The past two weeks in my 3D Design class we have been preparing and beginning to make tessellations of sculptures. This has, by far, been my favorite project in this class. Not only is it extremely hands on, albeit messy, but it has really gotten me thinking more about form and shape. How they fit together (or don’t), and how many different ways there are to view the same things.

We began this project by experimenting with 3D foam blocks, taking time to arrange them in different ways to our liking. Spending most of my class time arranging the blocks I was given into many different patterns, not really liking any of them, until I had realized part of my patterned blocks looked like a face. Jumping off from that idea I made the face a body to go with it and had completed the first step to this project. 

The next class day we brought in 100% silicone caulk and cornstarch to begin making our molds. I glued my person-shaped blocks onto a board and made a border out of the remaining foam block. Next came the hardest part of this project: figuring out the caulk gun. Thanks to YouTube and a quick tutorial we were able to load the caulk into the gun and begin the strenuous task of (most of us) realizing the hole in the tube wasn’t big enough for the silicone to come out easily. And an hour later my mold was beginning to dry. 

This was right before spring break so our molds had plenty of time to dry and for us to get over the pain in our arms from the effort of making them. 

Coming back from break we began making the plaster that would become our tessellated sculptures. My mold was still somewhat soft and dough-like, but seemed to hold the plaster fine for the first 5 or so sculptures. Making the first sculpture I had accidentally cracked it, so, in an attempt to “fix” this I decided to crack the rest of them to match. 

During the 4-5th sculpture I started to get an idea of the arrangement and how I wanted my little person-like sculptures to come across. Since they were all cracked and chipped in various spots I decided to lean into that. I started to get an idea to paint them all to look like broken China or porcelain plates. So far I’ve got one almost completely painted and hope to get the rest painted by Tuesday.  This has truly been the most fun I’ve had during an art class (I mean who wouldn’t love getting to break things for class) and I cannot wait to see how everything looks all put together!