Week 5 Enlarging

This week we made large sculptures of small things using clay. I used a smashed plastic cup which ended up being a bit harder than I thought it would be. It seemed to be almost impossible to get every crease and angle right. After completing the sculpture we had to remove it from the wood board using some wire and then leave it to harden a bit over the next week. Next week it will have to be hollowed out a bit so it has room to move while it dries.

Week 4 Removal of the mask/making coins

This week I got to remove the paper mask from the cast. It was a bit difficult since we had to cut around the edge and carefully peel it away with out either breaking it or cutting yourself. After that it was just a matter of painting the mask and letting it dry. After finishing up the mask we moved on to making negatives for coins. We first had to draw up a design keeping in mind that any words all had to be written backwards. Next we used some pieces of plaster to carve the negative. After that we pressed some clay on to it and there was our coin design.

Week 3-Paper mache

So I learned something very important this week, something I never knew of before but sure wish I did. I learned how to tear paper according to the lines made during the manufacturing process. I also learned that typical wood glue and water is used in paper mache. Using paper towels for the first two layers in order to get the detail was pretty interesting, the air bubbles that form are a real pain. The next six layers of newspaper were not as fun because it got rather monotonous soaking the paper and laying the paper but hopefully the finished product will be worth it.

Week 2 Positives in clay

Today we had to make a positive mold out of clay. The positive would be of a face in order to make a mask. We had to follow some basic anatomy but overall we were free to make it how we saw fit. This was my first time working with clay and it was a pretty fun experience. Remember to get the curve to the face was probably the most difficult part when initially starting out because I was focused on the individual features, not the face as a whole. Once I got past that it was all trial and error in getting the desired results. The nice thing about clay is that you can fix your mistakes and pretend like you never made any, unlike in drawing where your eraser marks would be all over the paper by the end of class. After making the positive we had to make a negative using plaster. Once again another first for me. Learning how to mix and and how to make the first layer was pretty fun. Waiting for it to thicken was not as much fun, but after putting on the thick layer and waiting for it to dry it was pretty neat seeing the final result. Next week is paper mache.