< SECTIONING PATTENS
ENLARGEMENT
When working on a large scale or complex sculpture project, an artist will usually first develop and refinine their ideas through one or more smaller scale versions. Small models constructed for scaling and development purposes are known as MAQUETTES. A maquette may simply be a working through of ideas in ‘sketch’ form, enabling the sculptor to clarify their direction before commencing work on a larger scale version in the studio. A maquette may also be used as a definitive template by foundry technicians, employed to construct a full scale master pattern on the artist’s behalf. It is possible to construct a pattern from scaled or notated drawings alone, though this option is usually restricted to making designs that have regular facets and show little, if anything, in the way of surface detail.
If a sculptor is going to employ others to scale a maquette, it is essential that the maquette is constructed to a scale and standard of detail that enables a technician to accurately interpret the artist’s ideas. There are no hard and fast rules about the correct proportion of maquette to master pattern, though if the work contains a fair amount of surface detail, it would be difficult to accurately work from a maquette reduction much smaller than 1:5 or 1:6 in scale. In practice, it common for a sculptor to produce several maquettes of varying scales as they develop a large or involved work. Many artists later produce ‘spin off’ cast metal editions from these maquettes.
POINTING
The traditional method of enlarging sculptural maquettes is via the use of a POINTING DEVICE. The pointing device is essentially a pantographic lever mechanism capable of plotting points in three dimensional space. By adjusting the settings on the device, an appropriate enlargement ratio can be determined and fixed. The model or maquette to be scaled is set up next to a stylus on one side of the device, with a work area for the enlargement set up on the opposite side. Moving the stylus over the maquette actuates a series of levers which, in turn, proportionally moves a connected stylus on the enlargement side. By taking numerous readings across from the maquette to the enlargement, a highly accurate scale copy can be modelled. By the same token, the ratio can be reversed to enable larger designs to be reduced down to a smaller scale.
Pointing for foundry master patterns is best suited to use with a clay modelling technique (normally clay is worked over a prepared metal armature). For the clay enlargement to be used as a foundry master pattern, further processing into a hard medium such as PLASTER or RESIN through WASTE MOULDING is normally essential.
CROSS SECTIONAL ENLARGEMENT >
|
