Being at home really helped me to look back into my childhood memories and find collections from when I was younger. This also links to the texts and how they have objects that where preserved, aging over time.
Here I am documenting the different collections I've made over time using fieldwork with drawings and photography these where inspired by on the Land theme and the text piece by Carl Zimmer about the Natural History collections. In the texts he talks about how they are preserved through time and displayed for others to admire and learn from. I really liked this concept as my collections all have their own context and stories and through them being collections that I've kept they are given a level of importance to me and value. This really resonated with me as my project theme is Memory and Nostalgia and this collection is from my childhood so I wanted to create an art collection representing this.
l created silicone moulds of some of my figurines which was better then slip casting because once its sets, it turns into a flexible rubber texture that making its easier to remove the models. To do this we stuck the figures to a sheet of plastic and made a clay cylinder around each of them, making sure there was no gaps so the silicone wouldn't leak out. And then mixed the silicone which was a two part mixture of liquid silicone and a catalyst to help it set.
I did have to get help removing them, where incisions was made in each mould to help remove the figure without damaging the mould and details. We used rubber bands to hold the moulds together to stop the splits from opening and then use Jesomite the fill them which is a two part material of powder and liquid. The liquid part being acrylic resin and the powder being made of gypsum.
This material was really effective as it captured a lot of the fine details and dries a white matte surface that can be painted on. It also allowed me to sand down any imperfections for example the seams left from the cut line in the moulds and the base of the model where we had to over fill the mould, because they go into a pressure pot to remove the bubbles. It was tricky because the bottom of the models sunk in a little bit from the air being removed reducing the liquid but I could sand them out a little to even out the bottom.
Lastly I found that most people who looked at my model said they also like the matte white versions so I decided not to paint some of them at to show different stages and designs as an end result.
Comments