Posted on
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Read More
This is an advice for the newbies who wish to do the butter sclupting. Before 'jump into' the 'complicated' of simple idea such as animal which is simple but then the chosen animal is the complicated male lion or any furry animal which will giving you a hard time (really hard) not just to carve the styrofoam but also to coat it with the butter. It will claim you a tremendous amount of energy and time to finish it.
If the idea of animal was 'standing their ground' in your mind, find a more simple animal that will ease you and your partner (if you have a partner) and will help you save your time to do the minor details. In other word, pick a simple idea and then transform it into creative masterpiece. Let your imagination run wild (but not too wild of course!). You don't have to always follow the rules, moreover, rules are meant to be broken.
Be very careful if you're doing anything with great amount of details. It can slows you down and not to mention your patience. It surely will running thin when you are in hurry t finish it.
If the idea of animal was 'standing their ground' in your mind, find a more simple animal that will ease you and your partner (if you have a partner) and will help you save your time to do the minor details. In other word, pick a simple idea and then transform it into creative masterpiece. Let your imagination run wild (but not too wild of course!). You don't have to always follow the rules, moreover, rules are meant to be broken.
Be very careful if you're doing anything with great amount of details. It can slows you down and not to mention your patience. It surely will running thin when you are in hurry t finish it.
Posted on
Read More
We called this sculpture as ‘fat’ not because itself is fat nor do us the sculptor, it’s just simply the ingredient that we used to finished this sculpture after carving it out from 2D Styrofoam into almost-perfect 3D Styrofoam sculpture is what we called as ‘butter’. Butter naturally is fat and always will be, this is our main reason for the name.
About the shape of our choice, we already chose this peacock-like shape from what we observed and surveyed before we decided to work it out. Well, some of our friends did called our sculpture with various name, some called it “Merak Kayangan” and our personal favourite, “The Road Runner”. Although it’s our favourite, the entire visitor on our blog can call it by any name they like. Discussing about the name, me and my partner have chosen “Golden Peacock”, well obviously for its colour.
This ‘peacock’ actually our second and last resort after our “Sand Castle” idea was a ‘bad’ idea to be carried on the ‘construction’. As we discovered along with the help of our chef, this castle will need a lot of texture which will be a lot of hard work for the two of us, it is an ‘abandoned ship’ on the second week of construction.
With the remaining of 2 more blocks of Styrofoam that was still available (back then), we decided to carry on our last idea for this syllabus (before we fail this topic..). At first, the drawing and cutting needs a lot of attention and, not to mention, a lot of energy (especially on the cutting of the block)
Not as complicated as the castle, we slowly cut and carved the block that was slowly appears to be what as we called as the Golden Peacock. Once the shape is complete (after the sanding process) on the same day which is our 2nd day after carving the new idea, we coated it with the butter straight away, left all the other group behind in coating the sculpture.
Posted on
Read More
After the Styrofoam base is complete, it is placed on a plywood as a support base and we continue the process with the next step which is kneading the butter and patching and sculpting it onto the base. This is quite a hard process as it requires patience. After kneading, the butter is patched onto the base. From this process onward, the whole sculpture have to be maintained in a cool room together with the butter to prevent it from melting. Patching the butter on smoothly is not easy as it needs to be done little by little, first patching thin layers of butter, followed by the other details. To add up to the peacock shape, we have added more butter on certain spots such as the 'stomach' and the wings. This adds a more rounded feature on certain parts of the bird. Buttering and smoothing the sculpture is the final and most important process, here is our final product.
 |
| From a block of styrofoam, |
 |
| To a stryrofoam sculpture, |
 |
| And voila, the final butter sculpture |
Posted on
Monday, 23 January 2012
Read more: How to Carve Styrofoam | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2120846_carve-styrofoam.html#ixzz1kMO4HSWK
Read More
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;
 |
| 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.
 |
Small serrated knife. |
 |
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.
 |
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
Posted on
Read More
For our sculpture, we are inspired by a peacock. Here are the images we have chosen as references for our butter sculpture. Instead of going for a life-like sculpture, we agreed on doing a more modern version of a peacock instead and chose not to do the detail work such as the feathers and other intricate details.
Posted on
Read More
Working on a butter sculpture usually consists of these steps:
What you need:
What you need:
- Butter
- A cool room (air-conditioned)
- Ice water
- Materials for the framework (wood, metal/ sculpted Styrofoam)
- Sculpting tools
- Food coloring *optional
Step 1: Find a cool room (air-conditioned)
Find a cool room in which to work so your butter doesn’t melt as you sculpt.
Pick a subject or a theme. Let your mind run wild. Butter sculptors have created everything.
 |
| Our selected subject/idea. |
Soak the butter in very cold water in order to remove impurities and give the butter an extra- smooth texture. The amount of butter you soak depends on how large you’d like your sculpture to be.
Build a frame to hold your base in place. Traditionally, bamboo sticks were fashioned into the framework, but you can use wood and/or metal, or even a carved Styrofoam as a base.
Before you start sculpting, dip your hands in ice water. Your hands must be kept practically numb, or your body heat will melt your creation.
 |
| Pretty much the same idea. (it's in a cup.) |
Knead the butter into a paste that'll free the air bubbles inside it.
Butter kneading.
Load the butter onto the base, and begin shaping it with your hands.
Fine-tune your design with tallow tools. Use modeling tools for smoothing and contouring large surfaces, and sculpting tools for intricate detail.
 |
| Butter coated sculpture. |
Once you’ve completed your masterpiece, store it somewhere cold so it won’t melt before the big reveal.
 |
| Cool huh? n_n |
Posted on
Butter sculpture has its origins as centerpiece displays for Renaissance banquets. Eventually, in the 19th century, it moved from the table to the display case when it became a chief advertising tool of the newly-industrialized dairy industry. It was exhibited at state fairs, international expositions and at numerous national and international dairy congresses and meetings.
The method for sculpting in butter is similar to that for clay modeling, a metal or wooden frame provides a structural base and the butter is wrapped around it. Sculptors usually work within a refrigerated case or in a cold room. People always want to know what happens to the sculpture afterwards, some sculptor stores the butter and re-uses it for four or five years. Sometimes it is recycled for animal feed or other manufacturing processes.
Another common question is how long the butter sculptures last. Some of the big international show can last as long as eight months, but most butter sculptures at state fairs have to be on display for only two weeks. The sculptors use regular butter and it’s the fat and the cold that makes it possible to sculpt. Margarine is too sticky.
History
The Iowa State Fair has boasted a “Butter Cow” since the early 1900s. The origins of butter sculpting, however, are far older than that. Nearly 20 years before Columbus discovered America, Tibetan monks used yak butter to create figurines of animals and deities for worship. Since then, this humble craft has evolved into high art.
In 1911 J.E. Wallace of Florida sculpted the Fair’s first butter cow and was succeeded by Earl Frank Dutt of Illinois. Norma “Duffy” Lyon of Toledo, Iowa, continued the legacy, becoming the third person and first woman to sculpt the Fair’s butter beauties.
In 2006, after 15 years of apprenticing with Duffy, Sarah Pratt of West Des Moines became the Fair’s fourth butter sculptor. In addition to her first Butter Cow, Pratt also crafted Superman of “Superman Returns” (Norwalk, Iowa, native Brandon Routh, who starred as the man of steel) and “Mr. State Fair” Bill Riley (in honor of his 60th Fair).
The Butter Cow starts with a wood, metal, wire and steel mesh frame and about 600 lbs. of low moisture, pure cream Iowa butter. Once inside the 40-degree cooler, layers of butter are applied until a life-size butter cow emerges – measuring about 5-1/2-ft high and 8-ft long. Each year features one of the six major dairy breeds – Jersey, Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Holstein, Guernsey and Milking Shorthorn.
While a real dairy cow weighs more than 1,000 pounds, a 600-lb. butter cow would butter 19,200 slices of toast and take an average person two lifetimes to consume, according to sponsor Midwest Dairy Association. Much of the butter is recycled and reused for up to 10 years.
According to Wikipedia:
The method for sculpting in butter is similar to that for clay modeling, a metal or wooden frame provides a structural base and the butter is wrapped around it. Sculptors usually work within a refrigerated case or in a cold room. People always want to know what happens to the sculpture afterwards, some sculptor stores the butter and re-uses it for four or five years. Sometimes it is recycled for animal feed or other manufacturing processes.
Another common question is how long the butter sculptures last. Some of the big international show can last as long as eight months, but most butter sculptures at state fairs have to be on display for only two weeks. The sculptors use regular butter and it’s the fat and the cold that makes it possible to sculpt. Margarine is too sticky.
History
The Iowa State Fair has boasted a “Butter Cow” since the early 1900s. The origins of butter sculpting, however, are far older than that. Nearly 20 years before Columbus discovered America, Tibetan monks used yak butter to create figurines of animals and deities for worship. Since then, this humble craft has evolved into high art.
In 1911 J.E. Wallace of Florida sculpted the Fair’s first butter cow and was succeeded by Earl Frank Dutt of Illinois. Norma “Duffy” Lyon of Toledo, Iowa, continued the legacy, becoming the third person and first woman to sculpt the Fair’s butter beauties.
In 2006, after 15 years of apprenticing with Duffy, Sarah Pratt of West Des Moines became the Fair’s fourth butter sculptor. In addition to her first Butter Cow, Pratt also crafted Superman of “Superman Returns” (Norwalk, Iowa, native Brandon Routh, who starred as the man of steel) and “Mr. State Fair” Bill Riley (in honor of his 60th Fair).
The Butter Cow starts with a wood, metal, wire and steel mesh frame and about 600 lbs. of low moisture, pure cream Iowa butter. Once inside the 40-degree cooler, layers of butter are applied until a life-size butter cow emerges – measuring about 5-1/2-ft high and 8-ft long. Each year features one of the six major dairy breeds – Jersey, Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Holstein, Guernsey and Milking Shorthorn.
While a real dairy cow weighs more than 1,000 pounds, a 600-lb. butter cow would butter 19,200 slices of toast and take an average person two lifetimes to consume, according to sponsor Midwest Dairy Association. Much of the butter is recycled and reused for up to 10 years.
According to Wikipedia:
“Butter sculpture is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Yak butter and dye are used to create temporary symbols for the Tibetan New Year and other religious celebrations. In North America, the tradition of butter sculptures dates back to the 19th century at agricultural and state fairs in the United States. Shortly after the end of World War II, the Ontario Cream Producers Marketing Board and the Dairy Producers of Canada began a campaign to promote their products. Butter sculpting was initiated as part of this campaign along with the slogan “It’s better with butter”. This was intended to increase butter’s market share in competition to the high-powered advertising for margarine in the late 1940s.”
