Fixing the broken 'heart'..

One of the 'hearts' got broken by accident, but sometimes accidents produce interesting new forms..
Sanded it down a bit and drilled holes around the opening with a 3mm drill bit, ready to sew it up after firing, or to sew an appendage on - whichever fits the bill when it comes to it..
The glaze ended up filling some of the holes, and has sealed them with golden metallic 'plugs'.
I found that I'm more interested in the openings and cave-like structure of the forms, than the forms themselves, so will concentrate on the 'vessel' and dissecting things, cutting into the form and splitting it apart, in future objects to be made..
The reflectiveness of the glaze is not apparent in these photographs, but in the flesh you can see a distorted reflection in the centre.
Might fire the shards that remain of the rest of the heart at a later stage, but at the moment I don't feel they are intrinsic to the piece as it is now.

Porcelain and white earthenware 'hearts'.

Using the same mould as the wax 'hearts', I've been slip casting in porcelain and also white earthenware. The brush on glazes seem to take better with the white earthenware casts.
The first cast was in porcelain, and it collapsed a bit as it was taken out of the mould too early. It takes a while to get the timings right. The second try was much more successful. The seams were cleaned up before leaving to dry out for 5-7 days, then fired. Before firing, it is clear to distinguish between the porcelain (which is white) and the white earthenware (which is grey), but care must be taken not to mix them up if firing in the same kiln, as when they come out they are both a very pure white colour. It's very hard to tell the difference!
One porcelain 'heart' was glazed with 'white opaque gloss glaze 500 MIs' P0064. The other porcelain heart was glazed with 'Sky Blue leadfree brush on glaze' P2825. I glazed the white earthenware heart with the same white opaque gloss glaze as the porcelain heart (the one that had lost its form a little bit). They were fired at 1040 degrees.
The white porcelain heart had tiny little cracks all over it, which in fact portrayed the fragility I was going for, so I brought the cracks out with some ink.
The white glazed w. earthenware came out crack-free, but the seam was still showing slightly. Should've sanded it down a bit more before glazing! The sky blue porcelain heart came out well, the glaze around the opening made it look soft and inviting. The only thing was that there were cracks but they are not visible until you get up close. I could do it again, this time in w. earthenware if I wanted to minimise the risk of cracking.

Back to the wax 'heart'

This is the result of combining the original wax cast of the organ, with the binding of the object with a fine thread, ultimately cocooning it, to protect and restrict the object. It will be displayed, hanging from something (not sure what yet) so as to stumble upon the object like you would something caught in a spider's web. It does not command your attention. You would only notice it if you happened to be walking through at that particular time. Any later and it might be eaten or blown away..

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.

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..

Using gravity..

Here are some works that I created to hang from a hook (maybe a meat hook?) Just playing around with different modes of display. Using more muted colours (if you can call them that?!) to see what people's reactions were going to be. Presented them at the seminar and people reacted to them in a very inquisitive way. Described as cute, melancholy, sea creature-like, reminded people of fishing nets - washed up and tangled, jellyfish, alien. Looked like something had crawled through certain parts and set up home in others.. Make up your own mind..