Monday 30 November 2009

Lace beginnings..





Taught myself how to make lace for the tiny feotal peices I want to make. It's pretty fiddly! Get tangled up a lot. But at least I know how to do it now. Thinking about beating dome shapes out of metal to use as a base plate to display the free-hand lace pieces (NOT squares or doilies!), and weld pins to hold the piece in place.

Wax 'hearts'





Been casting in wax, porcelain, and white earthenware but here are the wax ones from a couple of weeks ago. They are more fragile than they look! Burnt myself a few times but they came out alright. Need to make a metal base and post to display them. Will go into welding bay tomorrow and have a go (hopefully - after essay is handed in!). Might try displaying on hand made silk pillow. Will try both.
The blue one is parrafin wax and (I think,) a thin layer of microcrystalline wax on the inside. The red one is just paraffin wax, which is why it's much more fragile.
The mould has held up pretty well considering I've been casting in wax and slip!
The mould I made after this one (not pictured - more 'feotal'), didn't work out so well! Still working on it though, I'll update when I've got more to show.

Sunday 1 November 2009

Waxing it up





First attempt at wax casting!
Firstly made my object in clay, which took about 5 minutes.
Then, made the plaster mould, which seemed to take about 5 days! (But probably only really took 1..).
Poured the melted wax into the precious mould, and voila! A nearly beating heart for me to play with..