Sculpture week 9

Hoping to get the "outdoor project" set in place ... this involves making paper at home, and waxing it. I incorporated strips of torn paper (actually a previous version of my Statement of Intent regarding this project), laying pulp over it. The text, or rather bits of the words, will show on the inside, especially once it's waxed (waxing protects it from the rain). To make slits in the paper (to let the wind blow through), I painted lines with water and then tore away the wet areas. Here, the paper is ready and the wax is starting to melt -The base will be weighted down with stones from my collection -
Dipping in wax shows the text and changes the nature of the paper -
Here are the "ingredients" laid out. The ropey bit will form the floor of the "house" - the paper is strips torn from photocopies from arabic-english and mandarin-english dictionaries -
I so enjoyed using this lovely spirit level -Meanwhile in the rest of the room, other exciting sculptures are taking shape -

as is mine, in a rather kak-handed way -
Almost there - just the front wall to add -
Unfortunately - and I should have expected this - it wobbles alarmingly. There's no cross-bracing, and a top-heavy rectangle like this (all that wax!) is going to have problems.

After considerable thought and discussion, my domestic technical consultant and I worked out, on the back of an envelope of course, a solution to brace the legs at the bottom with L-plates - and if that wasn't enough, to add more weight with clay or plaster at the corners - it will be hidden under the cloth on which the stones will lie.
This problem-solving element is what intrigues me about sculpture.