Workshops
30th September 2022
Moulding and casting
This first workshop on 'mold' making was an important one for me because I want to introduce 3D elements to my work.
We were given the ratio of plaster to setting agent but I didn't write it down. On YouTube the weight ratio water:plaster (Castrite) = 60:100 (add plaster to water never water to plaster).
We made some coasters and left them to set while we made our own bold using oil based clay which took a lot of energy to soften.
These are 2 coasters I cast using 2 acrylic coloured plasters, one of which had coloured bits of old plaster I had added to it:
Fellow student Steve said that they reminded him of the beach - yes, I can see that & how useful for my project!
The third piece I cast based a bold made by the technician of an exquisite koi carp and gives me a moulding skill to aim for. Again, I used the same 2 acrylic coloured plasters and tried to isolate the fish but I need more practice.
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Once we had made our moulds, we made some oil based clay walls 1cm away from the wooden base of the mould and high enough to cover the moulds, mixed some epoxy resin to cast the moulds and poured them over the casts. The plastic under the mould was there to protect the wooden table from the effects of the epoxy. We left them to set and will pick them up next week.
My mould with the walls around the base:
My mushroom mould
My mushroom cast (done by Shirley the technician)
I am quite pleased with the cast because I can see all the textures I created in the mould and it gives me a good idea on what to do next time.
At home I tried to make a mould of some seaweed and shells using plaster of Paris:
I was surprised to see how inverted / 3D the mould looks in the photo. I am looking forward to seeing how the casting goes once it has dried thoroughly.
26th October, 2022
More moulding and casting experiments:
I was given some temperature sensitive moulding material so I thought I would try it on a hold fast:
Views from the bottom (l) and top (r)
the hold fast
5th November, 2022
I went to see Shirley, the casting technician, with my failed attempt at moulding and asked how I could mould and cast the intricate bits. Shirley suggested using clay to plug in the holes:
Clockwise:
Bottom of hold fast; with clay; top of holdfast; in the walled container; resin poured.
Catastrophic failure: I could not extricate the hold fast from the resin. I will have to try with an easier part of a seaweed for moulding and learn how to do a 3D print of the specimen.
7th October, 2022
Immersive Lab
Wow! This is where I am starting! The 360 degree underwater camera. The projections onto the dome. The VR goggles!
I am planning to go to the rock pools in Wembury to submerge the camera - not myself yet. I plan to start immersing myself in the software immediately - I am going to conquer the software and my fear of the water! This is the direction I am going.
I went to see the VR lab technician this afternoon (10/10/22) and I think I am starting to learn all about it next Wednesday 19/10/22
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26th October 2022:
Follow-up session in the immersive lab
Three of us arrived for a follow-up session on the 360 degree camera.
For under water: remove the rubber band around the width of the camera or it won't fit in the waterproof casing.
1 hour of recording time id the battery is fully charged.
It takes a 56GB sandisk card of class 3+ = very fast
3 buttons on the front: record (middle button; far right: hold for a few seconds to switch on
Record with the camera 1 m away from you.
Use a cheap tripod underwater because they corrode easily
Settings:
colour depth: 10 bit
Aperture 1/1000
Auto stitch off
ISO not above 800
Keep to 4K recording ; try also with 8K in case it works.
White Balance: under water!
Focus is set at infinity
Stitching software: Qoocam studio
Set time on phone to 4 mins to keep an eye on the time.
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Steve, Sam and I went out to try the camera out. First into a lift where the reflections were super on film, then out on campus to see the effects of the buildings.
Lift shots with the 360 degree camera.
11th October 2022
Metal work workshop
This was the session to replace last week's session which didn't happen because of an admin mishap.
We worked our way round all the major machines and Les explained and pointed out all the health and safety issues.
Early into the session we were given an open, crooked steel ring and shown how to straighten and close it to 2mm using a visa and hammer. We were then shown how to braise it to complete the ring
using the oxygen-acetilene blow lamp, brass rod and flux. We were shown how, without the flux, the brass rod would dissolve into tiny brass beads which he fished out of the cooling tank. Steve and I were quite excited about these and really wanted to mess up our task just to get some brass beads - but we just kept the ones Les gave us. I went first & Les was quite impressed with my effort - so much so that he said he would go & have a cup of the while I took the rest of the class! Funny man! If only he knew what a fluke this outcome was!
My attempt at a braised ring (4cm diameter), and 3mm brass bead!
The rest of the equipment was more health and safety warnings. Welding, cutting, bending and shaping was all very tempting.
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We were told that any design which would involve metal work could be discussed with Les before we start on it. Good idea!
21st October, 2022
Cameras and blue screen (2 hours)
Craig talked us through the 3 cameras he had brought out so that we could make a video over the weekend that we could edit next week. I decided to use my own camera - I have used their video camera before and
There seemed to be a confusion over the green or blue screen filming. They are interchangeable - you use the blue screen if your subject is wearing green.
Next week comes the fun when I will try to use After Effex = to remove the green and replace it with a different background.
28th October, 2022
Green screen:
Craig took us through the green screen procedure & we chose 2 back ground images on which we were going to superimpose our films made with the green screen as background.
We went through all the protocols for using the spotlights and diffused led lights both to light up the green screen and to stop the green reflecting off the subject.
The 2 images we chose were a desert scene in bright sunlight with dark clouds in the background, and a Wild West wooden building night scene with a lot of artificial light.
Someone suggested using the carpet already there to be our magic carpet for the desert scene & they also suggested that I should be on the carpet.
Aldous filmed and Steve worked the lights, under Craig's suggestions.​
I was also to play a walk towards the camera and out bottom left in the wild-west scene. As Aldous wants to use the puppet software on Photoshop, Craig showed us how to use it and promptly 'manipulated' the image of me by isolating me in the street scene and making my legs and arms move.
We did not get the time to make our videos using the clips we had made in the preceding week & Craig suggested asking Anya to give us another slot in the photo labs or we could find tutorials online and use After Effects in PS to make our own videos.
1st November, 2022
Intro to Nikon and Broncolor studio flash lighting
My reason for signing up for this workshop was that I have never used professional studio lighting. At home I set up some lights which gave an effect on the image that I could not correct in photoshop or Affinity so I gave up.
I was so pleased that we could practise what we needed to do in the studio & I was flabbergasted with the results.
My headshots of Steve
Helge's headshots of Steve:
Steve's headshot of me:
27th October & 3rd November, 2022
Collage workshop with Dr Melanie Jackson
We watched some cartoons from 1908 and 1929: Emile Cohl's Fantasmagorie and A Disney cartoon showing how the picture space does not have to make sense with popular visions of surrealism. how the cartoons can deal with any taboo topic mocking reality.
We looked at Sam Keogh's full wall collages depicting a fantasy for the consumption of excess.
We also looked at the work of Chitra Ganesh.
Collage:
we were asked to build up a huge collage for over 2 hours which I found was too long. We were asked to take photos of the work as it built up and send it to Melanie for her to build a zine in InDesign.
In the second session we would discuss how this relates to our own editing of our work. I missed this as my train was delayed 2 hours but we were sent a PDF of the discussion. The collage was called "It is not a crime" (See PDFs of the slides and the zine.)
My favourite images:
I'm not sure that I can apply much from this exercise to my practice. I need to investigate the background to surrealism more. I applied the 3D parts to this collage which I understood were going to be edited out but they weren't - not sure why.
17th November, 2022
Workshop with artist Abigail Reynolds
Elliptical reading
This is a workshop reflecting on influences into your practice from written sources.
The form of the workshop will be taken from Elliptical Reading, currently at The Box as part of BAS9.
Please visit The Box to familiarise yourself with this social / library collage. Every Wednesday 12.30 - 1.30 in the Active Archives Gallery.
On 17th, please bring a text that you are prepared to read aloud.
This can be poetry, fiction, art theory, history - whatever is meaningful to you right now in your practice.
You’ll only read for 4 minutes each, so choose a short passage.
From discussing our texts we will open into wider questions in practice and how we work with or against influence and how cultural artefacts impact our studio time.
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The text I chose was "Falling into place" by Heather & Ivan Morison which we had briefly touched on in last week's seminar. It is a dystopian novella set in a place, probably New York as it references Central Station, occasionally referencing our present & their past. I chose it because it focuses on a post-apocalyptic western world trying to reshape priorities and changing people's minds "All other efforts before have been about just changing the system." (P115). I also appreciate the dominant concept in the novella which was that devised by Erich Fromm in the 1960's - 70's about the alienation of the self generated by consumerism in which people focus on having rather than being.
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Another extract I appreciate : There is no place in the caravan for co-dependence, you must take responsibility for your self. the caravan knows that switching from a life of having to a life of being is difficult though, and acknowledges that many people in the caravan will lean on each other for help. It is the responsibility of everyone to judge , but not condemn." (P115). this makes me think of Francesca da Rimini I Dante's Inferno who blames the book about the love between Sir Lancelot and Guinevere for her fall from grace - I would never have linked the 2 texts had I not decided to use this one as my chosen text.
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The format was that we would do our readings then choose 2 other texts which have inspired us in some way. We had not been told about this but I fortunately had thought about reading one of these but, since it's in Italian it would not have appealed to many in the room. I chose Lettera a un bambino mai nato by Oriana Fallaci and L"Étranger by Albert Camus because they both start with an existential statement - one about knowing that she was expecting a baby and the other that his mother had died, and how they cope with that knowledge. They both tie in with Falling into place because it too references an existential crisis - the one we are experiencing now.
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It was an interesting exercise because it made me reflect on what I am trying to do. Abigail wanted to know about our projects & when I told her about the problems I am having in trying to connect with female prisons, her suggestion was to drop that part of my project & stick to seaweeds. I think I will rather work with the material that I do have on women's prisons.
21st November, 2022
Screen printing
Just before our elliptical reading session with Abigail Reynolds, we had a quick talk with Jo about what to bring to our session.
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I decided on 2 options: a photo of an oar weed, or the design of a blind drawing of a cup I had done in 2019. I had the acetates for the cup but could not manage the split images for the oar weed. Fortunately Mike the paper technician knew what to do & produced 2 stunning acetates. I must ask him how he did it!
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Jo then took us through the process from coating the screen with photo-sensitive polymer, drying it, transferring the images from the acetate to the screen & drying it, to positioning the paper over the 'paddle' acetate, floating the ink over the screen and printing our first print.
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I had bought an A3 sheet of yellow paper because I had wanted a third colour on my print I cut this into 4 A4 sheets and printed on them.
What I hadn't realised was how, having that specific yellow, the colours I would then choose to print with were going to affect the outcome.
Fortunately there was a lot of white paper around!
the original image and the screen made from the 2 acetates
I was very pleased with how much I had enjoyed the process and the outcomes. I enjoyed the multi-layering of prints and how effective they are. I have learned about the perils of using coloured paper.
After a lot of cleaning up, starting with getting the images off the screen with a particular chemical, it was great to see what the others had done. Adriana's character was superbly done particularly with the multiple coloured inks we had all tried out.
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I think this is something I shall be trying to include in my work.
22nd November, 2022
3D printing
I had already asked Spencer, the technician in charge of the 3D facility if it was possible to do a 3D print of my 3-in-one oarweed hold fast. He very kindly did a 3D scan and sent me an image from it:
I was very excited and was so looking forward to the induction I would have to do before I could print it. At the induction we had a quick introduction to Cura, the software that interprets the STL files of the 3D images and we printed off one of the 5 options of objects.
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I amended the data so that it would only take 46 minutes to print out my little ghost so that I could take it away with me.
We were given advice on which filaments to use in the Fused Filament Fabrication process using the Ultimaker machines, and which ones to avoid.
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Then we were told about the new 3D resin printers which give a much more detailed 3D print than the filament ones. I am a total convert and can't wait to go to the inductions for this one. Sadly, there are no more inductions until February which is very disappointing but Noah, the assistant, said we might be able to do something before then. The images used for the resin printer are so much more interesting too:
Left: The red parts show where supports are needed in the printing.
Right: process of the object with supports to be printed.
Left: The process of the object and scaffolding to be printed.
A 3D plastic filament print done by hubby at home.
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I look forward to a 3D print done on the plant based polymer resin done at the Uni labs.
2nd December, 2022
Printing
I signed up for the 2 printing sessions to prove or refute my feeling, based on my 2020 experiences in Cornwall, that, keen as I might be, I am useless at any form of printing except printing photos! So the day started with lino printing. Given a little square of lino and some tools, we were told to go ahead. OK??? I took inspiration from technician Helen's sampler and split my lino into several squares and tried making my own marks.
Helen's sampler left. My first mark making right: small and larger.
Random mark making with the roller-left. I really like this effect.
First print left
Scratching on cardboard - left, love the lumpy lines effect.
Mark making on the inside of a milk carton. I was surprised how well the lines printed.
Although this acetate film is Helen' least favourite, I enjoyed using it & thought the outcome was sharp.
My first intaglio - acid covers the copper surface; it is dried; I put my thumb print on it & then etched into the surface before it was suspended in its final process. I was rather disappointed at the lack of clarity in the end result & I didn't understand why.
Two-tone lino print on tissue paper. Printing on tissue and tracing paper is a big part of my photography printing process because what I am trying to capture is the fragility of the subjects of my images. I think it works here too.
Tissue paper print over paper print - lovely slip effect.
Left: Two-tone tissue paper print over paper print. I'm liking the effect of the mis-matching prints.
Right: Artist's print - two-tone to sum up the day's work.
We did a lot of ghost printing - a second / multiple prints without re-inking the line. I love the effect, especially on tissue paper.
Reflections on the day:
We covered a lot of ground and I achieved more than I thought I would which was a huge positive for me. I shall wait until after the next session before I analyse fully what I have learned, where I am going with print making and an action plan.
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16th December, 2022
Print making 2: mono printing
Fortunately I came in to collect the last session's work yesterday because I was asked to bring ideas on what to make. This is not going to go well! I'm not an artist - I don't have those sorts of ideas. Who am I making the work for? What am I trying to practise? I don't know what mono printing is other than that it's one print made from one art work which cannot be replicated.
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I had brought in some dried leaves and had picked up some maple leaves on the road which had been driven over by many cars and that I wanted to print on to tracing paper. In my box were some seeds, ears of corn, and some tree bark. Helen had suggested using the very light tissue paper to rub into the creases of the bark & then to very very lightly run the roller over the paper and then print off that.​
Left: the tissue paper creased into the textured bark then had the inked roller run very lightly over it.
Right: The tissue paper the put on a plate , with a made up expandable frame and pressed. I should have known that the expandable frame would have left an imprint on the print I was making.
Far right: I took a ghost print without the expandable frame and had a very unsuccessful print.
Helen stressed that she wanted to see lines - sublime lines, to be specific - which she demonstrated. I thought that they were made anyway by the actual process of the print, so making my own prints would determine if I was right or not. I inked the very fragile maple leaf, made a print and then a ghost print:
I should have done the tissue paper print to complete the triptych which would have been good, I think.
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I should have cleaned the plate better on the first print.
Tissue paper over the bark I had brought in and gone over with an inked roller.
Left: An artichoke seed pressed onto an inked plate and then another ghost image printed. Successful,imo.Right: an arrangement on to a plate with pigment and extender to soften the colours. Are those ghost lines sublime? Probably not!
Then came the part of the day which totally engrossed me: having inked tissue paper over the bark I had brought in, I went outside to do some tree bark rubbings with an inked roller = frottage!
There was a tree with the most complex bark I have ever seen. My plant identifier app tells me it was a cork oak.
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Frottage of the trunk on tissue paper and detail.
Totally mesmerised by detail I had not seen on the trunk, I decided to experiment further , this time with shoji(?)Japanese paper which is still delicate but a little stronger than tissue paper. I went out and did the same but this time I reloaded the roller with ink - not properly as the first roll down the tree was too dark and lacked detail:
Frottage on Japanese paper and detail.
None of this printmaking is a finished product nor is it fine art but it is a skill I want to develop because the detail that it picks up is mesmerising, intricate and akin to the lace effect I picked up on some of the seaweed samples in my seaweed research. I want to extend the practice which has so marked my photography using tracing paper and vellum, into papers I have never known existed.
Left: Silver birch. Right: more cork oak detail.
Helen convinced me to scan the first frottage then blow it up and print on A0. Mike did this but I was not happy with the outcome because the resolution was not right so the print out which was made on a plotter and so not as accurate as a printer, was fuzzy and lacked the impact that the tissue paper had.
Review of the process so far:
What have I learned?
Paper is my thing.
Ink and rollers are my tools.
What are the issues / concerns?
I am impatient, I am not the artist that I would like to be.
Possible solutions?
Spend time placing the paper carefully in relation to the plate.
Spend time getting the required skills.
Action plan:
Buy the book Perspectives on Contemporary Printmaking and a roller!
Investigate paper making with seaweed.
Although I was not happy with the print, I took extracts from it and created some digital artwork
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19th December 2022
Having bought a lino set from a craft shop, I came back & tried the bark frottage on tissue paper first and then tried with newsprint:
The roller did not spread the ink uniformly across its barrel - when I printed on newsprint, the sides printed smoothly but not the middle. I was disappointed with the outcome because the frottage did not produce the same results as previously at all. This time it was just an incoherent mess. The last one, on newsprint, came out best because the roller inked just the raised bits of bark. I am hoping that the roller will improve with use - perhaps it needs to be cleaned with white spirit to make the ink adhere better? I am determined to get it to work as it did in the print workshop.
2nd February 2023
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Thinking about installing work
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Five of us, 4 yr1 and 1 yr3, were shown some images of installations in various sites and were asked to talk about them: their placements, the location and content. As we were trying to watch all this on a tiny laptop screen, we were not often clear as to what was on the screen.
We were then asked to arrange the room we were in as an exhibition in 1 hour.
We all set to the task each doing our own thing to start with and then some of us worked with each other.
The outcome was rather cluttered as we had tried to use all the objects available. Anya suggested putting the stack of chairs in the middle of the room and see if we could create a more minimalist exhibition.
We eliminated just about everything and, yes, we achieved a minimalist composition but, in my opinion, it looked shabby and not very inviting. The best part was Adriana's mannequin with lights - amusing, interesting & had a dynamic that none of the other objects had.
What did I learn from it? Although the exercise was useful, we would be more aware of our real needs when we have real stuff to put up. I don't think minimalism is applicable to all situations.
24th March 2023
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Ceramic trials
Following my research into Josiah Wedgewood's ceramic plates and cups & saucers with a seaweed theme, I thought I would try to add the same to my collection.
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I planned my pieces based on a cup I like:
I based the shape of the saucer on a seaweed cyanotype I had made, photographed to the right size and cut out & rearranged the pieces so that there would not be holes that were disproportionately big.
I bought some white earthenware clay which I found to be very wet and soft. I had to redo the coiling twice because I had worked it while it was too wet and made a total mess. My second attempt was equally bad. My idea was to make a foundation cup and then wrap the seaweed clay around it. It was far too clunky so I made 2 cups - one basic & the second a wrap-around seaweed. The saucer was marginally less bad. I shall wait a week to see how it has all dried. I was thrown when I was reminded that the clay would shrink about 20% so I had to make everything so much bigger - pure guesswork as to what 20% of my saucer and cups looked like.