True Love

I had a few other ideas for a title for this one, "First love", "Love at First Sight", "Mine!" were a few options, but I came back the original.


The hardest part of this was that @@#%^*(&$# coffee machine!
Polymer clay is fundamentally squidgy stuff. Making it look like machined metal is expletive deleted difficult!

And she got a silver one!
It was going to be orange or red, but she wound up getting a silver one. "Silver" polymer clay does not look anything like metal, so I had to look at alternatives.

Now that I've got that off my chest.

For me, coffee is a hot drink and a foul tasting one at that.
But Laura loves coffee.
I mean she looooves coffee.
Starbucks would go bust if she stopped drinking it.

She had lusted after one of these Espresso machines for months (that I know of, maybe longer) and her husband John bought her one for Christmas (and it was silver! Did I mention that?). She was rapt.
So the coffee machine is black polymer clay (DuKit again, of course) with the metallic effect coming from a coating of Pearl Ex powder. I'd never used this before, but had some small jars of it ready for the day that I knew I would. I didn't realise the powder would rub off easily even after baking, so I lost a bit on the back as I worked on it. That forced a stop to varnish it. The varnish made the markings on the dial run, so I had to paint the dial in white and redo-the markings.
I made a U shaped framework of aluminium wire inside the machine in case it sagged with the weight of that projecting top. I got the proportions a little wrong, it's actually more square than rectangular.


Aluminium wire for the rails around the top and translucent clay for the clear section that warms the milk or something in the back. I really know nothing about making espresso.
I forgot to add the steamer spigot (tricky) and the drain grills (easy), but we'll call that artistic license.

I covered the process of making the face for NinjaGirl, so just read that bit again.
I guess the only substantial difference is that the eyes are closed here and I had no idea how to portray that accurately. Fortunately the hair was going to cover most of the face, I have no idea how Laura sees through it, so any deficiencies were going to be largely obscured.


In the background you can see the arms ready to attach and an earlier version of the torso and legs that were far too bulky. Laura would probably say they're a more accurate representation, but who's making this thing anyway?
An annoying point is that I forgot the blasted laces on the shoes. I did them on the chunky bottomed version and forgot them on the final one. Bother!


Keeping your final vision for a piece in your head when you're looking at this is not easy and I lost it a couple of times. I had to start over and get back on track

Hands. I "cheated" and used one of Maureen Carlson's "what a figure" push moulds.


Pretty much finished figure.


I used Katherine Dewey's hair colouring and texturing techniques, or nearly for this and it was much better than anything I'd tried before. I didn't quite emulate Laura's hair cut (as copied by Katie Holmes and Posh Spice more recently) correctly, but I came pretty close.

The top (blouse?, I'm a guy, what do I know) was a challenge. I scratched my head for a bit trying to figure out how to copy the detailed flower design on the one Laura wears sometimes and decided to go for the same general look by slicing off shreds of red clay onto a sheet of pink and pressing it flat in the pasta machine. It's almost completely hidden in the final version, but I wanted it to be there.

Final assembly. Using a file to hold things in place while the epoxy dries.

There is an aluminium wire running inside the topmost extended leg to give it some strength against the occasional knock
I should have done one inside the bottom leg too, but the figure was originally going to be standing on that leg and reaching up to hug the espresso machine so it wasn't needed. As I went on I figured the figure could be laying on it and the idea of Laura making a flying leap (all the box jump practise Jason and Jeff make her do) onto the machine was much more in character.


Finished product

and


More angles and the rest of the photos are here.