Blog Discontinued

Blog temporarily discontinued

Time for rethink

Had Crit today and I got lots of positive feedback for my wire sculpture which was really good, but lots of people liked the unfinished sculpture as an abstract piece, obviously it needs refining but I am now unsure what to do!!!!!!! Some already think there is a tenderness and vulnerability about the piece, so I need to have a deep and meaningful conversation with myself on how to proceed.

Wire sculpture continues

I've progressed slightly since yesterdays post and here are a few pics bringing my sculpture up-to-date.  I think the open evening at the Workstation will be March 13th so very little time and a lot more to do.

EINFUHLUNG Art work

Our group exhibition is looming and I needed to start the piece I had decided upon.  Not a good start because I changed my mind several times, from figurative to abstract back to figurative, the only definite was that I wanted to produce something in wire! I have been inspired by the word Introspection which means observation of ones own mental and emotional state. My idea is to produce a wire figure positioned on a mirror base looking back at herself, this could change as it develops. Here are a few pics of my work in the earlt stages.

This work is very labour intensive and painful. I usually start off wearing gloves for about 2 minutes then I have to take them off.  I do like to feel the wire as I am creating the sculpture. I have progressed a little further than this and I will post more pics next time.

EINFUHLUNG (empathy)

I'm currently working as one of a group of 6 artists who are curating and producing an exibition at the Workstation Sheffield (see above) week commencing 12th March, opening date and preview yet to be arranged. The second photograph shows the corner where hopefully my sculpture will be displayed.
Einfuhlung is a german word suggested by Jannine one of the group meaning 'feeling into and projection of personality into the object of contemplation', which resonates with everyones artwork so this was readily accepted as the group name.
This will be my first foray into an abstract piece of sculpture inspired by the word 'introspection' an observation of one's own mental and emotional state, the act of looking within. Once again I am concentrating on wire sculpture as I really enjoyed working with wire to create the skull (see previous), but I just hope this abstract piece will give me as much creative satisfaction as the skull did! I had originally intended to make a full figure out of wire, but the time constraints and the density I would like to produce for this sculpture would not be realistic for the exhibition date.
I already have some chicken wire left from before and I have salvaged some rusty springs from my next door neighbours settee he's dismantled, in fact he'd saved them for me (thanks Phil) knowing my love for bits of discarded ephemera! I am hoping I can incorporate them in my sculpture we'll just have to see how it evolves. New chicken wire has cost me £43, as I need to produce on a larger scale, I hope I don't have to buy any more. I'm thinking of a mirror base and maybe mirror pieces in the sculpture who knows? Once I have started I will post some photographs to show progress and development.

Chicken wire to the rescue

I've made small items out of wire before but last October I decided I wanted to try and create a skull out of wire. Pottering in the garden I found a roll of chicken wire behind the shed and decided this would be ideal to use. I also liked the idea of using something for this project that had been used for a different purpose and was now discarded.

The development of this piece was lengthy and time consuming but ultimately very satisfying.  Chicken wire is not user friendly and I started off wearing gloves but this was not satisfactory, they were soon discarded and although I ended up with scratches and cuts it was definitely more satisfying feeling the wire with your hands as you worked.
I had initially not intended to make the wire sculpture as dense as this but it was a natural progression and it seemed the right thing to do. I ran out of the discarded chicken wire long before I had finished this sculpture and did need to buy more, but I was very pleased with the result.  If you want to see the finished piece go to my website for further pictures.

Two faced!

I enjoy experimenting with different materials and last year I decided to try taking face moulds and casting in different materials.  I have previously used mod roc when casting body parts(relax only hands and arms......so far) but, felt that results with mod roc varied.  So, after researching further I discovered alginate. This is non toxic powder made from seaweed(good) and you mix with water and need to use immediately as it dries literally in minutes (not so good)and within 5-10 mins dries.  You need to support the alginate with mod roc because it goes floppy unsupported. You can remove from the part you are casting, once the mod roc dries. As usual hubby volunteered and on the second attempt (the first mix dried immediately) the result was really good.
The alginate picked up the slightest imperfections very easily. I had mixed results with the casting and unfortunately air bubbles in the alginate caused a few problems but overall the moulds were really good. The only disappointment was that I could not use this alginate as a mould for casting resin. Unfortunately there is too much moisture in the alginate and the cast would not be successful.  This is a future project to cast a resin head.  If you are interested in seeing the results visit my webpage for more pics.