A medal worth waiting for.
Posted: February 1, 2014 Filed under: Skills, Subject., Technical | Tags: art, BAMs, bronze, Cardiff, casting, handmade, landscapes, Maker., medal, metal Leave a commentI was very excitable waking up this morning knowing that today I got to see if my bronze casts worked.
AND THEY DID!
Now its just the labouring task of working them until they are magnificent and beautiful.
First I had to cut each one off the tree. I did this using an angle grinder with an attachment which works with soft metals like bronze.
Then you have to grind down the risers which connected each medal to the tree.
As didn’t want my medals polish and shiny, because I wanted to reference the landscapes they were depicting and I didn’t want to loose any of the detail on the medal, i decided to sandblast my medals to finish them.
This is the finished outcome:
I’m so proud of the way they came out. They are exactly what I wanted them to be. And not only have I gained and homed in a lot of skills involving bronze casting and mould making in this process, I feel I have also become a better organiser and have improved my skills working with others.
From plastic to bronze…
Posted: January 29, 2014 Filed under: Skills, Subject., Technical | Tags: art, BAMs, bronze, casting, handmade, Maker., medal, process Leave a commentAlongside ‘working in the field’ I have been pushing along with my subject medal project, hopefully to get it ready in time for the BAMs competition entry.
I picked up from where I left off last term casting my recently made silicone moulds with the bronze casting wax. I then assembled two casts of each side into a wax tree, ready to be coated in silica and fired to create the shell.
I underwent the firing process yesterday where the wax is melted from the inside of the tree so a solid shell remains. The kiln is placed over a pan of water so as the wax is melted out it’s scraped away so it doesn’t catch alight. It can also then be melted down and salvaged to be used another day.
Me firing:
Now I am left with two shell casting moulds ready for bronze casting next Monday! Watch this space.
3D printing tokens
Posted: November 22, 2013 Filed under: Skills, Subject., Technical, Technology | Tags: 3D print, art, black, button, makerbot, plastic, token, white Leave a commentYesterday and today I have been experimenting with CAD and 3D printing to create tokens that fit together.
The first pair were based on buttons, because traditional foundling tokens mainly ripped off items of clothing. They don’t fit together smoothly but with a bit of adjusting and a reprint of the one half they should (hopefully!) fit together by next week.
The next design which is currently queued for printing is a more steady and gradual therefore shouldn’t have the same issues.
I will post the outcome from this one as it prints.
My next designs I aim to be more smooth almost based on a rock like crystalline structure. Stay tuned!
Pen in the works
Posted: November 18, 2013 Filed under: Creative Strategies, Drawing, Subject., Technical | Tags: art, black, books, bronze, casting, Drawing, glass, handmade, make, pen, puddle, sculpture, self portrait. Leave a commentFinally, cut my pen off my bronze tree. It’s time to finish off the process now and shine it up and paternate it if I want. However, I don’t know if I want my pen to be ultra shiny, I think I prefer it to have elements of shine and elements of dullness. I’m going to experiment with the levels of finish on bronze and decide after I see these outcomes.
The bronze pen will be displayed over a puddle of black to look like the pen has leaked. This would ideally be placed before you approach my series of books. I think I want the puddle to be made of slumped glass so that the edges of the glass are rounded and there is an ultimate shine from the puddle. This piece of glass would become a marker for a film introducing the books as a self portrait.
Below is a photo of the pen cut off the tree ready to be finished and polish and an image of how I envisage the pen puddle combination.
Comfort
Posted: November 12, 2013 Filed under: Skills, Subject., Technical | Tags: art, Book, clothes, comfort, cup, quilt, t shirt, tea, tea bags, textile Leave a commentRecently, I have been creating objects of comfort from other objects of comfort. Like below, creating tea bags out of old clothes that were comforting to me.
I displayed them for my critique in a teacup to give the tea bags context.
Another item of comfort I am making is a quilt made from old t-shirts.
It’s currently only just tac-ed together, but the aim is for it to be a hand stitched mini quilt completed by Christmas. These objects will eventually put into my self-portrait book on comfort (which is vol 3 of the 5 I aim to create by Christmas.)
Tess Jenkins: A self portrait. The Body: Vol 4.
Posted: November 12, 2013 Filed under: Creative Strategies, Drawing, Skills, Subject., Technical | Tags: art, body, Book, hair, image., photo, portrait, scan, self, tape Leave a commentLast week we had a group critique on our recent brief. My aim was to create a series of books which take the form of self portrait.
Here is a preview of one of my books which was based on “The Body”. It aims to take the exterior form of my body and contain elements of the body. The work is in it’s early stages but it is taking good shape I think.
Coming out of my ‘shell’
Posted: October 25, 2013 Filed under: Subject., Technical | Tags: art, bronze, casting, craft, fire., Maker., metal, shell Leave a commentOn Thursday, we melted out our shell cast moulds so that we could cast them in a couple of weeks time. The process requires a makeshift kiln elevated over a pool of water so the wax can melt into it and be recycled.
The kiln is turned off and removed when all the wax has melted off and the shell cast itself is fired until it is really strong and solid. When the kiln is removed you can see the objects are glowing red hot. Where lines are shown on the shell are weak spots and are liable to burst when the molten bronze hits it. Hopefully this won’t happen to my shell as I’ve spent ages on it and love it to pieces!
Book binding musings.
Posted: October 16, 2013 Filed under: Skills, Subject., Technical | Tags: art, Artist, binding, Book, books, Maker., me, paper, person, portrait, shool, sketch, uni Leave a commentThis is me in the process of book making for my series of artist books focused on the theme of self-portraiture.
The reason I have chosen artist books as a platform for a self portrait is because it can be added to afterwards not effecting past additions. The traditional one object or one painting as a form of self-portrait seems too linear and to the point for me. A person is multi-dimensional and therefore, I believe, that a person should be represented by several separate outcomes to reference each part of them. Books are also a good platform for this project because they can be both very personal and inward (in the form of a diary or journal) but also very objective and universal (in forms such as non fiction). Both of which I am trying (and struggling) to capture in this piece of work.
More pictures my book making progress to be posted soon.
You’ve been framed…
Posted: April 19, 2013 Filed under: Field (Year one), Skills, Technical | Tags: art, frame, gold, Latex, Mould, picture Leave a commentToday I got this wonderfully amazing picture frame and tomorrow i plan to make up a quick latex mould. I’m going to get the relief of one if the corners and hopefully pick up a lot of the detail. When I get back into uni I hope to make a silicone mould of the frame so I can recreate the whole thing in wax and then melt it gradually decaying and concealing the image within. WATCH THIS SPACE. Ill post up pictures of my mould making fiasco tomorrow and a couple of drawings of my wax frame idea. Cheerio!
Cherry red legs.
Posted: January 10, 2013 Filed under: Skills, Subject., Technical | Tags: carpentry., Cherry, design, furniture, legs, Maker., red, table, wood Leave a commentI finished my table this evening! Yay! I decided to have a cherry red gloss legs and a plain wood top to create a nice contrast. I think it has worked well, it may be the tiny bit wobbly, but I made it from scratch… And it functions! One more coat of clear gloss and we should be sorted.
Maker:Tess 