Inflatable Sculpture

The Finished piece (Easter Island Head)

Ironing the pieces together

I took part in a project which fourth year sculpture students were involved in which was called inflatable sculpture.
I really had no idea about this technique until the day of the workshop and I also must admit to seeing it outside in the front gardens at the start of the year .
The construction of these sculptures is pretty spectacular.
The material used is like an industrial plastic mainly used for rubble collection. The plastic is cut to scaler and shape after it has been designed , the pieces are then ironed together amongst a sheet of tinfoil so as not to melt them.
The whole procedure is very quick and has a profound effect in large scale which it is often used for.
I enjoyed the experience thoroughly and came away without and burns ....success!!!!

Exploring Felting

Exposing the inside space and it's contents

Cutting into the centre of the ball

Sampling the felting technique with different colored morino wool

Larger scale felted piece around plastic bag which was filled with scrap pieces of knit room then cut into

Small felted balls with trapped threads

My most recent explorations have been in the area of felting. One of my tutors Liz kindly took some of her time out to show me how to use this technique and relate it to my project.
I absolutely loved this technique and made many little pieces.
Using a tennis ball and a golf ball as a structure i wrapped the morino wool around them and trapped different fibres and wools inside which I then cut into to reveal the inside space

Kiki Smith

Kiki Smith is an artist and sculptor from New Jersey. I have included her in my blog for no other reason than I really liked her work after taking a book from the library. She is said to be a feminist artist which is quite obvious when you look at her works. Smith has a whole collection based on the battery of women and the way in which male artists portray the female form.
Although not massively interested in print I really enjoyed looking at them and try to work out the symbolism they may or may not have contained!

Rowan Mersch

Rowan Mersh is a textile based sculptor whom I came across online whilst researching sculpture and fashion. The artist explores form and fuses concepts with techniques to create sculptorally formed fashion pieces. I really respect the work as the artist uses many simple materials to create spectacular pieces from paper and cardboard and also wire and materials.
I am planning on constructing some human sized cocoon structures over the christmas break which will inform my investigation even further and also allow me to up my scale.
My main area of interest is fashion so working with the body is very important.

Zoe Bradley Fashion and Sculpture

Zoe Bradley is an Artist and sculptor who works mainly in the Fashion Industry.

She presents her sculptures in many up-market stores like Brown Thomas and Selfridges.

I really like her work as she is interested in shape and form and has also found ways of cocooning the body in sculptural structures.

Eva Hesse

Eva Hesse is a really great artist to look at when considering use of materials and certain techniques used. I came across her during a Friday morning tutorial and have found her work very interesting and insightful to my project as she uses a lot of threads and rope which I enjoy working with and have incorporated into my work.


I like the sense of fragility in this piece and also the use of organic colouring and unbleached materials.

This is a very interesting piece as it links quite closely to the fact that I am looking at the spaces that inhabit certain object and space itself. The nets are fragile again and I like the way the nets are containing something like they are needed. The weight in the nets gives an interesting visual pull.

Wax and photopaper cocoon

This is what I was working on yesterday and also today. It is another 3D cocoon made from photopaper, wax paper wrapped around a wire structure which is then covered in different coloured wax!
I have it hanging from my studio space but I'm not sure if this is a permanent space for it.
This is one of my first larger scale 3D pieces of work as I was encouraged by my tutors to up the scale both 2D and also 3D. I still havn't really been working in larger scale with my 2D work as I'm used to working in little notebooks and having everything quite compacted.
Here are some photographs from today.