Final pictures (well, kinda)

Marble

I mixed marble powder with resin (again, not gel coat) as my texts have given a nice range of marble outcomes. I gives its own 'imperfections', whereas mixing in pigments just makes it look a bit false. I've done the same for the base. They've both come out alright, but the head is a bit bubbly. After working some ink into them, it gave quite a nice chaotic look, but I think I might have to do another for the show. I'll give it some time.

Flavoured base

I played around with applying bits of resin in irratic, random flicks, and mixed up resin with bronze powder, marble powder and blue and red pigment. It feels a bit like alchemy.. which is fun. A technique worth remembering if I need to make a massive belgian chocolate chunk.......

Mark Prent Technique

Opened up the cast I made using the layered Mark Prentish technique, but it hasn't worked. There is no good translucency. Next time use less slate powder filler.

Colouration & Rusting

I've got a book out the library called 'The colouring, bronzing and patination of metals' by Hughes and Rowe. Much of the content isn't relevent to me now, but one idea stands out as perhaps worth trying. They call it Particle/Sawdust Technique. Basically it means using sawdust or wood shavings or something similar to keep the surface of the metal moist and allow oxyidisation. You can also pigment the surface with this technique. Maybe I could get sawdust from the technicians and immerse a cast using this..

Iron

Today I mixed iron powder with resin, not gel coat, so I could use more iron powder to get a similar consistency for working with, but more surface iron. It came out pretty well, so i'll put it in salty water tomorrow to corrode it. Here it is after a bit of wire-wooling:

Mark Prent

This artist seems to be of acclaim in the dark surrealist art underworld. Here's a quote from his website http://www.markprent.com/ :

"Mark Prent is still making sculptures, but his materials-of-choice have changed from polyester resin and fiberglass to pigmented silicone "skins" over gypsum-polymer "skeletons." The technique involved is similar to the signature method that he developed in the early 1970's with polyester resin, that of builiding-up multiple reverse layers of translucent pigmented material to achieve a believable vitality in the cast positive."

Link on the right to see some of his work.

The idea of building up layers of translucency may be a nice idea with different ratios of resin and slate powder....

22nd Nov

Yesterday and the last couple of days have been spent:

• Making a pentagonal base out of mdf, using a jig and angling the circular saw at 45 degrees, then tidying it up with sand-sealer and primer and sanding and sanding and sanding.
• Making a silicon mould of the pentagon.
  
• Last thing on friday I coated the inside of the 'Abandoned' mould with fibreglass resin mixed with lots of iron powder, so I've got time to corrode it this week. On monday i'll have to lay-up the inside with fibreglass matting for strength.
  
• I also mixed up resin with slate powder for the pentagonal base. On monday i'll have to lay-up more fibreglass with some steel in to give it weight. From my tests I found that slate powder gives nice chaotic lines and imperfections, which hopefully shall happen with this cast.
  

Onyx

I found that onyx powder mixed with resin gives a degree of shrinkage which is quite substantial when applying it to my base. it resulted in the base warping, although the warping is quite even, so it could be used specifically for that..

Artist Assistants

Not that I particularly want to become an Igor-like sidekick figure to an artist, but in some cases help is needed for artists to realise their visions. Also, I want to touch on potential industry context for this kind of project.

Here's a few examples of art that has used technicians in its creation:

Here's a link to a Guardian article on artist assistants:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2003/oct/12/art

17th Nov

Today I removed the fibreglass form the clay, tidied it up (with an oscillating saw - an excellent piece of kit) and poured some of the silicone into the mould. The workshop shut at a very inconvenient time, so I have to pour the rest of the silicone tomorrow, which is only a time issue.

Learnings:

• Vaseline is a far superior release agent in comparison to lacquer and mac-wax when used between fibreglass and clay.
• On cavity moulds keep the in-between clay to gauge the amount of silicon you'll need, as apparently they weigh a similar amount.
• Never start a pour when the workshop is about to close.

Update

When mixing the silicone with thixotropic I managed to use a ridiculous amount resulting in numerous frowns from other students who needed some thixo and my silicon mould being useless..

But ah well! So I learnt how much thixo not to use by primary bad experience, which is always a good teacher. Also, I went about changing the mould type on Paul's recommendation to a matrix/cavity mould, where you encase the sculpt in a cling-film and then 8mm or so clay jacket, fibrglass over the jacket (in this case two-parts), remove the clay and fill the gap with silicone. So far I have layed-up one side of this mould, but its moving forward and I didn't lose much time overall from the thixo fuck up. And now I know two different moulding techniques..... splendid.

Finished shape

Just need to add the texture now...

Today I av mostly bin..

Aside from my EMP research and presentation, today I took samples of rock surfaces to try to find a decent texture map. I made the initial impression with clay, then fastcast that texture, then used a little silicon to give a flexible map to work with. I should've released the clay before I fastcast it.. took some time to scrub it off. ah well.

Other Chet Zar Pictures..

As I am adding some of my own ideas to the sculpt, i.e. the other parts you cant see in Abandoned, I think it is worth looking at some of Chet's other paintings for inspiration, especially for around the back of the neck and shoulder areas. A theme seems to be wrinkled/folded/liney skin. He plays with the perception of anatomy a lot, which gives me a bit of a margin to work with..

Getting there...

Am at the stage where I can start smoothing out the surface and then adding texture to the clay. Still a few bits to sculpt back into but the majority is good. Not long now..

Sculpting

This week I 'av mostly been sculpting in WED clay. Here's some of the progress so far. I got to a certain point and had pointed out to me that I'd read part of the painting wrong, and so had to rework it. I'd recommend not smoothing out any part of a sculpt too much until you're sure you don't have to work back into it, otherwise you convince yourself that the smooth part is pretty much finished.... well I did anyway..

5

Having looked into numerology of five, it looks as if its more about personality reading than anything particularly useful for me. I still want to incorporate five though, through perhaps a pentagonal board, or have 5 tiers/steps, or something like that.

Display Base

Here's an extract from an interview with Chet on http://www.creepmachine.com/:

"The only number I ever paint is the number 5. This is what I consider a number that represents me spiritually. This was ‘revealed’ to me in a series of psychedelic experiences that I had when I was a young man. As far as the other symbols I use, I really don’t know what they mean. I try to paint intuitively and just go with my gut- it probably doesn’t sound as glamorous as some lofty explanation, but I use elements that I think look cool. I feel that the best thing I can do for my artwork is to stay out of the way and let my subconscious do the work. I think that approach puts me in touch with something deeper and more universal than I could consciously come up with."

I will look into some ideas relating to the number five. I imagine Chet's connection is probably more personal than general numerology, but looking into it might throw up some ideas. Also, the pages in his new book have page symbols. The symbol for 5 may be something I can incorporate. One point, since the interview, Chet's also painted the number 13. And this is my thirteenth post... weiiiiiiiiiird. Or not at all. More to come.

Moulding and Casting the Maquette

I wanted to go through the process of this to familiarize myself with fibreglassing before I did so on the main sculpt, so I did...



Here I put cold-cure silicon on to pick up the detail before adding the thixotropic. The strips around the bottom are to stop the mould collapsing in on itself when held upside-down.



The I added thixotropic gradually to bring it to a gravity-defying consistency, mixing it with my hands (with gloves on). I think I don't need as much silicon around the bottom as I have, cos it's kind've lost the point of the strips here. Mental note!



On this 2-part mould the fibreglass split line can run straight down the centre. I made sure the wall was as close to 90 degrees as possible to the silicon. Because of the nature of silicon, I reinforced the wall with mod-rock to hold it more securely in place. Pete said that I should've made the wall wider, maybe twice as wide.



After everything was in place and tidy, next I released the mould with Mac-wax (a few coats). Once dry, then I applied the gel-coat with a brush. This helps pick up the detail. After ten mins or so, when the gel is tacky to touch I sprinkled and blew chopped strand evenly all over. You have to wait so the strand doesn't sink through.



Once that had hardened off after another 15 minutesish, then I mixed up the polyester resin for the fibre matting. I tore the matting up into smaller shapes (torn edges interlocks better than cut edges) and painted the resin on one side, then stuck it to the mould and painted the other side liberally. I repeated this until I'd done 2 layers all over, and then pressed on some surface tissue which makes a more handleable mould, and painted the final coat of resin on. When the fibreglass had gone 'green' I cut round the edges to tidy it up. Then I did all of this again for the other side, except at first when I took the wall and mod-rock off I cut a split line in the silicone at a right angle to the fibreglass split line. I will open it up on Monday...

Maquette

I have finished the maquette, and will mould it it fibreglass to get used to the process before I do the final one, cos I haven't done a part mould before.

With water based clay I have found it is best to leave it to harden a little before going into the fine detail (not that this is massively detailed). Also, the lines on the face are better achieved by massing around them, instead of drawing them on with a tool, which ends up looking too flat. WED is a quick clay to work with, and I will use it again, but for very fine detail work, I might consider an oil based clay, such as aforementioned Le Beau Touché. I think WED will be even better to work with on the larger scale final sculpt.

Onyx & Marble Fillers

Did some simple test casts with marble powder, marble grit, and synthetic onyx today. I am quite pleased with the translucency of the grit and onyx. I also experimented with mixing 25% marble grit, 25% onyx and 50% resin, which gave a nice effect.




Interesting, I thought at the time that 75% marble powder to 25% resin was too pastey to work with, but because of this it has given a few cracked details here and there, which might be a good effect on a bigger piece. It will probably lose some of the detail though.

I shall start pigmenting some of the materials now, and also mixing more, such as copper and marble together. Also, to actually get a marbley effect, I might try and stir in some pigment at the last second, so it doesn't mix properly. Hopefully it will leave some lines, although I'm not sure about this technique for the whole full-size bust.

Over the last 5 days I have left 3 metal samples: bronze, copper and iron, in salty water. the only corrosion of interest, which is to be expected, is the iron. When the rust is sanded away, it reveals the original look. This might be a good technique for a difference between the bluer face and the redder neck. Perhaps add some blue pigment...?

Liver of Sulphur

Spent most of the day researching my Investigative Study because the workshop is closed for inductions.

I mixed up some LOS with warm water, and painted it onto a few of the sample casts I have been doing. I did so onto copper, bronze and iron. Copper seems to react the quickest, but bronze has a pretty similar outcome. It deadens and dulls the surface very quickly. Nothing happened to iron. I would like to try flecking it onto the final copper or bronze cast to give speckled dull dots. Also, if you wire-wool it back afterwards, it gives a dark but slightly sparkley finish, which does look good...

I am awaiting marble powders from tiranti, which shall be interesting to play with.

Onyx

On tiranti.co.uk I found the casting additive 'onyx'. It is a form of quartz, and tiranti says:

"Aluminium hydroxide; a white filler giving excellent translucent qualities similar to onyx and some marbles. Can be used with pigments."

Also, I found that it apparently has magickal properties:

"Black Onyx - Great for defense against negativity. Can be used to reduce sexual desires. Onyx is an extremely potent protective stone, and is widely known for its ability to protect against psychic attacks and hexes."

Maybe a black pigmented resin cast base with alu hydroxide filler would give a different and gem-like appearance, and stop people getting turned-on by it or going mental at the show..

Oxidation

I found a forum where someone wanted to accelerate the oxidation of copper and brass. According to this, liver of sulpur will achieve this, but it is toxic. Also, apparently adding salt or ammonia can change the effect, and cold water can slow it. Might be worth playing with it.

More Casting Materials...

There seem to be many casting materials that I wasn't even aware of. One that looks appealing is Terracotta from Tiranti.co.uk (here). This is what Tiranti says:

"Extremely hard terracotta coloured casting material which contains iron... The cast material has unique casting properties; it resembles fired terracotta, and cast pieces that are allowed to get wet will eventually begin to turn rusty... If making hollow casts by swilling, subsequent swills should be made when the previous one is hard but not dry. Hollow casts made from swills need to be about 13mm (½”) thick if no reinforcement is to be used."

Chet mentioned that a friend of his got a translucent effect from casting in plaster and soaking it in mineral. This might be a material worth experimenting with.

Also, there is Ciment Fondu to give a cement-grey look.

Poly-Optic

Pete (tutor) recommended that I consider using Poly-Optic resin as a casting medium. He used it to cast a tongue and it gave a very fleshy appearance, but is rock-solid and UV stable. You can see the tongue on his blog: http://ptfxwerewolf.blogspot.com/. It is made by Polytek, and gives a water-clear appearance and excellent detail. The process seems tricky, but it may be worthwhile. The official gúmpf about it can be found at http://www.polytek.com/products/14recent.pdf.

Casting

There are numerous fillers and pigments for resin casting. The following are potentials for this project:

Synthetic Onyx - Aluminium hydroxide; a white filler giving excellent translucent qualities similar to onyx and some marbles. Can be used with pigments.

Coarse Marble Filler - A coarser marble filler powder which brings a glint or sparkle to castings, sometimes seen in carved pieces of marble. To be mixed with other fillers such as Synthetic Onyx and 100 mesh Marble Filler. Can also be used with cement based castings.

Slate Filler - Finely powdered slate. Correctly used it is possible to obtain a beautiful slate finish. Also makes a good inexpensive general purpose filler.

(Above details from Tiranti.co.uk)

Copper Powder - Could be interesting when oxidised. I've heard you can get a nice effect from good old urine. Or a similar one from yoghurt.

Iron Powder - Could try various rusting conditions/methods, or perhaps polishing.