Sculpting: The surface of the Moon

I was in high school when I first saw the surface of the Moon up close. Porcelāna mēnestiņš... whispered my young self in complete awe peeping through the eye of the telescope. Up there, in the night sky, far, far away, and yet close enough in all its glory. I was mesmerized by the strange shapes covering our Moon. Smiling ear to ear, I could observe it for hours. This is why I often visited the only observatory in the city after school and spent time with the A Team drinking green tea, talking about astronomy, science fiction, and learning physics and mathematics, which I was (and still am) absolute rubbish at. Yes, yes! Very nerdy. The good old days! The good old clueless days. Everything seemed purely magical back. The cynic in me was not awake yet.

This summer, I got to see the porcelain moon again! A good family friend was almost about to throw out three perfectly good telescopes, and we were lucky to add them to our arsenal of the coolest shit! That’s no scrap metal! That’s the eyes to the universe! I haven’t gotten to write about it yet, but perhaps I will, at some point. I have to introduce the big Bertha (bazooka) and co to you, ha! But, back to the Moon! I felt so privileged to now be able to look at it for however long I wish. And oh my! The ridges and the Swiss cheese holes! The thoughts of how humans are going to visit it once again soon! Moon’s my favorite!

And so, I had this white, air-dry modeling clay sitting in my drawer since last Christmas (such a thoughtful, lovely present), waiting for the perfect opportunity. I and @azircon were talking rocks in the chat one evening a while back, which is when he shared an image from the surface that sparked this idea. The idea to put the clay to use and try and sculpt a piece of the Moon. This is how it turned out! Bare in mind, I’m a sculpting noob xD

_{What tools and materials I used? Jovi air-dry modeling clay in white, double ribbon tool in size 1, wooden modeling knife, a random crew I found lying around (the sharp tip helped with some finer details), black acrylic paint, and a piece of sanded wood (which I got help for, we took a wooden log also lying around, chopped it with flex saw in smaller pieces to be used as a base for the sculpted surface, then sanded it)}

I started by painting the wooden base with black acrylic paint and waited for it to dry. Then added the modeling clay on top. At first, I thought that it was a mistake. For someone who has never worked with this type of clay, it is not automatically clear that it will make a mess and stain everything it comes in contact with. But, since it is air drying, it means that once you apply water to it, even if it has dried, it will wash off, or you can continue sculpting it. So after a slight freakout, I proceeded with a little sketch of where the craters went. As I mentioned above, it is partially inspired by the Daedalus crater on the Moon. I took the liberty to add my touch to it as I went on, of course.

Here it is, my Swiss cheese moon! Well, piece of it anyway! My original plan was to glue the sculpted bit to the wooden base, but to my surprise, the clay latched on to the acrylic paint, and I did not even have to use glue! As the clay dried, it shrunk a bit. I was worried that if it shrunk too much, it would not fit on the base as I hoped, but luckily that was not the case. Overall, the shapes did slightly change when it dried completely, and that is due to the air and the moisture in the clay, which is something to keep in mind when working with air drying clay. I was also lucky that it dried pretty evenly, and it did not warp or deform at all.

I had buckets of fun working on it and had to force myself to stop working on it multiple times! Oh, but from this angle, this edge, that detail! xD I can be ridiculous about the details.