Week 15 - No Sculpture Workshop this week. So more hands and gloves.

A gap in the timetable for the one-to-one tutorials means it is time to catch up on everything else and make things independently. I had been thinking I could make a bigger piece combining four of five of my latex gloved filled hand casts at home but on speaking with 3D it would have probably ended in a disaster and 15 kilos of plaster on my feet. So it was time to make a forme to create several 'hands' in preparation to construct what I was thinking.

Once I had worked out how to make one of the formes it was just a case of producing a further four meaning I could create more 'hands' in one pour. The reason for creating these was to trap the glove but still allow access to pour the liquid plaster in and control the shaping without having to support the glove.

Formes ready to fix gloves and pour.

I needed to suspend the formes to allow the space for the gloves to fill but also give access to manipulate the shape and fingers as the plaster set. Some worked better than others, some deformed as they filled but I would see how these came out and assess as to whether to use them. I also inserted a bolt in the top (upside down) to allow fixing to a piece of plywood when set. This would allow me to then put this in a rectangle forme and set the whole thing in plaster. The plywood would also allow for putting a fixing on the reverse to wall mount.

There were casualties... I have kept them in case they spark an idea and can be used as part of something. We will see.

I decided to make a second pour to create a few more better shaped hands and also use some other gloves to see how they would take a mould. Old gloves, broken gloves, leather gloves, woollen gloves. Some worked, some didn't. Very interesting textures and transfer of material, especially the woollen one. I need to find more of these, smaller ones, children's ones, mittens as well.

Not only did these transfer more of the texture they also were strange items to 'unpeel'. The cutting away of the glove was akin to skinning or flaying an animal or hand. A very strange feeling to peel away the skin layer and reveal the inside. I have left a couple half unpeeled and will see if these work better with elements of their skin on.