Paper: Permanence vs ephemerality

It has gone a bit quiet on this project mainly because I am showing a new collaborative film in Folkestone this week as part of SALT 2016. But once the week is over I will be working on a piece that incorporates something of what I’ve learned about using resin and that tries to use it in a way that makes sense…

Needless to say my ideas have changed a little since I started the project.

I had another morning at Meltdowns Foundry on Tuesday, this time applying resin with a brush. I didn’t put quite enough catalyst into the mixture which meant that the afternoon was spent staring at the work and trying to speed up the process with a heat gun! In the end I left it at the Foundry overnight.

The paper column looks like glass and although still pliable when I picked it up it is getting harder and will probably end up quite brittle.  I’ll monitor that over the next few days or weeks.

I am beginning to see possibilities for future work. If I carry on with the polyurethane resin I think working at the foundry by booking the space would make sense because they are fully kitted out, not least regarding proper ventilation systems.

Otherwise I might try the more expensive but less toxic alternatives.

Today I knocked the resin out of the moulds and realised how much less work it is if you get the mould right in the first place: I would have needed even more shellack… I think I’ll try melamine moulds for the next set. Also saw the effect of too much heat – hard to avoid in this weather.

Lynsey had to do lots of sanding outdoors in the full sun for me to get the MDF off as the sander at the foundry was too difficult for me to hold with my RA-affected hands. So I did some hand sanding and will be getting an electric sander I can use to finish off.

Now I have an idea of what the different papers/treatments look like, the next step is to make some maquettes of pieces that could be actual works!

Somewhere in my last post I mentioned a small MDF mould, actually it was 10 MDF moulds that were supposed to be cubes but weren’t. I could have kicked myself but I’d already ordered the squares from a local timber yard and was so excited to have found somewhere that could cut what I needed at short notice that I forgot to add the width of the MDF to the piece for the base!! Luckily it doesn’t matter too much.

Sarah, Steve and Lynsey at Meltdowns were great. From today’s notes I know which masks to use and which gloves, what to use to clean up resin (without catalyst in it), what utensils to use, how to measure the quantities required, what to watch out for – heat, bubbles … how shiny the shellack has to be. Patience is a key ingredient and “it’s all in the preparation” is a much used but all important mantra.

I got as far as pouring all the resin into the moulds, so it will cure fully overnight and then tomorrow I can see what has happened to the paper and work on the finishing.

I’ve managed to set aside two days in July to start a few experiments with paper and resin so just need to get that small MDF mould made in the next week or so.