31st January
Artist Michael came to the college to teach us how to use plaster to build the structure and also he wanted to seek for some ideas from us about the Poole story.
Idea Development
He gave us about ten minutes to think the topic of the sculpture, after talking with the teammate, we finally decided to use seashell and gateway as the theme. The design was quite like the Sydney Opera House, that we attempted to construct a series of shell-like gates with the curvy shape.
Construction
Then we used the paper board to make the gates, and we firstly cut the leaf-like shape and used the back of the cutting knife to press a wavy line in the middle of the paper board. Then we bent the two sides of the board and used tape to hold the structure. Later, by the suggestion of Michael, we fixed the gates by inserting both ends to another paper board.
Then we wrapped up the paper boards with plastic wrap, so the water would not be soaked by paper.
At this part, I learnt how to shape the structure with plaster.
Add 1:1 water and plaster powder in to a bucket, if the powder still solve quickly, then continue adding the powder until the mixture becomes a little bit thick.
Immerse the "net cloth" (not sure the name of it) into the bucket and let it holds some plaster liquid but not too much, and then cover it to the paper sculpture from bottom to top.
After cover every part of the sculpture with the net cloth, the plaster liquid would probably get thicker, so apply it to the sculpture and try to make it as smooth as possible.
let the sculpture dry for a while and then you can add more plaster to fill up the little holes.
Outcome
Evaluation
The result was not really satisfying, but it was still a good try for the first time using plaster. There were several points need to be careful. Firstly, the ratio of water and plaster powder should be aware of because if the mixture is too watery, it cannot stick on the net cloth. Secondly, for the base part of this sculpture, it's better to wrap the cloth from the bottom. I found that the paper board was too small, the structure could not withstand the weight of plaster and it was not easy to apply the plastic to the corners.
Comentarios