As I stated in my breath I hope to create some sort of sculptural piece for part of my FMP. This is why I decided to try my hands at ceramics once again. In stead of creating flowers like in my last project, I decided to create a mask as that is how it felt through my issues. I felt like I was always wearing a mask to hid what was relay going on inside my own head. However as I was making these masks my ceramics tutor kept giving me different ideas, As you will see within this blog.
Before doing anything I had to roll out my clay rather thin to prevent my designs being too heavy.
These are the two face molds that I used to create the main shape of my mask designs.
These molds where made out of Plasticine which can cause your ceramic work to explode in the kiln if it gets embedded.
After I had rolled my clay out and chosen which mold I wanted to use first I then carefully placed the clay into the mold and gently pressed it in with a sponge.
I Used a sponge as it prevents the likelihood of piercing the clay and also by using the sponge it gives and even pressure onto the clay preventing the chance of some features being stronger than others
As you can see this didn't quit work for me the first time as it was my first time ever doing something like this and I pierced the clay work. However my tutor showed me to patch them up but she also told me that it would show once its out of the mold. however as I am basing my final project on Anxiety and depression I decided to keep this look as from my experience I felt like I was falling apart.
As I am also looking at demonic looking shadows and shadowy hands I decided to try and make a hand at shape the fingers to look more ghostly/demonic as I feel it fits in with the rest of my project work.
As one of my ideas was to have writing on a few of my masks I found these stamps out of the cupboards. the stamps are all different sizes and fonts, which I found looked interesting. I had to press these into the rolled out clay before pushing it into the mold.
These are how my masks and hand design came out after they ad been fired in the kiln.
This mask was a plain mold which I did nothing too before or after placing it within the mold as I wanted a "normal" looking mask as that was what I was going for. If I where to do this again I would be more careful when pushing the clay into the nose as it turned out a little wonky and squished. as well as the nose the face shape as a whole is off and looks strange however I feel like this works in a wired way as my project is on mental illness and nothing is what it seems or looks like.
This mask is the one that I molded after pushing letter stamps into the clay. the words I put on the mask are words that described how I felt/feel going through my troubles. I feel that I could have spent more time and care with this mold however I feel that cutting out the eyes made it look more messy and unprofessional. I also feel that by adding such big letters across the mask also made it look strange and wired. even thou this is the effect I was trying to go for I believe that this didn't work the way I wanted it to. If i were to try this again I would use letter stamps that are the same size instead of different sizes and think more about where I put them instead of just placing them randomly.
This mask is my favorite mask so far as I feel this came out how i was hoping. I decided to put cracks into it and also while it was in the mold a few places tour meaning I had to patch them us which give the chipped sort of look. within the chipped looking parts I tried to make it look quit scabby. This was my way of expressing how I felt once again going through my troubles. I felt as thou myself and my whole world was falling apart. I feel that I got the overall shape of the face right and the nose didn't squish or go wonky.
After I pulled the clay hand out of the mold I noticed that the top of the fingers looked quite narrow and pointed. This gave me an idea to squish the fingers slightly using my finger tips making them look more skinny and bony. I also really pointed the nail part of the hand to look very sharp almost like animal claws. As one of my pieces is a fairly large cardboard cut out of a shadow, I feel this would look good painted black as it would go well and mach the shadow cutout. I was also thinking about creating a background for the hand that looks like it had been dragged down it ripping the paper or what ever I choose to create my background for this piece.
After my masks and hand was finished I then went on to glazing them.
I decided to use cobalt oxide and water with stone ware trms glaze on the right hand side of the mask and palterson's dry glaze on the left. I decided to do this as I wasn't that happy with how the mask turned out after the glazing however I decided to use it as an opportunity to see how the different glazes look in compassion to each other. also the cobalt oxide is supposed to turn out blue after being kilned one last time. the blue came from inspiration from Picasso blue period, which I looked at for my artist research.
For this sample I used; red iron oxide with candeic and stone ware trms glaze. I saw another sample of how this should turn out, and I liked the rusty look that it can create using this. I also feel that the rusty look and feel will fit in with my project as when metal is rusty it chips away slightly which is how my mental illness made me feel. I also think that it goes with a lot of the metal frames within the abandoned farm at the back of my house which ties in as well with the project.
This sample had been done with; Black iron oxide with red iron oxide with water and stone ware trms (glaze) on the outer parts of the mask and Palterson's dry glaze in the cuts. I used the Black iron oxide as I was told by my ceramic teacher that it can give a burnt look to your clay which I thought would go well with one of my experimental portrait designs I have done. I also decided to carefully add red iron oxide mixed with water into the cracks and cuts to make them look like there fresh and raw as to my project is quit raw and fresh in my mind.
Because This hand is supposed to be some what demonic looking/(creepy) as it is featured I decided to mash a load of the colours together and make it look exceptionally wired and strange to go with the rest of my project. I used candiec with chromium oxide and black iron oxide with paterson's dry glaze and stoneware trms mixed.
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