Coming up with the pose. 

The hardest step in sculpting is coming up with the idea of what I want to create.  Once the idea has been formed, I need to create a visual of how I want the sculpture to be posed.  I usually use either a drawing or photograph to create a visual that the sculpture is based off of.

Materials used

Basically the sculpture starts out with an armature.  An armature is a wire frame of the sculpture.  Once the sculpture is laid out with wire, I then wrap the wire with aluminum foil. Aluminum foil is used to reduce the cost of the clay. I predominantly sculpt a polymer clay called Super Sculpey.  Super Sculpey has a nice feel to it and really holds details well.            

Things starting to take shape

Here is a side view of the sculpture (left side)

In this stage you can start to see the basic form of the sculpture taking shape.  Once all of the basic shapes are in place, I will start to work on the details.

Front view

In the front view of this picture you can see two wires coming out of the back of the sculpture.  The wires will later be used to support the angel's wings.        

Right side view

Yet another angle to view the beginning stages of the sculpture

Adding detail

Now for the fun part.  Since the basic shape in place I now begin to work on the detail.  This is my favorite part of sculpting.  The details really bring the sculpture to life.

More detail

In this picture additional detail has been applied to the baby's blanket and the angel's shoulders.

Shoulder detail

The side view in this photo shows the shoulder detail.

Baking the sculpture

The next stage from here is to add the wings.  Before I add the wings, I will bake the sculpture to preserve the detail work that I have been working on. 

I bake the sculpture for around 30 minutes at 220 degrees for every 1/4 inch of clay.  (Remember that the sculpture is mainly made up of aluminum foil.)

Starting the wings

Now it is time for our Guardian Angel to start looking like an angel.  I will start by wrapping the wire (for the wings) with aluminum foil.  Another advantage of the aluminum foil is that sometimes the clay does not stick well to the wire.  By adding aluminum foil I can easily apply the clay to my armature.

Working on the wings

A thin layer of clay is now applied over the aluminum foil.

Adding feathers

Each feather is individually added to the wings.  A thin wire (floral wire) is inserted into the feather to allow me to manipulate the shape of the feather.

Basic wing shape

Starting to look like wings now!

Wing detail

Here I am starting to detail the wings.  Again this is my favorite part.  The details really change the feel of the sculpture.

Additional wing detail

Now that the back is done it is time to start working on the front.

Finished sculpture

Here is a picture of the finished sculpture. 

Additional work will be made if I decide to put this angel into production.  A mold will have to be made from which individual cast will be created.  Due to the complexity of this sculpture, I will most likely have to contract a master mold maker to make the mold and individual cast.  The process of putting a sculpture into production is a very expensive and tedious job but well worth the expense and efforts in the end.

By the time this project was finished, it took a little over 100 hours to complete this sculpture.