NOSE

 

     There is something that needs to be known about me before I tell you about my final sculpture project, I am a nose person. The first thing I notice when meeting someone is their nose. I like to compare the nose of one person to their parents' noses. It's weird, I know but I do that.

     So, my last project in my spring sculpture class was a subtractive stone assignment. When my professor gave me my stone he instructed me to examine it at all angles and let it "speak to me". I did just that and my stone "told" me that it was a nose. Well, it was either the stone talking or my allergies and the impending stone dust I would be breathing later consuming my thoughts what turmoil my nose would be going through with this project. So I decide to just make a giant nose. When I told my professor, he just laughed and walked away.  

So I proceeded to sketch out a nose on my stone. 

After I sketched a basic shape, I used an air-hammer to start the subtractive process.

And then the heart-stopping thing happened, I broke off more than I wanted. But I did not panic. I took it to my professor to see if there was anything that could be done to fix it. We used some industrial super glue to put the piece back on. 

Once I the basic shape all roughed out, I used an air-sanding disk to start refining it.

  

  

Here are my shoes after I quickly dusted them off before my next class. 

The next step was the sanding, lots and lots of sanding. Starting at a low grit of 180 and stepping up to a 360 grit, to get a nice and smooth surface.

  

Last step was, of course, the base and presentation. 

   

I ended up not really liking the way I put the nose on a peg for it to stand up. I like it better just sitting on its own. Overall, I really enjoyed this project even though I was dreading it because the subtractive process is one of the hardest. Making a nose made it quite fun.

Welding!

My second project in my sculpture class

this semester was welding.

I made three separate not-representational sculptures.

I drew my pieces out on sheet metal.

I cut the pieces with a plasma cutter.

Then I cleaned the surface of the metal with a grinder, to make it shiny.

I then bent all of the shapes.

After all the really hard work was finished,

I was finally able to weld them all together.

Once the welding was completed,

I needed to use the grinder to make all the pieces come together seamlessly.

And I used a Dremel tool to add a swirling texture.

I made round wooden bases out of pine

for the sculptures to balance on.

Tell me what you think. :)

Bronze Project

This spring semester I am in Sculpture 1

and my first project was Bronze casting.

I spent about a month working on it and it was so much fun.

I'll go through all the steps of bronze casting.

The first step is to start sculpting a piece of wax.

You can has much detail as you want.

The wax is very easy to mold.

Wax sprews will be added to the sculpture to form a funnel and air vents.

The second step is to prepare a plaster mixture

that will be poured over the wax form to make a mold.

Once the plaster has set, the wax must be burnt out.

After the wax is emptied from the mold,

bronze can be poured in through the funnel.

Here is the mold with bronze cooling inside.

After the bronze has cooled, the mold can be crack open with a hammer

and the sculpture can be removed.

You have to power wash all the plaster off your sculpture

and out of the cracks.

Then you can begin the cleaning up process.

This includes cutting off all the sprews, cutting away impurities, sanding and polishing.

Here my sprews have been removed.

Patinas can be added to the bronze to give it a colored finished look.

Here the rabbit has a little bit of a brown patina.

I also made a wood base to hold my sculpture

and added a slight green patina to the turtle shell.

My turtle TJ is often the subject matter in my art work

because he is so easy to observe and study.

This piece was inspired by the Tortoise and the Hare fable.

I love how a short story like a fable can teach simple life lessons that everyone can benefit from.

What I take from the Tortoise and the Hare is that even though they are very different creatures, they are still running the same race.

Each one made different choices while running the race and it determined the outcome of the race.

Every person in the world is unique but we still all have goals in our life.

We all need to be aware of the choices we make and how they will affect our lives.

ENO!

I haven't done a blog post in a very VERY long time!!

I have just been so busy but it is really time for some kind of update.

It is now the spring semester of my 2nd year in college

and my new favorite thing to do is hammock in my ENO!

They are so much fun! This is the perfect start up gear for a nomadic life.

They are perfect for spending time outdoors in the fresh air.

ENO hammocks are easy to put up

AND they are super comfortable to do homework in,

read a book, hang (literally) with friends or take a nap in.

SO happy to have an ENO

Studious ENOing

Snuggle in the ENO

Double stack, Triple stack, double nesting, cocoon, and single nest