Maquette–noun— a small model or study in three dimensions for either a sculptural or an architectural project.

The paperwork for the sculptural submission process says: "digital image only, up to three views per piece in .jpeg format." I'm an advanced beginner in Photoshop—I have created simple digital images in the program and plunked them into a photo of the site and it works just fine. Problem is my skills don't extend to creating a 3-d image on the computer only.

So, to comply with the requirements in front of me I've got to create a maquette, photograph it, and remove anything from the photo that gives a clue to its actual size. I've spent the past few days knitting mittens and a sphere from my video tape stash (specifically a video of Foster Brooks and another that didn't have a readable label). Once the second mitten is painted I'll rig them up into a usable scenario, put my camera on the tripod and the maquette on a lazy susan and start snapping shots.

The maquette process has also been helpful in exploring the anatomy of a mitten and sphere. When I make the sculpture full scale (3 or 4 feet tall) I'll need to work in sections rather than knit it all on double pointed needles as I have.

And then there's the armature, which I still have to figure out.