Project 4: Synthesis
For this project I decided to synthesize the pandemic, grief horror and some aspects of living with a disability in the United States. After a last minute idea change I decided to make a website that breaks down these different topics and then explains how each of them intersect and interact with one another. I chose to do my project on this because I care a good bit about the pandemic and I wanted to do some in depth research about it. I know that COVID has greatly impacted the disabled community so I wanted to include facts and perspectives about and from people living with disabilities in the U.S. Incorporating grief horror allowed me to keep on going with the movie theme I've kept throughout all my projects this year. I also thought that the genre, especially since it's gaining in popularity, would be easy for ppl to relate to or think about in a more critical way. I continued to build different pieces to make a portfolio for art. I made a spider but had some problems with the drying proccess so I'm stil. working to finish it.
English
I created a website to present my information. Originally I was going to write a short story which then changed to character descriptions and explanations before I finally made the last minute change to a website. I don't really enjoy creative writing so I'm glad that I made the change even if it was last minute. I broke down the different ideas in sections which are very context heavy. I chose to do this because I didn't want the my explanation of how the topics intersect to become unclear and confusing. Deciding how to break down each topic was a small challenge but I'm happy with my final product.
Art
I continued to build a portfolio for art and I wanted to make a sculpture of a spider for this project. Originally I had planned to make the spider sit on a six in two chain maille web but this idea changed because of the amount of time it would take to finish it. I worked on the sculpture a lot less than I planned to over winter break and I had to change my idea. Instead I made a base to show the spider on the ground.
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How I Made it
Before I started sculpting I researched different kinds of spiders and chose a few as a reference for my spider. I made the body into the shape that I wanted and then hallowed it out after to keep things simple. I then used hunks of clay that I flattened down to start the base and get it to the size I wanted. I built up certain portions using thin slabs and coils and then added mushrooms and moss. I also texted the base with a tool that I repeatedly hit along the base giving it a rough look. The legs have been the most challenging part. I used a 22g wire inside of the legs so they could support themselves and this worked really well and I was able to shape them how I wanted with no problems. I attached the legs directly to the base and then placed the spider on top. When the spider was drying I ran into problems with the legs as the clay built up around the wire was cracking. The clay didn't have enough space to shrink down around the wire and it caused a lot of cracking and I had to remove all of the legs and I'm currently in the process of redoing them. I am going to try a thinner wire and I'm going to try and make the clay have a looser fit around the wire.
Glazing
While I haven't finished the piece yet, I've already started to think about how I'd like to glaze it. I want the spider to be done in a dark color with accents of red on the spikes. I'll probably use ironstone or blue midnight as a base layer and then put another glaze on top to make the color more interesting. I want to use the ancient jasper glaze for the spikes and some other areas I's like the highlight. I'd like the base to look extraterrestrial or radioactive in some way so I plan on using brighter colors that will really make the base pop.