Called Out (Vaseline and Latex)
May. 23rd, 2006 08:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormOkay. CZ asked.
So when I was in high school, I was one of those smart kids that all the teachers liked. I was also one of the artsy ones that made her own pants out of fun fur, shaved her head, wore long skirts, and danced funny.
Some of my teachers liked me so much that they gave me the curriculum for my grade 12 year and said, basically, 'demonstrate that you can do these things. Come to class and do whatever you want, I'll teach everyone else. Have fun'.
As a consequence, for more than an hour every day I had access to all the art supplies, including the potter's wheel, plaster, art paper, etc, in a very unstructured way. At one point my teacher was gonna help me get some fibreglass for a ten foot tall sculpture, but that never happened.
One of the things I did with that time was to make plaster casts of people. Cheesecloth and plaster, or the strips of plaster they use to make medical casts, can be placed over a vaselined-up face and they'll take the imprint. If you do it carefully, you get details-- eyelashes, eyebrows, necklaces, wrinkles at the corners of the eyes-- as well as the shape of the face. Then you put something slippery inside, where your face was, fill it with something that will hold the details, and pull it off. Suddenly you have an exact copy of that face (or whatever body part) at that moment.
It's awesome, especially because people are so pretty, and the plaster takes the form and removes colour so they're just breathtaking.
You can then sculpt with the bits, make flat wall panels by joining up bits, etc.
So last night, Graham and Juggler and I did some face casts. We put a sheet of vinyl that we'd been going to make stuff out of, smeared ourselves up with vaseline one at a time, and get casts taken. I removed my piercing first, cause that would be a *bad* way to get a piercing pulled out.
It reminded me so much of high school, it was fun, and it's cheap. I may start doing this again. I've been deliberately non-artsy for years now, perhaps it's time to change that. I'll have my own wallspace for sculptures. If I do that, I'll want your face. If you live far away, sucks to be me. If not, well then. I'm thinking that a 'wall of friends' would be awesome.
At one point, Juggler looks at me and sort of smirks. He's like, "so we're half-naked, sitting on latex, covered in vaseline..."
Anyhow, just thought I'd share.
Off to work for me. Be well, y'all.
So when I was in high school, I was one of those smart kids that all the teachers liked. I was also one of the artsy ones that made her own pants out of fun fur, shaved her head, wore long skirts, and danced funny.
Some of my teachers liked me so much that they gave me the curriculum for my grade 12 year and said, basically, 'demonstrate that you can do these things. Come to class and do whatever you want, I'll teach everyone else. Have fun'.
As a consequence, for more than an hour every day I had access to all the art supplies, including the potter's wheel, plaster, art paper, etc, in a very unstructured way. At one point my teacher was gonna help me get some fibreglass for a ten foot tall sculpture, but that never happened.
One of the things I did with that time was to make plaster casts of people. Cheesecloth and plaster, or the strips of plaster they use to make medical casts, can be placed over a vaselined-up face and they'll take the imprint. If you do it carefully, you get details-- eyelashes, eyebrows, necklaces, wrinkles at the corners of the eyes-- as well as the shape of the face. Then you put something slippery inside, where your face was, fill it with something that will hold the details, and pull it off. Suddenly you have an exact copy of that face (or whatever body part) at that moment.
It's awesome, especially because people are so pretty, and the plaster takes the form and removes colour so they're just breathtaking.
You can then sculpt with the bits, make flat wall panels by joining up bits, etc.
So last night, Graham and Juggler and I did some face casts. We put a sheet of vinyl that we'd been going to make stuff out of, smeared ourselves up with vaseline one at a time, and get casts taken. I removed my piercing first, cause that would be a *bad* way to get a piercing pulled out.
It reminded me so much of high school, it was fun, and it's cheap. I may start doing this again. I've been deliberately non-artsy for years now, perhaps it's time to change that. I'll have my own wallspace for sculptures. If I do that, I'll want your face. If you live far away, sucks to be me. If not, well then. I'm thinking that a 'wall of friends' would be awesome.
At one point, Juggler looks at me and sort of smirks. He's like, "so we're half-naked, sitting on latex, covered in vaseline..."
Anyhow, just thought I'd share.
Off to work for me. Be well, y'all.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 11:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-24 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 05:43 pm (UTC)I also still have our faces that you cast, packed away in storage. It would be interesting to make more and compare to see the changes.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 11:33 pm (UTC)It was amazing to see the differences even in the first cast of my torso-- I remember the one from high school pretty clearly, and I look very different now.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 11:38 pm (UTC)I'm made especially curious by people with dark eyebrows, like you and Bob, to see hwo you turn out in plaster. Also you have such beautiful cheekbones that I almost died when I first saw you.