The front of my armor representing the face of a broken clock

For our final project, Armor against a social injustice, we had to create a suit of armor. My social issue is impatience, especially for school and grades. I wanted this piece to represent my authority and power, looking like a wave of tranquility running through my mind and to the rest of me to slow and calm me down from everything around me. My top piece, made from broken CD’s, is supposed to represent the face of a broken clock to show how I can slow down time and how my attempts to slow down will reflect my community and will also help them to be more careful with their time. The pieces I did with clay were my three flowers which is what I give to the community to give them the ability to slow down and zone in. When I hand out the flowers, and they smell them, they become calm and focused. The piece I used the rigid wrap for is the hand of a clock which holds my flowers, showing my control over time.

For our third project, Geometric Plaster to Organic Plaster, we made a plaster cube and transformed it into an abstract, organic sculpture. We first got into groups of three and started to make the molds for out plaster block. We then helped one another to mix and pour our plaster into the molds we had made. To carve out plaster, we went outside and chose the utensils we wanted for our block. Once I had the shape down how I wanted, I used a file to smooth out all the edges.  When I was done filing the piece, it still wasn’t as smooths as I had hoped for, so I started to sand the piece down with sandpaper. This was really when my sculpture started to show its dimensions and organicity. The last process of my sculpture was to give it a milk bath in skim milk. I put the piece in a plastic bucket, poured the skim milk in until the piece was submerged and let it sit for a couple of hours. I would do another project like this because the outcome is so exciting to see and keeps me invested in the project throughout the whole process. I have never done any sculpting like this before, so it was nice to learn.

For our second project Wire to Line, we had to create an insect out of wire. My insect was a cross between a rhino beetle, a scorpion, and a spider. I wanted to make this project as simple and sturdy as possible, so the first thing I did was use the thickest of my wire to get the shape of my insect. I sketched out how big I wanted it to be on a sheet of packaging paper, and I cut the wire and fitted it to those sizes. I know on the last project with the paper I had a big problem with my sculptures standing up on their own, so I wanted to make sure this time my sculpture held up well. To make the structure look leaner and sturdier, I wrapped a thin wire around all the base. Once I had the shape of the body of the insect done, I went and made all the legs, the head, the wings, and the tail. I connected all of these by wrapping the thinnest of my wire to the body repeatedly.

I loved working on this project because of how the wire shapes and your hands are the best tools you could use. I think if I could go back, I would have added a little more detail. I did a decent job on making my piece hold together, but I could have gone back and made it a little more solid and a little less like the skeleton of what the insect is.