Lamb Soap Sculpture

Started off with the basic shapes of my lamb. 

So it's not perfect, but my proportions worked out pretty well. 

This is the lamb that gets altered. 

First thing I did was cut off the head of the lamb, because I just couldn't get rid of it. 

Next thing was to melt off the feet because they were the next most recognizable part of the lamb, besides the head. 

I wanted to add more soap to the sculpture, so I took a piece from the original soap bar and microwaved both together so they would stick and form a platform for the lamb. 

Next I took pieces from a Christmas tree ornament and looped them through the soap. 

I boiled the piece next and it lost a lot of the soap so I added the shavings from carving and they stuck to the sculpture. 

I put the sculpture in the freezer so the pieces would bond together. Afterwards the pieces that didn't melt together fell off. 

Last but not least I added the head back on with a piece of wire. 

Drawings

Mask Creation

Finalized mask video and picture. I decided that since my mask was based on creativity, I would create my own environment for a photo shoot.

Mask Identity Update

I got the whole wire frame masked and ready to go. Now I have to put it together and hopefully that will be easy. I'm really excited about how well my horns/swirls came out. All around it is a little less symmetrical than I hoped it would be, but overall it looks amazing!

Wire Frame

So I started figuring out what I wanted to do for my full face mask and this is what I came up with.

I think of a lot of things when I look at this mask. The swirls remind me of a heart, but at the same time I think of devilish horns. Another meaning is that Native Americans thought that animals with horns represented creativity.  This is how far I have gotten. I have the bottom piece, it's a little crooked, but I think it will turn out well.

Paper Stacking Community

My idea completely changed from my original inspiration of the stacking stones, as I attempted to make rocks my figure formed a shape that made me think of a hut. I decided to go with the idea and make a hut. Huts often remind me of remote villages out in the forests of south america or africa. The sense of community within these villages is strong because they are all inter-dependent on each other. I left a door size space throughout the piece to resemble people being able to come and go in their neighbor's huts. I even enjoyed the process so much that I started creating another hut.

My apple unfortunately did not come out as well as my piece of choice. I'm not very good with observational art. I built up the top piece too much and didn't focus on the ridges of the apple. When I took a break to work on my choice piece I became so involved that I didn't pay much attention to the apple.

Inspiration Images for my Creative Stacked Paper

I remember when I was younger I saw a movie or tv show where these monks would try and stack stones and I wanted to be able to do it so bad! Unfortunately I did not have the discipline or patience to be successful in this endeavor, but maybe this time around I can be.  Stacking paper into stones and then stacking them on top of each other.

When I was a kid I actually used to collect rocks. My favorites were the ones with flecks of silver inside of them. I thought they were the prettiest the way the sunlight would relfect of the silver.

 

Reaction to Touching Articles

I agree with a lot of what is said in these articles. I especially agree with the section on holding hands. I know what they mean when they say, "hold hands as a tender bridge." Touching someone makes a connection beyond a physical one. Touching is a very emotional process. The absence of touching can be even more emotional. I was not surprised about how many studies were done where animals responded negatively to being separated from others and the lack of touch.

Tokens Response

I think this article is really sad, to think of so many kids/babies being abandoned and unwanted. I like the idea of the tokens given to the children although it is an imperfect system. The whole thing reminded me of Orphan Annie where she was left with half a locket on the doorstep of an orphanage. Turns out that the "caretaker" Ms. Hannigan had it the whole time!

My Furniture Should Be Sold In Stores

So here it is! FINALLY!
Okay I've been updating all along but let's go over the facts one more time.

Design Reasoning:
Bed: I made the bed super high because in the beginning of The Metamorphosis Kafka says that Gregor falls off the bed. In my mind I picture Gregor as a medium sized bug so a fall from a bed would be far for a bug of his size. As I have said in class I am constantly at war with myself as to how his room should look. Before he turned into a bug he had normal furniture just like everybody else, but I still can't help feeling that since he is a bug, the place where he lives would be dirty, again despite the fact that his sister cleans his room. To convey the dirtiest I sensed I made the pillow a splotchy brown and the blanket an ugly mold-like looking black.

Drawers: I originally had the draws horizontal on the ground because it reminded me of bugs also being low to the ground, but after more consideration it felt better upright to match the height of the bed. Besides since Gregor is a bug everything would have looked bigger/taller to him from the ground.

Bug: Even though Kafka doesn't say what type of bug Gregor is, I always pictured him as a cockroach. I found instructions online how to make a origami cicada and then added legs. I left Gregor's legs a little soft because in the beginning he couldn't figure out how to use them and support himself. Also when flipped over the remaining paper tabs leave a cool breastplate looking piece that I felt really tied in the bug theme.

I made my bug last night and started painting it this morning. Later than expected, but still came out pretty good if I do say so myself. The body was an origami design for a cicada I found online and I added the legs myself using the tabs method from my previous pieces. I mixed the orange and brown inks to create the perfect cockroach color. A crumpled up piece of orange brown paper gave my bug a headpiece.



Here's Gregor chillin on his bed!

Looks kinda creepy if you ask me. But that's another aspect of the story so that's why it works!

3AM CRAZINESS!

So I don't know what possessed me, but last night I got home at 11:30pm and proceeded to make a million boxes trying to put together a chest of drawers. I literally worked on it for 3.5 hours until 3am and dreamed about folding paper that night.







I ended up with this. I thought it would be cool if the dresser was low to the ground like a bug is. I painted the boxes to look like wood because that is usually what dresser's are made of. Just because Gregor turned into a bug doesn't mean all of his furniture changed.






And this is what I have altogether so far. Got to get working on the frame, which will hopefully get done today and then the bug tomorrow.

I finished my mattress pad and box spring yesterday and I'm pretty happy about how they turned out. They are a little higher than I anticipated, but still stable.

I used these paper tabs to secure the folded edges and tighten the paper. The insides of both the mattress and box spring are filled with other crumpled paper.