Week One Reflection

Staring the week off with experiments in carving, I am aiming to conclude the most effective stone to use in my future work. Starting off with carving into plaster than I cast into a hexagonal prism shape, I began carving a basic plinth design. This was harder than I expected due to the density of the plaster that I did not predict. As I couldn’t chisel the plaster as It would break off in too big pieces and the small scale of my piece, I had to file it all down with metal files. this was quite a lengthy process. I have decided that plaster is better for carving fine details, but not overall forms. Stone such as breezeblock is much easier to carve down with tools such as a surform and saw, and the plaster was easier for fine details. I have developed a plan that I will test next week where I dip/coat breezeblock forms that I have carved/shaped in plaster. Then I will already have easily made the overall form and the plaster will be easy to carve finer details into. It also gives me more colour options as I will be able to colour the plaster before coating the breezeblock.