This is the second post about my process of sculpting the “nymphs” of the Voynich Manuscript. (See the first part here.)

This time I’m continuing to model all four of the nymph faces in polymer clay, making three-dimensional versions based on the original Voynich Manuscript drawings from folio 73r. As I explained in the last video, these polymer clay models are not the final sculpture; I am using them to make porcelain molds, so they do not yet have the detail of eyes, hair or crowns/headwear.

In sculpting the faces my aim is not to sculpt a realistically proportioned head, but to capture the style of the drawings in three dimensional form and to give each nymph individualized features.

I’ll use each of these polymer clay heads to make an imprint in a piece of porcelain clay, and then after firing that in a kiln, I’ll have a solid mold that I can press more porcelain clay into, to make a positive copy of the face shape. Here is a sample porcelain nymph head created using this technique; I experimented with etching some more detail into the clay after it came out of the mold and shaping the extra clay around the edges to make the hair and crown. I accidentally hit her in the nose after she came out of the mold (sorry) but I think the slight irregularity of the shape is unexpectedly in keeping with the manuscript’s style. I’m realizing that these sculptures will better embody the drawings if I can avoid making them too neat and tidy, if I can approach some of the etched details as though I’m drawing on paper (or manuscript vellum, as it were), and not being concerned with making both sides of the face symmetrical and even. This will give them more character, although I will be more careful with her nose next time.

I’m planning that these will ultimately remain unpainted white porcelain, except for some very limited colored glaze applied on the cheeks, mouth, eyes and maybe some thin black lines to accentuate etched lines. The crowns will be painted in gold lustre. The sample above is just a rough idea of what the final piece might look like, but the technique works the way I envisioned. This will enable me to create an “instant nymph face” using the mold, much faster than sculpting all the details in porcelain. Also, this way I can more easily try different ways of adding detail, without sculpting the face from scratch every time if I don’t like how the details have turned out. I’ll separately sculpt the body and then add the face/head while both porcelain sections are still soft. That will be in the next post…