Written Statement - Overview

...a written statement that reflects your accomplishments over the semester. This should take into consideration the expectations that you outlined at the beginning.

I felt that overall, I learnt alot in terms of technical skill of using equipment, which was what I was hoping to do at the beginning of the semester. Being exposed to a Fine Arts class has also broadened my concepts and expectations of what can be considered art. It has also taught me not to overcomplicate, or to at least try my best to simplify my ideas. Through the assignments, I have also found out what are the things I am naturally drawn towards, and it has helped me discover who I am, in a sense. Even though very often the final products do not turn out as I had envisioned them, I've learnt to compromise while still keeping the aesthetic appeal.

Also, because of this documentation process, I have picked up the habit of having my camera with me most of the time, in order to capture the process, as I have found that the pictures are the best way for me to remind myself of what my thought process was at the time.

Re-reading what I had written at the beginning of the semester, I have certainly come far from having little or no knowledge about the equipment and the materials.
my only regret is that several of my works are still unfinished in my eyes, and if only the workshop was open over the break, I would be able to refine the pieces just a little more for my own satisfaction. Perhaps when school reopens I might be able to do it in the first week... who knows.

It was an eventful class and I am grateful and glad that I had the opportunity to be in this class. I hope that I will have time to continue this practice to keep my memory and knowledge fresh. Cheers to a good semester's work!

Plaster Cast - Process

Iron Pour @ Tellehasse

Will update this section when I have optimized the pictures for internet posting. So many to go through... but worth it.

Sand Cast - Classmates

In the meantime, as I was only just starting with the form for the sand cast, my fellow classmates had already created their items from very interesting selection of choices... I wish I had been as smart as them.

Sand Cast - Creating the mold itself

sprinkle talcum powder over the item so that it will ease the removal of the item from the sand cast.

Kim making the sand for the mold... a mixture of sand and silicon that will create heat when hardening. it's hard to see but she is wearing rubber gloves and a gas mask. Health first!


After pouring in the sand, use something flat (like a brick?) to flatten the top so that it is flat on its back when the metal is being poured in.

Came back later that night to remove the item from the mold...

due to the many layers of cardboard (to create the thickness for pouring the iron), I had a little bit of difficulty peeling it out...


as you can see some of the top bits got stuck in the sand, but I managed to pull it out eventually.


I have a feeling I did not compress the sand enough in the beginning when I was pouring the sand, resulting in the loss of details being written into the sand. the rough grainy texture also contributed to this loss.... It was here that I realised I was being overly ambitious and that sculpting something this detailed is not too suitable for this project. Should have done something simpler. I really need to learn to simplify my ideas... it's a bad habit, I think, to over-complicate things.

Sand Cast - Creating the item to be casted

So here goes the beginnings of the coral-woman's head.. using plasticine instead of sculpey. Again, on hindsight, perhaps I could have used sculpey to do the form, and after ripping it out, go back to work on repairing it so that I could bake it? I wonder if the heat from the sand when it is hardening will bake the super sculpey in the process, but I didn't want to risk not being able to pull out the object as it would mean that I had to create another sand mold.


I did not like how the face was turning out, and after re-working it at least 3 times (meaning ripping off the whole face to start again, which was a rather painful process), I finally was sort-of satisfied with the shape on the 4th attempt.. which meant I could start adding all the extra details and parts, which was much more fun to work with.

Casting - Ideas

For the Sand mold, since it was going to be iron and flat on one side, I wanted to create something that seemed to be emerging from the surface of whatever the sculpture was on. This led me to think of a creature peeping out from the surface of the water. The other idea was to make something floating on the top of the water, but my impression was that it would be harder to cast... On hindsight, I should have used a ready-made object but it was an interesting learning process nonetheless.


the water-creature evolved into a woman with coral parts..I was looking at Nervous System and seeing how they are inspired by organic geometrical patterns, I was hoping to incorporate that inspiration into my work as well, especially for the plaster cast.


the repetitive pattern made sense to attempt to recreate with the plaster cast, but at this stage I was still not very sure how I wanted it to look like.