Venation Ring

The images below show a ring with a venation pattern cast in gilding metal.

Bowes, K.,(2021). Wearing the ring.

Bowes, K., (2021). Venation ring.

The ring started off as a collaboration with a Graphic Design student, Courtney Shelly. The collaboration required transferring an image to wax to cast a ring. As a prototype for the collaboration, I tested the transfer technique with my own venation pattern from last year. I decided to cast and clean up the prototype ring so it became a piece for my body of work.

Epoxy and leaves

 

I took the risk of experimenting with my actual skeleton leaves for the platinum project. I tried giving the skeletons structure with epoxy. 

I knew the experiment wouldn't take long and if it didn't work out I could pay for the mesh to be anodized instead. Thus keeping to my original prototype. 

Bowes, K., (2021). Leaf skeletons in epoxy. 

Rose, N., (2021). Applying epoxy. 

Doubling-up mesh

 The doubled-up mesh made the tiny 'veins' look more realistic and less ridged but the edges are very messy. Weaving the silver 'veins' wasn't easy and the main stem snapped so more prototyping is needed.

Bowes, K., (2021). Imitation leaf skeleton

Metal Leaf skeletons

 After deciding to use the wire mesh I started playing with the mesh to see what interesting forms I could make. The forms reminded me of the natural skeleton leaves that I found.

Bowes, K., (2021). Aluminum mesh form.

Bowes, K., (2021). Leaf forms

New skeletonisation process

 My old process of making the skeleton leaves, by boiling them in washing powder, was quite toxic. I found a video of making the skeleton leaves by leaving them in a closed container covered in water. The process takes 2 weeks but the outcome is closer to how the leaves skeletonise naturally. 

I started this batch on the 25th of June.

Bowes, K., (2021). Skeleton leaves in water

Natural Leaf skeletons

After making my first batch of paper I wanted to collect more leaves to make leaf skeletons. When I went to collect more leaves I found that a lot of the leaves had naturally skeletonised after all the rain we had, at beginning of June. It was interesting to see how the leaves skeletonise from the centre compared to how when I boil the leaves they skeletonise from the edges.

Bowes, K., (2021). Natural leaf skeletons

Bowes, K., (2021). Natural skeletonisation process

Mass Designing

 Using my customized Art Flow brush I mass-produced designs by changing the settings and adding different elements. 

My handmade paper

I loved how the leaf skeletons knitted into the fibres of the paper so it became part of the paper. The paper also dried really thin which is why I also want to make white paper for creative booklets, with the paper being so thin the books won't get too thick.

Bowes, K .,(2021). Dried paper

Bowes, K., (2021). Leaf detail on paper.

Paper making

 On Friday I spent the afternoon making paper with Amy Pieterse from Fine Art and I really enjoyed it. We used denim jeans to make the pulp, which is why the paper came out blue which is stunning but not practical to paint on. This was a test as I want to make white cotton paper to use for my watercolour painting.

Here is a link to a compilation video of Amy teaching me the papermaking process: https://youtu.be/kNn7og5fnE8

Bowes,K.,(2021). Paper making 

Stylised wax impressions

 I tried using some cake decorating tools to do clay and wax impressions as well because the one looks like cells and the other looks like leaves with xylem. The leaves came out more stylised than I would have liked but I love the cells in the wax because the raised edges look like the walls of plant cells. This plant cell wall is what greatly differentiates plant and animal cells as animal cells do not have cell walls, only a membrane. With cells, it also doesn't matter if they are stylised or not as cells can't be seen with the naked eye so the impressions can't be compared.

Bowes, K., (2020). Leaf and cell clay and wax impressions.

Leaf wax impressions

I made new ceramic pieces that had plant impressions. This time I made sure the clay was not forgotten about because when the clay is still wet wax can be poured over it to transfer the details from the clay to wax. The moisture in the wet clay acts as a release for the wax so it can be removed from the clay easily. I had a gem squash plant growing in the garden and the veins are raised which was perfect to create impressions in the clay.

Bowes, K., (2020). gem squash leaf impressions in clay.

I had trouble removing the wax while it was hot, so I poured the wax and just left it to cool which unfortunately caused the wax to become thick. I am going to try use silicone to lift the hot wax so that the wax is thin. The thick and thin wax is ideal for different uses, thick wax is perfect for casting textured rings, but the thin wax is ideal for soldering onto other pieces.

Bowes, K., (2020). Wax impressions.

Transparent enamel

 After seeing my glazed ceramics I was inspired to work a bit more with my punches to create the feeling of different plants similarly to James' work with her roll milling.  I used these punched pieces to text the transparent enamel for the roll milled leaf texture. Transparent enamel takes longer to fire but there is a fine line between it going transparent and over firing. I was very excited to see that the enamel worked as I have only ever used transparent enamel on etched metal.

Bowes, K., (2020). Punched plant images.

Enamel colours: Top left to right- cactus green, cloisonne blue and unknown blue-green

Bottom left to right- 19A green and Atlantic blue

Bowes, K., (2020). Transparent enamel landscapes

Ceramic discs

During the lockdown, I did some work with ceramics. I made small clay discs that I pressed flowers, leaves and other found objects to create different textures. I had forgotten about them when we returned to classes so the clay dried. I was reminded of them when I was working with my punches as the impressions made by the punches were very similar to those made in the clay.

Seeing as the clay was completely dry, I decided to test the underglazes we have in the department to try to enhance the impressions of the plants and textures as some of them were not very visible due to the dark colouration of the dried clay.

Bowes, K., (2020). Ceramic textured discs.

Bowes, K., (2020). Ceramic plant impressions. 

Bowes, K., (2020). Glazed ceramic discs.

Cast leaf skeletons

  The leaf skeleton cast was somewhat successful as the whole leaves did cast but the details of the veins did not completely translate into the metal. I think I pressed the skeleton a bit too deep into the wax. This could have happened when I moulded the wax into a more leaf shape instead of it casting flat.

Bowes, K., (2020). leaf casting 1

Bowes, K., (2020). Leaf casting 2

Casting a leaf skeleton

Using the method I used for casting my butterfly wings I wanted to try cast a leaf skeleton. The casting required a vertical sprue with a horizontal sprue to ensure the leaf casts due to how thin the wax and leaf are.

Bowes, K., (2020). Leaf Skeleton and wax

Bowes, K., (2020). Casting preparation

Transparent enamel leaf skeleton

Inspired by James’ work I decided to try roll milling my skeleton leaf onto some copper. The detail transferred but not as well as I thought it would. I cut the test into pieces then tested transparent enamel. I expected the enamel to become transparent but most detail would be lost. The cloisonné blue did exactly as expected but the cactus green colour surprisingly managed to capture all the fine details. I think that is a result of the green being darker.

I feel this method captures the texture of the leaf better than the opaque enamel leaf stencil. The transparent enamel makes it look as if it is a leaf trapped in a glass layer. Whereas the opaque enamel looks more like an illustration of the leaf.

Bowes, K., (2020) Skeleton leaf roll milled.

Bowes, K., (2020). Transparent cloisonne blue enamel

Bowes, K., (2020). Cactus green transparent enamel

Sedum Adolphii castings

I cast juvenile Sedum Adolphii succulents as a test to be used possibly as studs for my sister's wedding next year. My sister was thinking about wearing succulent studs to match her bouquet as she wanted to use succulents instead of flowers for her wedding due to my pollen allergy. The plan changed as she found artificial flowers that match her colour scheme. I can still use the silver succulents so I have hung onto them.

Bowes, K., (2020). Succulent casting for studs.

 

Bowes, K., (2020). Sedum Adolphii

Organic Magnification

As I have been finishing off my semester report I noticed something about all my unfinished pieces. I am looking at growth, mostly in plants, from three different magnifications: the plant as a whole, segments of the plant and the cellular structure. Growth happens at different levels, it starts with cells that together make up the tissue(leaves), those tissues create an organism (the plant). 

So far in my work, I have used different techniques to display each stage, I cast whole succulents, used leaf skeletons as enamel stencils and in my platinum piece pierced out patterns that resemble cells. I want to continue with enamelling, casting and piercing but I don't want to restrict each stage of magnification to a single technique.

I am not focusing on one particular plant as different plant work better for different processes, for example, succulent leaves can't be made into skeletons but they have a perfect thickness for casting but the flaming glorybower leaves are the only leaves I have found to work when making the skeleton leaves. 

Biological diagram of a leaf
https://o.quizlet.com/zIlVHfngIiKm0zPje6Lojw_b.jpg 

Cast Succulents

 My succulent, Aeonium Sedifolium, I bought during the lockdown grow enough for me to cut off sections for casting.

Bowes, K., (2020). Sterling silver cast succulents.

 I had an idea of making the succulents into rings, as seen in the image below, but the leaves are delicate as where they join the stem is narrow in comparison to the tip of the leaves thus making them brittle and easy to break off. I tumbled them for some time to help harden the silver but I am still wary about making them into rings.

Bowes. K., (2020). Succulent as a 'ring'.

Succulent

I thought this succulent, Aeonium Sedifolium, was so adorable and would make some lightweight cast elements. The leaves are so tiny but it doesn't grow very fast so if I use it for casting I would have to do it sparingly as I don't want to kill the plant.

Bowes, K., (2020). Aeonium Sedifolium.