Life Casting Block Week TLC - Dec'15

All last year I'd been hoping to get down to a TLC workshop, but it with one thing or another (post-cancer treatment) it just didn't happen. I was really happy to have it all come together for a Life Casting Workshop in early December and fortunate a "got permission" to go from work as pre-Christmas is our busiest time of the year at The BACH Art Gallery.

I set off in the bus at 6am on Sunday the 6th December,
 arriving in Wellington City around 9pm.

 Leaving Auckland...

Sky City Tower, Auckland.

 On the road south driving towards Tirau.

It's called the Fitzgerald Glades.

 I rained crossing the central North Island

while driving through the Dessert Road.

 Foxton Bridge - as a kid my older brother called 

this the "Never-Ending Bridge"... Interestingly

 enough, we were over the bridge before I knew it!

Sunset at Paekakariki..nearly there!

My view from The Base, Courtney Place, Wellington.

 It was a long day travelling, but I enjoy watching the world go by, so it wasn't an inconvience or nuisance for me. I'd organised to stay the week at The Base Backpackers .. little did I realise that's the nightlife central and wouldn't get much sleep!

The Base, Cambridge Terrace.

My view out the dorm window during the day.

I got the TLC Express there at back from The Base

 to TLC..it was so much fun, like being a kid again!

 This is always such a welcoming site for me!!

Mural Painting is by Sue Lund, who was

a student at The Learning Connexion. 

 I'm so inspired by this place!

 The Ceramics Studio where I came each day

for the Life Casting Block Week.

Mel Ford, our tutor was just lovely. I really

 like Mel and felt a real connection with her.
~o0o~
On the first day we learned the basics of life casting and discussed what body part we wanted to cast then paired of to cast our ear, one being cast and the other doing the casting on them. We were just a small group of 6 so very quickly got to know each other. We used alignate as the molding material which was really cold to have it poured onto/into my ear! Of course you have a bit of cotton wool in the hole but it was still a bit freaky having it poured into the cup that housed the mold.

You have to work really fast with alignate as it starts to set
 almost immediately you start to mix the powder with the water.
Once it had set a small amount of plaster was
 made up and pour over to take a mold of our ear.

 The hanging apparatus

Strategically placed for hanging
(and hopefully not upside-down lol!)

Ta-da...my ear! We left them there for Mel's 

wall display called "The Walls Has Ears..."

~o0o~

I had two things I'd hope to do while at TLC. one of those things was to cast a mold of my hand as I'd like on my "hand" soap dishes

Mel said that we'd need to make a two part mold.

One half of the top of my hand and the other half of the bottom. Seems easy enough! First step was to make a clay support for my hand ensuring there would be no under-cut on either half. Initally I didn't understand what she meant by this..but by the end of the process, I did. Unfortuately I could photograph my hand being cast both sides but after getting the clay support prepared we created a wall surround and made up plaster of paris to pour over my hand. Once this set (I had to sit there a while!) we were able to lift of the clay and hand from the cast plaster mold. That was left to harden overnight in the oven (on low) and after greasing with vaseline we repeated the process doing the other side of my hand. Unfortunately there ended up being a number of undercuts so I wouldn't be able to use the two-piece mold for clay., but Mel said we could try latex instead and that nothing was wasted as it's all learning.

Strapping the molds together.

Pouring in the latex....

...and rotating the mold to completely cover the inside surfaces.
The excess was poured back into the bottle.

Before separating the two halves the inside surfacse are
coated with cornflour to prevent them sticking together.

Ta-da! My hand..in latex.

Then we spent a few minutes being "silly" with my hand lol. Mel made me feel ok about being there by making me laugh!

~o0o~

On Thursday we split into two groups. One group cast one of the woman's foot, the other group cast the only male in the groups hand. For these cast we we shown how to apply alignate and plaster bandage then separating the mold with a small incision at the wrist (or ankle) and pouring in plaster of paris to replicate the body part.

 Applying the alginate. Many hands make quick work!

Before the alginate goes firm we were instructed to "wookiee" the alginate (stick polyester fluff to it) and then trim away the excess. As we had to work fast there were small holes and areas missed with the alginate, therefore the process needed to be repeated.

Mel saying something funny to Mahon..

...which made him laugh. It was such a neat group to spend the week with.

Adding the plaster bandage, then cutting it off,

 rejoining the bandage and filling the mold with plaster 

and here's the finished product.

There was a few air bubbles which appeared as 

little holes so Mel showed us how to fix them up

 by adding a little dry plaster with a paint brush.

The other things I wanted to do was a torso cast.

It was a bold move on my behalf but Mel was very 

descreet and had me tucked away in a side room.

Sadly, the first attempt broke so we did a second torso which I brought home on the bus (in a box, of course) along with art supplies bought from the TLC shop. I'm yet to take a positive from the second torso I'm really interested in using harakeke pulp. Just need some fine weather to do it!

During the week I had the opportunity to attend an Artist Talk - about the World Art Games. It was really interesting and has piqued my curiousity. Maybe something I could look at joining in with in the future? Also I was able to attend the Term 4 Student's Exhibition opening night which was very inspiring. So good to be there to see all the different art works.

~o0o~