For our butter sculpture, we are required to carve a Styrofoam as a base. We have chosen to do a butter sculpture inspired by a Peacock. We have decided to create a more sleek and modern type of design instead of a more real-life inspired one. Detail works are opted out for a more modern look to our sculpture. The most important step in the process is building the frame or the base, using Styrofoam. We started out by sketching a two-dimensional design of the peacock on the Styrofoam. Here are the steps to carve Styrofoam as our butter sculpture base;
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| a carved Styrofoam, our butter sculpture base |
1.
Decide on a shape. Before you begin to carve a piece of Styrofoam, you need to have a good idea of what you want to create with it. You can draw out a template on cardboard or simply sketch something out on paper. This will help you develop a plan of attack when it comes time to do the actual carving. For our sculpture, we drew a 2-dimensional sketch of the peacock from the right and left side view.
2.
Start with the bigger cuts. Once you have an idea of the shape you want, begin by cutting large chunks of Styrofoam off to get close to the end result. You can use a serrated knife for the large cuts; if the Styrofoam is really thick, try an electric knife or hot wire tools. Cut the excess Styrofoams off to make it easier to work on the details later.
3.
Do some detail work. Once you have the general shape cut out, you need to go in and do the detail work. This can be done with a smaller serrated knife and a little bit of patience. A craft knife is also a good choice for the detail work. We mostly used craft knife to cut in sections such as the tail and the neck part, for larger details before moving on to the texture. We also attached extra pieces of Styrofoams using skewers and glue to help widen the tail part of the peacock.
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Small serrated knife. |
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Heavy Duty craft knife. |
4.
Create some texture. If you want to create some texture, there are many specialty tools designed to help you carve Styrofoam. Some can help you create circles, while others can help you create texture or designs in your foam. We wanted to make sure our Styrofoam base is smooth so that it will create a sleek effect on our final peacock sculpture, and make it easier for us to butter it later on, so we used sandpaper to smooth the texture.
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A simple but very sharp cutter can help to create textures. |
Read more: How to Carve Styrofoam | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2120846_carve-styrofoam.html#ixzz1kMO4HSWK
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Much better if every steps/number got picture.. :)