Carving my way Through Hell

Perhaps the most difficult project I tackled during the Beginning Sculpture class last fall was carving. As I like to tell anyone who will listen (and even those who don't), I am a CREATOR and not a DESTROYER. That is to say, carving is an activity commonly enjoyed by those individuals who occupy the outer ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell.

The assignment sounded simple: carve something out of a solid something else. The instructor provided plaster, and since I had paid a $15 materials fee and plaster was only one of two materials to be provided all semester, I wanted to get my damned money's worth and use some plaster! Plaster, for you lucky uninitiated, starts out as a white powder and hardens once mixed with water. It will take on whatever shape it's poured into (a process called "molding"). I had very little experience with carving, and decided I would create something that was non-representational so it wouldn't have to be recognizable as something else. Using a rectangular box as a mold, I was going to carve out three long, curving tendrils (think, aloe vera leaves) that point up, attached to a square base. After 2.5 weeks of class time (~6 hours a week, so a total of nearly 15 hours), I was no where near done, and the project was due during the next class. So I made three new molds of three different sized plastic food storage bins, and frantically tried to figure out something to carve.

I settled on three stylized birds of different sizes. The littlest is my favourite. Click here for more equally crappy photos of them.

The problem was that when I mixed the plaster and water, I used WAY too much water, and even after it was set, the plaster was too wet to really work with. So I baked the three molds at 250 degrees for something like 5 hours. That dried them out VERY nicely. So nicely, in fact, that the slightest brushing a finger would mar the surface. Which make carving even more difficult, and made preserving them nearly impossible. I tried using a water-soluble varnish on them, and besides turning them yellow, it's flaking off like crazy. I think when the weathers a bit more predictable (and I'm motivated to do so), I'll use a white spray paint on them and hope I can get it thick enough that it'll stick.

Squeezing the Life Out of Weeds Plants

My mom insisted that my two brothers, sister and I took specific projects in 4-H when we were kids. Our first year, we had to take Helping Mom & Dad (a ploy to get us to pitch in more) and Idaho Wildlife (in hopes of fostering naturalist feelings towards our native fauna). The second year, we could take one project of our choosing, and we also had to take a project on native weeds plants. Now, for me, that was torture. By that time, I had spent a summer out in the bean fields, grudgingly weeding (or, as I like to say, Hoe-ing. Yeah, so I can tell people that I was a professional Ho-er by the time I was 11. I get some craaaazy looks, and it amuses me so). I hated weeds and had no appreciation for their non-weedy kin. But I really wanted to take the other project (cooking, I believe), so I took up the flora cause and spent the summer collecting, pressing and preserving the various native and non-native weeds plants of Idaho's Snake River Plain. Yee-haw. (I guess there's some lesson in knowing one's enemy)

Why am I mentioning it? Because one of things we had to do as part of the project was create a weed plant press. And my mom's design was, quite honestly, ingenious, and I don't think I've seen it replicated. And lately, I've had this URGE to squeeze the life-blood out of the weeds plants that litter my landscape. So I decided to recreate my mom's ingenious weed plant press, and take some piccies of the finished product. Because, you know, *someone* might be planning on forcing their kidlets into taking a Flora Preservation/Appreciation project in 4-H or they're trying to foster some young naturalist tendencies in their precocious offspring.

Supplies:

• Pre-finished Pegboard (~2' x 4' is sufficient) Mine has an enameled finishon one side, bare on the other
• Long machine screws with round ends. Mine are 3" and 1.5"
• Matching washers
• Matching wing nuts
• Jig or table saw
• Newspaper or Corrugated cardboard

I didn't bother to take pictures of the process, as I was lazy and didn't think they'd add much (and I made enough mistakes that I would have felt embarrassed to have documented them).

First, I cut the pegboard into two 17" segments (leaving me a good amount left over), giving me two 17" x 24" boards. I cut ~10 off the length of these, making them ~17" x 14". Next, I put wrong-sides together (be sure to do this!!), and lined up the holes. I then used the table saw to cut off the excess. I did the same thing with the two 10" x 17" remnants, and then cut them in half length-wise, so I had two more small presses (I'll give one to my friend who loves wildflowers).

That's all it takes (plus the screws, washers, and wing nuts)--the press is now ready to use. All you have to do is take the screws and one washer per screw, and thread them through the four corners of one of pieces of pegboard. Layer newspaper (or corrugated cardboard; whatever floats your boat), a single layer of weeds plants, then more newspaper, then more weeds plants, etc etc. After a reasonable number of layers, add the matching piece of pegboard and slide it over the screws. Add the second washer and screw it down using the wing nuts. Et voilà! An easy to use, easy to assemble weed plant press. For the larger press, I added a second set of screws/washers/wing nuts to the center of the lengthwise edge on each side, just to give it a bit more pressing power. The holes of the pegboard allow enough air to penetrate through the newspaper to adequately dry the weeds plants. It might not be as fancy-schmancy as some retail plant presses, but it works well for me!

I bought the 2' x 4' sheet of pegboard from Home Depot for $6.15. The screws, washers, and wing nuts cost $6.66 (freaked out the cashier!). So for around $14, I have three rather nice, quite kick-assery weed plant presses. Awesome.

Click for more pictures, although they're just different shots of the same thing :o)

And, for good measure, a picture of Albert.

Birds of a Feather

The second medium that we worked with in my sculpture class was wire. The assignment sounded easy: using wire, create one sculpture that appears heavy, and one sculpture that appears light. We were to consider our materials, the colour, and the visual weight of our method when creating our sculptures (thin wire appears lighter than thick wire, silver wire appears lighter than black wire, simple lines appear lighter than tightly wound lines).

The first night of class at the beginning of the semester, when the instructor briefly talked about the materials we would be using, I had an instant idea of what I wanted to make out of wire. I was so excited about it that I couldn't get my mind to stop thinking about it when I went to bed, so I finally got up and grabbed my sketchbook and made a lovely scribble of the idea. Then I could sleep. I really wanted to make a bird.

My grandma was a great collector of bird sculptures. By then end of her life, she had (literally) hundreds of bird sculptures and trinkets. The curio cabinet she had commissioned was CRAMMED full of them. They perched on window sills and graced tabletops. They peaked out from behind books, and were gracefully poised on the floor. Now, 5 years after her death, I still have the fleeting "Grandma would like this" thought every time I pass a bird on a shelf. While my grandma's love of birds wasn't really the motivation for the sculpture, I can't help but draw a connection between the two.

So, for the first sculpture (heavy), I took some tie wire (the stuff used to tie rebar together) and wound it into a pear shape--this was the body. I got my Crawford on and cut up some wire hangers. I bent one length in half, and then bent the ends on themselves so they formed a "V" and then inserted it into the larger part of the body for the head. Then I wound more tie wire around the wire hanger to form a ball, with the two "V" shapes still poking out to form the beak. I created the wings using more hanger and bent them in the same manner as the head/beak, and attached them to the side of the body. I then wound more tie wire around them to cover up the hanger--when I got to the tip of the wings, I changed the way I wound the wire from vertical to horizontal, and I pinched the end of the horizontal to form feathers. The tail was formed the same way as the wing (vertical winding around the base, horizontal winding around the end). (I can't describe the process very well, and I didn't take pictures!). I then wove different gauges of jewelry wire and galvanized steel wire (22, 24, 28, 32 gauge) through the tie wire. I wanted the surface to have an almost stitched-together appearance, and weaving the wire achieved that.

For the bases of the two pieces, I wanted to take a stab at creating hypertufa, which I had read about on blogs last spring. It's basically faux stone made out of Portland Cement, Peat Moss, and Vermiculite/Peralite. I followed this recipe, and used the bottom of milk carton for the Heavy sculpture (I made it as square as I could) and the bottom of a small gift box for the Light sculpture. After the hypertufa had set a bit, I stick in more pieces of wire hanger (bent into a "U" shape, with the rounded part above the hypertufa) for the Heavy piece, and a length of welding rod in (bent into an "L" shape with the vertical part above the hypertufa) for the Light piece. After it was completely set, I bent the "U" so it went up vertically from the base, and then bent at a 45 degree angle about two inches up. For the Light base, I bent the rod into a curved shape similar to a shepherd's crook with an upward curve at the end.

After the bases were finished, I took the Heavy base and wound jewelry wire around the entire length of exposed hanger. I took four lengths of tie wire and bent two into a "U" shape, and then bent the ends so they faced down. The other two I kept straight, but I bent the ends down. I then attached a "U" shape and a straight wire to each "leg" of the hanger above the base. These formed the feet of the bird. I wound more jewelry wire around the feet/toes/legs of the bird, until I was satisfied that they looked sufficiently bird-like. Then I attached the body of the bird to the bent "U" of the hanger using tie wire and jewelry wire, and camouflaged the hanger as well as I could.

All in all, I'm EXTREMELY happy with how my Heavy piece turned out. It fits almost exactly what I had visualized when I was thinking of the project, and I think it successfully fit the parameters of the Heavy project. I think I took about 15 hours to make this bird (though at least some of that was because I'd never used wire for anything aside from unlocking doors or pulling trapped chip bags out of vending machines).

Everyone thought it was apropos that it looked like a Raven, considering Halloween is approaching. I think it's beautiful, and I'll happily keep it out year round. I was actually proud enough of it that I SHOWED it to someone at work!

What I did for the Light piece was a bit more of a let down. Basically, I used 18 gauge wire to create the outline of a bird in flight. I used as little wire as I could get away with--3 separate lengths (one for the body/tail, two for each set of wings). It's not my best work, but it fit the parameters of the project.
One of my classmates liked the Light piece a LOT and asked what I was going to do with it. I said I didn't know, and she said that she would love to have it. So it's now cluttering up her room, I presume (or sitting in the trunk of her car, or populating the bottom of a waste bin....).

Click here for more pictures of the project.

Beginning Sculpture: Medium #1 (Continued)

For the final project of Medium #1 (Foam Core Board), I had to create something that was a "walk-through" sculpture. Based on the cryptic description from the hand out the instructor provided us, I thought a walk-through sculpture was one where the viewer interacted with the piece, where they could easily see top and bottom of the piece but would need to move their entire body (not the piece itself) to do so. So I decided to create a mobile--dunno why, it just made sense.

I decided early one I wanted to do something involving a tessellation. I always loved the Escher tessellations, and thought it would be awesome to make one into a mobile. Since it was kind of a theme with the other projects in the medium, I went with a simple leaf pattern. I laboured through one whole class period (6pm-9pm) trying to get the pattern right, where all the angles matched up. I failed and I cried and I thought about mass executions. I then tried to make the tessellation using a graphics program, but the angles didn't match up. I failed and I cried and I thought about mass executions. Finally, I buckled, found the tessellation of a leaf that I liked, printed it out, cut out one of the leaves, blacked it out, enlarged it via photocopy and printed it on a card stock sheet of paper. I then laminated it with packing tape, cut it out, and used it as a template. I cut as many leaves as I could using the left over foam core I had. After I cut them out using a very sharp Xacto knife, I peeled the top layer of poster board from one side of half of the leaves. In the other stack of leaves, I flipped them over and peeled the new top layer of poster board. After that, I used a blunt point to "etch" a vein pattern onto the top and bottom of all the leaves, then strung two together using fishing filament; I used different lengths of filament. After all of them were paired off and strung together, I attached them to a simple T-shaped hanger (two strips of straight-cut foam core glued together). Et Voila! A simple mobile. Here's the piccies:

Click here for more.

Beginning Sculpture: Medium #1

As you might or might not be aware, I'm taking a Beginning Sculpture class at the local CC. Throughout college, I always *meant* to take a sculpture class, because I have it in my mind that I could be very good at sculpture (no false modesty here!). It never worked into my schedule, and I wasn't too enamored with the professor that taught the class. Then when I started taking classes at the CC, all of the art studio classes were taught during the day or on Saturdays, and I couldn't justify taking a 3 hour block out of work M/W mornings for a hobby class. This fall semester was the first time I noticed the sculpture class being offered at night, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and brave the horrible parking situation at the CC and just take the class.

The first night of class, the professor handed out the syllabus and schedule, and a few supplemental sheets of information including a list of the four types of "three dimensionality:" low relief, one-sided, full round, and walk through. He told us our first medium would be foam core board (for those of you unfamiliar with it, it's basically two sheets of poster board glue to either side of a mm thick piece of low-density foam). He preferred we use white board, and if we HAD to use some other colour, we had to justify its use. And if we HAD to use some other paper material, we had to justify its use. Even after paying a $15 materials fee on top of standard registration, we have to provide the VAST majority of our own supplies--something I never had to deal with at the private liberal arts school I went to for college. He talked about low relief sculpture, and used the example of a coin--the image on the coin is considered low relief, and then set us about to work. Unfortunately, I missed the second class sessions because of car issues, and showed up the third class session with a vague idea as to the low relief sculpture I was going to make using my foam core board. At some point during this class session, the professor mentioned we would have to have all four of our sculptures ready for evaluation the following Wednesday (to the utter dismay of everyone in the class, because at no point during the preceding class sessions did he tell anyone that we had to complete a sculpture for each of the four types of three dimensionality). So I got busy this weekend and got three of the four projects done. I have NO idea what I'm going to do for the fourth one...poo.

Low Relief Sculpture. This is the one I created first. Outside the classroom, there's a large free-standing enclosed stair well that connects the lower campus to the upper campus. It rises about three stories. It's cinder block, and at one point, it's very clear that it used to be COVERED in ivy that has since died off. All the remains, clutched to the cinder block, are fragments of dead stems, leaves, and the debris that got caught. For some reason, I find it fascinating, and I decided I would use it as inspiration for my first project. I took the foam core board and laid out a grid of bricks and mortar. I cut through the top layer of poster board and the foam core, and stopped cutting before I completely pierced the back layer of poster board. I carefully dug out the foam core, leaving behind small pieces of foam, and the backside of the back poster board. I then carefully pealed off the very top of the poster board around the bricks, leaving behind the rough paper (to simulate the texture of brick). I used the strips of foam that I had pulled away from the "mortar" to make the stems of the ivy, rolled them in my fingers so they had a slightly tubular shape, and hot-glued them to the bricks and mortar. The slightly larges pieces of foam core that were left over were formed into loose leaf shapes and glued on the board, as well. All in all, I'm happy with how it turned out, though I'm not sure someone would know what it's meant to be by just looking at it. I'm quite happy that I managed to make the entire sculpture out of one piece of foam core and glue :o)

One-Sided Sculpture. Next I tackled the one-sided sculpture. I'm not 100% certain as to what differentiates a one-sided sculpture from a low relief work, as the professor never explained it and the sheet he handed out was a bunch of gibberish, but I took a stab at it anyway. Last week, one of the neighbours' cats killed a bird in my backyard. There were feathers ALL over the place. I quite like birds and I quite like feathers, so I grabbed one of the feathers, washed it with anti-bacterial soap (see, Mom, I did listen at least once during my childhood!), dried it, and set about recreating it in paper. I loosely sketched out a feather on a sheet of white card stock. For the quill/rachis part of the feather, I used a pick to gently mar the surface of the paper, and then cut out the feather shape. I cut tiny, thin strips from the paper to simulate the soft after feathers closest to the quill. Then I cut the barbs along the length of the father, making as tiny, thin strips as I could with scissors. As the paper was cut, it curled gently, which nicely simulated real barbs. After completing all the cuts, I gently molded the marred center quill/rachis so that it was slightly raised, and then mounted the whole feather on the foam core, using strips of foam core to raise the feather from the surface. I *think* it qualifies as a one-sided sculpture!

Full Round Sculpture. Lately, I've been really interested in leafless trees (as evidenced by the large drawing I did for the down stairs bathroom back in March, and the smaller drawings I've been working on since then that I'll eventually frame and post). For this project, I wanted to make a leafless tree sculpture. I cut two similarly sized trunks/large branch pieces from the foam core, cut a slot down the top side of one trunk and along the botton side of the other trunk, so when the were matched together, they would form a standing tree shape. I then cut 4-more quarter trunks (flat side with the opposite side bring the trunk) with more branches sprouting from the top. I used my Xacto knife to bevel the straight edge of each quarter trunk piece so that when I glued them to the free-standing trunk, they would fit nicely. Bleh--it's really hard to describe it, and I didn't think to take pictures of the steps, so I just sketched out what I did here:

I then hot glued the quarter trunk pieces to the free standing trunk, making sure all bottom edges were flat and level.

After the base was formed, I used more card stock and cut random branch shapes. I then cut holes in the branch portion of the foam core tree and inserted the card stock branches into the holes. In most instances, they held quite easily to the foam core--I hot glued a few of them to keep them in place. I then created a 4" x 1" base for the sculpture using more foam core (cut one 4"x4" piece, two 1"x4" and two 1" x 3-5/8" pieces, and hot glued them together. I then put a whole heaping gob of hot glue on the top of the base, and set my tree sculpture on top, wedging it into the glue to ensure proper adhesion.

I didn't want a stark base, so I decided I needed some leaves. To make the leaves, I used more card stock and used by pick to draw a straight line down the length of paper. I then created a chevron pattern on either side of the line, again using the pick. Then I cut the line/chevron strip off the paper, used the line as the center point and folded the strip in half length-wise. I then cut out crescent shapes that, when flattened, formed leaves. I varied the size and shape of the leaves I cut out. Next, I glued the leaves to the base using tacky craft glue, trying to cover the entire base and the hot glue as much as possible. Here's the finished product:

And a close up shot of the leaves/base/trunk. I'm pleased with the leaves, especially.
Since all of the projects were done on white paper/foam core board and I'm not an ace photographer, the pictures didn't turn out spectacularly, so keep that in mind. Click here for more pictures of the projects. As I make more pieces, I'll update the blog/Flickr gallery.

Container Gardening for Dummy

Last spring, several Home Improvement/Decorating blogs were a frenzied with hanging succulent gardens created with Whirly Hanging Candleholders from CB2. Cute, to be sure. I was reminded that during college, I invariably had a hanging fishbowl that I fashioned out of a clear glass replacement light globe I snagged at the local Ace Hardware. I wrapped the lip with wire, and suspended it from the ceiling using a plant hook. It worked wonderfully, and was the happy home to a series of gold fish and betas (after I figured out that gold fish DO NOT do well in tiny enclosed spaces). When I moved to California, I took my suspended fish tank with me, and it hung in the kitchen of the first house I lived in, where it promptly sat neglected and became a happy home for massive amounts of algae. At some point, a rowdy roommate smashed the globe, and that was that.

After seeing the various incarnations of the hanging succulent garden using the Whirly Hanging Candleholders, I figured that my hanging fishbowl idea would work just as well, so I trundled down to my local Ace Hardware store and picked up three clear glass replacement light globes. Then to Home Depot to get some succulents ($1.79 each) and some Miracle Grow Cactus and Succulent Mix potting soil. I also got some polish river rock for aquariums (a bag of small pebbles and a bag of large pebbles).

First, I took some malleable wire and wrapped the lip of the glass globe around 5 times. Before twisting the loose ends together, I took (2) 4" lengths of the same wire and looped it under the wire around the rim--these pieces would later be used to attach the globe to some chain. I twisted the ends around each other as I pulled the wrapped wire as tight around the lip as I could.

After the wire was attached, I placed about 1/2 cup of the small river rock in the bottom of the blog. Then I scooped in about a cup and a half of the Cactus Mix potting soil. After removing the succulent from its retail holder, I loosened the roots and broke away some of the potting soil, and then placed the succulent in the globe. Since the opening for the globe is quite small and my Big German Hands are big, it took quite some maneuvering to get it placed and settled. I really gently mixed some of the potting soil with the small river rock pebbles, to provide for good drainage. After I felt the succulent was sufficiently anchored, I covered the leaves with an inverted plastic soufflé cup (any small cup would work) to protect the leaves as I sprinkled in some larger river rock pebbles along the surface of the soil. Although the larger pebbles are for aesthetics, I think they make it look purty. When all three succulents were planted, I gave them a thorough watering, and cleaned the inside of the visible glass surface.

I wanted to put my succulent garden in the arched south-facing window in the foyer, as it gets excellent light year round, and is visible from the street/parking pad and is a favourite perching spot for the kitties. I found the center of the window and inserted a swivel ceiling hook into the arch frame, and then put two more hooks equal-distance from the center hook. Next, I attached some chain to the globe, using one of the 4" lengths of wire I had inserted into the wrap before twisting the wire tight around the lip of the globe. A few twists and wraps, and it was secured. I then figured out how far I wanted the globe to drop, and cut the chain and secured the other side of the chain. I did this for all three globes. After I was done, I marveled at my cute little garden and vowed I would do my best to keep them alive. Since they're succulents that love light and warmth, and require infrequent watering, there's a good change I might not kill them right away. Keep your fingers crossed!

The hanging garden! The window is double-paned, and there's some spotting between the panes from condensation, so I promise you the inside and outside of the window is nice and clean--it's between the panes that isn't. And there's no way to clean between the panes without breaking one of them. Drat.
This is Crassula Argentea Compacta, or Compact Mini Jade. The neighbour to the left used to have massive jade plants, but for some reason they killed them off over the last year. Tis sad, as I'm sure the plants were at least 50 years old.
This is Echeveria 'Ramillette.' It reminds me of artichokes.

This is Graptoveria 'Moonglow.' As the leaves die, they turn a nice pink-orange (notice that one is already dying. Poo).
Click for more pictures of the succulent garden.

Mountain Landscape

My friend Mickey asked me to make a birthday card for his wife's birthday, and since I'm quite fond of Mickey and Carrie, I immediately agreed (despite having many unfinished projects looming over me, and school starting).

Mickey's only direction was that he and Carrie would be spending the upcoming weekend in the mountains, and since they're both avid back packers, something mountain/wildflower themed would be nice. I waited until inspiration struck, and decided to do a multi-medium piece, using graphite (I'm just getting back into graphite, after not using it for art purposes for nearly 9 years), watercolour, and Prismacolours.

First, I found a photograph of mountains that I liked by searching with Google Images. I sketched it out on a 5x7 piece of card stock with my graphite pencils. I've forgotten how much I enjoy graphite, how easily it blends and erases. I was a bit clumsy to start out, but quickly remembered how easy and forgiving it is to work with. After I was satisfied with the black & white portion of the card, I took a separate sheet of card stock and sketched out the area I would need to cover. Next, I used some masking medium and a paint brush to "dot" the paper randomly, not really caring too much about the shape of the dots and their arrangement. I then used my trust water-soluble watercolour pencils in light green, dark green, light brown, and dark brown to fill in between the dots. A quick wash with a barely moist paint brush later, and I had a nice background for my wildflower field. After the paper dried, I used an eraser to remove the masking medium, which resisted the paint, leaving white dots behind. I then used my Prismacolours to fill in the white dots. Finally, I cut the wildflower field out and glued it to the original 5x7 card.