I’ve been faced with a lot of serious questions over the past few weeks concerning my thesis work. Some questions have been asked by others, but most I have generated myself- usually late at night when I can’t get to sleep. The most pressing questions I’m trying to figure out right now concern my materials.

As you’ve probably (/hopefully) noticed, most of my thesis work so far has utilized plastic and plaster: the smooth surface and transparency of the plastic I use is vital to the formation of the resulting plaster pieces. However, as I look to refine pieces for an upcoming show and my thesis committee meeting, I feel that when plastic is visible in a completed form, it does not look as polished as I would like. Plastic warps and scratches easily, and does not stay clean for very long as powdery plaster coats its surface.

Since I still need that characteristic transparency and smoothness, the next obvious choice of material for my work would be glass. I already use glass in some of my forms and think switching to all glass will benefit my body of work as a whole. Last week, I bought a TON of glass cylinders in every size possible to experiment with in combination with my plaster pouring techniques. As soon as I troubleshoot with my new material and can compare it to my plastic models, I will share my findings!

Featured Image: Jill Sibio, 2018