Sponsored images from 
View allAll Photos Tagged plaster
This is the indoor portion of a weekend natural plaster workshop taught by Sasha at the Northland Pioneer Community College.
Wendy, Teri Anne and I finished up the plastering today. We spent
some time smoothing out the nipple and other areas we had missed
earlier. Tomorrow we are going to try our prickly pear paint with
plenty of slacked lime and brown umber for a tan color sealant coat.
You can see the edges of all my little pieces, but these shouldn't be a problem once I start adding tesserae.
quotidie
282 : 10.09
this is the hand that i used to mix plaster. you're not supposed to wash it off while it's still wet, because it will set in the drain and possibly clog it. i got kicked out of the room i was working in for a while because miss buchanan was going to have a short meeting with a parent.
so i went into the next room, without much agenda except to wait. found a stray paper towel within arm's reach, grabbed it to lean my left elbow on (it was covered in vaseline for this), rested my chin on it. was staring blankly straight ahead until i realized miss bishop was in front asking, "you okay?" she asked what i was going to do with my hand covered in plaster. "nothing, really, i don't know yet. right now i just like how it looks, with all the cracks and stuff."
seeing that little fragments of plaster were falling from the surface of my hand every second, i let my vaseline-covered elbow rest on my clothes (making mental note to put them in laundry later) and used the paper towel to catch the dried plaster fragments. this is when the magic started.
they - in almost identical square shapes: stretch the skin on your hand a little and notice that it is a grid of microscopic skin crevasses! - fell to the blue paper towel, almost rhythmically. i didn't even have to brush it off. all i had to do was move my hand around. flexing the joints, turning my wrist, wiggle my fingers slowly. and they fell. like rain.
i was so fascinated i sat there for almost minutes just doing that, eyes boring into the sight of the blue paper towel sprinkled by white, my hand hovering above it, moving awkwardly. i looked up when i realized that i was doing something that wasn't normal. surely enough, i found eyes staring in the direction of this little display of subtle white rain. "is that like, a piece of art in itself? it could be like a piece of performance art," miss bishop said. "hahahaha, it could be i guess, but i am really just so fascniated by what's happening. it's falling down in perfect rhythm. there has been no one time that too much fell or nothing fell. it's like rain."
when the white rain started to die down, i observed. there was still a fair bit of plaster on my hand. it just wouldn't come off. i didn't want to touch it with my other, in fear that it would ruin something of interesting potential. i moved my hand as much and in as many ways as i could, until nothing fell anymore. then i waited for the purpose to come to me. i was sure i didn't just sit thirty minutes being an oddball moving her hand around awkwardly for no reason.
and then i saw it: every where my hands could move, the plaster was no longer. i looked down at the blue paper towel and saw the debris of movement.
-
(part two)
I smooth the plaster mold as it hardens further. Since I will be pouring neoprene rubber into my molds, I like to leave a flat surface on the top so that when I flip it over it sits flat. But sometimes I am slightly short on plaster and will leave this step out because I do not want to risk making the plaster too thin at the tip of the nose.
this is a bit of failure of a sculpture in the sense it was supose to be more of person than an out of proportion figure. But I do like it, it sort of reminds me of King Kong in a way (when it was a guy in a gorilla costume). It was my first attempt with working with wire mech and plaster so it wasn't going to be perfect
In 1748, Pompeii was rediscovered--not only its houses, but (eventually) some of its citizens. Although only fragmentary skeletal remains were found there, hollow spaces within the hardened volcanic debris revealed the forms of many deceased Romans. Suffocated by volcanic gasses and covered in ash and debris, their bodies eventually decayed inside the hardening matter. This air space essentially formed a mold, since the ash that had surrounded the person retained an imprint of the body. Excavators realized this and filled the air pockets with plaster. The resulting "plaster mummies" poignantly capture the human tragedy of Pompeii.
This was the first time since the C16th that the house had been re-plastered. The plasterer said he has more than enough jobs like this to keep him busy. Not bad for the C21st...
Lots of texture has been added to the application of this tinted plaster for an authentic old world finish. Visit us at www.periwinkleskies.net