...back at work after a post election hiatus. 'Nuff said.
With an early January entry deadline for the Black & White themed show at the River Arts Gallery in Damariscotta fast approaching, I finally shook off my politically induced inertia and turned my attention to the task at hand. I decided to make use of the 4 silicone rubber molds that I had created for a plaster relief project I made several years ago (see my blog entry for 12-12-12), and make a new variation of the original relief design.
 ...rubber mold |  ...plaster cast |  ...painted cast |
 ...half cast variations  ...arranged & painted  ...mat preparation & painting tile seams | After casting an assortment of each of the four different mold designs, I cut three of them in half to create smaller elements that could be used to create more potential variations in the arrangement of the relief tiles. Each tile square was made up of 4 smaller squares that had a relief surface containing some combination of raised or impressed circles and/or squares. The individual small relief squares varied in thickness from about 6/16' to 3/4". I used a variety of factors to determine the eventual final arrangement of the relief...I didn't want the finaI composition to be a square, I didn't want to have the same shapes/squares next to each other, and I wanted a variation of surface height throughout. The half casts allowed me to create an arrangement that appeares to have a series of five columns of small squares across and six down. The placement of the half casts, combined with rotating the orientation of the tiles, allowed me to create an arrangement with no two identical designs side by side. This also allowed me to controll the distrbution of relief height. Once I had decided on the composition, I painted each tile with Golden's Graphite Grey acrylic paint. The final step was to prepare the framing materials and mount the tiles. I adhered a piece of colored matboard to a foamcore backing and painted stripes of graphite grey where the tiles seams would be so any possible small gaps would not show. I then cut an opening for the relief in a piece of white matboard and adhered that on top of the colored board. Finally I epoxied the tiles in place and then inserted the finished piece into a black metal 13" x 15" frame (the actual relief measures about 8 3/" x 7 1/4"). Done and delivered! On to the next.... |
...matted & framed
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