This semester I chose to do the Art Casting and Construction as one of my electives. In this elective we had to create a Amulet/Talisman to protect us from something. I learnt a lot during this elective, including how to use different mediums like soap and clay, pinkie sill casting, epoxy and in particular for my amulet, using gold and silver leaf.
ORGANISED- MEETING THE TARGETS
I had certain expectations for myself when creating my artwork. I wanted to learn how to use different medium and different techniques when using clay and soap. The outline of this project was again to crate an amulet but at first I wasn’t sure what an amulet was. After doing so research, I drew inspiration from ancient Egypt amulets and the wore down gold look that they had. At first I wasn’t sure how I was going to achieve this, but after some digging around in the art supply closet, I came across the gold, sliver, and bronze leaf.
INQUIZITIVE- HOW DID I DEVELOP MY DESIGN?
At the start of this project, I was struggling to find a design that I liked. I did many different drawings to try and find the best fit, and in the end I ending up going with a sun. I wanted this sun to protect me from darkness and light my way in the future. First of all I was struggling to get my sun the way I wanted and when I did get it the way I wanted, I thought it was a bit plain. So, I added so miner detail, as seen below, and I think it turned out really nice.
I wanted to go for a beaten metal look and look like it was shining whenever you looked at it. I wanted to achieve this using gold, bronze and silver leaf. I did many tests on my first amulet and found the certain colour combos and techniques that I really liked AS SEEN BELOW:
PROBLEM SOLVING
One of the biggest problems was trying to find what colour paint I should put under my metal leaf. I found that black was too powerful and made the leaf go muddy, and that without any paint it didn’t make the metal leaf pop as I would’ve liked it too. So I came to the conclusion that gold paint would look the best as it covers the cracks under the gold leaf and makes the sliver leaf pop nicely. Another problem I encounter was when I was getting my original amulet out of my mould. When getting it out, my amulet fell apart. It wasn’t a massive problem in the long run but if I needed to recast my mould for any reason, I wouldn’t have been able too. But overall my project ran smoothly and I was happy with how it turned out.
CREATIVE – FINAL PRODUCT
After all the testing and trials and errors, I completed my amulet. I am very happy with the end product but if I was to do this again, there would be very minimal change. I am happy with the development of my design and how I progress during this task, and most off I am happy that I took my time and didn’t rush.
Great post, Scarlett! I enjoyed reading about the process you went through, to a great final design!