Sculpture- Materials and Methods: Phase 2

My experimentation process will continue with wax. I am attaching the different ways I am thinking of using the material.

Materials and Methods: Outside Visit -Bird Road Art District

I was planning to visit a candle warehouse but unfortunately the business was close over the weekend. "Soy Delicious Moisturizing Candles" only opens Monday thru Friday 10 am to 5 pm, I am going on Wednesday to check it out but in the mean time I had to find a substitute. I heard from family and friends about "The Bird Road Art District" so I venture to see if I could find a business that might work to learn more about wax or wire. 

Sadly I only find a pewter store and some super interesting plants warehouses surrounded by antique stores, clothing and decoration warehouses. I was a little disappointed but then I realize even thought was not what I was looking for it gives me ideas of possible things I can do  with my next materials (wire and wax). 

The Pewter Depot:

Even thought this business was not exactly what I was looking the visit was interesting. The owner of the store was very kind and explain to me how pewter is made and how it works as a material similar to silver but more accessible. Of course the store is made for decoration purposes so they do not have a studio on the same location. The pieces do not come from one source so it was difficult to find out where can I see pewter in action. 

Kreative Gardens:

Even though this business has nothing to do with any of my materials the visit was positive. It make realize the idea of structure specially when I start to work with wire. Also, gave me ideas of possible hooks or ways to hang my artwork with wire. 

Other interesting thing about this outside visit was the way it make me think about maybe using a found object and complement that object with wax, for example: a chandelier dripped in wax. 

Critique #2: Materials & Methods- Directed Production (Fabric)

These forms in fabric were inspired by a mixture of female forms and these forms in nature. Taking photographs of beautiful tree branches was the trigger that motivate me to imitate the forms. 

The process was a growing experience:

• Going Bigger: I started the experimentation with kitchen bowls with a round form that make easy to manipulate the fabric into the desire form, once I decide to go bigger I need to find something big enough to be able to laid the fabric. The solution was Rubbermaid containers in different sizes, for the last one I had to joined 2 lids of the containers to be able to achieve the size I wanted.

Small Rubbermaid Container Covered with Aluminum foil 

Layering of Fabric in Aluminum foil 

• Types of Material & Amount: When I mixed different types of fabrics I realize that each type of fabric had a different reaction to the adhesive or the amount of adhesive needed to work. Also, since I was working bigger for the first time I miss calculate the amount of fabric and mod podge needed and I had to make multiple trips to the store to be able to complete the process.

First Layering

Final Layering

Pulling layering from the Aluminum foil 

• The Process of Layering: When I finish the first layering I realize I just mixed a bunch of scrap fabric and that my piece did not make sense, in that moment I decide to redo the last layer of fabric with the pattern all over the container. Also, I decided that the other forms had to match in a certain way so I choose the white and the green as the predominant colors of the other forms since they were present in the pattern. 

Details in the Forms

Critique #1:Materials and Methods- Phase One Progress (Intentional Play - Fabric)

I start to explore fabric with a different vision in mind but as soon as I start to experiment and handle the material it did not react the way I was expecting. The fabric bowls I was planning to make transform to female forms on fabric inspired by a photo shoot I did finding female forms in nature. Some materials did no work the way I imagine so I was forced to find different uses and solutions to have something resolve in this process!

I follow the steps in my worksheet:

Step #1: Making of the fabric bowls
              a. used two different fabrics
                       1. tee fabric
                       2. scrap fabric
              b. used two different shapes of bowl
              c. used two different adhesives
                       1. Fabric Mache = Failure
                       2. Mod Podge = Success

Step #2: Dye Fabric
            a. I enjoy the process of dyeing and it work the way I expected
            b. I braid the fibers to hang the pieces from = fail (material too weak to support the weight)
            c. Used dye fabric as part of the female forms

Step #3: Knitting tee yarn
            a. The process of cutting the tee and transform it into yarn was a little more complicated than what I research, you need to cut it the right way so the thread follow the direction and can be made into a ball of yarn
             b. The crochet difficulty depended in the quality of the tee: Pure cotton fibers were easy to manipulate than fibers mixed with polyester or  lycra.

Tee "bowl": harder to glue but easier to manipulate

Retazo "bowl": easier to glue but harder to manipulate

Dye Fabric: I love the process of adding color  to the textile but the braiding  did not work for my initial idea of hanging the pieces

Recycle Tee turn into yarn

Yarn crochet

Crochet Flower

Final Result

My personal goal for the next two weeks is to work bigger with this process on mind!