A Really Bad Egg

With Easter around the corner I decided to do a dark art themed egg. At Michael's I found the perfect sized styrofoam egg for my project.

I began by making a cardboard template of the shape I wanted for the sculptures base. After tracing it on to a piece of plywood I cut the base out and drilled holes for my characters legs.

Next I cut 4 steel rods for the arms and legs. After embedding the legs in my egg character I bent the arm rods and ground one side of the rod flat.

Then I inserted the arm rods in brass square tubing which I had filled with Apoxie clay. Flattening one side helps prevent the rod from coming loose and turning once the clay cures.

The photo shows the styrofoam egg covered in mache with the steel leg rods mounted in place. It is temporarily mounted on the wood base as it dries.

After the egg dried I marked the location for the arms.

I cut an opening for the arms, packed the hole with Apoxie clay and pressed the square brass tubing into place.

Now it was time to cover the mache with Apoxie sculpt clay. This provides a much more durable finish than mache alone.

I have more sculpting to complete on this after it cures later this afternoon. Tomorrow I'll have some new work in progress photos of the bad egg.