The class started with a slide show about various art works that can be seen as reliefs - the facade of a building; a freezer element that gets coated with ice during the day, then the ice melts when the element is turned off at night; Richard Long's "walking a line"; stones from a New York building site reconstructed in a gallery (like walls from an archaeological dig); a Henry Moore
brick relief on a building; a department store facade that has been designed to look as if it's peeling off at one corner; buildings with roofs or walls covered in plants;
Maya Lin's Vietnam memorial and her "bumpy landscape"; Jasper Johns stack of ever-smaller flag paintings,
Three Flags -
We continued working intently on our clay reliefs (so quiet in the room!). This one is ready to cast in plaster (it's a maquette for niches for actors on a stage set, that's why the figures are indented). Pigment, plaster, and two bowls with tepid water are ready for the demo. A wall 4cm thick has been made about 3cm away from the relief; it's at least 2cm higher than the relief. So that no plaster seeps under the clay, it has to be carefully sealed to the plastic underneath with little sausages of clay -
Pigment is mixed with water, and now the plain plaster is added to the water (not the other way round) in equal proportions - then it's added to the dissolved pigment. The pigment layer is necessary when the plaster mold is chipped away from the cast item - it lets you know you're near the cast, and to be careful with the chipping away.
The pigmented plaster is flicked onto the clay relief.
The board is tapped on the table to release any air bubbles, and then plain plaster is poured in to adequately cover the clay relief.
It takes about half an hour to set - and then the clay is peeled away from around the plaster -
The mold is turned upside down, the clay loosened and lifted out -
The mold needs cleaning up in a bowl of water -
Much activity in the plaster room as everyone tries to finish their plaster mold before the end of the session -
My little castle in its moat -
Covered with pigmented plaster and one bowlful of plain, and waiting for yet more plaster (it takes a lot of plaster) -
And awaiting cleaning - that will happen next week; we ran well over time.
We continued working intently on our clay reliefs (so quiet in the room!). This one is ready to cast in plaster (it's a maquette for niches for actors on a stage set, that's why the figures are indented). Pigment, plaster, and two bowls with tepid water are ready for the demo. A wall 4cm thick has been made about 3cm away from the relief; it's at least 2cm higher than the relief. So that no plaster seeps under the clay, it has to be carefully sealed to the plastic underneath with little sausages of clay -
Pigment is mixed with water, and now the plain plaster is added to the water (not the other way round) in equal proportions - then it's added to the dissolved pigment. The pigment layer is necessary when the plaster mold is chipped away from the cast item - it lets you know you're near the cast, and to be careful with the chipping away.
The pigmented plaster is flicked onto the clay relief.
The board is tapped on the table to release any air bubbles, and then plain plaster is poured in to adequately cover the clay relief.
It takes about half an hour to set - and then the clay is peeled away from around the plaster -
The mold is turned upside down, the clay loosened and lifted out -
The mold needs cleaning up in a bowl of water -
Much activity in the plaster room as everyone tries to finish their plaster mold before the end of the session -
My little castle in its moat -
Covered with pigmented plaster and one bowlful of plain, and waiting for yet more plaster (it takes a lot of plaster) -
And awaiting cleaning - that will happen next week; we ran well over time.
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