I have been revolving my work around recurring dreams and one that I often have is about me climbing up a castle, once reaching the top all my teeth would fall out due to exhaustion. I came up with this idea during summer to create a black wax castle and to use ceramic teeth at the top to sit in a pile. The wax castle has proved to be my most ambitious project yet, I underestimated the amount of work and time that had to be put in. It took me months to complete the final piece, but it was really worth the pain.
This is an image of the castle at an early stage, I had to make the main form in clay and then cast it in plaster. The top of the castle had to be made in a separate rubber cast because it would be too fragile if it was also cast in plaster and would likely break.
This is the sculpture in its plaster form. It took around 8 layers of thick plaster to create this shell round the clay form and then sanding it down to make the surface smooth so it would be easier to handle
The cast was too large for two people to carry so we had to use a machine to lift it off the floor and in to a tub of water so that the clay would soften and come out the cast easily The cast had to stay in the tub of water over night.
The tub that held the sculpture over night
The clay came out well, at this stage I had to empty the tub and clean out all the clay.
Nice and clean.
My tutor Phong helped me strengthen the cast with more plaster. We then attached metal clips to the sides to stop the wax from pouring out when we poured it in.
It was important to pour the wax in from the bottom so we tipped the cast upside down and then we melted the wax and dyed it black.
I will post a picture of the final piece in a later post.
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