Sunday, March 13, 2011

Spring 2011. Casting. Blood Diamonds Progress

Well, after about 9 hours of wax carving and about 2 hours of die-forming, chasing and soldering I think my first Blood Diamonds piece in the series is coming together. I have to say, I love this! I want to make some molds of it before I cast it because of the shear time investment this far in carving this. I don't want to see it fail and all of this go to waste. I honestly think I would break down right there and cry if it did.

I am glad to go into design review on Monday with this. I feel like it is at a stage it could be considered "complete" but something in me wants to take it further.
Indentation I carved for the pin carrier to be placed in to be riveted. 
Carving next to diagrams I used.
Placement on hands.
How the final piece will look sans the rivets.
Indentations and redness left from pins on the skin. 
My poor really expensive anatomy book covered in wax. 

Here is where I am stuck right now, do I leave it just as the lovely carving or do I go further with it. I think I will sketch it out more to decide, but I don't know if it feels finished. In my head I wanted there to be this "skin" effect going on like it is being exposed through a layer of breaking down skin, but the carving came out so well, I don't want to mess it up with unnecessary elements. I am going to sleep on it and sketch some more, but any feedback is appreciated. 

Also, I think I have figured out the patinas if this all works out. The lovely missficklemedia (http://missficklemediacom.blogspot.com/) makes beautiful matte heat patinas that have the texture that I am looking for, and she sells them on her etsy site. I think if things work out I can get exactly what I am looking for. I am super excited.