In my last blog, I didn't include how I made my plaster sculpture. My first step was to research how to make and pour the cast. This took me weeks of reading books, watching videos, and calling supply companies. I decided to work with aginate, which is the material that covers the model and makes a skin. After covering the model with this goo, I secured the skin with cut pieces of burlap covered in plaster. This hardens in 5-10 minutes and then it was time to pull the skin off of the model which came off really easy. The edges of the skin pulled off of the plaster so I secured it with clothes pins (photo) I then poured the mixed plaster into the mold and let it set over night. The next day I cut off the burlap and the skin which took me hours and saw the plaster figure. I repaired the figure and attached it to the wood base with plaster. I painted the figure with three colors of acrylic paint. I went to the paint store and matched the colors with regular paint for the background. I added the tree branches because I wanted to tell a story with my sculpture. It's about the feminine identity associated with nature.

The process didn't come out perfect and in the end I had to adapt my ideas, but I never gave up. I really love the end results and I have found that in making sculpture, sometimes what was meant to be is meant to be. The sculpture seems to take a life of it's own and I was there to just assist. The other students might think this is crazy but I have real conversations with my art. In the end, we become friends.