Sculpture 1: Bas Relief and simple mold making

A bas relief is a shallow sculpture that is brought to life by bright light- the egyptians used them a lot for this reason. A relief is sort of a cross between drawing (or maybe engraving, but basically a form of drawing) and sculpture. It is pretty challenging, actually, or maybe it's just because I've only tried it once. Basically, all the highpoints have to come to the same level and the low points have to stay at their level. They are really easy to make a mold from for this reason. You just brush on plaster, let it dry, pat on fiberglass dipped in plaster, and then once dry dig out the clay and press new clay in.

I tried to bring an alaska quarter to copy, but since the meter takes 8 quarters I must have put that one in, even though I remember specifically saving it out. I still had several quarters so I used the banner from I think Connecticut and the ship from Florida and made a ship. I have cast 2, then my arms got very tired, and I still have not cast the third (we are required to make three, and I am going to use mine as stepping stones in the garden.)
Here is the plaster mold.


Here is the drying stepping stone. It reads "A sailor needs the sight of the sea" unless this is the one I smoothed out the original words on and etched in "Look Around You". I am actually too tired to flip over to the compose option where I can view it. I have not decided what to etch on the final stone. Maybe a song lyric. Maybe a quote about exploration. OMG! I will put an iceberg in the background and the banner can say "Antarctica was discovered in 1822". Yeah. Pithy.

Okay, and across the bottom: And no one was born there until 1978.