week 11 - plaster models

casting a plaster model is like going backwards up a tree (weird translation of the finnish saying "mennä perse edellä puuhun" ... hmmm...). basically you first make you're model inside out, upside down as a mold. you try to make the cast as tight and form fitting as you can, but not having any guaranties whether or not it's going to leak. then when your frame is feady you rub vaseline inside it. (this is done to help persuade the finished model out of it's birth place, but as always there is no way to know if it will come out in one piece or not). making the plaster is exatly like making pancakebatter. it has to be just the right thickness, there has to be just the right amount of everything and there's not supposed to be any lumps in it. the first moment of truth is when you puor your plaster-water-mix into the mold. is it going to stay in? sometimes it works, other times it doesn't, like you can see from the pictures below. my little army of casts hold the plaster in neatly, (beginners luck) whereas Annelines cast just bled the plaster all over the place. (and if your cast starts to leak you just have to suck it up, grind your theet and start again, no reason to cry over spilled milk, right?) then if your mold holds the plaster in it you have to give it a couple of good shakes- just to get the airbubles out. and then you wait. after 12 hours (it could be less, but i just couldn't jinx it by taking them out earlier, what it my babies broke?) you can start taking them out. i wasn't sure what to expect, but in the end i was happy with the end result. these little fellows are part of my studio B3 course, no questions about what it is all about, because i just don't still have a clue. i'll add a couple of new pictures later and video hopefully, showing my army of models creating a landscape... interesting, don't ya think?

this "movie" using the term very loosely is a study of space for my studio course. i've made it only to see how adding/moving/taking away pieces affects a space. so there actually is very little point in it.. but so be it.