Equipment : Clay board, wood, newsprint, chicken wire, clay, drill, screw, plaster, paint
1. Get clayboard and a piece of wood a few inches shorter than you want your sculpture to be and work out the placement best suited to your design. Then with the drill create a dent in the clayboard and screw the wood to the clayboard. Once the armature is assembled pad with paper in broader areas of the design and then keep in place with tightly secured chicken wire.
2. Cover the armature in clay and build up till you have a first layer of coverage and then create your design thickening the clay enough so that you won't get stabbed by any chicken wire.
3. Half the clay sculpture with brass cuttings creating keys.
4. Make a bowl of plaster and add acrylic paint so you can differentiate the final layer. Toss onto the sculpture while still runny making sure it gets into the crevices for complete coverage so details aren't missed.
5.Stick to one side and layer on the normal plaster until evenly covered to the same height as the brass cuttings. Then repeat.
6. Once dry remove the brass cuttings and pull apart the plaster halves.
7. If unwanted, destroy the original clay sculpture.
8. Press clay into the inside of the plaster cast, pressing hard to make sure to pick up all the details. Keep clay quite thick so it doesn't crack when left to dry. Make sure edge of plaster levels out with edge of clay.
9. Glue the edges of the clay and then tie together the two halves with wire. Stick your hand into the cast and smooth out the gaps were the clay meets and make sure it is thick and you can't see any holes.
10. Remove the plaster halves and wipe the clay with a sponge, smoothing out any abnormalities and fixing any holes/gaps.
11. Leave to dry out and then fire in the kiln.
Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Monday, 6 October 2014
Evolution of Ideas
Before heading to Edinburgh I wanted to try and show how haunted the city was, focussing mostly on Mary King's Close and the city under the city. However, when we did visit, we learned about the plague's effect on the city and I started to look at anything that could be seen as a multiple to keep my mind clear to new ideas. The architecture of the rooftops looked interesting as a background or a silhouette in the fore-front of a picture with the triangular shapes and the sheer amount of chimneys.
I also liked the idea of multiples lines throughout the city, focussing on the brick work, cobblestones, road lines, map lines, etc. But after a while I couldn't keep focus on that idea because I didn't know how I would have used it as a final piece. After looking at the most historic streets and closes that we could reach through a certain amount of travel and time. We wandered around Greyfriar's graveyard and because of this I tried some image transfers as experiments for my ghosts idea, as a possible idea for the final piece. They worked out well except the printer and paper I used were not too great and the ink ended up smudging when trying to scrub off the back paper. When originally researching for the ghosts and hauntings of Edinburgh I found a few episodes of "Most Haunted" involving the Edinburgh Vaults and Mary King's Close. They sensed many different spirits in the dark underground city areas and they were to be my reference and had maybe thought to recreate some of the "vigils" they had attempted while there. However while on the tour of the close I realised there was no way to create these as it is constant moving, no recording equipment and other tours to interrupt. I did however try to sneak in a sound recorder but was scared of the consequences so never turned it on.
I also liked the idea of multiples lines throughout the city, focussing on the brick work, cobblestones, road lines, map lines, etc. But after a while I couldn't keep focus on that idea because I didn't know how I would have used it as a final piece. After looking at the most historic streets and closes that we could reach through a certain amount of travel and time. We wandered around Greyfriar's graveyard and because of this I tried some image transfers as experiments for my ghosts idea, as a possible idea for the final piece. They worked out well except the printer and paper I used were not too great and the ink ended up smudging when trying to scrub off the back paper. When originally researching for the ghosts and hauntings of Edinburgh I found a few episodes of "Most Haunted" involving the Edinburgh Vaults and Mary King's Close. They sensed many different spirits in the dark underground city areas and they were to be my reference and had maybe thought to recreate some of the "vigils" they had attempted while there. However while on the tour of the close I realised there was no way to create these as it is constant moving, no recording equipment and other tours to interrupt. I did however try to sneak in a sound recorder but was scared of the consequences so never turned it on.
When we returned home I created some small drawings depicting a plague victim, doctor and a rat and gave me the idea of a sculpture involving the three all attached to one another. Ewan commented on this particular drawing about how it was a good concept and how I should focus on something like that. I agreed that since I had more work and research and drawings involving the plague more than hauntings and ghosts that I should probably focus on that and maybe hinting to the hauntings especially around Mary King's since there is already multiple stories of ghosts including one about a young girl who tourists leave toys for.
You were reminded of the plague through various signs and references posted around the city and it became easier to decide what to focus on the longer we stayed. And so I decided to research farther into the plague focussing particularly on Edinburgh.
Thursday, 25 September 2014
Video Diary?...
During the last week I completed a video diary for part of my course work and it went rather well. So I thought that since I missed a post last week I would show you some of the stuff I got up to that was not really college related.
Enjoy!
Saturday, 13 September 2014
Why I'm disliking Edinburgh...
So our second week of college has come and gone and on Friday we had a college outing to Edinburgh for the day to get some research for our "Multiples" project.
Now... Firstly, why did NOONE mention Edinburgh is a death-trap with hills and stairs galore?! I swear I have never been so sore and tired in all my life. We only got lost the once but it was hardly far off from where we had intended to go. I realised there were so many multiples in Edinburgh I got a bit snap happy with 440 ish photos throughout the day... oops. AND I lost my phone in the National Museum! Luckily I got it back not long after but jesus I was terrified.
Also, I would put up some of these photos but I am still sifting through them all... this might take me a while so yes, photos will be up at some point. Possibly after my editing starts.
Anyway, I guess I picked my multiple and it is definitely ghosts/the multiple lives that have passed through Edinburgh. Mary Kings Close's tour was amazing and educational about the time with little facts I had never known. A lot of it was rather creepy just due to the cramped surroundings and dim lighting. It really made you appreciate the sunshine. I was upset I couldn't record in the tunnel and I would have loved to take some sound recordings while we went through but there was no way I wouldn't I have been caught which was unfortunate. I was also disappointed that nothing paranormal was happening at all. We obviously couldn't just wander off into random tunnels to look for ghosts but everywhere we went was so uneventful in that way. a ghost tour there would be good to try but otherwise I will have to use the footage of Most Haunted and Ghost Hunters International, the television shows as reference to any form of haunting.
Since I HAVE to go back to Edinburgh I will look deeper into the older parts of the town and try to go to the more haunted spots. I heard about ghost tours that take part there, and it would be interesting to go on one and take real notes on the goings on.
I haven't got much to add from last weeks as those are all still the ideas I have for this project but I hope to have images and sketchbook pages to show next week. :)
Now... Firstly, why did NOONE mention Edinburgh is a death-trap with hills and stairs galore?! I swear I have never been so sore and tired in all my life. We only got lost the once but it was hardly far off from where we had intended to go. I realised there were so many multiples in Edinburgh I got a bit snap happy with 440 ish photos throughout the day... oops. AND I lost my phone in the National Museum! Luckily I got it back not long after but jesus I was terrified.
Also, I would put up some of these photos but I am still sifting through them all... this might take me a while so yes, photos will be up at some point. Possibly after my editing starts.
Anyway, I guess I picked my multiple and it is definitely ghosts/the multiple lives that have passed through Edinburgh. Mary Kings Close's tour was amazing and educational about the time with little facts I had never known. A lot of it was rather creepy just due to the cramped surroundings and dim lighting. It really made you appreciate the sunshine. I was upset I couldn't record in the tunnel and I would have loved to take some sound recordings while we went through but there was no way I wouldn't I have been caught which was unfortunate. I was also disappointed that nothing paranormal was happening at all. We obviously couldn't just wander off into random tunnels to look for ghosts but everywhere we went was so uneventful in that way. a ghost tour there would be good to try but otherwise I will have to use the footage of Most Haunted and Ghost Hunters International, the television shows as reference to any form of haunting.
Since I HAVE to go back to Edinburgh I will look deeper into the older parts of the town and try to go to the more haunted spots. I heard about ghost tours that take part there, and it would be interesting to go on one and take real notes on the goings on.
I haven't got much to add from last weeks as those are all still the ideas I have for this project but I hope to have images and sketchbook pages to show next week. :)
Friday, 5 September 2014
BAD2 Begins!
It's another year of college! I actually made it! But I have no delusions of grandeur... I was far to close to not making it back to the hallowed halls of Forth Valley college. I regret failing my resit after having a summer to do it, and also to put my lecturers into such a horrible place of trying to work out what to do with me and honestly cannot thank them enough! I especially want to thank Linda, the head of Creative Industries, for keeping me up to date and getting me back in. She saved my skin 'cause I don't know what I would do if I wasn't in college...
Anyhow, happier thoughts! This year. This year is MY year. I'm going to prove I'm worth it, all that hassle. I am going to work so much harder and think so much farther out of my proverbial box.
We have one brief to last till Christmas and all but 2 classes are dedicated to it. We now learn video skills and I plan to use it. In fact, right now I am downloading Windows Live Movie Maker so as to do some of my homework of piecing together shaky clips of the college and creating a minute long video. But all of our classes seem interesting and I know each lecturer will make sure we learn a different skill with them.
Our brief for these classes is Multiples.. Focussing on multiples within Edinburgh. I've already had FAR too many ideas but my favourites are that of multiple hauntings/ ghosts or connecting that to multiple lives that have passed through Edinburgh? I dunno, I thought it was cool... Also, I have the idea of the multiple layers of Edinburgh, you know, because they have old Edinburgh underneath the new. But I then thought of taking it a step farther and showing the multiple ways people view Edinburgh due to their connection with the city.
Let me paint the scene... So this will be an installation piece (if made), and it would be like 4/5 plastic sheets vacu- formed to resemble the shape of the city, but each one shows different areas.
One layer would show the Edinburgh that shoppers see, so Prince's street and the Royal Mile and such.
The second layer would show the Edinburgh tourists see, so the Royal Mile, tourist shops and museums basically.
The 3rd layer would involve spooky Edinburgh showing the underground section. I am still to think of other layers but the underground one would be last, and each layer would maybe be painted a different colour to kind of emphasise that they are different. That's just one thought.
I had another about a painting or sculpture that would convey the ghosty one more. It was showing a child either standing holding his teddy or playing on a level ground then the ground goes into a kind of hour glass shape where the top section is the earth the kid is standing on and the bottom is a mound of bodies from a mass grave so it would encompass the plague mostly, the separation caused. The idea mostly comes from Mary King's Close and the Most Haunted episode about it, about the child who haunts down there looking for her mother. It's one of my darker ideas to say the least.
My only other idea connecting to these in some way was to take a picture of a busy high street area and then fade in a picture of some dressed Victorian looking rather sombre standing stock still, well, either in the busy street or in one of the haunted places.
OH! Also had the idea to sketch the faces of the ghosts from descriptions, detailed drawings of the rooms and hopefully the ghosts or even just making them a shadow...
Then there was the idea of drawing the multiple faces of the plague so there was the faces of the doctors with their crow mask things, the bubonic spots all over someone's face and maybe another face if I research more and drawing it all like it is multiple faces on the same head, if you know what I mean?
Then there was my real last idea where I make masks of peoples faces one of the doctor's from the time of the plague, one of an ordinary victorian person, and another of a modern day person and have them hang at intervals from the ceiling. So on the face side they look like what they are meant to look like but on the inside they have at the brain, thoughts that they might have thought about, at the nose, descriptions of smells they might have smelt, at the eyes drawings or images of what they would have seen so when you look into the mask you almost experience their experience?
To be perfectly honest I am going over-board with ideas at this VERY early stage and I still haven't even picked my topic yet... I shall see how the trip goes and if it pushes me towards any of these ideas and if I do them I will try properly this year to upload them.
This was very wordy and if you made it this far I applaud you. This was my introduction to my first week of BAD2 thanks for reading!
Anyhow, happier thoughts! This year. This year is MY year. I'm going to prove I'm worth it, all that hassle. I am going to work so much harder and think so much farther out of my proverbial box.
We have one brief to last till Christmas and all but 2 classes are dedicated to it. We now learn video skills and I plan to use it. In fact, right now I am downloading Windows Live Movie Maker so as to do some of my homework of piecing together shaky clips of the college and creating a minute long video. But all of our classes seem interesting and I know each lecturer will make sure we learn a different skill with them.
Our brief for these classes is Multiples.. Focussing on multiples within Edinburgh. I've already had FAR too many ideas but my favourites are that of multiple hauntings/ ghosts or connecting that to multiple lives that have passed through Edinburgh? I dunno, I thought it was cool... Also, I have the idea of the multiple layers of Edinburgh, you know, because they have old Edinburgh underneath the new. But I then thought of taking it a step farther and showing the multiple ways people view Edinburgh due to their connection with the city.
Let me paint the scene... So this will be an installation piece (if made), and it would be like 4/5 plastic sheets vacu- formed to resemble the shape of the city, but each one shows different areas.
One layer would show the Edinburgh that shoppers see, so Prince's street and the Royal Mile and such.
The second layer would show the Edinburgh tourists see, so the Royal Mile, tourist shops and museums basically.
The 3rd layer would involve spooky Edinburgh showing the underground section. I am still to think of other layers but the underground one would be last, and each layer would maybe be painted a different colour to kind of emphasise that they are different. That's just one thought.
I had another about a painting or sculpture that would convey the ghosty one more. It was showing a child either standing holding his teddy or playing on a level ground then the ground goes into a kind of hour glass shape where the top section is the earth the kid is standing on and the bottom is a mound of bodies from a mass grave so it would encompass the plague mostly, the separation caused. The idea mostly comes from Mary King's Close and the Most Haunted episode about it, about the child who haunts down there looking for her mother. It's one of my darker ideas to say the least.
My only other idea connecting to these in some way was to take a picture of a busy high street area and then fade in a picture of some dressed Victorian looking rather sombre standing stock still, well, either in the busy street or in one of the haunted places.
OH! Also had the idea to sketch the faces of the ghosts from descriptions, detailed drawings of the rooms and hopefully the ghosts or even just making them a shadow...
Then there was the idea of drawing the multiple faces of the plague so there was the faces of the doctors with their crow mask things, the bubonic spots all over someone's face and maybe another face if I research more and drawing it all like it is multiple faces on the same head, if you know what I mean?
Then there was my real last idea where I make masks of peoples faces one of the doctor's from the time of the plague, one of an ordinary victorian person, and another of a modern day person and have them hang at intervals from the ceiling. So on the face side they look like what they are meant to look like but on the inside they have at the brain, thoughts that they might have thought about, at the nose, descriptions of smells they might have smelt, at the eyes drawings or images of what they would have seen so when you look into the mask you almost experience their experience?
To be perfectly honest I am going over-board with ideas at this VERY early stage and I still haven't even picked my topic yet... I shall see how the trip goes and if it pushes me towards any of these ideas and if I do them I will try properly this year to upload them.
This was very wordy and if you made it this far I applaud you. This was my introduction to my first week of BAD2 thanks for reading!
Friday, 23 May 2014
I ACTUALLY MADE A BOOK!
Ok, so I forgot to take pictures of each stage of the making of my hard back book but I have pictures of the finished piece... No excuse, I'm sorry...
SO! Since I don't have pictures of each stage then I will just have to describe my process! HERE WE GO!
STEP 1: I took pieces of A2 sketchbook pages and cut them into the appropriate size for the book but doubled in width because it needed to be folded in half. each page was folded in half, the instructions call for 4 piles of 8 sheets but I only wanted 24 pages so I created 6 sheets and folded them all in half individually.
STEP 2: Next I cut a piece of fabric the length of the pages but 5 times the width when held together and the bend, and then I glued them to it at the bend with PVA but wrongly, instead of keeping the wings unglued I attached them also to the paper...
STEP 3: After I cut up some greyboard with the bandsaw to the same size as the paper as a spine the same width as the join in the pages.
STEP 4: Then I cut the fabric with an inch extra border to be folded over the greyboard. I covered the greyboard in PVA glue and then placed it face down in its place in the fabric with a small gap between spine and covers.
STEP 5: when all of that was stuck down efficiently I SHOULD have stuck the wings to only the covers of the book not the spine so that it was stable. But because I had screwed up the wings I had to get extra fabric and create new ones and try to attach that to the covers and to the already fabricated pages.... it didn't like me... so I gave up, and when the glue was a little drier I stitched it together... badly.
STEP 6: Then to cover up the botched job I had made of the fabric I covered it with extra paper to be patterned by me later.
So basically... Voila! I had a book at the end. But since my instructions are pretty below par I will give you the link to the tutorial I used
http://www.instructables.com/
SO! Since I don't have pictures of each stage then I will just have to describe my process! HERE WE GO!
STEP 1: I took pieces of A2 sketchbook pages and cut them into the appropriate size for the book but doubled in width because it needed to be folded in half. each page was folded in half, the instructions call for 4 piles of 8 sheets but I only wanted 24 pages so I created 6 sheets and folded them all in half individually.
STEP 2: Next I cut a piece of fabric the length of the pages but 5 times the width when held together and the bend, and then I glued them to it at the bend with PVA but wrongly, instead of keeping the wings unglued I attached them also to the paper...
STEP 3: After I cut up some greyboard with the bandsaw to the same size as the paper as a spine the same width as the join in the pages.
STEP 4: Then I cut the fabric with an inch extra border to be folded over the greyboard. I covered the greyboard in PVA glue and then placed it face down in its place in the fabric with a small gap between spine and covers.
STEP 5: when all of that was stuck down efficiently I SHOULD have stuck the wings to only the covers of the book not the spine so that it was stable. But because I had screwed up the wings I had to get extra fabric and create new ones and try to attach that to the covers and to the already fabricated pages.... it didn't like me... so I gave up, and when the glue was a little drier I stitched it together... badly.
STEP 6: Then to cover up the botched job I had made of the fabric I covered it with extra paper to be patterned by me later.
So basically... Voila! I had a book at the end. But since my instructions are pretty below par I will give you the link to the tutorial I used
http://www.instructables.com/
Monday, 19 May 2014
Statement for Assessments
Ok, so my class can't be the only one needing to complete Statement for Assessments any time they are nearing completion of a brief or project so I thought for future reference I would place up a semi-detailed idea of what should be included in one.
SECTION 1 : Explain what you did in your project - how
- What was the subject matter? like of the drawings etc.
Relate to the outcomes given in the handbook/brief - Strengths
- Weakness
What pathway have you focused on in your project?
SECTION 2 : Evaluate research - How it helped you? What ideas it gave you?
- How you analysed the information you found?
- Things you did or could have tried
- What exactly did you research? eg, artist's books.
SECTION 3 : Explain the experimentation - Mediums you used
- How they join in with your take on the brief
- Why you liked/disliked what you tried
Lists are ok - bullet point certain ideas
SECTION 4 : Transferable skills - Learning & progress
- Time
- Cost
- Skills
What you would have done differently if these things had been different.
This is morely for me but if this helps anyone... yay
SECTION 1 : Explain what you did in your project - how
- What was the subject matter? like of the drawings etc.
Relate to the outcomes given in the handbook/brief - Strengths
- Weakness
What pathway have you focused on in your project?
SECTION 2 : Evaluate research - How it helped you? What ideas it gave you?
- How you analysed the information you found?
- Things you did or could have tried
- What exactly did you research? eg, artist's books.
SECTION 3 : Explain the experimentation - Mediums you used
- How they join in with your take on the brief
- Why you liked/disliked what you tried
Lists are ok - bullet point certain ideas
SECTION 4 : Transferable skills - Learning & progress
- Time
- Cost
- Skills
What you would have done differently if these things had been different.
This is morely for me but if this helps anyone... yay
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