A frantically busy day today. This morning's Fourth Year class went OK, but was completely chaotic, with twigs and brown paper bags and ink and paint all over the place. It took me the whole of the first lesson to set things up, then the class happened, and then I spent the whole of the third lesson clearing everything up! Luckily the room wasn't needed before or after the session … I think the students had fun, though.
After a rejuvenating coffee I spent some more time with my increasingly-beloved modrock moulds, cleaning off the vaseline with lighter fluid. Interesting fumes! More casting, more washing – will it ever end? None of the casts are dry enough yet to file down or sand, and I wonder whether they ever will be if I will insist on fussing over them like the proprietor of a dog grooming establishment.
Later on I put soft-ground onto seven plates in order to carry out an idea for a series of etchings, using spirals of candle wick measured to the length of various parts of my body. I explained this to a few of the students, who looked slightly worried. I will have to finish this after the weekend, but so far I'm quite excited about how the plates might look.
