! WOW !

This is the form that I sadly had to throw away, as it failed structurally and the clay was too hard, but it certainly photographed well. This was in the 3D workshop with some sheets of paper as a backdrop, shot on an iPhone. I'm beginning to realise that I really enjoy photographing work and see it as an entirely different artistic process to compliment the work. Photographing work can help you see elements that otherwise weren't so visible to the artist and the viewer. But also it can help the artist communicate specific elements that are essential to them in their expression.

Some Notes...

[Technical Bits]

Pouring Foam / Experimenting with Pigment?

Pouring

In these images you can see my process of pouring expanding foam. First starting with the top, then turning the mushroom over and removing some of the clay from the top (so it's not such hard work to pull all the clay out through the stalk end). I then pour the foam down the stalk, being very careful to wait until the correct moment that the foam has begun to expand and become thick- otherwise I will face a huge pool of it at the bottom. This was something I learnt from my last sculptures. I also discovered when creating these 'mushroom' forms that if I am to use clay as a temporary object to mould from, I need to consider that the heat from the foam causes the clay to dry quicker - and once it's dry it is even harder to carve out.

In the image below left, you can see my first attempt at pouring. Notice small pieces of clay around the base, this is to stop the pours from the stalk pouring in the opposite direction through the gaps.

Pigment

In these images you can see that I have changed the colour using various experiments with resin pigments to see how the expanding foam would come out. I have discovered that Polyurethane foam, much like the stuff artist Dan Lam uses, is in fact expanding foam, just in a different form. She is able to add colour to her pours, but she mainly manipulates the colour after using sprays and acrylic paints. The pours with a speckled appearance utilise Jesmonite pigment - I really liked the speckled effect. On the images below you can slightly see the darker blue- this was really interesting as I didn't mix the pigment into the foam as much and it created a marbled effect. The other pigments used were opaque resin pigments, any other types just didn't mix very well or change the colour. After using the Jesmonite pigment the main issue I endured was that when I added too much it stopped the reaction between the two parts of expanding foam, resulting in it setting too soft and almost crumbling. This ruined the form seen below, right, as the green was too soft. All of the other pours on top were so solid I was forced to pour on top of the beautiful green colour, but by this time the clay had hardened too much so I decided to throw that one away.