Plaster Cast Relief Sculptures

Casting plaster is a fun way to learn about bas relief sculptures. For this project, I took my students on a little walk around our school campus to find leaves and flowers. 

Then we rolled out a slab of clay, preferably not terracotta, arranged some plants on top of it, and rollecd it again to press the plants into the clay. The ones with needles worked best: rosemary, cyprus, etc. Picking all the little plant parts can be hard, but it's best to start with the stem and then pleal it back gently.

I made shallow boxes of mat in standard frame sizes: 5"X7", 6"X8", 8"X10". The boxes only had to be about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch deep to allow for a 1/4" thick slab and plaster. Once I put the clay in the bottom of the box, I tapped up the corners. Students mixed plaster powder with water and once it was the consistency of pancake powder, they poured it into the box, on top of the clay. We pealed the box away from the clay/ plaster layers and then pealed the clay away from the plaster. The plaster is strong enough to rinse off some of the mis-color, and even some gentle rubbing with a paint brush under the stream of water.

For any Print or Braille words, it is important to write (carve or emboss) everything into the clay in reverse. The plaster will be a mirror image of the clay. So mind your P's and Q's. 

For students who wanted to add a little color, they could use water color pencils. Everyone was amazed at how clear and accurate the casting was. The details are wonderful and the finished product is one everyone "felt" great about.

 

Plaster Word Art

 Dick Blick offers a Topographical Typograhy lesson that I was happy to try out for our relief sculpture unit. My students who are Braille readers, don't spend much time thinking about how fonts each have their own vibe. But even blind kids can grasp the idea that text for a five year old birthday card, requires playful letters whereas, a wedding announcement might ask for elegant lettering. Now what that means can be different, but rounded letters are less serious than sharp edged letters. Calligraphic texts with the slanted letters and varied weight of line harkens to romance or tradition. So students began this assignment by picking a word and a style for their type.

My students wrote and  transfered their best idea to a piece of mat board using pencil, marker, or Wiki Sticks depending on their vision. Then they taped 1/2 strips of white posterboard on it's edge to follow their lines. The following day, a lot of the tape had curled up so I started hot gluing it for them the day they tacked it down with fewer pieces of tape. 

Then they took pieces of plaster cloth and dipped it in a bowl of water for just a second or two, smoothed out with a couple of fingers in the air to fill in some of the holes in the guaze-y fabric. Then draped it over the raised lines and smoothed it down. 

Some students stuck to an initial or two.

A couple Braille readers opted to make just one initial or a simple picture, since they don't read print at all. I was okay with that since a picture is worth a thousand words. Ultimately we were able to do 15 small projects (5" X 8" to 8" X 10" ) with a 5" wide X 3 yard strip  plaster fabric. Some students used watercolor pencils and some used spray paint to finish up the surface, but I liked the white, unfinished surface. It's a fun project that can be done somewhere between 15 minutes and 3 hours depending on how elaborate you want to get.

Foil Paper and Oil Pastel Project

The reviews are in: foil paper is really fun to use in collage. For this mixed media assignment, students drew an image of a landscape, still life or animal onto a piece of mat board. Then they colored the image by cutting and tearing pieces of foil paper to collage each area. They used the same tools that we used to emboss foil (for the previous assignment) to scratch texture and designs onto parts of their picture.

Finally, oil pastel was added to create contrast. The scratch lines would maintain the shine, or at times, some of the oil pastel was scraped back, pushing the color into the scratch marks. Students with low vision used magnification devices, and those who were etotally blind, used hot glue or Wiki Stix for tactile edges of shapes. The smooth and shiny surfaces added a "wow" factor to what could have a picture done in crayon or marker, and I think all of my students enjoyed the process.