Sculpture

I was excited to finish all of my sculpture projects from Fall semester. The class seemed to fly by so that I felt like I did all of the projects in the time span of about a week. It got a little crazy but I'm pretty happy with the outcomes and I feel more confident in all of the art forms.

So this is what my stone looked like at the beginning. It was rough and big, weighing about 35 pounds. During and outside of class I would go and sit and chisel away at my stone while listening to pandora. It was pretty cool. I am even more impressed now with awesome marble sculptures by Michelangelo because let me tell you...it ain't easy.

safety first!

Here's how it turned out after it had been sanded, smoothed and polished. I wish I had had a little more time to work on it because I feel like it might not be completely finished, but thus is the life of a busy student. It looks different at all different angles, which is kind of cool.

The stone itself had some really pretty colors in it.

This is how my steel project turned out. Not going to lie, I was really nervous for this one because the requirements were welding and forging. If you're not familiar with either method, I'll just say that they both involve extremely hot temperatures and danger...especially welding. Once I got going with the welder though it wasn't too bad. I'm really happy how it turned out! It looks totally different from all angles, which is awesome. I was influenced by some of my work I had done for my printmaking class and I wanted to try to use some of the ideas I was using before and creating it in 3-D. 

I LOVE how my bronze turned out. It is such an interesting process to cast a bronze as well. I loved learning about the process and getting to actually do it. 

First of all, I made a wax figure of the object that I wanted to be cast. Then I attached it to multiple sprews of wax to a cup covered in wax. Then we dipped it in a slurry and sand 9 times with 6 hours in between each dipping. After that, we put them in a kiln that melted away all of the wax and poured 2,000 degree liquid bronze into the casts to fill in where the wax was. After cooling for a day, we chipped off the cast and there was the bronze statue. We had to cut and grind off the sprews and then I put a liver of sulfur patina on it to give it the rich dark brown color. 

Now Max has been immortalized. Pretty cool.

Ceramics

I finally took pictures of all of my ceramic pieces that I made this past semester. I had ceramics for the first block so it was from the beginning of September until mid October. 

The first day of class we made spoons out of porcelain. They were fired at a cone 10, which means that they are food safe so I could actually use them. They aren't super practical though, I was going for more aesthetics and a progression from a simple baby spoon to a ladle.

Man Made Project: We had to recreate an object that was man made. I decided to try to make something that I love to make and have made in real life out of clay to see how the process would be different. I made a pie. 

I made each individual apple and connected them and laced the crust on top.

It even opens up so I can put things inside. Unfortunately it is not food safe, but it'll be cool to just have around.

Organic Project: We had to make a sculpture that felt organic, so this is how mine turned out.

I sprayed the glaze on with an airbrush, which was a cool new technique to learn.

Basic Shapes Project: I had to create a bunch of hollow pillow and tube shapes and then connect them in an aesthetically pleasing way. I like how it turned out looking like bones.

Final Project: I had to incorporate things I had done before and things that I liked from other people's sculptures. I like the delicate folds from another girl's sculpture so I used that idea and I carved deep into them to give it texture. It has lots of pretty detail when you see it up close. 

This class proved to me yet again how much I love ceramics.