Battle End - Figures!

Whew, we've finally finished another Craft Battle, how exciting! Here are our three submitted pieces, on the left side of the page you can vote for your favorite!

Chris: Figure # 34
(Nikki speaking for Chris) This piece was sculpted while the studio was brainstorming work that could be donated to an art auction to support the homeless. Despite the easy-going sculpting techniques an intense feeling is being expressed through the chosen pose.

Nikki: Winter Family
The family in question is a mamma and baby polar bear with matching scarves. This is pretty hard to photograph, which I didn't expect. Somewhere in my room there is supposedly a bottle of white ink, and once I find it (or buy a new one) I'll be excited to see what my piece looks like when all the many creases are stained white.
The original piece was salvaged from a bargain store for 84 cents, because what a shame to let a perfectly good (albeit cheap) sculpture go to waste? I cast a silicone mold and made myself a positive wax from it. The idea that glass can give worth to an object that nobody wanted is pretty intriguing to me.

Jessie - Self Portrait from Memory
Made with sculpey original over a tin foil and masking tape armature. I wanted to use sculpey original because its more free flowing and I felt I could capture some "gesture" from it, that is also why I chose to sculpt from memory. That way I did not have to worry about all the small details.

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End of Fall Battle!

1. Nikki

Pumpkin!

This is actually, sadly, only the second blown glass pumpkin I've ever made, I was a very, very poor student last year (sorry guys, I'll make up for it!). I recieved what turned out to be a clear and unexpectedly cold pumpkin stem bit, which is why it's so tiny, and frankly adorable - in my opinion anyway. I absolutely adore this, and the clear stem just makes me think of Cinderella for some reason!

Well the end of this battle is late, and I think also very telling for how difficult the future will be. It could just be that the time we alott ourselves is too short, but the fact of the matter is, I think both Jessie and I find it very difficult to balance art with something else, even if it's just one piddily sculpture. I suppose the midterms and due dates that we're struggling with now will one day be something like our every day (or at least our average) work life, and that's a little bit scary.

I myself am an art student, so surely I should be able to balance art with art! The due dates that matter are for academic classes though, while the due dates for glass related work tend to fall to 'end of the semester critiques'. Yes everyone in the studio is always working and creating, but it almost seems harder without a strict regime to follow.

In our Independent Research Paper course the teacher is trying to avoid this 'leave it to the last minute / get caught off guard / be less productive than you should be' kind of unfortunate circumstance by setting a schedule for us. This week was the rough one paragraph draft for our proposal, next week it will be refined, two weeks from then we will have a 750 word rough draft, and ultimately we'll have a 3000 word paper.

When this blog started out I was extremely excited and got far far ahead of myself, I really wanted to make it stranger friendly from the get go, to invite everyone in to come and enjoy the journey of art with me, but I like the direction that I think it's taking now. I don't think Jessie and I should worry so much about trying to guess what posts would appease our audience as we should just be posting about our journeys, and especially about those moments when we recognize a trial that must be dealt with (be it a one time issue or a life long one). At least, I enjoy writing like this. I think the post about Goals has recieved more likes than any other (and that's one of the few ways we have to judge the popularity of posts), so that has to mean this is the right direction. Besides, the most exciting thing to me is to be able to share the information that I learn in school with people who aren't lucky enough to be there (can you tell that I really, really like school? Ahem).

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End of Battle 04: World Issues!

← Vote in the poll to choose a winner!

This has been another long and trying week for both Jessie and I. It's really hard to believe that two weeks has already gone by since I last freaked out because I am terrible at keeping track of time. School is clearly overwhelming for the both of us so we will have to brainstorm an adjusted schedule for our competitions, we've barely found time to talk this whole month though, so finding the time to reschedule things may be impossible! Haha, I'm sure we'll manage somehow though, right Jess? Right Nikki :D

1) Nikki


My goal for this battle was to kilncast a penguin and enamel black onto him. I very recently discovered that enamels aren't something you can just get perfect the first time around though, and so I settled on staining my penguin with india ink, which is just fine with me because I've used it before and I love it! He'll need a couple more coats before his black is through and through, you can tell on the images that he is still a little splotchy. He's also quite intriguing to photograph (in a fun way), so I'm thinking clear X opaque color is a good direction to head towards in the future. I'm happy I figured that out, because it makes these battles so worth while, and as I said in school today during a presentation, no matter how bogged down and overwhelmed I am feeling (which is a ton, every damn day), it's nice to know that I will always create one thing, even if it is just every two weeks. And even if it is not a serious piece, like one I would enter into my final critiques or the art show, I still love what I make.

2) Jessie

My piece was focusing on an issue I read awhile back and haven't forgotten. Last year sometime, I read about how polar bears were drowning from a lack of sea ice because of global warming. This image of a polar bear drowning is a strong one for me. Because of that I was a bit torn and I was headed in two different directions with this piece. I could go the serious route and create a dramatic piece of a literal interpretation or I could go for the lighter route that is cute but it has a measure. I decided (since I haven't got using resin down yet) to go with the latter. I was trying to think of how they might solve this issue... A few things I thought up were (warning some are a bit silly); make giant ice cubes and drop them into the water, make bear platforms where they could rest on after a long swim and finally equip every bear with a PFD (Personal Flotation Device)! And that is basically how my bear in his life jacket was created. He is make with sculpey original over my usual armature. I spend a whooping 5-6 hours on him. He isn't done, I will need to add a few glaze coats on him and I might drill him into a stand because he has some trouble standing.

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End of Battle 03: Unconcsious Art!

<- Please vote for the Unconscious Battle piece that you think is the best using this poll!

Voting will run until Sunday September 9th at Midnight (-5 GMT)

The Unconscious Battle is OVER so let's check out our entries! I hope they're all very inspiring!

1) Chris

 
I've been wanting to try this in 3D.  So Here is Unconscious 3D #1.
 
Here are the rules I set for my self.
 
Get 3 colour of play-d... er um... modelling clay. :P
1) Tear off colour #1 (red)
     -knead and squash it using only the tips of my fingers (without 
looking at it).
     -Stick down on the base (without looking at it).
2) Repeat with colour #2 (yellow)
3) Repeat with colour #3 (orange)
4) repeat (after a few minutes look and see if it's big enough)
 
Like everything thing in life, it's best to not have too many rules. :D

2) Jessie

The 'Owl Face'

For my unconscious piece I decided to just smoosh the tinfoil together into an interesting shape (which turned out to be a ball with random flattened sides and random curves protruding from it). I covered it in masking tape trying to show off the curves and make them more prominent. I then covered it in a thin layer of clay and I liked the curves so I tried to work with them. I didn't have any of my tools or really anything except my hands to work with the clay (First week back at school with only the essentials). In the end I think it looks somewhat like a barn owl head with fins! Through the whole process I didn't think about what I was making, I just did what felt right.

3) Nikki

I had technical difficulties this time around, so clearly I'm not going to be the winner ): I made a couple of waxes and a clay piece using the unconscious process, and while I'm sure they'll look wonderful in glass, they of course look hideous in their unfinished material. What's my excuse? Our de-steamer was broken so I couldn't de-mold any of my pieces (the ones I've started casting from '31 Days of Wax'). The shortest program I've ever created for kilncasting is over 48 hours, and actually takes a lot longer than that to cool down, so by the time the de-steamer was fixed, it was too late for me! Alas, woe is me. I will, however, be very happy to know someone else will definitely win, because I like writing about other people, and I love their pieces far more than I do my own!

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End of Battle 02!

I hope this post is to everyone's liking, I'm a little bit under the weather so we'll be sticking with the basic 'photo and description' type of post today:

1) Jessie

Presenting Nixie! First off I should say I am not known for being able to do human figures or at least proportional human figures! I know there are parts of her that could be better but either way I am super proud :) A (Water) Nixie, for those who are not familiar, is a water spirit who can shape-shift, but generally appears in the human form. The rocks were random rocks I found at the beach and they are PL'd together. That glue is strong! I added in a few driftwood twigs I found while at the beach to the base. The Nixie is made out of a wire armature which is bulked out with tinfoil and masking tape. I used super sculpey clay and acrylic paints. She is airbrushed and I think she turned out fairly well. I forgot to time how long she took.

2) Nikki

This is my nameless dragon! (Edit: I've actually decided to call him Nameless the Dragon, because it sounds cool and reminds me of Toothless) I honestly don't remember how long he took me to make, just that it was a very, very long time. Considering that at this point in time my skills to smooth out the wax are still really undeveloped, I'm glad his texture turned out just how I wanted it to! At one point in time I accidentally snapped a wing in half >< Luckily it was a clean break and a bit of UV glue fixed it right up! I casted him in clear glass, then painted on black india ink. I used a wet paper towel to wipe the major surfaces off, leaving his texture a lot more pronounced than it otherwise would have been :). I don't think I have anything to complain about when it comes to this guy, even his wings fully melted and I had been so worried about them!


3) Panda (so cute!)

For the Mythical Creatures Week, I have sewn a unicorn. This little guy is named Rad, aka Radically Rainbow. He is made of fleece and clouds and rainbows and unicorn things, and wants to be your friend. Magical wish-granting power not included.

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End of Battle 01

Now let's see our Dinosaurs!

You probably can't guess yet but I am extremely excited for this post! But first, an important note regarding submissions:

Now, for the time being we've realized that having the battle End on the 13th day, means people really only get 12 days to work on a battle, and that last day might be important to some busy people. So, until we figure out a better arrangement, artists are free to submit their pieces to us at any time on the 13th/End Battle day, and we will edit them into the post. However, if you are ready to go before the 13th, please e-mail us your photos and blurb ASAP! It's appreciated :)


I am wagering that Jessie's amazing Veolciraptor kicks my dinosaur's butt clear out of the water.
I'm so proud of her! Her level of detail is so high that she always has an open offer from me to sculpt something in clay or wax, and then have me cast it for her. Of course, she's too lame to take me up on it ):

1) Jessie

Presenting.... Velcro the Trolling Velociraptor! He is constructed from a mixture of Super Sculpey and Sculpey Original (terra cotta) clay. His armature is made up of masking tape, tin foil and floral wire. And he was painted with an airbrush. He has around 24 hours of pure work into him. 

Velcro was a character that my friend and I made, we graduate in December so I decided to make something special for her.The story behind Velcro is that he really isn't a Velociraptor, rather he is a Deinonychus. However, thanks to Jurassic Park people think this is what velociraptors looked like. So my friend and I made this character who pretended to be a Velociraptor (hence the trolling). I also sculpted him a small feather (since real Velociraptors have feathers), it is the little blue thing he is holding.

I loooove how he turned out :)

2) Nikki

As a kiln caster, I think it's important for me to focus on detail. When I think up a piece I have to reason why I want to cast it, versus flame working or hot sculpting it - and nine times out of ten the reason falls to the level of detail I can use. Then Jess came out and strutted her stuff with Velcro and I went, "Damn, I'm going to really have to step up my detail and start enameling some damn color in there!" I've made a few dinosaur waxes since laying eyes on Velcro, and let me tell you, I think they are already visually improved.

His horns are electroplated and he's been sandblasted to help bring out the detail in the clear glass. He probably took me three hours to make. Then again, I did have a lot of trouble finding a way to have the copper tie only to his horns. When I made a Stegosaurus the copper crawled down all the way to his leg! So I knew I had to be more careful.




3) Ducky (Check out her Blog) Spike may be a dragon and not a dinosaur, but I happen to be 100% convinced that dragons were pterodactyls, so it's okay.

This is my Spike iPhone case! I bought this cross stitch case earlier this year and it seemed like it was time to switch out the art in it. The character I chose is Spike from My Little Pony because isn't he just so darn cute? It took me about an hour or so and I simply used embroidery floss and a blunt cross stitching needle. The only thing I would change about this is the color of the case because some of the colors don't stand out very well on the black background. Thanks for looking :)

4) Panda  Adorable! :)

My name's Panda, and this is my submission for Dino week! This little guy is named Compsognathus, or Soggy, for short.This is part of my Craft Battles Series of my Next of Kin plush dolls.

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