Making a statue may be clever (6)
I believe the answer is:
astute
'be clever' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'making a statue' is the wordplay.
'making' is an anagram indicator.
'statue' is an anagram of 'ASTUTE'.
'may' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for astute that I've seen before include "Shrewd, wily" , "Shrewd, canny" , "Wise" , "Nymph who was transformed into a laurel tree to escape Apollo" , "Shrewd and clever" .)