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Rainy Day Dash

I’ve been playing with epoxy resin, experimenting with moulds, textures and effects. Much as I’ve enjoyed mixing colours in it, crystal clear resin has inspired my latest picture.

‘Rainy Day Dash’ is a 3D paper collage with wet weather effects.

  1. Gloss paint is used on the umbrellas for a wet look.  
  2. At the front, two layers of people are adhered to clear acrylic strips and placed over mirror paper so their reflections simulate walking on a wet path.
  3. A thin wavy textured layer of resin was created and used to line the street to look like water.
  4. Tiny resin raindrops were applied to the inside of the frame glass within the mat.

Click the photos below to see the stages of its creation.

  • Creating the paper street
  • Colouring reflections
  • Laying textured resin film
  • Adding people
  • 2 layers of walkers on mirror
  • Creating raindrops

While each stage looked promising enough for me to continue, when the whole piece came together I was a little disappointed and think that I tried to do too much – it’s a bit ‘messy’ (in my opinion). Usually I photograph the final work without glass to avoid reflection issues, which I’ve done for this last image , but obviously the glass in this piece forms a crucial part of it, so the final feature photo at the top doesn’t really do it justice.

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More fun with Hebel blocks!

As I predicted in my last post, I’ve so much enjoyed sculpting with Hebel that I’ve made a number of new projects. These are all weather-proof, perfect for a patio or garden setting.

Each bird is hand-carved without a pattern, so they all have their own unique characters. The birds in the large candle-holder below are set on dowels, so they can be moved to reposition them, or taken off for storage.

Details of my processes in making them are at my previous post.

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Hebel stone carving

Hebel masonry is lightweight aerated concrete used mainly in the building industry.
It’s soft and easy to carve, making it popular for garden sculptures. I’ve been experimenting with some off-cuts, which means my ornaments are quite small.
(Click images below to enlarge)

The down-side of small, fine work with Hebel is that largish holes sometimes appear like air bubbles. When they appear in a critical place I’ve found it necessary to fill them. The best result I’ve had is with a wood-working glue to fill the hole, allow it to dry, then glue Hebel ‘dust’ from my carvings to smooth the surface. This is then finely sanded.

One experiment I’m quite excited about is varying the texture in places. Hebel stone is quite rough and on my small birds, I felt a textural contrast was needed to highlight some features. I’ve used a gyprock filler product, mixed with water, to smooth over areas, which in effect fills the tiny holes. When dry, this sands back smoothly and is almost the same colour as the stone. When finished, I apply a sealant over the piece.

I’ve really enjoyed the learning processes, and surprised myself by how much I enjoy carving! I’m sure I’ll be adding some new projects to this post in the future.
It’s VERY different to crafting with paper!

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Paperbark birds

Walking along the river I found a long strip of bark from a paperbark tree (Melaleuca). The layered papery bark is very pliable and I’ve been experimenting with creating little birds from it. They are very ‘raggedy’ birds, but I liked the natural look and the colours and markings of the bark, so left it in its rough appearance. However, I have used a matt sealant to the surfaces to strengthen them. I also needed tiny thin wires between some of the layers to help hold their shape.

  • Raw Paperbark
  • Sealing the surface
  • Construction

I’ve mounted the birds on branches, but instead of a traditional frame, I’ve cut into a frame to build the frame around the branch, so the branch extends beyond. Although they’re somewhat fragile as they’re not behind glass, I’m quite pleased with the effect.

  • Creating the frame
  • Bird closeup
  • Bird closeup
  • Finished piece 1
  • Finished piece 2
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Voyage

This new project is one of the most ambitious I’ve crafted. I was unsure of where to categorize it in my ‘gallery’ as it includes papercraft, recycled materials and woodcraft. It’s also the largest piece I’ve made – the frame is 50cm square.

The body of the ship and the seagulls are moulded with paper clay, and the waves formed from torn sheets of paper painted with watercolours. The masts are cut with a scroll saw from scraps of wood and jointed together. The sails are recycled cotton, cut from an old sheet. I tried different experiments to shape the sails as though a strong wind was blowing, before finally using a heavy starch, together with shaped paper supports behind them. The rigging ropes are made from unraveled cotton cord.

The frame is only 4cm deep, so once again I had to massage and adapt my original concept to fit, without losing its 3D perspective. (The original design was a 3-masted ship!)

While I can always identify aspects that could be better, overall I’m quite happy with the final project.

[Click near the top of the pictures to enlarge]

  • Making the Masts
  • Attaching Sails
  • Construction & Rigging
  • Making Waves!
  • Assemblage
  • Side view of layers
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Poppies

I made this little vase of poppies during a demonstration to show how the layered paper sculptures are constructed and how the recycled diffuser film is used.

Once again, it’s all made of shaped paper and I’ve used three layers to give depth, with the diffuser sheet cut to the shape of water in the vase.  I decided to back the picture with glass, which allows light to shine through the vase and water.  I’m quite pleased with this effect. Unfortunately, all the glass, film and acrylic reflections make photographing these incredibly difficult when all the layers are together!

  • The paper vase
  • Front layer (with film)
  • Centre layer on acrylic sheet
  • Back layer on paper
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Regatta

I admit I’ve been a bit obsessed creating ‘underwater’ themes for my paper sculptures!
I picked up this 3 panel frame in an op-shop some time ago and decided to see what I could re-create with it. Although I’m not quite as pleased with the finished product as my previous underwater pictures, I had fun creating patterns for the 3D yachts and racing them! The fish are painted with an opal sheen to give a silvery appearance; unfortunately it doesn’t show up in the photos. (Click the top half of the photos to enlarge)
A particular challenge with this piece was the shallow depth of the frame – just 25mm to create and construct multiple layers.

  • Designing the yachts
  • Cutting the diffuser film
  • Setting the boats on waves
  • Background fish layer
  • The underwater effect
  • Before framing
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Coral Reef

This is my third paper sculpture project using LCD backlight diffuser film to create an underwater effect. Just like Lily Pond and Fish Bowl, this piece is constructed in layers, using a transparent acrylic sheet to ‘float’ the objects in the centre.
Most of the structure is a collage of photographs, cut and shaped into 3D images together with paper models of coral, fish and the yacht.
These pieces are very difficult to photograph due to the film picking up the smallest reflections, but the images below of the construction will give a clearer view. [Click the top half of the photos to enlarge.] I hope I have an opportunity to exhibit these 3 pieces at some stage as they look quite different “in the flesh”!

  • Making paper models
  • Constructing the background
  • The centre transparency
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Fish Bowl

This is the sequel to “Lily Pond’.
It’s my second experiment using an LCD backlight diffuser sheet from an old laptop which blurs objects directly behind it, giving it an underwater effect. The artwork is constructed from cut and sculptured paper and put together in 3 layers with a clear acetate sheet in the centre. This time I’ve made the fish 3 dimensional, although they are somewhat hidden by the ‘underwater’ blurring.

  • Constructing the centre layer
  • Goldfish close-up
  • Fish close-up

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Lily Pond

I’ve been digging through my salvaged materials to ReCreate a new art ‘sculpture’.

‘Lily Pond’ is made predominantly from ring-folder dividers (see picture below).  It incorporates paper cutting and shaping, constructed in three layers, with the centre layer supported on a piece of clear overhead projector film.

The ‘secret ingredient’ that creates the underwater effect?  An LCD backlight diffuser sheet that comes from behind an old dismantled laptop screen!  This film is mirror-like on one side, but the other side warps, magnifies and blurs objects directly behind it, making the layered art look underwater. (Click on the close-ups above to enlarge)

It’s weird, because viewing it from the side you can see nothing behind the film – you have to view it front-on, but that makes it very unusual and a bit mysterious.  I’m planning to explore the possibilities further with more ‘underwater’ experiments.  Stay tuned!