Plastic Jigsaw

These plastic shapes were cut of using the laser cutter. They were uniformed shapes which fitted together in a highly unusual way. After hours of playing around with them, I learnt ways of putting them together to create interesting shapes, though these shapes were never what I expected. I could never find a way of closing these shapes up to made a solid shape and I found connecting different chunks of them together to be incredibly challenging as they just wouldn’t stay! This was a technique I enjoyed using but I mainly think it was down to the unpredictability of it as the shapes were so difficult to pre-plan.

Grit Blasting

A strong type of masking tape was cut into the size of a porcelain tile, then using a craft knife a design was cut into it. Once finished, the tape was applied to the tile and wrapped around the edges to strongly secure it in place. Ensuring our face masks were on (as so brilliantly demonstrated by Debra and I), we turned placed the tile into the grit blaster tank and secured the lid. Because there wasn’t a tight seal around the top of the machine, grit was able to get out and circulate into the surrounding area which presented a health hazard to us, therefore the face masks were a necessity. I placed my hands into the provided grit blaster gloves and held my tile from the outside of the box. Pulling the trigger, grit was powerfully thrust into the tile. Areas of the tile unprotected by the masking tape were worn away by the grit. Once the grit blasted was safely turned off at the plug, I was then able to retrieve my tile and remove the masking tape. This revealed the design I had cut into the tape. I didn’t particularly favour this technique as the tape came away very easily and according to the technician the grit blaster wasn’t even that powerful so stronger tape should have been used. I found the depth of the design was completely dependant on how long you left the grit blaster aimed at that particular spot for which created an unpredictable finish. This was difficult to counteract as it was almost impossible to see into the box as the process was occurring. Overall I much preferred the Shellac resistance solution as it was much easier to control.

 

Shellac Resistance

Using Shellac resistance solution, I painted several designs relating to my human form project with a paintbrush onto the greenware porcelain tiles I’d previously made. Where the shellac had been painted, water could not touch which meant that when I applied a wet sponge to the surface and rubbed away at it, the areas which weren’t protected by Shellac turned into porcelain slip and rubbed away leaving a design which protruded out of the tile leaving a textured surface. I liked that it didn’t take long for the Shellac to dry but found that small applied areas of it rubbed away with the sponge which defied it’s whole purpose of being a resistant solution. Overall an interesting method which I would enjoy using again.

 

Porcelain Tiles

Ensuring all surfaces were clean and covered with paper (as due to the white colour of porcelain, dirt is picked up and very visible, I rolled out several slices of ming porcelain clay with a roller and some guides to make sure that the thickness was consistent with each slab. Then using a square cutter I carefully pressed into the clay to cut out a square piece of clay. Removing the excess clay, I picked up the square slab and placed it on a board to dry. Unfortunately I wasn’t aware that porcelain has a strong memory and from when I lifted the slabs up to move boards it remembered how much I bent it so once dried, they were curved and very much not straight. To solve this problem in the future, I will place a board on top the drying slabs to ensure they dry flat.

Plaster Tile

Using a clean sheet of clear plastic, I created square walls of clay using scrap terracotta. These walls weren’t precise, but needed to be completely watertight so I spent some time ensuring there were no gaps from the inside out. This was so the wet plaster would leak out. Using a bowl, a little water and a shovel, I slowly poured the plaster powder into the bowl until it was beginning to form islands of powder. At this point I used my hand to mix it all together. Looking back, I probably should have used a spoon or something similar due to the health hazards this presented. Once mixed, the plaster was poured into the walls to set. You could determine if the plaster was dry or not by looking to see if there was any water on the top. If there was, it needed some more time. When there wasn’t, I was able to peel the clay walls away carefully and flip over the tile to produce a completely flat and clean side to work on. Using a pencil I drew on a design of the human form, gradually drawing into it harder and harder to leave an engraving in the surface. Once completely dry, I shall use this tile to print into the surface of a wet clay tile to produce an exact print of this design.

Cutting Glass Sheets

Using a glass scribe, I ran it along the surface of a sheet of glass which left a slight engraved line along with a small amount of oil. This oil is there to create a smoother line. Using only a tiny amount of force, I held the glass on either side of the scribe line and twisted it. The glass has been weakened along the line so it then cracks and creates a clean break. I repeated this several times to create many thin strips of glass. I enjoyed this technique because before I was scared of glass and it’s potential harmful qualities, yet this made it predictable and easy to use. It was also a little fun when breaking the glass.

Soldering a wire structure

Following a design of the human body drawn on paper previously, I bend the length of copper wire using round headed pliers. Having the round head made it easier to produce tight bends which in turn made it more accurate to the design it was made from. Once all these separate pieces of the design had been formed, i ensured that all areas which were going to be soldered together had been sanded using wet and dry to allow easy attachment of the solder, and made sure that all edges touched with ease. Due to the wire having been bent in so many directions, it was no longer flat, so before i began soldering I flattened the wire again using a hammer. Using the solder seen in the second image along, I squirted three small pieces of solder onto the areas which I intended to join and turned on the blow torch. Slowly, I began heating around the edges of the wire structure until it was all reasonably the same temperature. Then, one by one I heated up each of the joins until the solder melted and formed a solid fixture, joining the two areas together. Once finished, I placed the wire into a pot of cold water to quickly cool it down again to prevent any burns to my skin when touching it.

Creating a design from copper

Masking tape was used to cover the surface of the sheet of copper creating a surface on which pencil would draw onto and would remain as guidelines. I drew the female form onto my sheet of metal as it related to my work which also happened to make quite a nice finishing piece. I took my sheet of copper and sat at my work station where after carefully placing the blade into coping saw, ensuring it was in there securely, I began to cut into the metal, carefully following the guidelines drawn on. I found easier to work with the saw facing vertical as it made it glide through the metal much smoother than it would at any other angle. Once my design had been cut out, I used wet and dry sanding paper to sand down the edges to make it smoother and of a more presentable finish, this also reduced the chances of any sharp edges causing injury to the skin if it happened to get caught.

 

Staining The Metal

Using a paintbrush, Platinol oxidising solution was applied over the surface of the copper which turned it a very deep brown- almost black- colour. According to the tutor, if touched, this solution weakened your nails, so I was very careful to use tweezers rather than my fingers to move this sheet of copper around. Once painted on, I took it over to the sink and washed it off. It had an incredibly strong ammonia smell to it which presented a hazardous environment so we was sure to leave the windows and doors wide open to ventilate the room. Once washed off, the copper had been very obviously stained so I then used wet and dry sanding paper to sand off the stain from any protruding parts of the metal. This left it only on the sunk in parts which really brought out the pattern imprinted into the copper. This stain would eventually rub off due to regular wear and tear so a layer of clear nail polish was added over the top to seal it in.

Metal work – Getting started

First I selected five strips of copper and annealed them using a hand blow torch. This was to soften the metal and make it more malleable. I heated it to a beautiful cherry red colour and then placed it in a tub of cold water to cool down. Due to the heating process, the metal’s face had blackened with dirt so it was then placed into the pickle tank for ten minutes to clean itself up ready for the next stage. Now soft, the metal allowed pattern to be imprinted on the surface using a roller and some patterned materials. I particularly liked the blue sheet of plastic with a series of holes in it as they widened when put through the roller and had more of the appearance of snake skin. I much preferred the more obvious patterns (such as the blue holed sheet) to the subtle ones (soft woven fabrics) as they left a clearer imprint and had more visual impact. I feel the fabrics made the made more textured rather than into an aesthetically pleasing and artist piece of metal work.