Hair and Surface Decorating, and the Fear of Kaboom.

After completing the hollowing of my bust, I left it alone for a couple of days as I wrapped my head around how I was going to deal with the hair. Part of me wanted to do it more realistic, and part of me wanted to do it more stylized. I looked at some pictures online to help me decide. Here are some marble busts with realistic hair:

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As you can see, the style is not well defined, making the surface look very soft, like actual hair. This would have been the easiest route -- after all, I was almost there already with my "twisty glom" style of hair. But I thought that maybe it would be fun to try something a little harder and more time-consuming, something that would have a little more fun to it, and be a little closer to my own style. So, I looked at more pictures, and found this kind of style which was very common on older, Classical Greek styles of sculpting:

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So, I decided to go for it, and try my hand at creating a stylized curly hair with clay. I didn't know how to start, so I decided to just copy the way the marble hair style was done. If you look at the hair, it looks as if it is divided in sections; so, I divided my hair in sections, and worked curl by curl. I first decided what was the general way that each curl's hair was going to follow; then, I made little coils out of clauy, scored them and scored the head, and attached these cois on the hair. But not on every line! I followed a "do one skip one" pattern, adding more dimention to the hair this way.

Adding lines to the curl

Adding coils to the area -- leaving spaces in between!

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To ensure each curl became part of the whole head, I worked with my tools and pressed each side of the coil, on its whole length, so that it would attach really well. I also cut some of the coils in half, creating thinner strands of hair. I think this really added differences and interest to the hair. Finally, I sometimes added two coils together and then skipped a space; in other words, I did this very unevenly, based on what looked good and what felt most uneven and messy.

Attaching things really well!

Some strands thin, some thick, hopefully adding some interest

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This is the result of all my work. It took me a few days to finish, and it was very fiddly, but it was worth it, in my opinion. I can't imagine how hard it is to create this effect in marble! I like how uneven and messy it looks, and how some areas have so mjuch more volume than others, just like real hair. If I had to do it again, I would change some things... I would like to make the curl effect a little less obvious. Maybe find a middle ground between realistic and stylized. But I am happy with my first attempt. 

I was afraid the strands were going to dry faster and end up detaching from the statue, so I painted the whole thing and bagged it to dry really slowly. After a week of drying in a bag, I removed the bag and left it drying on the open air.

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I think all in all she turned out looking good. She has been drying for a couple of weeks outside now, and it is time to finally fire her. I don't want to fire her, though! I am so afraid she will explode. If she does, these are the only photos I have of her... this makes me very nervous. But not firing her means that she will forever be brittle and delicate; already, she has a chip on her right shoulder from moving her to this location (I covered it with paint, but it is still a little noticeable on the leftmost photo below).

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All I can do right now is fire it and see what happens. Wish me luck, everyone... tomorrow is the day. The good thing is, now I know I can do another one! But let's be positive -- maybe she will be fine!