Sophie Holliday

Decided to make a set of mono prints using latex moulds from the plaster casts. I spread the liquid latex using a paintbrush over the plaster casts - if you are going to do this, make sure you use an old paintbrush. This is what it did to mine... It is now a fan brush. 😲 I backed the latex mould onto thick card and rolled out a layer of water based ink onto a gel printing plate. After pressing the latex moulds into the ink and removing them, I took a print. These are the results. I like the outlined impression that the raised parts of the mould gave - it almost looks like an x-ray.  I am going to try another technique to see if I can achieve more detail by using a press.

As the plaster cast I created in Mousehole wasn't very successful, I used the objects I collected from the beach to produce a set of smaller casts at college. Rolled out the clay to the size of a large matchbox and pressed in the beach finds to create an impression. Then, filled the boxes with plaster and produced a small set of casts. I like the tactile quality to the casts. I think that I will develop these further to see what other pieces I can produce using these patterns. I created a set of shallow clay forms so that I could produce a paper graphite rubbing. Although the impression were not as deep as my originals, the detail within the shells was still difficult to capture.

Well... Today was a bit of a disaster. I wanted to find a way to capture textures and objects so decided to experiment with plaster casting. After cutting out the base of a plastic food container, I pushed it into the sand and pressed seaweed, a chain and stone into the sand to create an impression. I struggled to mix the plaster quick enough as it began to set before I poured it into the container. Not sure if it was because I used sea water! The sand didn't create as interesting forms as I thought it would - some of the detail was lost.  Final result - not as expected. I like how some of the sand remained on the plaster however the overall cast was not as defined an impression as I would have liked.