Ideas and OlliOlli

On Monday I went to Butley, I spent the morning opening up the moulds that were poured on Friday and hosing down the bronze. Both of these jobs are tiring and painful, but it wasn't that bad as very few of the sculptures had any small holes, so I was able to wash them all relatively easily.

After this I had to clean out the front of the studios, but more thoroughly this time, scraping away dried plaster that had stuck itself to the concrete and hacking away at the occasionally weed, feeling more like a gardener than an artist. 

After lunch I was allowed to get on with my own work, so I decided to make a two part mould of one of my wax pieces. I wanted to make one without the rubber inside because it's easier to make, takes less time and reduces the amount of detail that can be obtained. This is a positive for my work at the moment as I want my sculptures to be as smooth as possible, with no indentations.

Before I even started to make the mould I cleaned up the wax a little, removing any obscenities that may have replicated onto the plaster. I then began by making a clay wall, effectively cutting the wax piece in half, allowing me to make a two piece mould. I then created a little moat using clay, which would enable the mould to be slowly built up and strengthened.

After this I then proceeded to flick plaster onto the wax, slowly building up a thick wall. Half way through this process I used a few pieces of scrim to strengthen the plaster. Before the half could be finished I had to clean up the side that would be bolted to the second part of the mould, so that I could hammer in metal clips when I wanted to pour it, so that there wouldn't be any wax leaking out of the sides.

I then repeated this process, but on the other side. Before I did it however I had to create some holes on the side that attaches to the other half of the mould, enabling it to be opened up easily. 

By the time I had finished making the mould it was too late to start melting wax to pour into it, so I just went home, leaving my creation to soak in the bath. 

On Tuesday I decided to look through all of my blog posts since I started my new project, highlighting places where I had said that I either wanted to experiment further with something or look into at a later date. This was so that I could figure out for myself which direction I want this project to go in, and whether or not I want to pick up where I left off with some of my previous ideas. These are a few of my more interesting thoughts;

• Making all of the wax pieces hollow, enabling them to become sound spaces that allow the viewer to speak into the dip, having their voice echoed back at them. I do want to pursue this, starting with a smaller piece. It would also be interesting to put a speaker inside the piece. I don't know what would be playing, but if I have some time I intend to think about this.
• Juxtaposing two sculptures, one with a dip and one without is another idea, which would highlight the different mindsets that I'm in on daily basis. If I ever display this work in a gallery setting I intend to do this.
• Another idea was making the sculptures out of a range of different shapes, one being a triangle. This is something that I want to do, but at the moment I only really have aesthetic reasons for making them triangular, with only a few basic ideas of the concept behind it. Before I continue on with this I want to think more about the meaning.
• The time-lapse idea that I had a few weeks ago was interesting, but I think that it's more of a gimmick than a piece of artwork, so I'm going to stop making these.
• The destroyed versions of the wax pieces that I discovered a little while ago are still intriguing to me, and I want to continue to do this, I just haven't done many recently as I can only do it when I destroy one of my own wax sculptures.
• The final pathway that I'm thinking about is the bronze pieces that I've been making, which I'm very excited about. I hope to continue experimenting with bronze, to get a better feel of the material and to learn more techniques.

Yesterday I went to Butley again to work on my own stuff. I went there to use my new mould, but I also ended up destroying my big wax sculpture and making a few small hollow wax sculptures to be used as cups for bronze to be poured into.

Pouring the mould was easy, I only had to use some slip (a tiny amount of clay mixed with water) on the plaster so that the wax wouldn't completely stick to the mould and I was ready to pour.

During this time I slowly broke apart one of my wax sculptures. The wax was incredibly strong and tough, so I ended up using a pickaxe to break it into pieces. It was sad to see it destroyed, but I'll be able to make new pieces by melting down the wax, so essentially recycling work to make more work. Some of the broken pieces were also viable to be used as sculptures within themselves, becoming part of one of my secondary projects.

I also made two little hollow wax sculptures. I did this by pouring liquid wax into the mould that I made a few weeks ago. I then swished it around for about 20 seconds and emptied the wax out again into a pan. I went through this process about five times for each sculpture. It was a simple process that passed the time whilst the wax for the mould was heating up. These will eventually be bronze, in a few weeks.

I haven't done that much work today, mostly compiling this blog post and thinking about ways to take the many pathways forward. In the next couple of days I want to think more about my previous ideas and which ones I want to take forward.

However I did play a slightly infuriating but fun game called OlliOlli. It's a 2D skateboarding game that involves you moving through a level to unlock new areas. The easy to learn but hard to master game mechanics are complimented by a great soundtrack that makes the game much more enjoyable.

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