Making sculptures that light up is hard. Last summer I made a
house shaped ceramic tealight holder and clay is malleable and I had been working with the same kind of clay for a month and it still came out funny. As a sculpture I was happy with it, as a candle holder it is, well, functional but only with workarounds. The top gets really hot even though I made it tall. I made a slot in the bottom to put the candles in which is a bit of a challenge, and you have to light the candles with a spaghetti stick lit on the stove (or a skewer, but spaghetti is cheaper) poked through one of the windows. And for some reason I thought the little chimneys would actually vent heat. I don't think it's dangerous to use (around adults who I have warned about the heat retention) because the ceramic has been heated a lot hotter than that in the kilns so it won't break, and isn't flammable.
Ok so this quarter I got to do an independent study course, which in my department at least are self developed. These can be on any topic but the professor I approached to facilitate it was my Electronics for Intermedia prof who was really good at fabrication and helping us work around challenges with fabrication and materials (also programming, but that is so many hours for such a little result..., also, not where my talents lie I think). So I wasn't going to be like "I want to do a series of paintings of the sky". Not his area, and IMO a waste of his time, or skills, or something. So, "lighted sculptures". Sculptures that come to life when lit, have interesting shadows, idk. Just sculptures that use light. And in our only meeting so far he told me to be less literal, so I am trying to be quite experimental in materials.
And so far I have learned that non standard materials, repurposed materials, are a challenge. They are really tricky. I have done a bunch of art with odds and ends and scraps: fabric, vinyl, beads, puff paint, dirt, silverware. But that was like... I don't know... less ambitious than what I am trying now because often the materials were already intended for fabrication and I was just repurposing them (vinyl for signs ->vinyl for the fronts of greeting cards). So I guess I will talk about the different things I've tried and the unique challenges they have.
Aluminum Cans: It took a lot of hand strength to cut through the cans with a box cutter. If I did only a few cuts it would have been fine, but the turtle shell skeleton had a lot of little edges and holes. I used scissors part of the time which helped, but my hand was really tired from pressing with the box cutter by the time I was done. They do hold their shape when bent, even narrow parts, which was helpful. But it doesn't hold up at all under the weight of damp tissue. Had to brace it between cans to get even the small amount of depth it has.
Lichen: I feel like there is a cool way to use lichen and I will find it. The way it filters light is really cool. But lichen on a lamp doesn't look alive enough. It looks dried and dead. But it is dried and alive. It can even live in space. I think I need to find a texture to combine it with, like metal. Because combining it with sticks or black plastic didn't work. Or maybe I need a sleeker way to anchor it.
Sticks: Sticks are the worst! I don't know how people figured out wood was a building material. They don't stay and they snap a lot and... actually I guess that's all. They don't stay how you have them and they snap. But I spent 10 hours this weekend trying to overcome or manage those two qualities so I feel like they are a big deal. On the other hand they take paint really well. The texture of the stick still comes through and everything. What I figured out to do do make a branch shape was wire everything together (like a panflute arrangement) and then anchor it with nylons. Things that don't work (in order from closest to working to farthest from working): ribbon, hair elastics, thread, yarn, tension from other sticks.
Ok. So I'm learning a lot. And it's not coming too easily either. And I don't have an at all decent sculpture so far.
Here it is gessoed. Laptop for scale, folding travel hairdryer (wanted my gesso dry right away) for illusory scale. The spine is two long sticks that I bent, tied into place, then oven dried and removed the ties. Each rib pair is a stick that I knotted into a loop/pretzel, oven dried, unknotted, and snapped off the extra.
(flash messing up the color, not very opaque at all) Pantyhose legs stretched over the skeleton. This is spine side up, as snakes are, because I originally planned to have it match life.
But the different height ribs made it really hard to work with, they kept squashing down under the weight while I adjusted the pantyhose so I think this will be the way it's displayed. It's very grub-like. I am beyond pleased with it after all the sad sculptures I have been doing for this independent study class. In effect it is my midterm, and yes, I stayed up allll night working on it. (It's due monday but I have a lot of studying and writing for my other two classes.) Oh, I hope the resin doesn't ruin it. I kind of think it did. Resin is so tricky. But it was just too fragile with only the acrylic lacquer and fabric stiffener mix I painted on. It was too bendy for me to feel confident carrying it to the art department to use their ground to paint the resin, so I just carried it to the top floor outdoor landing of my apartment building, and I am very scared it will be carried off or damaged or confiscated for being messy and smelly. The advantage is that it is so foul smelling anyone who planned to confiscate it would need to go and fetch gloves.
