Penland Spring Concentration 2010: Week Two in Review

Its been a wild week weather-wise here at Penland. We’ve had snow, rain, wind storms, and warm sunny days. I feel like I had a taste of all seasons in the past seven days. I’ve also been pulling some really late nights, some in the studio and others being sociable. Through sophisticated lighting technology (red light bulb and a strobe) I’ve transformed the oldest building on campus, the dye shed, into a late night dance hall. Its a really great way to get the wiggles out after long studio hours.

Phil Sanders, pictured below, is teaching a mixed media class about a printmaking approach to painting and drawing. I watched his paper mache demo early in the week because it could be a useful way to make models for future slip cast projects. Phil is collaborating with Tom Spleth on a book of 50 wood block prints of skulls. He has also been spending a lot of late nights in our studio attempting to realize a specific form. I am going to make the effort to catch up with him next time I visit New York where  he is the director and master printer of the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop.

As far as my current projects, I completed my first mold. I managed to do it in 5 pieces plus a stand and an additional large tile mold. I’ll cast the object like a bowl and cast the tile at the same time so that I can flip the sculpture onto the tile and trim the foot to fit. I’ll also trim a bevel into the foot so that the piece is not so grounded. It has a lot of energy and needs that slight lift.

Below is a pic looking down into the mold. I anticipate a few failed casts and a fair amount of mold refinement before I actually realize this form in clay. We have a casting demo tomorrow, so I may attempt that sooner than later or I may continue with my second mold.

This is the large tile mold I made to use as a foot for my first project.

As I worked on my first mold I started to see the form as a glass object. I’ve been talking to the glass instructor, assistants, residents, and the EnergyXchange crew about making this happen. Originally I was considering a plaster blow mold, which is how the torso was made in the pic below. After seeing the process and taking more of the technical issues into consideration I am leaning towards making it by kiln casting. While less exciting, I could capture a lot more detail. Essentially it involves making a one time use mold made of refractory plaster, filling in glass, and bringing it all up to temp in a kiln. Because the mold is going to be ruined in the process you can preserve a lot of the undercuts by carefully chipping the plaster away once it has cooled.

I’ve begun work on a second mold now as well. I started piecing together different models from my second troweled form series. Some matched up surprisingly well while others I began to examine as offset pairs. I really like the idea of these tectonic shifts but for the time being I have decided to marry two forms. I may return to the tectonic idea in the future, but for now it opened a whole new set of technical and conceptual hurdles that I feel should wait.

The two models below were the best fit. The way the dominant curve of both pieces lined up is remarkable. I’m not so sure that the alignment would fit so well even if I had had the intention of marrying the two from the start, but I am open to good luck. I think it is fitting considering the phenomenological quality of this series.

I carefully drilled the two models and lag bolted them together. Where the pieces did not match I added dry wall screws and frosted additional plaster to join the two. At first it looked a little contrived but I worked on the new areas with a Dremel, some carving tools, wire brushes, and sandpaper and I feel really good about the model now. A lot of the motivation in making this complicated mold is to create an object that has no top or bottom, no front or back. In a sense it represents my interior space lately, trying to move and go in many directions.

This new piece could potentially be up to 16 parts although I have four large segments marked out to begin. When I first joined the two models I just had to walk away from the form. Its an intimidating project for a novice mold maker but I am just stubborn enough to pull it off. I am growing increasingly confident in my ability and developing my own techniques, such as my Tim Ayers patented plaster trough seen below. By adding a small spout below my trim line I keep my mess minimal and am able to capture and reuse poured plaster before it sets. Waste not, want not. Tom said we’ll probably always do things differently. I replied that at least we won’t get bored with each other.

This final pic is of Tom Spleth working on his mold with the help of the other studio assistant, the fabulous Lauren Owens. Lauren recently earned her bachelors of art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has assisted Tom for two other workshops. She has a relaxed attitude and is a keen mold maker. Its been really great seeing how she helps everyone in the class solve their technical problems.

I’ve been watching how Lauren interacts with the class especially close because I found out this week that I have been selected as the studio assistant for Tom Spleth’s and Steven Heinemann’s class at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts later this summer. Needless to say I am really excited about my first trip to this renown institution. My close friend Niki Coverstone, who I met here in 2007 and is here for concentration as well, is also attending third session at Haystack. ROAD TRIP! I’ll have two weeks following the first summer session at Penland to get to Maine and we are going to make the most of that time by visiting friends along the way. The only downside is I am going to have to turn down the work-study scholarship Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts has offered but hopefully I will have a future opportunity to attend. I also mailed my application for the summer assistant program at Peters Valley Craft Center this week. If that works out I could potentially head from Haystack to upstate Jersey and help conduct workshops through mid-September. I’m not one to count my chickens before they hatch though so I am keeping my ear out for other opportunities. Alright, thanks for reading! I need to get cracking on my second mold piece of my new project and I am getting a late start after Ross Edward’s and Micah Cain’s killer dance party last night!