Month: March 2020

This photographic technique have been used by Anna Atkins to record plants & flower as she was a botanist in the 1800s. And I thought I could record my plastic sculptures using cyanotype like Kasia Wozniak’s THIS IS PLASTIC series.

They didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to be. Crisp and sharp. Although the light source could’ve been better. The day I did these prints weren’t sunny.

This one in particular (above) I used my nail UV lamp to expose the paper. It is slightly sharper because the recycling logo is showing really clearly on the left. I was exposing the paper in sections because the UV lamp doesn’t cover the whole paper.

I knew the image above was going to turn out blurry because I accidentally moved the object while it was getting exposed. I left this to expose by the window sill and I left it there longer than normal because it was fairly cloudy that day.

This one turned out quite well. Not as crisp but you can see texture coming through the print. It has various opaqueness. This was exposed using my nail UV lamp suspended over the print to get more coverage. Rather than exposing it in sections. I also had a transparent glass on top of the plastic so that I know it won’t move while it is exposed. It’s harder to print my other sculptures as most of them can’t be flattened with the glass. Out of the 3 prints this one, I think turned out really well. Reminds me of water or smoke.

Overall, I really enjoyed the process although I definitely think I could do better. I may do it again but this time do the prints outside on a sunny day. That was the main problem I had when I did these prints.

While looking into Nadine Baldow and her other projects, I was inspired to create my own sculptures using plastic as my medium. I saw that she uses several techniques to mould plastic – heat being one of them. So I bought myself a heat gun to disfigure plastic bottles that I had at home. Experimenting with different density of plastics to see how they all mould differently and how quick it moulds when heat is introduced. I thought they turned out really well not disfigured enough like Baldow’s but its really interesting watching it ‘shrink’ and getting different textures from different types of plastic.

The first picture above is a lighter density of plastic. As expected this one didn’t need a lot of heat to take ‘shape’. I liked the bubbly texture that it made. I had to be careful as it burns fairly easily.

On the right, I layered on different types of plastics and melted them together. Creating more depth and various textures from different type of plastic. Some easily crumpled and some barely sculpted maybe due to the plastic being so thick. All are plastic found in the house mostly packaging. I also started to introduce coloured plastic as most of the plastic I was working with are clear. I noticed how some transparent plastic became opaque when heat is concentrated on it.

The Secret Life of Trees: How They LIve and Why They Matter by Colin Tudge (2006)

The book is split into 4 parts. Part 1 explains what is a tree and its structure. Part 2 tediously describes trees around the world and its classifications, which I found too long to read. Part 3 describes a detailed function on how a tree grows, photosynthesize, reproduction, nutrients it needs and so on. I found it really interesting. Finally, part 4 talks about the relationship we have with trees and why they matter to us humans.

I myself admire trees when I’m travelling around the world or just simply going for a walk in the park. I particularly like it when the sun light filters through the trees casting mystical shadows on the ground. I’m always in awe of the heights of some trees. Often wondering how many years would it have been to get to that height. Trees that are way older than me and believe that they have so much more knowledge than me.

I grew up in a culture where we believe that trees (believed to be centuries old), are housed with spirits that should not be disturbed