MK Shannon Awards
About the Process
Soar Above Sketch
Original sketch for Soar Above.

Creating a Custom Award

The creative process begins with an in-depth conversation with renown sculptor, MK Shannon. That discussion gives us insight into your company’s awards program and an understanding of how the award will be used. Often, MK will quickly sketch ideas on note paper. These rough sketches will often lead to a more refined drawing as the creative process continues.


 


Finished Soar Above award.

Concept to Finished Award

Here's how she describes her creative process: "Capturing my thoughts on paper is not how I dream of sculpting, but in order to show my clients what I am envisioning, it becomes necessary to try and put something on paper in a 2-dimensional form. Sculptors design in 3 dimensions, so for me the designing aspect is stymied when I force myself to draw my design. I can draw but it is not my talent; my talent is sculpting, so when an image flashes into my mind or when I am doodling with a piece or have movement in mind, I will grab anything I can to draw on at that moment. In the case of "Soar Above", I had been wanting to design an eagle piece with a globe. I wanted the eagle to be strong and prominent, but not threatening. This image flowed from those thoughts and the final piece works on many levels for me.
Wamu Triumph Sketch
Drawings for Stellar design.

Fine-tuning the Design

With the concept understood, two hand-sketched drawings are presented to our client to select from. On the left we show another example of how the creative process works; from the two designs presented, our client chose Stellar. The design selected is then fine-tuned. It is at this point in the process, before the sculpting begins, that you can more easily make changes and adjustments to the design.
     
MK with Annika Sorenstam
Wax model of Stellar.		 Stellar
Finished Stellar award.

The Design Becomes a Model

Once the final design and size are agreed upon, MK sculpts a model in clay or wax. It usually takes many, many hours to create the actual model perfectly. The sculpted model is then taken to the art foundry where a rubber mold is made around the wax model. This is the first step in casting your awards. For information about about the foundry [read more].