Rajasthan Part II

On the 25th of January, we went to visit a local family at their home to learn how paper is made from elephant dung.

First, the dung is collected from elephant stables (each dung varies as per season and what they eat)

Next, they clean it thoroughly with water and acts as a fertilizer
Next, the mixture is beaten (as long as it’s soft) to get the fibre ready for the next stage and is cooked up to 4-5 hours
Once it’s cooked, the water is drained, it’s left out in the sunlight to dry, once dried the excess fibre is then removed

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After we made our paper we were then invited upstairs to join the family for an afternoon lunch.

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Here’s a link to a video of me draining the water from the dung on my YouTube channel:

Rajasthan Part I

On the 24th of January, I and my group went out on our first full day in Jaipur. Our first stop was Amer Fort in Devisingh Pura

History

Armer fort was built by Maan Singh (The general of Akbar) in the 16th century Singh would then roll the fourth (which back then was referred to as a member state) the Amer fort is located in Devisingh Pura.

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The Temple

After the fort, we all made our way down to the temple, while we were there we taught the concept of the three Hindu gods Brahma: The creator, Vishnu: the preserver and Shiva: the destroyer (each of these gods were also a representation of the three stages of our lives

While we were there we were each given a yellow dots on our foreheads from the father of the temple

The Stairwell

The Block printing museum

Our next stop was the block printing museum while we were there we looked around and saw all the tools and textiles and we were given demonstrations on how the blocks are carved and how there printed onto the fabric.

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Here’s a link to a video of the block carving on my YouTube channel:

Prospect Tower

On the 7th to the 9th of January, I had my first session of the prospect of our project as part of the Enhancement week.

First, we were given a presentation at prospect house or the old and new ones, for this project we were split into groups of three and this will help you design a modern prospect tower that included the following:

Minimal environmental impact
An Appreciation of the site context
Fully accessible to all
Room for at least six people
Striking contemporary design
Height between 15 and 20 meters
Multiple functions

Once we were given our introduction we split up into teams of three and discussed some ideas and started sketching.

Here are my sketches:

Figurative Modelling Part X

On the 12th of December, I presented my ten slide presentation based on my experience, skills and Ambitions, throughout my time in figurative modelling.

Each slide covered certain aspects:

New skills and techniques
My collage
My trip to the V&A
Relation to my own coursework
Research and context
New ideas

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Heres the link to the full Presentation:

Final presentation

Figurative Modelling Part IX

On the 10th of December, I had my final practical session of Figurative modeling, For this, we were given a step by step process on how to make legs out of clay.

First we were given paper templates to trace over the clay and cut out

After tracing and cutting the pieces I curved them and connected them with slip, securing them in place.

Once each pieces were made I then sculpted feet for both the legs, next I attached both the legs to each foot.

Finally I connected both the legs together, I was pretty happy with the result.

Figurative Modelling Part VIII

On the 5th of December, I had my eighth session in Figurative modeling, For this session, we showcased our ceramics, plaster, slip collages to Natasha, to express what our piece is about.

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As I mentioned in the last post about this, I hadn’t really planned the whole piece out and instead improvised, therefore my piece didn’t really have an intentional meaning, however since this term project was bout expressing, it was up for interpretation, so anyone could say what kind of story it tells.

Personal development profile

For this assignment, I will be going over my strengths and weaknesses during my time in the figurative modelling project.

What happened during the field project?

Each day of this project would go for 2 days for five weeks

Life Drawing

For each life drawing session, we would experiment in doing multiple drawings with multiple time limits (e.g ten of ten-second sketches, ten of twenty-second sketches, five of one-minute sketches, etc)

Sculpting

The main attribute of this whole project was ceramics and during this, we all sculpted multiple body parts including hands, feet, legs, and heads. During this, I learned more skills and processes in sculpting

Stitching

The stitching was part of a collaboration with the plaster projects, for this, we all had to create our own fabric limbs by tracing our limbs on two layers of fabric, then cutting them out and sewing them together, preparing them for the plaster. This part was fascinating and taught me new skills in stitching

Slab Collage

The slab collage was team collaboration where we’d all create a slab piece together, each slab including an aspect from one of our life drawings, the end result was successful and we all worked well together.

Plaster parts

The plasterwork consisted of including our fabric limbs from the stitch workshop, then mixing the right quantities of water and plaster fro each limb, I’d pour the mixture in and wait for the plaster to dry, I really enjoyed this workshop

Teamwork

For most of these projects, I would often work on my own, the only notable ones being the slab collage and our plaster body parts, when I did take part in teamwork, I got along well with everyone I was working with before we’d begin our collaboration, we’d discuss which one of us does which part of the project (whether it would be based on our particular skills or the part we really wanted to do.

Strengths

During this field, I managed to understand and manage the techniques and context of each lesson, and I have to say I did well in all the exercises, even if some of them weren’t my bread and butter, I still gave it my best

Weaknesses

As I said before I managed pretty well during the practical and theoretical work, however, I believe my weakness is when I’m doing the practical work such as sculpting, I tend to rush a little bit and also another thing that would be best is to keep my blog up to date on a daily basis rather than writing about and leaving the rest till last minute.

Figurative Modelling Part VII

On the 3rd of December, I and my group went on a trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

During the first few hours of our time at the V&A, I went around looking at multiple artifacts and artwork from multiple countries and cultures.

For the last hour of the day, we all met up and were introduced to the ceramic artist Aimee Lax,

Heres a link to my youtube video of my trip to the V&A

Figurative Modelling Part VI

On the 28th of November, I had my 6th session in figurative modeling, today’s session was split into two parts, the morning half was a slideshow presentation about ceramic sculptures and the afternoon half was making a slip, wax, fabric, plaster colleague.

Ceramic presentation

For the first half of the day, we started off with a slideshow of ceramic pieces and what the artists were trying to represent in their work,

Here are some examples:

This Symbol of life and death

and Reflects loss

Donatello’s Mary Magdalene (1455)

Wooden Sculpture

Ceramics Collage

For the second half of the day, we started making an art piece collage using most of our work projects from the past few weeks, while also adding extra materials to the piece such as leftover fabric, wire, and clothing, during this process we also were given the option to dip our models or materials into a bucket of liquid slip and even hot wax

When I was making mine, I just made it up as I went, adding layer upon layer of material, clothing, slip, and wax.

The general idea of this project was to sort of giving a visual representation of what our piece is about, In my case, I wasn’t fully sure where I was going with this, I think in future it would be best to plan it out step by step and even come up with an idea beforehand instead of “rushing into the action”, but in the end I was mildly happy with the end result, it looked interesting and looked as though it had a story, but still it would be best if I thought this through first, then the outcome would’ve been better.

Materials I used:

Face cloth
String
Needle and thread
Chicken wire
Pantyhose
Gloves
Miscellaneous fabric

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Heres a link to the video on my youtube channel that’ll show a little bit of the working progress.

Figurative Modelling Part V

On the 26th of November, I had my fifth Session in figurative modeling. This week’s exercises for life drawing and sculpting exercises.

Life Drawing:

Sketching

For life drawing, we did 10 of 10-second sketches, 10 of 20-second sketches, 5 of 1-minute sketches and 2 of 10-minute sketches.

Life Sculpting

for the next part of life drawing we each took a lump of clay and did 2 of () minute sculptures of our model, after that, we did two of () minute life drawings of our models.

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Hand Sculpture

For the afternoon session, we sculpted hands, First, we took two lumps of clay and rolled them into bowl shapes, next using a bit slip to glue them together, this formed the base shape of the hand, next we took another lump each and sculpted the wrist.

Next, I rolled up bits of clay and formed the fingers, once all of them were attached, I started shaping the palm, the knuckles, the wrinkles, and the position, For the finishing touches, I covered most of it in white slip for the firing process.