Monday, November 2, 2009

Day 2 - 30 Day Artist













Good morning - Selamat Pagi (Malay) - Sawadee Ka (Thai),

I thought I'd post some pics of the glass casting process so you can get an idea of what's involved in creating cast glass art. I finished off these pieces today but it took me over a week to create them. Basically the process involves:

  1. Making a mould in a special plaster mix of the artwork to be cast.
  2. Removing the artwork (made of modelling clay, wax or whatever)
  3. Cleaning and cutting glass to fit in the mould to fill it. (More difficult than it looks to get enough glass in the mould)
  4. Firing the glass in a kiln. This may have to be done twice if there's not enough glass and can take several days.
  5. Annealing the glass - cooling it down very slowly to stop it breaking (This takes a long time too)
  6. Removing the plaster mould. This includes labour intensive picking out plaster with dental tools.
  7. Grinding and cutting off excess glass.
  8. Engraving artists signature into the glass
  9. Polishing the glass

The images here are of Gong Khao (Thai Rice Boxes) these are used to serve Khao Niao (sticky rice - "Pulut rice" in Malay). I've cast real sticky rice too. In Laos and Isaan (Esarn) North East Thailand, they eat this type of rice every day with Som dum (Green Papaya Salad) and Laab (Minced Meat Salad). These sculptures will be included in my exhibition "Rural Go Go" in February 2010 in Bangkok as my response to the three and a half months I spent in Isaan at Banpao Rural Art Centre (BRAC) as artist in residence late 2008 - early 2009.

To my Singapore friends, I would have loved to have met up with you but I was too busy creating these artworks. Hope to see you next time I'm in Singapore.

Time to get back to work.

Have a great day.

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