Sample of a Possible Final Idea, Galaxy vs Cityscape

So here is my example of a final idea sample, I am very happy with the outcome, It’s exactly what I wanted to achieve. I used an ordinary frame and made it into a box frame by adding a wooden frame between the glass and backing. I had to secure the lights in with masking tape to keep them in place. I also used masking tape to keep my background in place. I used duct tape to secure the backing to the frame and the glass. I then placed the on/off switch in the back therefore out of sight. I am pleased with the end result and I am looking forward to make a larger frame with all the most affected cities of light pollution in the fore ground and an abstract galaxy sky in the background all lit up with colourful lights. 

London Cityscape

I created an example of how I could create the cityscapes, I wanted them to be recognizable yet simplistic. I think I might colour the skyline black as it would reflect on the darkness of the night sky. This example is just a quick idea of how I could compose my final idea. For the next stage I bring my galaxy night sky together along with this foreground and add some lighting to explore the effects created.

Abstract Photograph

Here is a photograph I took whilst painting for my ideas. I really love how the light captures the still wet paint and reflects through the patterns and swirls of the paint swirling over. I love the textures of the paint merging together like waves of the sea.

Van Gogh Inspiration

When I was creating my cityscape maquette, it looked familiar, like I saw it somewhere before and I remembered Van Gogh’s Starry night. In Starry night the impressionist sky was vibrant and it reminded me of the galaxy with the swirling stars combined with the glowing aura of around the moon and stars. I also really like how Van Gogh made the foreground blacked out. That’s what I want to accomplish in my cityscapes. I want the dramatic contrast between city and galaxy/night sky. I really love the way the painting looks like it’s moving due to the patterns and shapes Gogh creates in the sky all the way through to the fore ground. With my sky I want to make it even more abstract so its purely colours combined with shapes. I want the viewer to find an attraction to the painting and hopefully make a connection to the galaxy and how beautiful it can be. Van Gogh paints this beautiful picturesque landscape, with the radiating light from the night.

Cityscape vs Abstract Sky

Here is my first maquette for my idea for a dark world and a galaxy inspired sky. I started with a simple cityscape of London. I blacked it out and cut out only some windows/openings that can be found in reality.

Next I painted the abstract galaxy inspired painting behind using acrylic paint. I tried to create a 3 dimensional aspect on the piece by making it in layers. I wanted to make the city stand out in some sort of way. I was thinking it would be nice if I could light up the sky and have the light flood through the windows of the cityscape. So I also took some photos of my work with LED’s in between the two layers. Here are the results.

Ceramic Slab Built Building

For my light pollution project I began to make a ceramic sample using buff clay. I rolled out enough clay using a rolling pin and guides which were about 1 cm think.I cut 4 slabs 7 cm width and 14 cm length. I cut out the windows, the door and the stars on 2 sides. I then joined them together by cross hatching the areas to be joined and adding slip as a glue and securing them together. I did this on all sides and onto the base, I then tidied up the edges and sides using wooden tools and bellow is my out come. I am just waiting for the clay to dry out so it can be fired. I think with my final series of my houses I will make them a little bit larger, because the clay will shrink in the kiln.

Wax Casting

Using our vinamould rubber mould we created in a previous lesson we were going to use this for a wax cast. We used the electric wax melting burners as they were designed to reheat and cool down the wax at the right time. For this process you need two saucepans to use for slushing. You need to be in a nice clean area and you can use gloves if you want to. You need to pour a decent amount of wax into the saucepan. Next you need to use the cooling method called slushing because the wax would still be a bit hot. Slushing is pouring the wax from one pan to the other. This allows the air to cool down the wax gently. Next you can pour the wax in the mould, you pour the wax into your mould and pour it out. then repeat. Leave it cool by putting into a bucket of cool water. If you want a full wax mould you need to fill it up with wax and leave it in a bucket of cool water for about 20-30 minutes. wax could be painted on to a mould, just by using a paintbrush and painting it on making sure that you painted enough on and coating it thoroughly. And we were shown how we could attach pieces together. To do just that you need to heat up a knife so its almost glowing, so then you take the pieces and run the hot blade between the join and place in cold water to let it cool. I used the slushing method and made a hollow wax cast, the result wasn’t great, the wax was still too hot and the ducks beak didn’t attach itself well, bellow is my result.

 

Fabric City Scapes

After looking into the atlas map and what were the most affected places of artificial light pollution I could see the 3 most common places were Northern America, Europe and Eastern Asia. I looked into the cities in these areas and I decided to try a sample of drawings of cityscapes. I wanted them to be very detailed and on a small scale these are my results. I thought they worked well, I hope to make a series of miniature cityscapes of the most affected areas and possibly of the less affected areas.

I then took the idea further and used a sewing machine to make a linear version of the city bellow is my sample of London. I thought it was simplistic, but it didn’t capture the business of the city.

Textile/Stitch Workshop

Today in Maggie’s workshop we were show how to appliqué, we were given a sheet of fabric wonder glue and we had to iron it on to the fabric glue side onto the fabric (the glue side is the rough side) then peel of the paper and iron onto our cloth fabric we could then free draw with the sewing machine over the top. This process was quite simple, apart from free stitching. it was quite hard to create straight lines and for my appliqué design I chose to do a series of houses, so I found it very difficult. These are my outcomes bellow.

                                                           

With free Drawing on the machine you need to change the foot and switch off teeth so you can draw freely. We got to experiment with free drawing and it was quite difficult. I found it easier once I had drawn my design on the fabric using the purple disappearing pen. Bellow are my examples of my experimentation using the free drawing on the machine.

We were then shown how to create lace. We were given dissolvable plastic to stitch onto. The plastic had to be doubled up and we had to remember when creating our piece of work that it came together as a whole and not to have any separate parts coming off as it would just go floppy and wouldn’t work. It takes 20 minutes to fully dissolve in water. Here is my experimental piece.

Rubber Mould Making

We were told to bring along something you could cast in rubber, it could be almost anything but not anything plastic or anything porous. I chose to cast my ceramic duck. You next need to build a clay wall around it to hold all the rubber around. The duck need to sit in the middle and have enough space above and around.

 

Next we were given a rubber in a slab and we had to cut it up roughly into small chunks using a craft knife and scissors. We filled up jugs and dishes full and this took time. Next you need to place the jug or bowl into the microwave and and let it heat up and start to melt for about 3 minutes, in the meantime we had to put our gloves on and goggles just in case the rubber would spit. When the 3 minutes was up you need to take it out the microwave carefully and use a wooden spoon to stir the rubber mixture as it begins to melt you then need to heat it up for another 2-3 minutes, until the mixture is in liquid form. Take the mixture and pour it into your clay mould. If you have any more rubber left find a clean surface on the floor and pour out the rest. The Rubber can be re-used. Let your rubber mould cool for a few hours and the you can peel away the clay and gently remove your item of which you cast, you can use a craft knife if you need to.

Woodwork Workshop

In our first ever wood workshop we were inducted onto the band saw and the sander. After we were shown how the machinery works we had to experience this for ourselves so we had a wooden sample we had to cut out and sand down. With the band saw you need to wear goggles and to make sure the extraction is on. You then must make sure the guide is 1cm/10mm above the wood you were about to cut. When you are cutting something and you reach the danger-zone which is about 10 cm from the blade you can use the push guard to protect yourself from getting cut. You then take the sample to be sanded down, the only things you must remember with the sander is that you must wear goggles and the sander rotates clockwise so keep to the right side when sanding.

So in our first lesson we learnt the basics and we began to make our boxes. To make a box we needed to cut out the shoulder joints which were L shapes. We needed to cut these at both ends on the two longest sided of the wooden frame on the band saw. My box was 8x10cm. You then needed to attach the box frame together using wood glue, to secure the frame you need to place the box in the vice and keep it there for 15 minutes. Once 15 minutes has passed you need to to add the lid and bottom pieces of timber just by glueing them on. Use the vice and the G shaped clamps to hold it in place then you just need to leave it to dry.

Light Pollution Around The World

For my research into light pollution I came across this world atlas with the affected areas of where the most artificial light is produced and is most harmful to our night sky. I will look more closely into these areas and see if I can base my light pollution city on one of these most harmful areas. From just a glance Europe, Northern American and East Asia are the most affected areas for artificial light, I will research further into these areas.

Metal Workshop

In my first workshop Dallas spoke about the health and safety of working in the metal workshop we were told to tie hair back and not to have anything dangling off our clothes as they could get trapped in machinery, he also gave us gloves to wear to protect us from the sharp metals and from heat. Then he showed us how every machine worked and then we were given a task to carry out using all these machines.

Metal workshop notes

Firstly we had to cut out 15x15cm sheet of metal and also a 9x9cm. For cutting metal we had to use this rather large guillotine, you simply put the metal under the teeth guard and measure it up against the inside of the gullotine. You then need to step onto the foot pedal and jump down to cut the metal inside. After we cut out both our measured pieces you needed to take the the 15x15cm piece and you needed to cut a circle out, to do this you needed to find the middle point once that was pointed out you moved onto the circular cutting tool. You needed to pin the tool onto one end and adjust height and position by twisting the screws. Then you needed to spin the lever around which gently cuts the metal in a circular motion. You could then file down edges using a hand file. With the 9x9cm you needed to cut shoulders out on all sides and bend over the edges, there were two other machines which was easy enough to use and worked well. We then spot welded the now box shaped 9x9cm onto the circle, there were two spot welders which could do this the only difference was one was automatic and the other was manual. We then got kit up with aprons and safety UV goggles, to protect your eyes from sparks and the rays. Dallas showed us how the plasma cutter worked and we then could try first hand on a test sheet of metal then our handmade one. I chose to draw a snowman, it didn’t look as good as I hoped this was because I didn’t press down on the metal too much. It was good to experience the plasma cutter though and bellow is my result.

Light Pollution Maquette

These are a few photographs taken of my maquette in the dark, I used card for the buildings and cut out some constellations on the back. I used battery powered LED’s as the light source and here were my results. I was very pleased with the outcome as it showed the light on both sides and the light was quite powerful. I think the constellations need to be bigger as it could be more powerful.

   

Textile Workshop

Today I Had a workshop with Maggie, We were introduced to the sewing room and was given a health and safety briefing. We then was taught how to set up a sewing machine. I have previously worked with sewing machines before so I kinda knew a little bit oh how to thread the machine. I was taught how to thread a bobbin and how to insert it into the sewing machine. We then got to test out the machine and here mas my sample, I just played around with the different type of stitches and then I experimented  by making a plain stitched house.

Slip Casting (Ceramics workshop)

In today’s workshop we were able to use our plaster moulds to create slip casts. Firstly we were shown where the slip was kept and how to pour and time the slip casts. The slip is kept in a storage arc, bellow is a sketch of the storage arc. The storage arc to to help agitate the slip to keep it mixed well.

1) You get your plaster mould and secure it together using elastic bands. Once its held together tightly, get an empty jug and pour slip into it. Use the lever to open the arc and pour the slip. Make sure you have enough slip to pour otherwise it will leave a line between different slip.

2) Pour slip into the plaster mould and fill right to the top. Leave to set for about 20 minutes, this is to create a case from clay.

*20 MINUTES LATER*

3)Pour out the leftover slip from the mould back into the arc at the top, then turn over your mould upside down on the drying table and let any leftover slip drip out. Leave for an hour to harden.

* 1 HOUR LATER*

4) After the hour is over gently remove the elastic bands and pull apart your mould, and there you have it, a slip cast of your mould.

5) The last step is to clean up the clay, you can use a knife to scrape off any unwanted bits and then a damp sponge to clean up any messy areas.

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Next I played around with texture so I slip cast a section on a plaster mould which was of a knitted item. I then placed the slip clay into my plaster mould of my duck and the outcome looked quite gruesome, It reminded me of brains so I created a more zombie duck.

  

Then I borrowed an already made plaster mould of an orb and used a lace plaster board and placed a section of some lace cast slip into the orb and cast it again and here was the results I think it looks very lovely, quite ornate and simplistic yet has a very detailed lacy design.

     

Making a Plaster Mould (ceramics workshop)

1) Firstly you need to put an apron on, and make sure your work space is clean. Then you need to find an object you can cast, I chose to cast a plastic duck. A plus to the plastic duck was it already had a mapped out circumference around the object.

2) You take a plaster board and place the rubber duck in the centre of the board, using clay you emerge the duck and surround it by building the clay around, making sure you square up the sides.

3) Once the clay is even and roughly in a cube shape, place boards around and secure them there by sealing the sides with clay to stop the plaster from leaking through.

4) Now to mix the plaster, when weighing out plaster make sure you wear your mask and put the dust extractor on. I need two pints which was 1.5kg of plaster powder. 1 pint would be 750g of plaster powder. You take a clean bucket and add the two pints of water first then sprinkle in your powder, leave to soak in a bit for 2 minutes.

5) After 2 minutes gently stir using your hand to remove lumps and gently agitate the mixture to get rid of any air bubbles, once the bubbles float to the top just scoop them out. Once you can feel the mixture thicken and you can draw a figure eight on the surface and be able to see it, the plaster is ready to pour in to your mould.

6) Once you have poured your plaster in your mould make sure there’s no leaking and leave to set for 20 minutes.

*20 MINUTES LATER*

7) After the 20 minutes is up the plaster should have set. So remove the clay from the boards then remove the boards. You then remove the clay half of the mould but being careful to leave the plastic duck in the plaster mould intact.

8) You then need to clean up the plaster mould, using a damp sponge wipe any remaining clay off the surface and the duck. Then using a grater clean up sides and edges removing any rough uneven edges.

9) You now need to make notches to help lock the mould together. Take a penny and twist into the plaster gouging out a circular indent , do this on either side of the mould. Now take soft soap and a sponge and rub it on to the plaster, then wash out the sponge in clean water and wash it off do this three times. On the third wash do not remove the soft soap, make sure its coated but not fully layered.

10) Board up the sides again and add clay to stop leakage. Mix another 2 pints of plaster and repeat the plaster making process (step 4 and 5). Then pour the plaster over the plaster mould. leave set again for 20 minutes.

*20 MINUTES LATER*

11) Remove the boards and gently pull apart your mould, clean the edges again and make sure you write your name and course on the mould then place it in the plaster drying cabinet for about 2-3 days. Then your mould is ready to use and slip cast. Bellow is my outcomes.