I've been
making good use of the dry weather and working outside cutting and sanding new
stones. I need to make a sizeable collection of work for Yorkshire Sculpture Park by the
end of June. As I've mentioned before, part of this work will come from new
designs inspired by the grounds and the exhibits at YSP - which is currently Jaume Plensa.
As well as
writing about my YSP collection, I will document creating finished pieces from
the initial stages of cutting blocks of resin into stones. For the benefit of
people who are unfamiliar with my work, I've interspersed images of finished
pieces throughout this post to give an idea of how the resin looks when it is
polished and mounted.
Whilst juggling my baby steps blog
writing and progressing my YSP work, I've been thinking about my first
experience with resin back in college. Our 1st year plastics tutor Sarah Thirlwell asked us to bring in a selection of interesting
organic or manmade items to use in the demonstration she was to give us
all. After a last minute lunchtime scarper to Fred Aldous and a rivel
through the scarps draw, (apologies Sarah), I was good to go.
Sarah showed us the basics of mixing resin with the
hardener and we all plopped our chosen artifacts into the clear resin, with
varying degrees of success. Mine was one of the worst by a mile. My best
efforts were two army action figures simulating a sexual act, followed by 'The
Swan Lake Massacre' - feathers, sparkles and netting shoved into an ice cube
tray filled with resin. Ground breaking.
Over the
following weeks I focused on experimenting with colour in my samples. My
Art & Design background is in printed textiles where colour is paramount and I noted
that all the resin and plastics work I researched were (for my taste) lacking subtly of colour
and mostly straight from the pot. My second goal was to introduce another element to the
resin which enhanced my design, rather than becoming the focal point of the
piece. I wanted to work with the material (resin), rather than relegating it to
a supporting role i.e. see how lovely Aunty Vera's hair/teeth/favourite object
d'art looks encapsulated in resin. This thought is the one which has continued to inspire me ever since.
After 6
weeks of 15hrs per day, I managed to produce my first resin bangles and
designs which I still use today. I also required two courses of antibiotics to
clear up an infection which had developed in my thumb - sanding injuries
exacerbated by resin dust, sintered metals and blood, sweat and tears.
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One of six designs. The shape for these came from drawings I made of
Japanese textiles.
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A later incarnation of one of my early Japanese stencil designs - neutral colours,
sintered brass inclusions and for the first time, a subtle use of pattern |
Throughout this 1st yr college project, we discussed our successes and failures - our samples and eventually, our finished pieces. The predominant feedback was how difficult a medium this was to work with because so many things had gone wrong for so many people, from melting plastic cups of resin through to resin that refused to set. Our course tutor had been constantly telling us that we must strive to find our own unique style, method or process. I figured that resin might be worth further investigation, because it was clearly so challenging.
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| Blocks of resin in the unpromising early stages |
Above is a block of resin after an appointment with the belt sander removing the top layers of resin and sintered metal residue, (so that I can make out the pattern and some of the colours underneath). Below, the same block has been sanded further and the alluminium and silver can be seen within the tree pattern.
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Tree design - this evolved from a drawing I made of the tree which is situated
outside my studio window |
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Bandsaw and belt sander outside in the garden. My faithful companion, Bonny
is lying in her favourite spot, watching me work |
The pictures above and below show how the blocks look after they have been further sanded. At this stage I then decide how best to carve these up by drawing possible stone shapes on the surface.
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| Cutting up the larger resin blocks into manageable pieces |
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This is a cross section through the resin slab, showing the many different layers
within a block |
After I've decided how a block is going to used, I cut around the pen marks using a bandsaw. The pendant below is similar in size to the stone cut out above.
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| Jane Dzisiewski |
The photographs of the Izar design to follow, were inspired by stones from the River Izar in Munich. Whilst over in Germany for Schmuck 2008 and doing the rounds seeing all the satellite exhibitions in the many galleries and ateliers there, at the JAMES exhibition (this link is to their 2011 exhibition), I gravitated towards some lovely pebbles. It transpired that they belonged to a maker called Christine Graf. She told me to leave my details and that she would collect some from the banks of the River Isar and send them to me. True to her word, a package arrived a few weeks later containing not only stones, but also a bag of chocolates which had been inspired by them!
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| Izar design |
Obviously the colours seen here are nothing like those of the original stones (although I have done several blocks in their more neutral colours). When I'm making blocks, I might use bits of fabric, paintings or photographs to inspire the choice of colours used on any given day.
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| Izar design |
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| Izar design |
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| Izar design |
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| Izar design |
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| Izar design |
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| Izar design |
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| Izar design |
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| Izar design |
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| Izar design |
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| Jane Dzisiewski: Izar design - pendant and ball chain |
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| A selection of stones after first sand |
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| Jane Dzisiewski: Tree and Japanese Stencil design |
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| A selection of stones after first sand (belt sander) |
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| Crochet design |
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| Crochet design |
