Part 3 Molding and Casting Project 2 Casting the internal space of a vessel Stage 3 Recording outcomes

I approached this project with quite a bit of trepidation.  I looked into the health and safety of the materials that could be used and after a great deal of thought I decided to use plaster of paris.

I decided first to lay a freezer bag that I had put kitchen utensils in and lay it into a plastic food container.  I then poured the plaster over this hoping to get some good casts of the utensils within the shape of the container.  This was not very successful although the surface is quite interesting.

I then poured plaster into freezer bags and tied them with different thicknesses of thread in a variety of ways.  Very unsuccessful.  I have ended up with clumps of plaster that have some lines in from where the thread was.  I am actually not sure what I was expecting but I am disappointed with the outcome.  I had placed the bags onto objects - dried orange slices and plastic vessels but nothing significant came from this.  

I did found it a difficult project and although I do understand that it can be good to go out of one's comfort zone so that development can occur I did not feel at all comfortable working with the plaster and do not think that I would be able to develop further with it.  I do not like the feel of the pieces as they are very cold in comparison to the air dry clay I was using in the first project and I do not like the fact that I cannot control the plaster as I could to a certain degree with for example the clay.  I know I am a person that has to have some control over what I am working with although I understand it is the happy accidents that can give most excitement to a piece but feel that I can still achieve this.  Funnily I feel more relaxed and able to play about with materials when I have a certain amount of control and perhaps this is why I did not like working with the plaster.