Building, filling, measuring, and more number crunching

We've spent another productive day in the wood workshop, beginning with building the first of many of the forms that are to be placed on top of the bookcases. We applied wood filler to a couple of the moveable sculptures ready to be sanded tomorrow. 

After calculating more of the dimensions and angles of some of the other forms (we are producing a number of different shapes for the bookcases) these pieces were cut and the appropriate edges were tapered. Moving one of the wheeled sculptures up to the studio was fun, and the ease of doing so reassured me that wheeling the sculptures through town to the Lit and Phil may not be such a crazy idea!

Moveable sculptures

After a morning of crits with fellow MFA students, followed by an excellent artist talk by Rachel Maclean, http://www.rachelmaclean.com, Jodie and I returned to the wood workshop to complete the structure of the third moveable sculpture.

It's on the wall!

I've spent the last week hopping between the metal, wood and casting workshops, learning new skills and processes in order to achieve my aim of installing one of my sculptures on the wall.

I wanted the block to be flush against the wall without the presence of any brackets or shelves. In order to do this, I needed to have two steel rods sticking out of the wall to be inserted into the block and hold it above the floor. 

The rods were welded to a steel plate, and two holes were drilled into the plaster block for the steel rods to fit into. A countersink was made to accommodate the raised welded sections.

I chiselled a recess into the block for the steel plate to fit into, so as the block would fit flush against the wall.

The steel plate was drilled onto the wall, and then the block was slotted onto the rods.

It has been a time consuming process in order to get the block on the wall, but now I feel a sense of achievement, and am glad that I have learned some new skills. The technicians, Joe (woodwork), Steve (metal) and Burnie (casting) were all extremely helpful.

Making moulds in readiness to get casting!

Having being inducted in the wood workshop, and now that my wood order has been delivered, yesterday I was able to make a start on making a number of moulds which I will then use for casting.

I've started off making a number of simple 15cm x 25cm x 15cm boxes, which I will cast using various colours of plaster, and then want to experiment with the display of them. Moving on from the BRIMMING bookcase installation at 1 Royal Terrace, I intend to make work which brings the work out of a bookcase, and into a space which you can walk around the work and see it from all angles.