Ceramic custom commissioned sculpture bust of your dog or cat.
Approx. 25cm tall. Freestanding.
Please allow 12 weeks for completion and delivery.
Pictured: bronze leaf effect.
‘Custom Pet Sculpture’
- Payment received - 50% is a non-refundable. (You can either pay 100% of the cost through the website now, or contact Maddy for an invoice for 50%).
- You provide Maddy with as many photographs as possible from all angles of your pet (including 'bad' photos or videos or stills from videos).
- Building of the clay sculpture - this takes around 1-2 weeks
- Client approval of the clay model - after this stage no changes can be made
- Drying time: the clay needs to dry very slowly to avoid cracks. It needs to be completely bone dry before moving forward. This takes around 5-10 weeks depending on ambient temperature, humidity, and the structure/thickness of the sculpture.
- Maddy will take the sculpture to a kiln - in the past she has used the studios of colleague and friend Scott Pohlschmidt in Battersea, and fellow artist and ceramicist E J Mack in Wimbledon.
- The sculpture is fired (known as a 'bisque' fire) overnight in a kiln. This turns the clay into solid, hard ceramic. There is a small chance that the sculpture fails at this stage and cracks or explodes in the kiln. If this happens, Maddy is happy to make another clay sculpture from the start, or she will refund half of the deposit paid (25% of the total cost).
- The kiln takes 24-48 hours to cool down before the sculpture can be handled.
- Maddy will return the sculpture to her studio in Clapham and finish the sculpture with a metal leaf effect as chosen by the client - blackened bronze, gold, silver, or copper. A patina effect is also possible (e.g. bronze with hints of gold or copper for example).
- The leaf takes two coats of leaf plus a sealant layer, each taking 24 hours to dry.
- The sculpture is ready for delivery / collection.
