Sculpture

Combination of two objects 

In this project, we were asked to combine two of our found objects.  

(At the start of this course we all chose 9 objects from the natural world, which were then drawn (see analytical drawings) and used as a starting point for a couple of other projects).

Here we choose 2 of these, and combine them to make a totally new, weird and wonderful piece! 

It is desirable that this is totally unrecognisable from its previous  forms.

Although this might seem like a strange idea (I must admit I did think this!!) I came across some 

interesting images in an art book, proving that much earlier people have also done this sort of thing.

A giant stone Griffin, combining the body of a Lion with the head, the head, wings  and talons of an eagle, from the ancient city of Persepolis in Iran.(c.518-465 BCE)

Kinda cool huh?  A Lion-Bird-Snake combo.....discovered in the early 1900's on the Ishtar gate in Babylon, dated as 6th century BC.

I have chosen (after a bit of playing around with various drawings and possible combinations), 

to combine a stone and a teasel.

This is a photo of the little stone, with some wonderful contours & colours.

And this is a drawing I did of a teasel.

We began the module by learning to draw some of our objects in 3 D, to aid us 

in our 3D thinking and therefore how to perhaps begin the making process. Here are some standard shapes drawn in 3D, as well as a more organic shape.

Also my water bottle, which happened to be sitting on my desk...

To start, I played around with various  object combinations, shown here is a shell & teasel combo:

 Below (top) is the stone combined with feathers, and below it, teasel and stone.  

The latter is the combination I liked the most, so after further tweaking of 

the design, this is the one that I continued to work with as my sculpture piece.

And these drawings below involve combinations of stone and artichoke and teasel

Experiments in Texture:

Before beginning the making part, it was a useful exercise to do some experiments with textures. 

Here are some of mine:

I collected all sorts of different materials, from the organic heads of ripe barley I picked up in a nearby field, to the various synthetic papers I found in my box of bits at home. Papers were folded and scrunched, cut up and layered.  Fabric was folded and layered too, with some satisfying effects.

I was pleased with the 'ribbing' effect I got from working with corrugated thick paper, that could 

be worked satisfyingly into lovely curves.  

I came across some interesting sculptures when doing some online research, which seem to fit 

our brief (to a very high standard I might add, ahem)

The Making Part

Time to get started: forming a framework for the piece. I needed some height, hence the plastic water bottle.

Starting point; on your blocks! I used some large car sponges to try to get a bit nearer

to the desired shape.  Much filling was done with scrunched up newspaper and a lot of PVA 

glue diluted with water.

Its starting to look like a candidate for A and E! The masking tape proved very useful as the project went on, however initially it didn't stick to the various surfaces very well at all.  Once the newspaper layers went on, 

it was great for pulling in some areas as needed.   

Many many layers of papier mache later..... it now is looking like a Lindt bunny!!

Still looking rather rabbit like; but the contours are beginning to build.  I covered the newspaper

with a couple of layers of gouache, to try to get rid of the lines formed by the paper.  

I sanded in between these gouache layers too.  

I wanted to try to incorporate elements of the Teasel too at this stage.

I really wanted to emulate some of the 'ribbing' on the stem, as well as some of the amazing spines that cover its surface.  To that end, I used an egg box mache, a technique that is new to me. The photo above 

shows some of the spines I have tried to model.

It involved pulling a couple of egg boxes apart into smallish pieces, then soaking these overnight in water (I actually covered them in boiling water first).  Next day, I squeezed out a lot of the water and whizzed the pulp up in my food processor. this produced some lovely 'crumbs' (many things are best described in food terms I think!!) , which I decanted into a bowl and added yet more PVA glue.  This gloop proved excellent for modelling purposes; all of the ribbing and spines were done by hand and were stiff enough to retain their shape until dry.  (Incidentally it took a very long time to dry; I am talking several days!)

It's now starting to look like a sort of prehistoric creature!! 

The photo below shows a little bit more egg mache application; I felt t his would help to created a more 

curvy effect which I really wanted.  The stone was full of delightful curves and hollows, 

in a tiny scale compared to this.

I'm really starting to enjoy this piece now that the end is near!

Time to add some spines!

I decided to use copper wire, as I find it very attractive and felt it would make a 

lovely contrast to the white surface of the main body.  I sourced some inside some old electrical wire cable

I happened to having lying about.....

It was cut to the desired lengths and beaten with a little hammer  to slightly flatten one of the ends

to make it a little more like the real spines which have an interesting flat bit near their base.  

All was going well, until insertion time.  Piercing the outer layers wasn't a problem, however 

the sponge inside was not allowing easy access!  After a lot of huffing and puffing, I hit on the idea of 

heating a domestic skewer till red hot, and using this to sear a little tunnel for each spine within the sponge.

Shown above is my trusty blow torch heating up a skewer.... 

it worked a treat, and the spines are now nicely secure thanks to this 

treatment and some 5 minute araldite.

I also made a little right angle bend in some of the spines, to mimic those in nature.

And here are a few pictures of the final piece!