Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Stick project


When starting the stick project the class was given instructions for creating a place/container for 12 sticks.  The sticks could be of any variety as long as there were 12.  Each stick could be no longer than 18'' in length.  The materials we could use to create this place for the sticks could be made up of paper, and one fastener.  That day I went out to observe different sticks in nature to see where I could draw my inspiration from and find some sticks I connected with.  I came back to the studio with two hand fulls of many different varieties of sticks ranging from birch, to willow, etc.  Many different sizes from twigs to thicker, longer sticks.  I also went to the local art supplies store and started looking at different types of tissue paper, I knew I wanted to do paper mache as my container for the sticks.  I evenutally came across a very unique paper that caught my eye.  It was a dark smoky paper with pressed dryed leaves made in with the tissue paper.  I thought "wow this paper is amazing, it is very nature oriented, and mysterious."  Later that night I went home and made myself a workspace to start with the paper mache process.  I took a plastic coke bottle, sawed off the top and made my paper mache concoction of flour, salt, water, and some baking soda.  Mixing it all together till it became a thick paste form.  I then dipped strips of newspaper that I cut up forming them around the bottle.  when the base of the paper mache was finished drying I then took the tissue paper and covered the newspaper form with it.  I also created giant loops around the top and braided tissue paper coming from the bottom of the container.  I wanted the project to have a very woodsy smoky almost campfire look to it.  So I took the smaller twigs and burnt the ends of them to give the wood a charring effect.  I then had sticks sticking out both sides of the container.  This would give the container a way to be propped up to give a floating appearance. 

For the project we were instructed to do a Parti, which is a term derived from the french meaning "to make a decision" often referred to as The Big Idea.  The parti is thought to be the chief organizing thought or decision behind an architect's design presented in the form of a basic diagram and/or a simple statement.  For my parti, I did a collage of different magazine cutouts I found to give me inspiration for my project.  I found many things that were very eyecatching, I loved the idea of a dark forest full of mystical things, almost like the Grimm's fairytales.  I also had elements of dark to light, as well as fire, carvings, woods, textures, and colors.

After the first critique, I realized I had way too many ideas going on with my container.  So I went back to simplify my project and concentrate more on this campfire feel it had.  I then removed all the ringlets and braids. I also purchased some bright orange india ink to paint the inside and edges of the newpaper that was showing  to give an inferno-like appearance.  The overall projection was to give the idea that some kind of powerful heat source was building inside the object and the sticks were jutting out the sides to help fuel this energy inside.  I also took a knife and carved some of the sticks to give a chipped effect like firewood that had been gathered from the forest.  My end product went well, but looking back at it, I feel that I should have used a different object rather than the original plastic bottle.  If I had it to do over again I would have used a much larger circular object like a balloon to create the base from paper mache  to give an almost explosive effect.

No comments:

Post a Comment