A New Idea

I recently had the idea to part from my 1,000 beeswax cup idea.  I want to return to making figures out of beeswax.  I have compiled a list of volunteers, three other girls, and four boys.  I will cover them in plaster gauze in order to make moulds of them.  I will then paint a thin layer of beeswax on these plaster figures.  I am excited for the results but also very nervous!



The figures will stand with outstretched arms, hands open, ready to clasp the hands of another.  The figures will be out of arms reach from one another.  They will stand in a circle each on a beeswax covered wooden platform.  The piece will have beeswax covered wooden platforms for ten people, but only eight plaster forms will be cast.  I will let viewers take the other places.  I am trying my first test this Thursday.


In the middle of this circle of plaster people will be my carved building blocks.  Some of these carvings will be coated in beeswax, to mirror the beeswax covered wooden platforms that the plaster figures are standing on.  Hopefully the result will be luminous.

Carving

I was carving a few more building blocks yesterday.  The last of the building blocks until I acquire more white cedar.  The first layer has always been the layer has always been the smoothly carved layer with a big gauge.  I looked down and realized it was buttery smooth.  Prior to this I had not taken much notice that I had been getting better at carving.  At this moment though, I realized I had come a long way.  I realized then that maybe I was "insane,"  at least by this definition of insanity.


Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

It was a truly lovely moment.  Just me and my carving.  

Artist Statement

I was adopted.

“From where?”

China.

“At what age?”

11 months.

“Do you remember anything?”

The last question always gives me pause.

I was swaddled for the first few months of my life. 

It set me back.

At 18 months I learned to sit up.

At two years I learned basic motor skills.

Picking up and stacking cheerios.

This is the first memory I can recall. 
Anything prior to that is all contained.

Dreams

I showed my cups in a unique way today.  I showed them on a glass surface above my chest of wooden carved blocks.

I find the results very interesting.  I would like to place these cups on glass shelves in front of a gallery's floor-to-ceiling windows.  This would be the ideal way to present them, as the light would shine through the cups, leaving warm golden/yellow light.  I am excited by the different shades of yellow and gold that the cups have taken on.  More experimentation to come.

Containment

I have created 11 cups a day for the past two days.  I find my process becoming streamlined.  I am now able to make the eleven cups in three and a half hours, as opposed to eleven cups in six hours.  I melt a wok full of beeswax.  I spray vegetable oil in a non-stick oversized cupcake pan.  I then pour a few tablespoons of the melted the beeswax in a section of the pan.  I swirl this beeswax around until it hardens.  I create the initial rim by swaying the pan back and forth and in circles.  As I run out of beeswax that is in the tin, I use the rest to fill the bottom.  I want to create very thin walls with the wax, to make them as translucent as possible.  I then repeat the pouring and swirling once or twice more.  I begin to work on the next cup, and the next one after that.  Once three or so cups are made I heat the edge of a butter knife on the hotplate.  I run the blade around the cup to jimmy it free.  Sometimes the cup is too thin and it breaks.  Other times it is set free.  Below are the results.

Toy Chest

I have recently put all of my carvings in a wooden box.




















This gives me the idea for a wooden toy chest.  Something to contemplate, as my work is now directly addressing containment.