Sculpture 1: Self Portrait Bust

The second project we did for Sculpture 1 was an in the round a self portrait bust made out of clay. My final one was approximately 12in tall, 7in wide, and 8in deep. I didn't get to take proper measurements because I didn't measure before the firing process and my bust exploded during the firing process. Yep, in fact no one had a completed sculpture and all but two completely exploded. I did take a picture before tat happened though.

She doesn't look like me. Related to me? Sure but actual me, not at all. Nonetheless I loved her anyway. I had big plans for her too. I wanted to turn her into a multimedia piece It's not me but us. But well, she blew up. More than likely due to air in the clay, uneven drying, and areas that were too thick such as the hair.

The process was tedious at first. The instructions we followed weren't that great and had terrible pictures with them. It left us pretty dependent on our instructor, but after this project we all had a sit down on how to improve this project for next time.

Will I make another one? Doubtful and if I change my mind it will still be awhile. Now that I have a better idea with what I'm doing, I think it would be much more enjoyable this time. Plus the idea of making bust is really exciting. The problem is the clay really hated my sinuses. I had to wear a mask whenever anyone worked and couldn't stay in the studio with them to long even while they were cover. The mold that started to grow on many people's pieces didn't help either. The impact on my health was worse than the plaster from the relief.

All in all, even though I only have scrap pieces I kept to use for multimedia purposes, it was a highly educational and enjoyable (when I wasn't feeling sick) process.

Sculpture 1 -- Relief Sculpture

So Fall 2015 I took Sculpture 1. Yes I finally got to take the class I've been waiting on since I got back in college. I was pretty cool. I did realize that I don't like working with clay but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Relief Sculpture

Our first project was to make non-objective (devoid of any reference to the natural world), organic (shapes with a natural look and a flowing and curving appearance) relief sculpture. Thee medium we used was plaster and the method was carving. We had to have high, mid, and low reliefs.

We started by mixing our plaster and pouring it into the box above. Then we let it dry and get hard. In the mean time we drew 25 sketches of what we wanted to create.

After it dry we transferred our sketch on the plaster via grid transfer method. The carvinbg then ensued.

After the carving was done we sanded with sandpaper, used turtle was to seal it, painted it with acrylic, and sealed it again.

Tada! Sculpture.

I loved carving. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. I liked the plaster too but it really didn't like me at all. If my masked slipped a little bit, my nose was on fire and if my hands touched to much of it for too long, they itched like crazy.(I wore gloves) Let's not even talk about accidentally touching it left over on my clothes. Yeah... so more carving less plaster. Overall great learning experience.