Barely suppress emotion as second person working on sculpture (8)
I believe the answer is:
smoulder
'barely suppress emotion' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'second person working on sculpture' is the wordplay.
'second person working' becomes 'ser' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'on' indicates putting letters inside (as in clothing 'on' a person).
'sculpture' becomes 'mould' (mould is a kind of sculpture).
'ser' going around 'mould' is 'SMOULDER'.
'as' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for smoulder that I've seen before include "Burn without flames" , "Fume" , "Burn slowly without flame" , "Suppress strong feelings" , "Burn slowly, secretly" .)