“Jane Eyre” in 18 Blocks of Resin

Do you remember my task of condensing “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte into 18 sentences? Well, I finally made them into a beautiful medley of resin blocks! (Albeit a full 4 weeks ago, but better late than never!) Enjoy…

“Gateshead Hall; left in the Red Room,
‘Unjust, unjust!’ cried my reason
My head still ached”

“The looking glass: strange little figure there gazing at me
Glittering eyes of fear,
Tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp”

“My first day at Lowood
Dreary silence, a large and irregular building
Hour and a half of prayers and bible study”

“The hardships of Lowood, lessened
Injustice never crushes me, live in calm, looking to the end
‘Resurgam’”

“A situation can be offered, one pupil
A little girl under ten years of age
Thornfield, Millcote –shire”

“‘You’re noan so far fro’ Thornfield now’
Great houses and fine grounds”

Merry days were these at Thornfield Hall
A splendid midsummer shone over England.
A subtle well-known scent – that of a cigar

“I summon you as my wife
Sir, I will marry you
The great horse chesnut
Had been struck by lightening”

“Dark oblong glass: the foul German spectre – the vampire
Removed my veil from its gaunt head
Rent it in two parts”

“A robed and veiled figure
Satin and lace, roses in her hair, a priceless veil
The marriage cannot go on – a wife now living”

“Bertha Mason
Is a woman tall and large
Inflation of the lineaments, a savage face”

“What am I to do?
‘Leave Thornfield at once’
Filling trunks, emptying drawers, the moth roamed away”

“‘I found her at the door’
‘It is very well we took her in’
Did you ever go a-begging afore you came here?”

“Marsh end Moor House
I was christened St. John Eyre
His sisters are called Diana and Mary Rivers
We are cousins, yes.”

“When I go to India, will I leave you?
And will you marry me?
No St. John, I will not marry you”

“Mysterious summons
Whispering on the wind
Madness has seized me?”

“I was entwined and gathered
‘You are come back to me then?’”

“Reader, I married him”

Studio Space Love

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and on the 4^th May this was one of those times! Because the building of the 3^rd year show was due to begin on the 8^th, we had to shift out of our studio spaces and move our work up stairs to the backroom in the second year design studio. I have to admit, I was really not happy about this!

I have become slightly too attached to my studio space over this term, as it has been my little place of escape during more testing times – to an extent that it has been said that I have “moved in” to the studio!

Anyway, there good memories of this space, such as making holes in the wall for a huge circle of thread, lying on the floor to take a break and utilising the walls for larger scale drawings!

So here is a look at where I have been working over the past 8 months:

Desk space – head space – wall space

Some resin blocks on an altered book

The other walls of the space – note the massive thread circle on the far right! (And my breakfast in the corner…)

My studio space – condensed into a box and a pile of paper!

It wasn’t all bad though…

…because I set up my drawing board on my desk back at my Cardiff-Home for a makeshift studio space! Note the pile of books under the desk, the Brownie Box camera on top of the printer…and the bottle of gin in the top left-hand corner of the desk!

I’m looking forward to finding my new studio space in 3rd year!

Resin: One More Time With Feeling

As can probably be seen by the heading of this post, these are some of the last resin samples I did before the making of the final ones! I was using this as a chance to try and create thinner blocks and to have to words facing out through the clear side. By the way, “One More Time with Feeling” is an amazing song by Regina Spektor!

Here are some close ups of the resin blocks I feel turned out best:

“Sky blue robin’s eggs”

“The petals continued to fall.
Jasmine, pink, and rose”

“It was just a dream.
When we sleep
We see what’s really there”

Key in Resin

I really enjoyed making these final resin samples; it gave me a chance to try putting other materials into the resin such as the key, combinations of fabric and paper and paper with prints on them.

I also found a way of making the resin blocks thinner, by controlling the flow and pour of the resin from the measuring cup. In future, however, I think I may invest in some of those little medicine cups to decant the resin into, before pouring it into the moulds. (Should have, could have, would have…)

One thing I did notice on doing this, is that the key was rather too heavy for the resin and although it did not sink right through to the bottom. I was also thinking of putting a penny into the resin, but after the key sank so far through I decided not to!

Overall, a very useful exercise with some interesting samples and end results.

Jane Eyre in 18 Sentences

For my final piece this term, I have chosen to try and represent the book Jane Eyre through seemly random, but apt, sentences from the book suspended in clear cast resin blocks.

The following 18 sentences are copied from the fragments of text that I have taken from the book; the rest of the book pages will be used to cover the shadow box which I will displaying the blocks in.

“Gateshead Hall; left in the Red Room,

‘Unjust, unjust!’ cried my reason

My head still ached

 ~

The looking glass: strange little figure there gazing at me

Glittering eyes of fear,

Tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp

 ~

My first day at Lowood

Dreary silence, a large and irregular building

Hour and a half of prayers and bible study

 ~

But the privations, or rather the hardships of Lowood, lessened

Injustice never crushes me, live in calm, looking to the end

‘Resurgam’

~

A situation can be offered, one pupil

A little girl under ten years of age

Thornfield, Millcote –shire

 

‘You’re noan so far fro’ Thornfield now’

Great houses and fine grounds

~

Merry days were these at Thornfield Hall

A splendid midsummer shone over England.

A subtle well-known scent – that of a cigar

~

I summon you as my wife

Sir, I will marry you

Alas! Never had I loved him so well

~

Dark oblong glass: the foul German spectre – the vampire

Removed my veil from its gaunt head

Rent it in two parts

~

A robed and veiled figure

Satin and lace, roses in her hair, a priceless veil

The marriage cannot go on – a wife now living

~

Bertha Mason

A woman tall and large

Inflation of the lineaments, a savage face

~

What am I to do?

‘Leave Thornfield at once’

Filling trunks, emptying drawers, the moth roamed away

 

‘I found her at the door’

‘It is very well we took her in’

Did you ever go a-begging afore you came here?

 ~

Marsh end Moor House

I was christened St. John Eyre

His sisters are called Diana and Mary Rivers

We are cousins, yes.

~

When I go to India, will I leave you?

And will you marry me?

No St. John, I will not marry you.

~

Mysterious summons

Whispering on the wind

Madness has seized me?

 

I was entwined and gathered

‘You are come back to me then?’

~

Reader, I married him.

18 Blocks of Resin

So, this is the final stage: 18 Blocks of Resin. I have been building up to this for the past couple of posts, starting with ice and wax. I am planning on doing my final piece in resin, with this idea of creating something that you want to hold in your hand and protect; but at the same time, the blocks are going to be viewed from behind glass so they will be untouchable, like curios in a cabinet.

In total, there are 18 blocks; there are 4 sets of three blocks making up 4 individual ‘stories’ and 6 individual blocks with a story in each of them. You will see what I mean from the photographs. (NB: some of the blocks are quite difficult to read; this is from an unintended wood grain effect from the mould. It’s a long story!)

"The hardest part is breaking the glass.
In my mind's eye, I am running. I just kept running and running.
You tell them I'm coming."

"During the course of tea
he'd sob himself to sleep
He had seen enough"

"'I came to say good-bye'
He wanted to scream until his throat bled.
After that, all you feel is peace."

"She speaks in the third person so she can forget that she's me...
a freak of nature
her signiture was delicate and spiderlike."

"I'd had emotion. I do not consider this a failure. but I muse be so careful. 'Be careful what you wish for'"
"He makes colours, violet fireweed exploding, madly, truly, deeply"
"She is alone. You might miss her showing any kind of emotion"

"Good fortune taught me to stop the thunder. I inherited it from my mother."
"I tried to save her verbal bouquet borrowed affection"
"If love is a quantity, why didn't you hear my heart break"

It was a fantastic experience to start working with a new material such as resin; I am still in the learning process of using it, however I am becoming more and more accustomed to it. I still, however, need to find a way of polishing up the resin and sanding down some of the rough edges; then again if it’s in a box and no-one can see/feel it, does that really matter? I suppose that I’ll know…

18 Blocks of Resin

9 Blocks of Wax

The next stage, before making the resin blocks, was to find another way of presenting them; this time, I chose wax. Once again, I used gold leaf and added bits of thread in some places to link the wax blocks together.

These are the first 2 wax blocks that I made. Instead of putting the paper and gold leaf in first, I put the wax into the mould, then pushed paper through using a cocktail stick. The pieces of paper used in these two blocks are sheet music.

This is the next wax block I made, this time putting the paper and gold leaf into the mould before pouring wax into the mould. There is also a layer of sheet music deep inside the wax, that can just be seen at the top. The effect is almost completely different.

"Volume II
Oh, she was a lovely woman
she had to be put in a mental home.
shaking like an aspen leaf.
losing your head"

"Tales of knightly chivalry
Lancelot gladly gives
and locks the door firmly behind himself.
leaning forward to kiss my forehead with lips dry as wood, and lily white hands"

I had not expected some of the results that arose from doing this; in the blocks which are joined by thread, I have used layers of dress pattern papers to support the words and gold leaf. In some places, I had to add extra wax onto the front of the blocks to stop the sentences from falling off!

I am however, happy with how these turned out. I could have done so many more, but had to limit the amount of time I spent doing the wax so I could go onto making the resin.

The next step: 18 blocks of resin…

 

3 Blocks of Ice

For the making connections module this term, I have been thinking about creating narratives and stories in different ways (see the concept here) and ways of making links between stories that, previously, could not have been linked.

Having thought about this long and hard, having gone through making maquettes using books and paper, and creating large webs out of stitch, I finally came to the idea of setting words and sentences into resin, to create a set of blocks that have to be read and followed.

To start this process rolling, I made 3 moulds from rubber, which the resin could then be poured into. I wanted to try other materials first, to see how this could work and my first material was water; ice.

The first photograph of the ice blocks, photographed on a plain white background. Note the gold leaf, and the foggy texture of the ice.

I next photographed the ice blocks on a piece of manuscript/sheet music paper. The ice was beginning to melt at this point, as it was being handled constantly and photographed under bright lights. The foggy texture has now gone from the edges of the ice.

The final photograph: ice on the a piece of found paper. Although the ice had not completely melted by this point, I was beginning to become concerned that at any moment it could turn back into a puddle of water!

"Let's start over"

"In my mind's eye, I am running"

"I do not consider this a failure"

I have to say, creating this was actually quite nerve-wracking; there were points when I thought the ice would just melt completely. It was, however, fantastic creating what could be considered a temporary piece of work; it made me think about documenting it more, and how I could represent the ice blocks.

Eventually, when the ice did melt, I did not keep the gold leaf as it was ruined by this point, but I did keep the words and dry them on the radiator!

Coming next: 9 blocks of Wax