Basement studio

Visited my friends the other day. They are sculptors and work in a basement studio of the institute, they just graduated from. Looks like the whole place used to be a bomb shelter. Rather cold inside, and the room is crammed with plaster models they did (or others, who had been there earlier)
       
yeah, the eagle wasn't actually their fancy, but because they take orders, clients sometimes have bizzare ideas. Some of these clay models are for a chocolate factory. So, one guy wanted a chocolate head of city mayor (did they eventually eat it? cannibals! that was for the mayor's birthday). Another one ordered a figure of the president - and the president's dog, too.

 
and these are things that Mike (that's his name, right) sort of did for himself. the first one is a model that he was supposed to cut big size in France, but something got wrong with his passport and he didn't make it to France. And the other is a stylized figure he did for some client, but he likes it anyway. This single-handed Roman took some effort, because, as it turned out, you have to shrink the arm out of proportion, so that the whole thing would look natural (and ancient guys did that too, sophisticated crooks! :))

and here is Ann, Mike's wife, she studied in the same class. And as I came in, the were just finishing this plaster bull. Can't remember, who ordered that.

this skull Mike did for training purposes - and as I'm looking at it now, I realise, that even when making a skull, a sculptor portrays himself. On the table is some pencil sketching - they say, when they get mixed up with 3D sculpture, they sometimes sketch muscles on paper - to recollect how they should be. I love their work a lot - they are so talented.

about two years ago Mike did some sculpture for a male striptease night club - the managers ordered a lot of naked men in plaster. Of course, they underpaid the sculptors afterwards. Now, there were two funny things about this club: first, they installed a mirror glass door in the toilet, so that the person inside would see everyone, remaining invisible (the thing is, they installed it the other way round by mistake). And, the second, they had a casting session for male striptease models - and the huge guys came onto the stage. Every female cleaner in the club came to look, and they were mainly Tajik girls (Russian equivalent to Philippinas). So, one guy on the stage, for the sake of inspiration, concentrated on one Tajik girl in the audience and sent all his passion towards her - she was much flattered and amused. When the show was over, he just turned around and went.