Getting Making IV
Having reviewed where we’d got to in our seminar with Oscar on Wednesday I wanted to look over and evaluate my final getting making IV shapes , which I’d not found the time to reflect on and I’d like to before moving on. This week I had worked with cornstarch ‘slime’ papier-mâché (slime mache?) and mycelium. Both materials I expand upon in their own posts but here I explore how I met the criteria of Bridget’s brief via my own aims that week. My aims were to explore how these two materials might embody de stressing - through encouraging play, offering comfort and connecting one to nature - for both the user and the maker. I looked to objects that I find comforting and satisfying to touch and look at. I wandered also and how something can be playful as a static, aswell as a kinetic/ articulated / animated object.
Object 22
formed and grown mycelium shape.
inspired by the slotting linking form of object 19 (pict left) I wanted to explore how this successful technique offering play and interaction, might work for formed 3D shapes rather than 2D cut outs. I attempted to coat it with my slime papier-mâché mache tests and although it sets, the loops are brittle and the object ultimately unsuccessful as a soothing playful shape, and not improving on the original which satisfyingly slots together as a jigsaw too.
Object 25
hand sculpted and grown mycelium shape.
inspired by the ‘soothing‘ organic, feminine forms in object 18 (left) This reminds me of a smile, playing on the idea that to see a smile might encourage a smile and make us feel unthreatened. I sanded the shape back to create a refined finish. it was interesting to learn that sanding was possible, it reminded me of particle board and it created an interesting patina on the surface. I’m interested to know how long the mycelium shapes will last coated and uncoated.
Object 26
I wanted to create a rough raw rock like shape, based on the soap stone I chose in my original objects. Unlike the first two this was untamed and wasn’t a prescribed form. I formed it by letting a larger clump of mycelium dry and then broke it off. this meant a natural rocky texture was formed, , and visually I am most satisfied by this shape. I like that is natural and mono-material, and emulate a natural form.
Im interested in the fact that forms of nature express commonality across many different scales, as explored in the book Forms and patterns in nature. Strache, Wolf. I’m interested in the way this might inform the de stressing shapes and forms I create because a connection to nature is known to lower stress.
Object 23 / 24
hand sculpted and grown mycelium shapes. One is left raw with natural membrane, the other I have coated with papier mache. The shape of both was inspired by a piece of jade I find calming to hold. When I’m stressed I will fiddle with an object repetitively to soothe me - a pen, a hair tie, my rings. I wandered how these small hand held, hand made objects may be formed for the hand and enable this soothing play. The bare mycelium is downy and comforting to hold, my thumb fits into the dent and the soft coating feels comforting. although its very delicate. The blue paper coating makes it much hardier and adds colour, but doesn’t have the same hand feel. Both were designed to fit into the hand naturally. the blue was sculpted by squeezing the material and has finger grooves.
These preformed mycelium shapes were carved by hand and then joined used a wooden kebab stick which allowed for movement, many iterations and set ups and avoided unnecessary glues. I began adding colour ( a little unsucessfully ) through cornstarch coatings as well as dry brushing paint and using wax crayons. The mycelium disintegrates in water so I was limited in how wet I could let it get. I pushed it too far at points and the objects softened, but were able to dry out again in the oven. I like the scale of these - they reach about 30 cm in height so big but still handleable. I also am excited by the relationships between the shapes as they are assembled, you have to play with weight and balance and its satisfying once it comes together. I hope they begin to convey the playfulness and game like qualities I want to bring to my designs through shape, colour, form and motion, even in this rough sketch model.