Another Dance?

I made these two pieces (Dance) back in 2008.  They were two of several experiments I did combining concrete and glass. Unfortunately this particular brand and mix of concrete wasn't fully compatible...so after a few months some of the glass cracked.

But I've always wanted to revisit these pieces: I felt the design worked, even if the concrete:glass combo didn't.  I particularly like the fact that the pieces will stand (or gently rock...) on all four sides.

Well, the laser cutting course I did earlier this month finally gave me the impetus to have another go: as the laser can deal with both curves and circles accurately and efficiently!

My first job was to create the drawing files which would be used to control the laser cutter.  For this I used Inkscape - an open source vector graphics program, which you can download for free.  It's fairly user-friendly if you've used photo editing or 3D design programs - and there are plenty of videos on YouTube for beginners.  This is a screen shot of one of my files in Inkscape, showing some of the basic shapes. The pieces with the deep curves instead of circles will form a low relief on the front and back of each sculpture.

I also added a few extra shapes into the spaces on this worksheet (which I'll use to make moulds for another project) - as I didn't want to waste any of my plywood!


For the original, experimental Dance, I reused some old glass casts from a temporary sculpture.  This time round, I decided the pieces deserved some glass which was designed with them in mind!  In the past couple of months I've been working on a series of work called Shape Shifters - and I suspected that this style would carry across to my new Dance pieces.

So I started experimenting with cardboard circles...  This photo shows the final three cardboard models. (The circles were cut using a little plotter cutter - I'm not that good with a Stanley Knife!)  The orange/brown colour is down to a layer of shellac - which stops either the gelflex or the silicon welding to the surfaces when I make the moulds!  These are relatively low relief models (about 15mm), as I want the final glass pieces to be between 18 and 20mm to fit within the plywood framework.

I chose the diameter of the models to match the inside of a drainpipe, so I could use a drainpipe to form the mould walls.  (My foresight and planning are finally getting a little better..!)

I'll add another post later this week, covering the rest of the process.