Making mud penjing figures

Hello to IBC memembers,
The following pictures show you how I created a 18cm bonsai penjing mudman figure or (ni-ren in mandarin).


I first made the head and the upper body, that will guide me the idea of the scale of the whole sculpture.















I used 3 types of high temperature clay; black stoneware, Yixing stoneware and white stoneware.
giang

Love your work- each figure has it's own character.

Lennard

magnificent work as usual...what a wonderful mame display that would make. this is probubly a stupid question ,but are these fired?

Thank you for leaving a comment Lennard, Keith.

I just made it lastnight for a bonsai club. It'll be this color as the next pictures when it was baked.






giang

WONDERFULL work!!

Dale

Wow, really nice work.

Great hand skills !

I love purple sand clay from China, have worked with it, but quite expensive!

Can you get the real clay from China where you live ?

It is precious, every little scrap becomes engobe...

Take care,

big D

thank you Dale, Leo
@BigD,
the clay i use is mainly from Spain mainland, for the Yixing brown clay, i got from Yixing from my previous work trips in South East Asia to set set up aquaculture fish farms. I ve seen many types of clay that local people use for general ceramics in Japan, Vietnam, China, Korea, but so far I ve'nt got these types of special clays in Europe.


A 8X8X3cm pot with a primitive dragon from Han period (206 B.C) for a comission work




I mainly use this black high rire grogged body 0-0.5mm clay, at 950°C, it becomes brown, at 1280°C, it gets dark. it's specially designed for aartistic ceramics





giang

'' if i had a million dollars i would buy everything you make'' ....great stuff ,you make me want to play with clay again, love the maple group

muy buen trabajo. me gustaría poder verlas y tocarlas

very good job. I wish I could see them and touch them
(google translation)

@Keith, it's always great to work with natural clay, when it gets sticky, we put our hands in the water,then the dirtiness is gone. The sculptures will be available as soon as i can organize my work in time.

@plantabarro, muchias gracias por su visita, la tierra que uso es en su mayoría de España (thank you for your visite, the clay , i use is mostly from Spain mainland)

The way I create the sculpture in my bonsai studio in southern France for the time being:


I made the pot (8x8x3cm) the previous night, before creating the dragon figure, the pot is still fresh enough, to join the figure.

The dragon figure was sculpted separately with another fine clay texture.

I added the figure to the pot to work on the details and the pot was served as a support.









the wwork is done after 55min, the pot is to put in a dry palce for more than 2 weeks before the firing at 1280°C during 12 hours.

The clay i used: black high fire 2mm grogged body stoneware for the pot, fine dark clay for the figurine.

regards,
giang

congratulation....very, very nice work.

kind regards
ladi

¿Collet (SIO2) PRNF/M? ¿Vicente Díez?

Si necesitas pasta blanca, SIO2 tiene una excelente para rakú, alta temperatura... es la PRA/I/F/M (I Impalpable; F fina; M media) Excelente en el secado y para los esmaltes

If you need white clay, SIO2 is excellent for raku, high temperature ... is the PRA / I / F / M (I Impalpable; thin F; M mean) Excellent in drying and glazes ...

with impalpable can do even sigillata and a slip works perfectly as raw and cooked parts. I use fine grog (PRAF)

thank you Ladi,
Planetabarro, uso esta tierra SiO2 PRNF E, muy buena plasticidad para escultura ( use this type of clay for the sculpture).

1/25th scale mudman figure








giang

Just wonderful work!!
I LOVE the Dragon and Frog!

D.

Beautiful Giangus!

Thank you Dale, Todd,

some mud men figures and pots with animal just got out the kiln.


























giang

Giangus, please PM me.
Thanks,
Todd

the dragon & the bonsai pot






the frogs & the pot







giang

Very nice work Giangus,

the added animals remind me of Cameos
you have amazing skills

Thank you Dale,

a dragon small pot.






giang

I love that dragon!!

giangus wrote:Thank you Dale,
giang

I think that thank you was for Dave , but you can use it too Dale

I have trouble sculpting, and am impressed by those who can see in 3-d

anyhow, thank you for leaving a comment
Usually before making any sculpture, i spend a lot of time finding the real images, in case of real animals such as dogs, cats, birds.o the Internet..then, based on the visual information, i try to create the first shape of the figurine. Yes , it's difficult to deal with the proportion, scale, volume, details...before having a correct figure.



This 4cm crane took me alot of time to create.









giang