Mixed Media Sculpture Class

So it's been a couple weeks now of my class and so far i'm really enjoying it. The teacher is pretty great and there's a fun group of people in the class. It's really helped to give me a creative kick-start and forces me to accomplish something artsy, even if it isn't necessarily related to my "current" work. But the idea with this class is to gain knowledge of 3D processes to then be used later in my "real" stuff. 

The first couple classes we focused on plaster molds. It's a pretty simple process starting with making a negative image with clay and then pouring plaster into the clay vessel resulting in a plaster positive.

My first attempt wasn't that great and made me a little frustrated. But I really like how my second one is turning out. I used seashells, pressed into clay and tried to make an abstract shell cluster. The shape wasn't exactly what i was going for but i guess it works. The fun part is painting it. Using watered down acrylic paint, i'm glazing in purples, reds, and browns. I have a few more layers to do. I find that i'm really enjoying the painting process. But i think that's always been my thing, I really enjoy the process of painting, even if i dont always enjoy the end result. I think this pice is going to look pretty cool in the end though.
 
Now that i have these casting method down, i want to think of other ways in which i could use it for future projects. Hmmm...

In My Studio... Episode 1

As part of the commitment to blogging more, I'm going to post what's going on in my studio at least once a week. Sometimes it might be just a photo of what the studio currently looks like, sometimes I might talk more in depth about what I'm working on.

Today, I spent a few hours cleaning and organizing. A major hang-up that has been keeping me from being productive in the studio is not having an organized working environment. The key was clearing off the work table so I could actually use it to work and give all the crap covering it a home. I bought some plastic shelves to put away supplies not currently needed. And I used some scrap wood to make a shelf above the table for brushes and tools that I'd need to access while working.

There is still more organizing that needs to happen. I have a lot of papers and photos to sort through but at least I have a clear working space.