MMT3 Research
I purchased a book on molding and casting “moldmaking and casting” by Nick Brooks. I have to admit the whole subject appeared overwhelming to me and the book didn’t really help break it down as it is very technical and not aimed at the casual crafter. The course handbook made it feel a little more accessible luckily and I am about to purchase some latex, resin and concrete, I already have papier mache materials as well as plaster.
Books:
“Moldmaking and casting”, Nick Brooks, Crowood Press, 2005
“Making concrete pots, bowls and platters”, Hester van Overbeek, Cico books, 2017
Material choices:
I bought cement, latex, resin, and already owned plaster, clay and papier mache (wallpaper paste). I had to do a lot of research on each of these materials and found some easier to use than others.
Artist research
Bethany Walker
Bethany did a craft design degree and has spent years working with concrete and getting to know the material. Her work makes my heart sing and makes my hands itch with possibilities! She talks of being inspired by urban design, I am inspired by urban landscapes and urban accidental design, power lines and trees in pavements and roofs and wonky traffic lights! She too talks of using her sketchbook more for observations of her experiments and I now am starting to feel that rather than forcing myself to draw when it doesn’t feel natural I should feel more confident using my sketchbooks as notebooks for record keeping.
She’s been collaborating with Ruth Singer for many years: https://ruthsinger.com/artist/gallery/interlace-a-collaboration-with-bethany-walker/
Marie Lund
https://nicolaiwallner.com/marie-lund/works/
Marie Lund is a Danish artist who lives and works in London. She works with metals and concrete and embeds interesting textures and objects in her work. I love the concrete blocks with jumpers in them, I love something so every day taken out of its context and it seemingly wrapping itself around the concrete, or it floating in the conceret as if it is floating in water.
Nerissa Cargill Thompson
Nerissa started out involved in community art but has developed a personal interest in fibre art and makes playful interesting sculptures from found and upcycled items to discuss climate change and plastic polution among other things. She discusses casting plastic throwaway items in concrete to show how permanent they are, that disposable doen’t mean it will just vanish.
“How I Make my Work:
My sculptures are formed using a combination of embellishing and embroidery to create coastal inspired textures, blending a variety of recycled fabrics to create subtle variations in tone. I stitch the resulting textiles inside waste plastic that I use to cast true to life pieces with cement, giving a distinct contrast between the manmade structure of the packaging and the soft natural textures”
I really like this work, it links in to so many of my own interests, mudlarking, beach combing, upcycling, reusing, the climate crisis. Her work is incredibly inspirational to me! I would love to learn how to work in to concrete as I struggled with this.
Florian Schmid
Among other things Florian has designed funky concrete seats that appear to be made from a roughly stitched canvas, defying gravity, but really they are made out of concrete impregnated fabric. I love the double take this makes you do, I love the playful nature of his seats. Concrete Canvas is actually an industrial product made for erosion control! Love the out of the box thinking here! Very inspiring!
Eduardo Paolozzi
Eduardo was a Scottish artist and sculptor and widely considered one of the pioneers of Pop Art. He taught sculpture and ceramics at several institutions. Paolozzi had a long association with Germany, having worked in Berlin from 1974 as part of the Berlin Artist Programme of the German Academic Exchange Programme. He was a professor at the Fachhochschule in Cologne from 1977 to 1981, and later taught sculpture at the Akademie der Bildenden Künstein Munich. Paolozzi was fond of Munich and many of his works and concept plans were developed in a studio he kept there, including the mosaics of the Tottenham Court Road Station in London.
After Paris, he moved back to London eventually establishing his studio in Chelsea. The studio was a workshop filled with hundreds of found objects, models, sculptures, materials, tools, toys and stacks of books.[6] Paolozzi was interested in everything and would use a variety of objects and materials in his work, particularly his collages (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Paolozzi)
Paolozzi sculpture (1982) near Pimlico station of the London Underground system
Paolozzi’s graphic work of the 1960s was highly innovative. In a series of works he explored and extended the possibilities and limits of the silkscreen medium. The resulting prints are characterised by Pop culture references and technological imagery.
His work is so wide ranging, I love his playful ans striking use of colour, his interest and curiosity, his zest for life that just bursts out of hi work. I love the textures of his scuptures too, very cool.
Amelie Marei Loellmann
https://www.galeriegosserez.com/gosserez/categories/pieces-murales.html
Amelie creates among other works concrete rugs which I adore. I love how sonething so soft and pliable looking could actually break your toes!
She developed a poetical language in combining traditional weaving techniques with concrete. Her transdisciplinary approach bridges contemporary design, fine arts and performing arts which allows her to experiment with objects in order to surprise the viewer.
Victoria Ferrand Scott
Victoria Ferrand Scott is an artist, primarily a sculptor. Her three dimensional works aren’t meant to look like anything, they are just themselves! She uses materials such plaster and latex and uses processes such as gravity, pressure and elasticity to create sculptures which bulge and distort.
Each piece is an experiment; the result of a fragile balance between different elements and forces. She wraps, binds, coats, and pours; testing, often to breaking point. It is a precarious path between freedom and control and the process often produces surprises and discoveries.
Drawing and photography have always formed an integral part of Ferrand Scott’s work. Often she is searching for the abstract and sculptural qualities in mundane everyday situations; the way in which sunlight and shadows can transform the domestic into the mysterious and sensual. Outside she discovers new angles and weather conditions revealing natural feats of engineering.
Ferrand Scott’s AA2A residency at Leeds College of Art gave her valuable time and space in the casting workshop. She took the opportunity to investigate using concrete in latex moulds (made using layers of liquid latex bound with tape and elastic). The elasticity of the latex brings out a smooth, warm sensuality not usually associated with concrete. It is these qualities which she developed during her subsequent artist’s residency in Civil Engineering at Leeds University funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The laboratory facilities enabled her to develop fluid concrete mixes designed for use with flexible forming.
I really like this work, I would love to explore using concrete and latex more myself, now that the door has been kicked open it won’t shut again! I want to make everything out of concrete! I jsut wish I could have achieved the very smooth concrete she has but I presume her pieces are polished whereas mine ar just samples.
Rachel Whiteread
Dame Rachel Whiteread (born 20 April 1963) is an English artist who primarily produces sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She was the first woman to win the Turner Prize in 1993.
Whiteread was one of the Young British Artists who exhibited at the Royal Academy’s Sensation exhibition in 1997. Among her most renowned works are House, a large concrete cast of the inside of an entire Victorian house; the Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial in Vienna, resembling the shelves of a library with the pages turned outwards; and Untitled Monument, her resin sculpture for the empty fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square.
She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2006 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to art.
Rachel’s work is dear to my heart, House went up near where I lived and I love her ambitious large scale work, and the idea of using something like a house as a mold! very inspiring work although not directly relatable to textiles.
Rebecca Fairley
“I cannot really describe myself as a conventional textile artist. I do work with fabrics and yarn but I have a broader interest in materials and material manipulation. My particular interest is in using materials like fabric, knits and plastics to mould concrete surfaces. I am the course leader for textiles at the Open College of the Arts (OCA), a British-based open access institution that offers high quality arts courses by distance learning. My role includes tutoring, assessing and course writing. In this blog post I would like to share my work, my approach and what inspires me as a practitioner and how this has helped me develop a course I have recently written for the OCA; Mixed Media for Textiles.
Like many students who study at the OCA I worked towards a degree in textiles later in life. After a career in nursing and whilst bringing up my children I was given the opportunity to take my life-long love of making and explore it at university. I studied Surface Design for Fashion and Interiors at the University of Huddersfield where I came into contact with methods, materials and ideas I had not previously known. I worked in a whole range of materials including fabrics, plastics, wood and paper, learning traditional textile techniques like embroidery and screen-printing coupled with the contemporary technology of computer aided design and laser cutting. I do see the value of using modern technology. However, my excitement lies with using my hands to create.”
Not only is Rebecca a fabulous tutor and lovely woman who is helping us all achieve our best possible grades during the OCA’s move to digital assessment, her work is absolutely gorgeous and inspirational! Her work was often in my mind when I was casting concrete into socks or over my back doorstep!
Susan Benarcik
Susan Benarcik is a sculptor and urban garden designer based in Delaware. Evolving simultaneously as artist and gardener, Benarcik posses an innate understanding of natural materials, which is dually expressed in her artwork and garden designs. Hard wired to inspire audiences with a fresh perspective, her work has been exhibited across the country in galleries, museums, sculpture parks, arboreta, and botanic gardens such as the New York Design Center, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Delaware Art Museum.
The artist is the recipient of Individual Artist Fellowship Award from Delaware Division of the Arts in 2019, a National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Grant to Organizations and Artists in 2017, and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award, in 2007. Her Master’s degree in printmaking is from Cranbrook Academy of Art, and Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from Rosemont College.
Benarcik was an apprentice at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, a Core Fellow at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and most recently a Philadelphia CFEVA fellow. The artist teaches creativity workshops nation wide, and is a founding board member of the Jester Artspace, a non-profit organization in Wilmington, partnering with New Castle County to renovate a pre-civil war farmhouse for the arts.
Susan uses collage, print, sculpture and mixed media for her art, she clearly has a mind that is inetrested in very many things! Some of her work is very pretty, some of ir quite stark, some of it very playful, some serious. I chose this because she is clearly comfortable experimenting with everything from pulped coffee cups to latex to paint and metal and I like that a lot.
