Sculpture class, week 4

The day was spent making a self-portrait head in clay - while blindfolded. When we weren't wearing the blindfold, the clay head was covered by a (bin) bag. It was very intense; unable to see each other, we didn't chat.
With clay-ey hands we felt our skull and facial bones and measured relative distances, and those of us with any knowledge of anatomy had bone names etc coming into mind unbidden, and always (for me) the look of an actual skull, stripped of flesh -- with all its resonances -- was very near.

We were building up the clay from the centre out, first of all "getting volume" then adding detail. All unseen; just by feel. The clay was cold and smooth, malleable but not docile. The "lump" grew and grew. I was aware of the mouth as a space, and left it as a space, building up the lips around it.The ears were another problem - gosh they're complicated! I made them separately and then tried to fix them symmetrically. Hmph, no such luck - when all was revealed, my alter ego was distressingly lopsided, not just the ears but the eyes - enormous eyes -- and oh that dark little mouth.

I wasn't the only one to find this "difficult", and several of us were very tired the next day!

For those who didn't have a scarf handy, the blindfolds came in blue (paper towel roll) and white (toilet roll). People looked very fetching in them.