The start of my clock piece....

So I started to sketch a rough idea of creating a clock... the background of the clock will start off smooth and as the time goes on it becomes wrinkled and older looking.

These are a few rough ideas for the base and the numbering of the clock:

I Decided to use the base idea in the top left hand corner of the first picture. 

I got a bag of clay from ceramics and started to mould it into the shape of hands. I had to use wiring underneath to support the weight of the clay.

I'm quite happy with the results as its the first time I've used clay in at least a year.

The only problem with these to hands is that they don't actually stand on their own because all the weight of the clay is leaning to one side... but the insides are hollow as I used wire for support so I'm hoping that by having a stick like support attached to the base it will keep them standing.

Lets hope they don't decide to break in the kiln :)

-Sinéad

Wrinkles..

So I tried to think of things that resemble the same texture as wrinkles do... and theses are 2 very quick ideas i came up with.

The first idea I came up with was to to simply scrunch up tissue paper into a ball and then stretch it back out leaving it with a wrinkly effect.

The next idea that popped into my head was to blow up a few balloons and let the air some out of the, again. When I did this the stretched rubber of the balloons create wrinkles when all the air has been taken out of it. These are just a few things that remind me of the texture of ageing skin.

-Sinéad

Experimenting with Straws...

By weaving and cross-hatching white paper straws you are able to create so intricate designs. These are very simple to create ad I feel that they depict movement perfectly.

These are some of the designs that I created and they only took a few minutes. I never realised you could create sturdy 3D sculptures by simply using straws :)

-Sinéad

CCS Semester One....

Finally submitted my CCS essay :) Now all my assignments are completed for semester one as I done my CCS tutorial presentation last Thursday. Know to get some serious studio work done before our Christmas holidays... only three weeks :)

-Sinéad

Felt Making Workshop...

Today I went to a Felt Workshop to earn how felt is made. 

First we layered white wool in a cross hatch patter. If you intend on making pockets in the felt you just simply place a piece of fabric and do another layer of white wool on top. Then use small wispy bits of coloured wool to create you design. There's no need to add loads of colour as its so vibrant and the colour gets stronger when it gets wet.You can also attach strings and other materials as long as they can attach themselves to the felt.








When your finished creating your chosen design you add a small amount of liquid soap to hot water and sprinkle onto your design. When you have saturated your piece you the roll it up in fabric or the wooden mats you can see in the picture.

You roll the felt to take out any moisture from the felt. It does get rather soapy so you can rinse it down with warm water. We use war water as it attached the wispy hairs of the felt together more securely than if wee used cold water. When you finished you unroll it and move the felt piece 90 degrees on the mat and roll it again to ensure that all the moisture is removed.

The felt hardens as it dries. The fabric pieces inside the felt that you placed there to create pockets can be removed fairly easy... the felt is strongly attached together so there's no need to be extra careful when taking this fabric out. If the felt is still a bit damp leaving it on top of a radiator will dry it out.

I'm happy with the results... I didn't realise how diverse felt can be and you can pretty much make any shape you want out of it as long as the ideas there.

Buy wrapping the wool around a can you can create rings. Instead of rolling out the water in wooden mats you can simply use you hands to create snake like coils. When the first ring is made by placing it on the can and wrapping the felt around it you can create a chain like structure.

You can wrap the wool around almost any shape to create a felt structure of it. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop and hopefully I can incorporate it into my project in some way.

-Sinéad

Playing with wax

So I've finally photographed the wax casts that i made of my hand to upload to this :)

To make these all I did was put some melted wax into a cup and swirl it around with a paintbrush to cool it down a bit so that I wouldn't burn my hand and then I literally just poured it onto my hand and let it set.

I tried using Vaseline to protect my hand but the wax didn't stick very well so i ended up getting little to no detail and ended up with cats that looked like nothing.

The best thing about these wax casts i think is the fact the wax harden as it dripped off my hand which makes it look a lot more interest and a lot more like movement.

I casted bot the palm of my hadn't and the back of my hands to try and get different effects and I think they both worked out well.

The bottom picture is a cast of the back of my hand and the way the wax has dripped off the sides of my hands and in between my fingers make it the most interesting.

This was really simple to do but I think it turned out really effective :)

-Sinéad

Time

After lots of brainstorming i have decided that hands is a very specific theme. I've decided to look at time and the ageing of objects.. hands included. I plan on looking at how the size, texture, shape and mobility of objects change with time. At the minute I'm going to stay looking at the changing of hands and skin but i then plan on venturing out a bit and looking at different objects. I think time is a very interesting topic as no one really knows how to record time and I look forward to the challenge of trying to.

When i think of time changing the first film that pops into my head is 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' written by Eric Roth and directed by David Fincher.

I think this film closely relates to my project of time and many aspects of this film have inspired me. When people think of ageing they think of young skin getting old but seeing old skin getting younger, old bones getting younger.

It made me think a lot about when you're young, your bones aren't strong enough to be functional... and when your old your bones are too brittle to function. Its almost like your body goes back to a childish state when you've used it for so many years.

I'm all excited to look at the project from this point of view because its a lot more interesting has has a lot more room for creative ideas. Lets hope it all goes to plan :)

-Sinéad

A day in the casting rooms..

I decided to make a cast of my hand to record the different creases that are formed when your hand moves into different shapes and positions. I did this during one of the 3D workshops that i went to in the college and i found it super fun :)

To start I had to build a cylinder shape structure to 

support the alginate that I was going to make this plaster cast.

Then we mixed the alginate with water to make a liquid which I poured into the cylinder shaped structure that I had already made.

So i sat down, made the shape with my hand that I wanted to freeze in plaster and popped it into the alginate.

It took around 10 minutes for the alginate to dry. At that start it was tough to keep my hand still cause I couldn't touch it off the top on bottom and because it was still a liquid there was nothing to support my hand but as the alginate dried it started to harden around my hand.

Trying to pull my hand out was probably the most difficult part because the more you moved it the more you could effect the final cast.When i did get my hand out I mixed plaster and water and poured it into the cast I made. The plaster took about three hours to fully dry and the the fun began.

I had to slowly peel the alginate away using a cutting knife.. and because the fingers were so delicate I had to take extra care. Surprisingly I managed not to break any of them off :)

THE END RESULT.....

I was happy with the end result.. but because I bent my fingers when I was putting them in the alginate the plaster didn't reach the tips of my fingers. But I know for next time... plus I wasn't really interested in the detail of the fingers.. although it would have been good to get the full hand.

I was surprised about how much detail this type of casting is able to capture. I done this cast so i could investigate the creases of hands in more detail so i was delighted with the results :)

-Sinéad