Week 7

This week I wasn’t at the class, because I felt sick. I had my birthday party the other day and apparently, I ate something off :((( (it’s not alcohol I promise I only drank a cider haha). I’ve heard that there weren’t many people in the class and that’s a shame. I regret that I couldn’t attend because I really wanted to see others’ ideas for the workshops! I still stick with my idea about memorials of each other that we would paint, sculpture etc. I think that’s a great way to freeze time, to have something that pictures us how we are at the moment – because tomorrow we can be completely different. It also goes well with my main project because it is about focusing on now and later focusing on changes that happen. I’ve heard that firstly it was MImke’s workshop that was chosen, but it changed later to Katy’s or Amy’s. We’ll see who will run the next classes.

Okay, now let’s skip to the experimentation part! This week I’ve been remaking and basically finishing my mask. I tried to work with the first one that I made – I decided to put some powder clay that I mixed up with water on it and inside it to make it thicker and then polish and sculpt in it. As you can expect it didn’t work out the best – firstly it was hard to sculpt in the mask, and polishing it was a nightmare, secondly, the base was still made of bands of plaster cast, so when I polished it there were strands of bands everywhere. So the mask didn’t recognize me and looked to say simply – like shit. ( I haven’t taken any photos of it – I think I just found it too bad and I forgot to do it.)

Next, I created a new mask – then I left it to dry. The next step was to cover the inside part with oil or vaseline ( I used oil) and then pour the liquid plaster cast mixture into the form. I did it and then I was left with the rough copy of my face. The edges broke a couple of times so I had to remake them and additionally make them thicker. Then I polished everything, so it looked smooth. I am happy with the final effect of the mask.

As you can see it was kind of a messy process… haha. Oh also, I used various types of sanding paper to polish and sand my mask. I mostly worked with medium grit, but I used sine and extra fine type too.

Now please prepare for the best part (sarcasm) :’)))). I finally got the silicone that I ordered for my mould yay!!! Sounds amazing right? But there were some problems. And when I write problems I mean PROBLEMS. I bought 2 kg of this silicone liquid and I thought it will be enough, oh how wrong I was… It definitely wasn’t enough. But let me tell you this story from the beginning. ( Btw it’s funny how every semester there’s a point when my project goes catastrophically wrong and I am crying my eyes out and I want to be done with everything and I have my life!) I had my mask prepared, okay? Now it’s time to make a form for my mould – I borrowed clay from Miranda to use for this purpose. All fun and everything, but it didn’t dry. I left it for maybe 2-3 days to dry but it was still flexible after these days. I thought that maybe that was the way it is supposed to be, so I decided it was time to finally make that freaking mould. And now the problem with the amount shows up… I think I made the clay form too big and it might had some little almost not visible holes. Soooo, I mixed my liquid silicone, but I haven’t worn any gloves, so my hands were all dirty. That’s why I asked my flatmate for help and support. She opened the doors to my room and stayed with me for the process of making it. I poured all the silicone that I had and realized that the nose is not covered with it. It was sticking out because the level of silicone was too low. I started panicking, but my friend came up with an idea to add something in the corners of the clay form to make there less space and therefore raise the level of the liquid. So we used rocks for it ( not the best idea). They started touching the mask, and the level still wasn’t enough. So we added some aluminium foil to make the rocks stay in their places. My hands were all covered with silicone at the moment, everything was so messy. A couple of minutes later I noticed that the form started leaking (thank god it was placed on a bin bag so the carpet was okay). At this moment started PANICKING a lot. Tried to figure out what I can do to fix it but nothing came to our minds. We covered the form with more bin bags to make sure it won’t leak on the carpet and at that moment I started laughing at that one again I fucked up my project. A minute of laughing quickly turned into crying. I was so tired of everything – like literally I spent about 60 pounds on it for nothing and I was waiting for my paycheck at that moment cause I was broke. I told my friend that I want to stay alone in my room and then OMG I started crying so hard. It was like 1 am, I was right after my shift at work and I was DONE. I called my mom telling her that I am so done with the university and everything and questioning why I’m always doing something wrong. Why I can do something right even once? But year, I cried a lot and I had no clue what I should do now. I mean I knew I have to order new silicone, but I didn’t really have money for it. I had my savings but didn’t want to spend them. I needed to calm down. So to sum up – it is a total catastrophe. You have here some photos from this tragic process – enjoy!