2nd year

Ruptured something in my foot last week whilst making a mould for a giant jelly baby… so I have been off for a while.

I’ve come back today to find (as I do each monday) that I get nothing done and I need to plan my time better.

Struggling with other things going on outside of uni. Still no motivation whatsoever.

In other news I am doing new designers again this year. Should be interesting.

Got a scrap chunk of plaster (win) and spent all day trying to get someone to cut it in the the tank shape for me. Sanded it down and went home.

Took many hours to melt gelflex (someone turned the power off part way through which was super handy) to pour over tank shape. Of course then I over heated the gelflex and had to wait an age for it to cool.

Finally poured it.

Left it to cool and went to a social event wich was organised to try to find a school rep. I would like to run for it but with my commuting I probably wouldn’t make all the meetings. I may put myself forward for course rep.

Anyway, trying to focus on which direction I want to take my career in rather than my project at the moment. I’m panicking about entering the real world and wanting to start my own business without any real idea of where to begin.

Casting a tank would be easier if clay would stick to the damn thing… having issues, I may have to abandon it. *sigh*

I’m losing momentum, need to get on with shit. I want to try everything but just can’t afford the materials so I need to really narrow my scope.

I made a maquette of a stylised tank from Fimo but have discovered that fimo curls slightly when baked. This meant that the edges didn’t meet and I had to try to fill the gaps with glue. The idea was to cast this form but it’s all bleedin’ wonky so I have a plan! I shall cast a block of plaster and saw it (ahem, I mean get the trained technician to saw it on the bandsaw) in to the appropriate shape and waterproof it before casting it in gelflex.

I will then make a wax of that and do some (dirty) casting for the base of a piece.

Enthusiasm waning. I am trying.

Last week my tutors said I feared committment, not sure if its that or financial committment.

Made some cane last week in pink, red and white, (candy colours!) cut a small amount of them today and heated in the pick-up kiln.

I picked them up on a solid rod of molten clear glass, which was interesting considering it picked up the white and pink initially and left the red on the shelf, I sectioned it off in to small balls which I hope will look like sweets when they come out of the lehr tomorrow.

I have also located my remote control bb-tank which I intend to make a mould from (a battery exploded inside the remote control so it doesn’t work anymore) I thought about slumping coloured plates in to it to create the basic shape but blowing is probably easier for me as I have much more experience blowing than slumping.

I brought a load of old fashioned sweets yesterday aswell to take photos of (hell yeah primary research!) for colour and shape inspiration.

Thought about making a vase shape out of the glass sweet balls, maybe fusing or something, or I could make an ironic ‘sweet bowl’ out of glass sweets. The possibilities are endless.

I think I will have a sketchbook day tomorrow, I need to get some of these ideas down.

First day back at uni tomorrow.

I have moved desks so now I am slightly less of a hermit but I did put a board up at the other side so I can hide from people if I wish.

Sometimes I just like to work in peace and its all too easy to get distracted talking to people when what I really need to do is just concentrate and get on with my own work.

It will be strange without last years 3rd year and half the MAs around… I have literally lost most of my friends I had there. Which will at least provide less distraction for me but it will be strange with all the new people running around, especially now I’m 24 and they will all be 18-19.

On my project I have two directions I want to persue.

One involves assemblage of pieces with images/prints etc trapped inside. I plan to sand cast smaller blocks and polish them then cold fuse them and attach a vessel or other form in or around them. Lots of stages and lots of polishing.

The other route is more fun, focusing on a combination of weapons and dessert/sweet type things with bright fun colours for an interesting juxtaposition about underlying feelings.

Should be fun, not quite figured out how I’m going to pull that one off yet though. It may have to involve some casting… :(