Hollowing Clay Sculpture
Ready For Finishing and Firing
Follow a few simple rules and hollowing clay sculpture will be a breeze.Most of my own sculpts are not actually fired. They are taken by the various factories I work with and cast for production. However, I have supervised the firing of hundreds of my students' pieces, so I know a bit about it. Nevertheless, I thought it best to enlist the specialist knowledge of U.S. artist Orly Nezer. Her thing is to hollow and fire her pieces. So let Orly tell the story:
What she says is when the sculpt is ready - when it is fully roughed out, and scaled, but not yet refined (the clay mustn’t be too soft - she lets it rest, covered, at least one day), she puts it on a soft foam/sponge base (some people recommend a bag of sand) and starts hollowing it from the bottom, the base. The sculpture is hollowed out using various loop/cutter tools. The walls of the sculpture should be around ½ an inch.
If she needs to access other areas she makes a hole where appropriate. Sometimes my recommendation would be to section and work with the piece off sculpt. Only the artist can decide - it depends on the piece.
She then scores the edges of the hole and applies Slip (clay and water mixed), then reseals, being careful not to create air pockets that will be sealed up when the piece is reassembled.
Photos courtesy of Orly Nezer.
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