What is an armature?
An armature is another word for a skeleton or puppet. It is the basis for sculpting a figure. The armature is a pre-made human frame which you can pose and use as the start of a new figure sculpture. It speeds up the process and gives you a head start and also keeps the scale a proportion consistent. You can sculpt a figure without using an armature – but you will have to carefully measure the proportions of the figure each time – the armature does this for you. The Ebob Armature also comes complete with a face already – so if you’re not confident in attempting that level of detail you can use the face already on the armature. If you need a different face – you can add putty to the head – or simply remove the head and make a new one.
An armature is like skeleton; it gives strength and flexibility to the clay character. If you plan to move arms, legs or anything else on the clay character, you will need an internal skeleton of sorts to stop to appendages from breaking off or bending in the wrong places. What is an armature made out of? Armatures are built out of wire. You can use armature wire (sold in most art stores in spools of varying diameter), pipe cleaners, or stem wire (used in flower arranging). We prefer the stem wire as it is inexpensive, easy to hand out to students, easy to bend and shape, and easy to store. It comes in a variety of metals as well as wrapped in cloth or plastic. Be careful when using the spooled wire as it is stronger, can puncture fingers and needs to be cut with metal cutters (not scissors). The stem wire tends to be thinner in diameter, but the shorter lengths can easily be wound together with other pieces to create a larger skeleton. Again, watch for finger punctures and cutting wit
An armature is the skeletal structure inside a sculpture which gives the final form support and strength. The armature can be made of wood, rebar, wire, pipes, straw, or found objects. Over this support can be placed clay, plaster, concrete, paper mache, or other mixed-media which on its own would not have the strength to stand up on its own. The Courtyard Scuptures made for the Cape Elizabeth Middle School courtyard, are large and must be made durable to live outside in all weather conditions. In this scenario, we use 3/8″ rebar and heavy wire mesh as its armature. This armature is placed into a concrete base. For smaller sculptures or maquettes, bendable wire and light contouring wire mesh is used. Wood is used as a base. This is where we will begin to learn the basic of armature building.
