Inspiration board: A Chain Link

The link between England and Finland. That's the thing. How I love the sound of the rolling chain and sand between tires and tarmac. The wind blowing on my face, the smell of the sea. Breath. Alone in the nature. That's my home here, and the feelings are just same when cycling in Finland. I brought my bike here to explore, to feel safe, to bring something personal with me. I found Dartmoor on my bike, and new friends. I had a race with homesickness - I won.

Tried to find good pictures of an old rough chain. Something rough enough to look good when made of clay. The pictures above are of my bike chain - pictures below are from the Internet wonderland.

How to make a plaster mold of a hand

I've been struggling with the all 'my world' thing. Too much thinking and no doing. I got trapped with my thoughts, tried to develop my ideas but didn't seem to find anything touchable in them. I'm too limited with my ideas as I've been doing photographing and only photographing art recently. Well, last 4 years. Just a little bit painting and that's it.

So.

Something needed to be done.


I transformed me ideas to a sentence. It reminds me of a very important and close person in my life. It is something I need to remember. I wrote it on a piece of paper and closed the paper in my fist.

The things you need to make a plaster mold:

• water
• 2 bowls or buckets
• a whisk
• a bag of alginate
• pottery plaster

Mix alginate and water in a bowl following the instructions on the bag.

Place your had into the bowl. Make sure the hand doesn't touch the bowl and move your hand gently - air bubbles in your fist and around it will come out.

Wait until the mass feels rubbery and tight and pull your hand out carefully. The mass may rip a little bit.

 Mix pottery plaster and water and pour it into the mold. Shake the bowl to ensure it is everywhere in the mold and all air bubbles come out. Wait until it is hard.

Take the mass out of the bowl and rip it open carefully.

 You have a fully detailed copy of your hand. There is a piece of paper hided in the plaster in the hand on the left.

Inspiration board: Ceramic spheres

I lost the web page I found these amazing ceramic spheres - it said they are "matt smoked" - what does it mean? I love the natural gray shades on them.

 I'd love to roll this one on my hands. The texture looks amazing.

 

...so soft and neat...

  

How to make a willow sphere

Use fresh willow if possible as it is easy to bend and work with. Dry and old willow snaps easily and makes working harder. If you can't get fresh willow to work with, try to soak the willow you are using very well beforehand. If you don't finish your work of art at once, keep it moist until you continue by wrapping it in a wet terry towel and putting it in a plastic bag.

In these step-by-step pictures we are working with very dry willow and therefore are we making very big spheres - linking 3-4 willows together.

Before you start making the sphere, have a play with willow to see how much you can bend it until it snaps.


Find all the equipments you need:

• about 10cm pieces of wire
• about 5cm pieces of masking tape on the edge of your working table
• tongs
• shears

Cut away the most thick and thin parts of your willow to make sure it bends equally thoroughly.

STEP 1

STEP 2

 STEP 3

STEP 4

STEP 5