief clay modeling of anything we fancy, followed by making plaster molds, and plaster casts.

Next we copy a life-size half portrait sculpture, only the front half of the head. This is followed by the same plaster molds. The cast can be hollow plaster, or hollow concrete. The reinforcement is fiberglass mesh.

[Stevem]

Thanks Merlion I think I am leaning towards some relief projects.

[GlennT]

I have had great success teaching bas-relief based on ancient Greek and Roman coins, sculpted at 5" diameter. On the final day we ( I ) make plaster molds and pour plaster casts.

[furby]

a clay work & then a plaster waste mould, and then they chip it out. doing a waste mould means they can do a 3d work - i would have hated to do a relief as my first sculpture, too boring! Real sculpture should be 3d :)
Then they can finish it with some kind of paint or bootpolish or whatever, if they get time at the end.
waste moulding is a very handy technique to whip up a sculpture in no time, a very useful trick for a sculptors toolbox.

[grommet]

casting plaster into sand is very direct/ quickly accomplished. They just have to think in reverse- so to speak, when forming their "mold" in the sand. Keep the cat in another room..:rolleyes:

[evaldart]

Assuming you'll have no facilities/tools/equipment, many of the above projects involving simple modeling and simple moldmaking are what you want to start with.
I always began with hand exercises that involved the timed execution of geometric forms,,,after they've made a 15minute cube you can set them all next to each other and evaluate the hows and whys of their vast diferences. Then mush them all up and do a sphere.
Furby's waste mold idea is a good one as well as the relief. have them cast a block in plaster and get after it. I've overseen some nice work done this way with nothing more than a spoon as a tool.

Then later if you want to edumacate them in modern art ther is always the assemblage...bolted together, wire-bound (wire is a great medium also) or, if you must...hot glue. Outside you can twine fallen branches into ramshackle primitivisms. Give the advanced students a screw gun and turn them loose. Send them out into the streets with a garbage bag for 30 minutes and whatever they can find in that period is what they must use in their piece. remind them to use their bodies not their fingertips...make them sweat and give them extra points for bloody wounds.

[GlennT]

remind them to use their bodies not their fingertips...make them sweat and give them extra points for bloody wounds.


I can see it now..."Evaldart's Prize-fighter School of Sculpting"

[circeart]

Some sculpting teachers I know of start the students with a wire project, forming easily bendable wire into forms. Others projects use cut-up cardboard and glue it together in relief-type sculptures. I don't think clay busts are that difficult for the beginner,I've seen some interesting results with the begining ceramic sculpture bust projects here where I attend classes. Some teachers even use aluminum foil projects to teach basic sculpting. Good Luck!

[Stevem]

Thank you to all of you for your great ideas! I very much appreciate the input. I'm going to get with the director of the center and see what kind of budget I have to work with and proceed from there.

Thanks again,