Headstand sculpture post #2 armature

I will build the armature with these Sprues. 

Sprues

Sprues

Sprues are red wax sticks used when casting in bronze. Typically you use sprues to build the channels to get bronze in the cavity of a mold.  They also function well for building armatures when you want to go from the wax directly to the shell and skip sculpting in clay and then making a mold. 

 

I use a soldering iron to melt the sprues together.    

I use a soldering iron to melt the sprues together.   

 

The brown wax is hard so I put it in a plastic bag and lay it on a hot pad to make it pliable. The difficult part is keeping the warmed wax from making the wax armature loose it's shape. 

Above I am building up the armature by pressing small balls of warm wax on to the armature one piece at a time.  

Above I am building up the armature by pressing small balls of warm wax on to the armature one piece at a time.  

Taking shape but not capturing the playfulness I am hoping to express.

Taking shape but not capturing the playfulness I am hoping to express.

The other side.  

The other side.  

More post to come.