Narrative Project (Part 1)

Wire Prototype

Wire Prototype Detail

To begin we were each asked to chose a line for a poem or speech, a title of a book or song, or some other quote we felt would work well visually. I chose 'The Gods and Their Machines'. It was later decided that it would be easier to have everyone chose a word from a list made up be the tutors. We didn't have to change if we had something suitable already so I stayed with my first choice.
We each had to brainstorm our idea. There was a group session where together everyone in the class brainstormed each persons idea. All ideas were to be illustrated on two large sheets. The first of everything you thought of and the second of the direction you were going in. They were to be made up of a mixture of found images and sketches. For me the first page was much easier to complete.
The idea I eventually decided to go with was a crucifix with a dagger instead of a cross. I do feel this is perhaps a bit off topic. I wouldn't really give this piece the title of 'The Gods and Their Machines'. To begin with I made a wire prototype of my idea. It was quite rough but I felt was a good point to work from. I used twisted wire as it was stronger and allowed me to work to a larger scale.

Prototype

I decided to also make a very small clay prototype of my piece to see that it worked visually. It was too small to go into any great detail, which was a good thing as I would have spent too much time on it otherwise. Jesus left hand should be lower and His feet could be more centered. The problem is the longer I look at it the more mistakes I see.
I intended that the prototype would go through each process a step before the complete work. This plan fell down quite quickly when I realized the pressure to get everything done on time. There was a second bisque firing to go in before the first was finished so in it went.

Hand build cross and two discarded crosses.

Starting the complete piece I made a few daggers trying to get one I was happy with. I made one by hand and wasn't really happy with it. I decided to keep it but try to make a better one to use.
One of the tutors suggested that I should try to make the dagger, without touching it, by cutting it from a slab and beating it into shape with small wooden planks. This was to give it more of a forged look. I wasn't used to working like this and it was surprisingly hard to keep myself from smoothing areas with my fingers.
It took a number of tries to make a cross I was happy with. The tutor had made an example which I decided to discard as well as my first attempt using this method. (The cross on the left in the photo is the tutor's example.)