ROSIE THE RIVETER

For this project, I got my first chance to work with clay. Clay is such a common material for sculpting; I am glad I got to use it at least once in my 3D class. The theme of the project was to create a bust of a historical or meaningful figure. There was no one who immediately stuck out to me so I did some research. I knew I wanted to do a female figure, and one who was influential and well known. I eventually settled on doing Rosie the Riveter. She represented American women who worked in factories during World War II. I think this makes her a influential female role model. However, all the images of her are 2D posters. This provided a challenge and an opportunity. First it would be difficult to model a bust off of her if I only had images from one angle. But also I had the chance to creatively interpret the rest of the image and make a bust version.

The first step in creating a bust is to make the head. I started out with a general circular shape of clay. I cut it in half to create two "bowls". I filled these with paper towel and, using water, pressed the edges together, smoothing out the seam. I pressed and rolled the shape into the general figure of a head. Next I needed to add a neck. I did this by making a tube and stuffing it with paper towels. Then I added the shoulders. The facial features were both the most difficult and most enjoyable part of the entire process. The first thing I added was scratch in some guiding lines, then I made the nose. To do this I had to create a long (the length from the top of the forehead to the bottom of the chin) strip of clay. After hatching the back of it, I attached it to the head. Using wet hands, I pressed the center of the strip towards the face to make the nose. Using a tool, I pushed up the top section of clay and the bottom section of clay, which would become the brow bone and the lips/chin. I made the lips by pressing a small section of clay, 3/4 down the face, up and down. The rest of the clay formed a chin. The eyes were made by making small indentions in the middle of the face to be the sockets. Next I made an oval, cut it in half, and placed each side in the sockets. I made eye lids by rolling out some clay very thin and laying it partly over the oval halves. Using water, I smoothed out the sides so that it blended into the face. Before adding the hair, I needed to cut off the top of the head and remove the paper towels that had been creating a structure. To do the hair, I made a slab of clay, and placed it on the head. I added scratch marks with a tool, as well as many small strips of clay to give it texture. Next I just touched everything up, like smoothing out areas, extending cheekbones, adding clothing, and eyebrows. Although these descriptions are somewhat short, each step took many tries and retries until I got the bust to have the detail I wanted.

Once the bust had been created, It had to slowly dry for a week until it could be fired in the kiln. Once fired, the bust was completely white. I chose to add color to this bust to match the color found on the poster that has Rosie the riveter on it. I painted the bust using water color. I had to add many layers, especially to the skin, to make it look like the poster. Next I needed to add an interesting element. I decided to add the quote "we can do it" which is also found on the poster. I made this out of cardboard and paper and attached it with wire.