In class, a moment of jubilation when the plan to plant the legs of the rickety steps into holes in the cubes worked - the cube supported the step. But it's made of foamboard - the porcelain ones will be heavier. And there will be several steps on one cube.
The legs sink down through the holes, given a chance - perhaps little nests of thread will stop them - and be "subliminal" rather than obtrusive -
The cube will need reinforcing in some way. Will wire, at each end, be strong and invisible enough (white-coated wire perhaps? florists wire?) - well the wire on hand was strong enough but hard to bend accurately and it wouldn't stay where it was put -
Accurate bending will need a jig; I'll make one with wood and nails at home, but meanwhile this bit of improvisation helped -
A continuous wire to strengthen the cube -
And here it is supporting two steps (amid the paraphernalia of the sculpture room)
As to the matter of how many steps a cube can support - that will depend on the size of the porcelain pieces, and possibly their weight. They can be used to mark the position of the legs; it's helpful to splay the legs a little, so I've marked the corners of the rectangles and used a bradawl to punch the hole -
The wire shows through a little, adding that element of (literal!) tension -
It's interesting to solve these little problems along the way, in fact the "engineering challenges" are what I particularly enjoy about sculpture. And I love working with the translucent (and crackly) qualities of the tracing paper, not to mention the bamboo sticks, which are taken from a paper window-blind, and recently the embossed porcelain. I'm aiming to keep this pared down and hope that the final piece will ... what? ... "provide a space for contemplation" - ?Having a proper title for it would help.
1 comment:
Dans l'air du temps !
Bises from Lausanne.
PS. Have you been on my japanese travel blog ?
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