On Thursday and Friday of last week, we held our end of semester Open Studios. These allowed us to prepare our studios for assessments which occur today (Monday).
Open Studios are open to the public and are essentially mini-exhibits held in the MFA studios. Each student displays his work in his studio. We remove as much of the superfluous stuff as possible (I shoved all my tools and such into a cabinet, for instance), and display the work we’ve done over¬†the¬†past semester.
Running 4-7pm on Thursday and 10-5 on Friday, we, along with undergrads, staff and public, wander through the studios viewing each of the MFA students’ works.
Assessments being done today, and are when the faculty are able to wander through the studios without any disruption. Students are banned from studios from 5pm Friday until tomorrow. They will assess our work and determine our grades.
Nervous? Anxious? Me? RATHER!
But, I keep telling myself that it’s too late to worry about it– the last chance to change anything was Friday. I was able to get the Elephant Mask finished (or at least close…I kinda want to do a bit more on it) and I was able to pull a plaster cast from the mold for my pig mask. While I was working to finish the Elephant Mask, Neil wandered by and gave me some positive comments about it, so hopefully it is currently garnering praise. Who knows? So it goes.
Anyway, below are some photos showing how I finished the elephant. When I brought the armature up from the metal shop, I found that it was awkward, but not too heavy for one person to handle. I realized that I might need to re-think the finishing process. I chose to take a look at the project again, and to do this, I considered my own situation: I had not been commissioned to make this piece; I had no guaranteed place to display it, nor was I certain I could sell it. Therefore, I began to reconsider the final media.
The build-up method of sculpting is a process where the sculptor adds (bit by bit) wet plaster (or similar material) to build the sculpture over the armature. It is essentially an additive process, although you can carve into the damp or dry plaster.  Were I to use this process, even with a base of chicken wire and hessian (burlap) laid over the armature, the weight could easily increase by 50 kilos (110 lbs) or more. Even if I were to use just a thin skin of plaster, I feared the weight would become excessive. I began thinking about alternatives.
I considered leaving the sculpture as it was, simply an armature. It had a lot of interesting lines and shapes, and might have done well without any skin at all if I that had been my intention that from the beginning. As it was, since much of the work on the armature had been done with the intention of covering it up, there were many parts that did not stand up to scrutiny. Add to this that my welding skills, though improved, were by no means good, left me feeling that the craftsmanship was simply not good enough to present the armature itself as a finished piece.
Earlier in the semester, I had noticed another artist in my studio using papier mâché on one of her projects. It occurred to me that I might be able to use hessian (burlap) in the same way. I did some quick research and discovered that fabric is sometimes used instead of paper, so I decided to try it.
My first step was to cover the armature in chicken wire, something I would have had to do no matter which method I used. When I applied the hessian (burlap) I discovered that it was not as supple as paper, nor did it absorb the watered down glue I was using as an adhesive as well as I would have liked. I discovered that soaking it longer helped, and perhaps if I had the opportunity to either pre-soak or perhaps pre-wash all the hessian it would have worked better. Also, since it  did not stick as well to the structure as I had hoped, I resorted to using short lengths of wire shaped into a “U” like hairpins to hold the pieces in place on the chicken wire. This process got me through the skinning of the elephant mask by providing a way to hold the hessian (burlap) pieces against each other and on the structure until they dried. I also painted on a thicker coating of glue like a varnish to cover the majority of the structure, which seemed to help meld the hessian pieces together.
The pig mask is intended to be cast metal, probably bronze–depending on cost, so what I was able to show was really only a mock up. I first sculpted it in wet clay and then made a silicone mould with a plaster mother mould. The mother mould, or matrix, is only used so the the flexible silicone mould stays in shape.
When I removed the mould from the sculpture, much of the clay was damaged (which is normal). In order to show what I was up to, I made a plaster cast from the mould and this was hung on the wall in my studio.
When I go to make the final version, I will pour wax into the mould and slush it around so that I get a relatively thin (1/4 in or so) wax positive. This will be put into a plaster-based investment material and then the wax will be melted out and the bronze poured in.