Powertex Abstract Figures

After I had been to a few Powertex workshops, I decided to buy some supplies so that I could make things at home as well. I also bought a few books for inspiration and decided to try out some of the designs so that I could practice different techniques. Although my preference is usually things that are nature inspired and tending more towards realism than abstract, there were a couple of funky abstract figures that caught my eye so I decided to give them a go.

These figures used polystyrene balls and cones as their foundation and I managed to track down a range of different sizes and shapes online from various art and craft supply stores such as Spotlight. Wooden kebab sticks are used to hold the shapes together.

First of all you assemble your basic shapes. In one of the projects there were 3 figures grouped together that required some slicing off of the sides of the cones so that they would fit together and a light coating of Powertex to stick them in place. The kebab sticks holding the heads to the bodies were also stuck in place using some Powertex – leave this to harden for about an hour before continuing.

Both of the figures used Powertex Lead as the base colour. The whole figure is covered from top to bottom in the Powertex Lead then Stone Art powder is sprinkled over and them and spread out (I’m still not certain exactly why the Stone Art is required because everything gets totally covered over).

Then make a clay mixture from roughly equal quantities of Powertex and Stone Art, kneading it and adding more of either as required to form a clay of a consistency that is easily workable but doesn’t stick to your hands.

Place a thin layer of clay over the heads and mould into place so that the necks are fastened to the cones. These figures don’t have facial features but you could form them if you wanted.

The ‘clothing’ and hats of the two different figures were done in similar but different ways:

• For the project with the 3 grouped figures, clay was rolled out until it was 5mm thick. Rolling it out between two sheets of plastic wrap keeps it from sticking to anything. Orange and yellow ochre pigments are spread over the top and rubbed in to give a fairly uniform colour, then the clay is rolled out some more to about 2mm thick which gives the colour a crackled finish. The clay sheets are cut into pieces to form the clothing, hats and accessories. A layer of Powertex is brushed on the inside to stick them on.
• For the single figure, smaller pieces of clay are rolled out to 5mm thickness then sprinkled with Powercolour turquoise, yellow ochre and titanium white before rolling out further to 2mm thickness. This is done deliberately in small batches with different proportions of colours so that there is a patchwork of colour. You do need to blend the pieces together so that the ‘seams’ aren’t obvious, making sure that the layer of Powertex doesn’t get onto any of the coloured clay. Hats and accessories are formed as above.

For both figures apply gold trims with a paint brush using Colourtrix Clear Gold or Rich Gold mixed with Easy Varnish.

Once the figures have dried, coat the bottom with Powertex and press it onto a piece of felt. Once this has dried, cut around it with a pair of scissors. After a couple of weeks, spray the whole figure with spray varnish to fix the colours.