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.

Daily Snapchat:

Bojack and Waxes

The last couple of days have been quite slow, as I'm slowly relaxing into not working. I really want to stop this from happening and continue to move forward with my project, but it's hard to do this when it's sunny outside and there are no deadlines for a self initiated project.

During the week however I did start to read a very interesting book by Jon Ronson called So You've Been Publicly Shamed. In it Ronson talks to a range of people who have been called out for something they may (or may not) have done, usually using social media outlets to do so. It also made a good companion piece for his article in the Guardian Weekend this week, where he's talking about Katie Hopkins.

On Friday I was working at Butley, which gave me a chance to look at my wax mould and see how it had turned out. Unfortunately it hadn't dipped as much as I would have wanted, and I'm not totally sure why. It may have been just because of the sheer amount of wax (around 20kg), but I definitely need to look into it further, as I don't want it to happen again. Hopefully at some point this week I'm going to make a big plaster mould to pour waxes into, so I can create multiple wax pieces. I really want to continue to move forward in the project,  I just need to actually use some of my time to think about it more.

In the morning moulds had to be strapped so that they could be poured in the afternoon. This was hard work, but at the same time quite fun, as I feel that I'm slowly getting better at it (hopefully).

After this was done the front of the studios had to be cleared, which involved a lot of heavy lifting of plinths and sculptures. Eventually it was tidy, but it did take a fair amount of time.

I then had to help clean up some moulds that had been wax painted, so that when the wax was poured in there wouldn't be any gaps for it to get out. This was a relatively easy job to wrap up the day!

I also think that this week I'm going to be getting some more bronze pieces cast, which will be really exciting to do again. I will also be using a different method, so that the dip in the bronze will hopefully be more prominent this time.

Yesterday I cycled to Dunwich to go to the beach, and whilst I was there I checked up on one of my sculptures. I was intrigued to see whether it was still there as I hadn't been to check up on the particular piece since I positioned it over two months ago! I'm really happy that it's still up and hasn't been taken or vandalised. I'm beginning to wonder how long I should keep them all up, or just indefinitely. It would be really fun to go and see if they were all still there in a few months time.

I've also been slowly making my way through the second season of Bojack Horseman on Netflix, which is an animated show about a horse who was on a hit TV show in the 90s but is now all washed up. It's very funny, but at the same time incredibly depressing. The first episode of the second season is solely devoted to Bojack giving into the depression that he's attempting to run away from in order to say one of his lines for a film that he's acting in. It's definitely one of my favourite cartoons and has a surprising amount of depth. I would thoroughly recommend it.

I'm going to attempt to get more of my own work created this week, rather than simply sitting in the sun and reading books. I'd also like to tie up all of the loose ends that I've been considering for my project for the last month or so. As well as this I need to go and pick up my certificate from Wensum  Lodge, so I can officially be finished with my foundation.

Daily Snapchat:

Metal Finishing and Collapsing Wax

For the past week I've been quite busy, and my internet's been down for the majority of it too, so that's why there hasn't been a new post recently.

Last week on Wednesday and Thursday I was weeding underneath the solar panels again. This was, once again, a painfully dull process that was incredibly repetitive. Being able to catch up on podcasts was the only positive part of the experience.

On Friday I was at Butley again, undertaking tasks for Laurence whilst doing my own thing. I began the day by pouring wax into my wooden mould. It took a while for all the wax to melt, but eventually I was able to pour two full buckets into the mould. 

It was all going well for about five minutes, until the mould started leaking, very slowly at first, but when I tried to block up the hole the whole thing just collapsed in front of me. This was very annoying, as I then had to scrape up all of the wax on the floor so that it could be used again at a later date. I did manage to save all the basic parts of the mould though, so that I could re-build it at a later date.

Later on in the day I carried all of the moulds to the kiln and helped to clean out the second bath, these jobs weren't too bad compared to how I had spent the previous two days. It was a very slow day, as there weren't that many jobs that could be done by someone with my low level of skills and I didn't really feel like working on my own stuff because of the spill that had occurred in the morning, which was a shame.

I also saw my two bronze pieces that were poured on Monday, they looked interesting, but very different from what I had imagined. It was exciting to see them though. 

Over the weekend I didn't do much in terms of work, but I did play some interesting games. One was a mobile game called Lifeline, which is a text based game that involves you talking to a young student who's crash landed on another planet. The intriguing part of the experience is that the game takes place over a three day period in real time, so when Taylor goes to sleep you won't be able to play the game for another eight hours or so until he's awake again.

Yesterday I went to Butley to work but, yet again, there wasn't much that I was able to do, so I just worked on my own art and burned a bunch of empty plaster bags. This involved me reassembling the mould from Friday, which took a while, but I was eventually vaguely successful. Making sure to learn from my mistakes, I used scrim as well as plaster to strengthen the sides of the mould so that it wouldn't collapse again. 

When it came to eventually pouring the wax I had to use a wire strainer to filter out the dirt that had gotten into the wax buckets, I'm hoping that I was successful in doing this, but I'll only be able to tell when I open up the mould.

Unfortunately after I poured the wax it became evident that there was a small hole near the bottom of the mould. I was able to plug it up with clay though, so I only lost a small amount of wax. As the work began to dry, the mould began to change in shape from a square to a slight parallelogram. This was a shame, but I can always just photograph the work and re-use the wax if I don't like the end result.

After pouring the wax I was shown how to metal finish my bronze pieces using an assortment of electrical appliances and wire brushes. Being able to manipulate a piece of bronze vaguely easily was quite enjoyable and fun, but it was hard work, especially when the tiny metal shavings get onto your skin and clothes. It was really interesting to see how much the work changed during this process, as well as how beautiful and unique the surface of the sculptures became once I had taken some time to sand them down. 

Today I've been thinking more about the concepts behind the work, as well as reading a few more Philip K. Dick short stories. In the next few days I want to think about how I want to progress this project further and maybe go to Butley to check on my wax sculpture.

Daily Snapchat:

Moulds and Time-lapses

I went to Butley again yesterday to work for Laurence. In the morning I helped to strap moulds that were going to be poured in the afternoon. This involves putting large amounts of scrim dipped in plaster onto the outside of the moulds, so that they don't burst from the huge pressure when the bronze is poured into them. On the larger pieces you also have to attach long blocks of wood to the outside, as the build up of pressure is much higher in the bigger sculptures. This takes time and effort, especially when there are many moulds to strap.

When that was finished the moulds were cleaned out and placed in the sand to be poured. Lids are also placed on top to reduce the amount of grit and dirt that's going to get in to the moulds. 

After lunch I was able to do my own work, so I started to make a large mould made from wood that I'm going to pour on Friday. Whilst I was making it I didn't quite realise how big the mould was, about 50cm3, which will require about three bucket loads of wax, which is quite exciting. I'm hoping to pour it on Friday, so that it cools over the weekend and I can open it up either on Monday or Tuesday. If the mould works well I really want to make another two part mould, so I can create a bunch of large scale plaster pieces in a range of colours. 

Today I was going to go to Butley again for a bit to pour the mould and do some more work but the day slightly got away from me. I did however go and check up on one of my sculptures, which was as exciting as ever to see it still standing there. I also started to think a little bit about colour, and the use of it within the sculptures that I'm creating. I began to go down the route of emotions again, but I felt that that may be a little too close to my last project, so I decided for now that the different colours are just going to be there to be aesthetically pleasing. This will give the viewer a window into what colours I do and don't like, as well as allowing them to reflect on whether they think the different colours work well.

Over the past few days I've also discovered the "time-lapse" feature on my IPhone, allowing me to turn a 20 minute video into a thirty second one. I think it's a really interesting tool that I intend to experiment with. Here's one of my early clips:

Tomorrow I'm going to be weeding under solar panels again, so hopefully it won't be too warm and I'll get to spend the day listening to interesting podcasts whilst doing some manual labour.

I've also started watching a really interesting program called Mr Robot, which features a lot of ideas surrounding computer hackers in the modern age and the slow degradation of the human mind.

Daily Snapchat:

Pouring and Bathing

For the last couple of days I've been quite busy, so I apologise for the lack of posts during this time. I'm going to try to blog every other day again, to motivate myself to concentrate more on my project.

On Thursday I had an interesting day at Butley. I began the day by helping to strap about ten small moulds, that were being poured later that day in front of a large group of children. Each mould had three to four mini sculptures inside, that had been made by the kids as part of a project that an artist at Butley (Alice - http://www.aliceandreaewing.com) was undertaking with three local schools.

After strapping the moulds I then helped to move all of the moulds and equipment into the foundry. Shortly after this all of the children arrived and they were shown around the studio spaces and talked to about the bronze casting process. When they all eventually left I was fortunate enough to pour the last three moulds. This was an exciting process, which involved having to wear a leather apron and a plastic visor to reduce the amount of heat that you're coming into contact with. It's definitely an experience that interests me.

On the following day I was at Butley again, but working for Laurence this time, rather than Alice. I started by opening up the moulds that had been poured on the previous day, which was easy, as they were so small. I then went on to dig a hole in the ground so that the transportable kiln could be put into a new space. This was very painful, as I had to hack at the floor with a pickaxe first before digging up a mixture of cement and rubbish that then had to be transported to the skip. I then had to help move the kiln into its new space, which was also hard as it was quite heavy.

After moving the kiln I then helped to clean out one of the baths that's used to clean moulds and wash up buckets. First I had to empty the bath of water, which is relatively easy, but then one has to grab a spade and shovel out the cement like mixture that has formed at the bottom. This material smells terrible, making the whole ordeal much more unpleasant.

After that was accomplished I had lunch and then was allowed to get on with my own work so I created a small wax sculpture of one of the triangular ideas. I felt that it had worked well, so I decided to make a larger scale one, but unfortunately I had to leave before I was able to finish making the mould. I do hope to experiment more with the triangular sculptures before I fully integrate them into the work that I'm making. 

Unfortunately I didn't manage to do any work yesterday or today, as I took full advantage of the sun and went to the beach yesterday. Today though I started to play an interesting game called Gone Home. It's a game where you slowly discover what's going on in the world by reading little snippets of information that have been left around the environment that you're exploring.

I also finally got around to placing my sculpture from Wensum Lodge in my garden. I put it in a shrubbery area, so that when the seasons change the sculpture will slowly be revealed as the plants around it reduce in size.

Tomorrow I'm going to Butley to work, which will be very exciting as the wax pieces that I invested a little while ago will be being poured. So in a few days I'll have some work in bronze.

Daily Snapchat: