Tag: design

At night

Design, Photography

All evening, in the corner of my eye, I kept seeing these flowers in a black glass vase on a black glass table, lit by a table lamp. I was as intrigued by the reflections in the table and in the vase, trying to get above it to get the best reflection

.Vintage lamp, table and vase with anenomesVintage lamp, table and vase with anenomesVintage lamp, table and vase with anenomes

 

Progress in casting

Design, Sculpture

I have at last succeeded in making the piece I had planned, though this is very much a test piece, I think I have made all the required mistakes now, so when I make another, it will be of good quality.

Speeding up the drying process by putting the cast in the oven at less than 50°C leaving the door ajar so that moisture can escape, can prevent rust stains forming (seen here in the third image).

Geometric Sculpture - Relueaux TriangleRelueaux Triangle SculptureRelueaux Triangle SculptureRelueaux Triangle Sculpture

Reuleaux Sculpture - First customer

My first customer

Experiments in casting

Design, Sculpture

Hopefully I have learned enough from the last two experiments to make a good casting this time.

I set up the wok again with Plasticine walls and a slightly larger saucepan lid and made up a much larger batch of plaster hoping to cast the whole thing in one go.

I poured the plaster into the wok and started swirling it genlty, hoping to make it stick to each part of the surface – impeded somewhat by the thick layer of petroleum jelly. During the next 10 minutes the plaster gradually thickened and began to build a smooth layer over the whole surface area. As I swirled the liquid it behaved like a tidal wave coming around and around in a regular sweep but as it began to set it grew thicker and was in danger of leaving a literal tide mark in an unsuitable way. I set the wok down to rest and watched as the excess plaster solidified in an almost even spare-tyre kind of shape  in the centre.

I decided this time not to try to manipulate the surface in any way and I am pleased to say that it is smooth and even, though somewhat thicker towards the centre with a discernable swelling about 2 cms from the pan lid,  it looks pink here but it dries white.

second casting

I suspect that the outer/upper edges are fairly thin and that I will need to make another pouring.

Experiments in casting

Design, Sculpture

I wanted to make a “stone” version of a form I have made often as jewellery, the Reuleaux Triangle – the original form developed by the mechanical engineer Franz Reuleaux  in the late 19th century.

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  • I needed to mark out my new wok – I couldn’t  find a set of dividers large enough – 25cms, so I made a very simple one from strips of wood. I borrowed a wing nut, bolt and nut from something else, cut two pices of 30cms and one 18cm long, drilled some holes at roughly .5cm intervals on the short piece and used two nails to fit them together, added some points just with sellotape.
  • I marked the wok roughly in blue felt-tip pen and then found the centre-point using the dividers, drew a circle, divided that into six. I drilled a small indent at three of those points and used those as the centres to draw the three arcs.
  • I made Plasticene walls along the scored lines and set a  saucepan lid at the centre to form the central hole. I hoped that brushing the whole thing with petroleum jelly would make it easy to remove when set.
  • Using Cassini’s plaster from Maragon,  I mixed up a test bacth that was enough  to coat only about half  of the mould, I added progressively both by making more mixture but also by scraping the surfcae and using that to infill gaps. Not a good idea as it turned out.
  • The plaster becomes very hard and waterproof after maximum of 5 days but is workable to varying degrees for 2-3 days, at 15 minutes it seemed a bit like cheese, almost rubbery and not easily spread out or carved, though i did try to scrape the surface smnooth with a swan-necked cabinet scraper and what is charmingly called an Alabaster Knife from Tiranti, sculpture suppliers in London
  • 24 hours later it was dry enough to slip clear of the wok, petroleum jelly works but the uneven inside surface was terribly difficult to work on, dimpled, rough and flawed and the outer surface was marked with poorly patched areas, badly mixed plaster (small inclusions of plaster dust), rust and ink stains as well as bubbles!
  • So – it had to go in the bin . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colour – Green

Design, People, Photography

Green is everywhere but its good to find something other than just the green of grass or leaves, the “green” of the golf course apart.

I visited the Jardin des Plantes botanical gardens in Paris in November, the leaves turning to a luminous yellow set against the dark green pines and vivid green moss on the tree trunk all caught my eye but what centres the image the pensive young man, his feet flexed in concentration. And the green plastic hose running along the edge of the lawn.Jardin des Plantes, Paris

Green-painted window on Holy IslandThe golf course at Alnmouth in DecemberMoss on a very old wall in Ffestiniog, Wales