In this workshop we were put in partners and we had to draw an object that our partner was describing to us, however, they could not see the object, only touch it. The object I had to draw was a dog toy. We then made a three-dimensional representation of our drawing using only cardboard and gummed paper.

A couple of weeks later we had an introduction to the 3D workshop, during which we produced more work under the title ‘Gained in Translation’. We made a tile out of clay and then cut into it using clay tools. I used a clay tool to cut into my tile in the shape of my carboard object, then I used a very small woven rope to imprint the rope texture into this shape. This was supposed to represent the ‘rope’ in my cardboard model. I used objects such as pen lids, and a purse with beads stuck onto it to make a lot of the other textures that surrounded the initial shape. I found it quite challenging to work out what the piece would look like in the end; because we were going to be using the tile as a mould to pour plaster into.

Above is my tile with and without plaster in it. To make the plater you fill a rubber bowl less than half full with water and then you scoop the plaster powder into it until there is a peak of powder above the water. you then mix the plaster with your hands, stopping when the plaster thickens and feels slightly warmer. you them pour it into the mould and agitate it slightly to make any air bubbles rise to the top. You then leave the plaster in the mould until it hardens and cools.

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I really love this plaster cast. the detail of the texture of the rope on the raised shape is so beautiful and when I was drawing this in my sketchbook I was struck by how much the piece looks like a landscape from a fictional world.

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I think that the raised shape in the middle of my piece could be hills and repeating patterns such as in the top left could be jagged rocks, and the chevron patterns could symbolise water.

I also made a representation of my cardboard model out of wood. I found a cuboid shape and rounded the edges of it using the band saw. I then used the belt sander to smooth the edges and made the piece more comfortable to hold. I also rounded off the longer edges on the wood to make a more cylindrical shape. I then cut into the middle of the wood with the band saw and filled this using varying sizes of file. I finally used sandpaper on it to remove any final harsh edges.

The results from this project were very positive, in my opinion; I love the way that this looks and I managed to achieve a very smooth, soft surface to hold as well. I think that my cardboard, plaster and wood pieces are a good series of works.