7.02.2011

  CAST . PHOTOGRAPH . DISPLAY    

Fingers crossed

Throughout my four week period of sculpture, in my own time at home after buying the materials, i was able to cast sections of my body and other people's. Keeping on the same topic throughout my art subject, i chose to cast hands in various positions, such as fingers crossed, or a simple tensing the hand to create a claw. I also made a cast my sister's face, just keeping the forehead and the eyes, this was actually because the alginate set too fast to finish the whole face. However, learning throughout my mistakes i've grown to like the outcome and feel it's better than what I originally planned. Such as a cast of my foot. I didn't mix enough alginate, therefore the end result turned out pretty flat but keeping the very fine details. 

My friend's hand, the claaaaaaw!

Missing thumbs that had broken off.

    COMPARING DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES     

Using alginate and moulding powder.

Throughout this project, i've learnt to use different types of material to cast with. With the first face (above) I simply used alginate and moulding powder. In this process I mixed the alginate with water and quickly placed over her face after applying vaseline. Once drying I put a layer of Plaster of Paris to keep in shape and not to flop. I then mixed the moulding powder with water and drizzled it into the cast. The end result looks better than I imagined and even with the excess bits on the forehead, it still looks great.

Using Plaster of Paris and moulding powder.

  

I chose a different material on my friend's face (right). In this process i simply just used Plaster of Paris. Cutting strips of around 3cm, I dunked them into water and placed on the face after applying vaseline. Once dripped I peeled off the cast and mixed moulding powder with water and dizzled into it. I found that this process didn't have a very defined end result, capturing his wrinkles, eyebrows or eyelashes rather than my previous attempt. 

So if i would chose to use either one to cast something that involves detail, i would most definitely chose the alginate process, because it grips onto every little detail from wrinkle to eyebrow hair and the end result is most definitely rewarding.

EXPERIMENTING WITH MY HANDS 

I was wondering on what to do with the hands i produced, so i started to just mess around and place them on top of each other to see what it'll look like.

  PRODUCING A LATEX SKIN OF A FEMALE 

 

Within my four lessons, I was developing my final piece, i wanted to still keep the human figure and parts in mind so with a lot of thought I decided to create a latex skin from a female mannequin that had previously been punched and creating a story behind it could be endless.

"Woman found beaten to death and skinned!"

 I started off by placed wire over the mannequin to protect it, then a layer of scrim over the entire body with clay, i was then able to punch several times over the whole thing.

Punching the clay.

 I then used Latex which i had never used before, so it was a whole new experience. I put three coats over the clay. I found that working with latex can be quite easy, apart from the hideous smell!
Once dried, i was able to peel the latex skin off. I cut and teared and washed it to re-form the woman's figure. I found that latex isn't very good at keeping the detail withing the fists from the punches but you can still see what has happened if you look closely.

Latex skin of female body.

I found it very enjoyable working with a new material and now knowing the technique I want to use it for anything. Such as.. possibly making a coat!







After this process I then decided to keep a mould of my own, by then using the same clay with the punch marks and covering it with a mixture of moulding powder and water to have a sort of reversed piece. Keeping the punch marks on the inside of the body.