Thursday, October 21, 2010

3D Mosaics

A few weeks ago I ventured into trying my hand at 3D cement sculpture. My intent was to create sculptures as substrates for a mosaic. In the photo above are a couple of large mushrooms and a cat
I made as my first 3D attempts.

The cat measures 16" wide x 31" tall.
The armature for these is styrofoam (insulation from Home Depot. $19 for a huge sheet) cut and glued/taped into a rudimentary shape.
The next step is just like papier mache only using a slurry of cement (instead of flour) and water. Fiberglass mesh, cut into strips, is dredged through the slurry and wrapped around the styrofoam armature until a close rendition of the final shape is achieved. Once that is dry (24 hours or so) a layer of concrete creates the smooth "skin" of the piece.
I learned in this process that fine sand, rather than coarse,
is the way to go when mixing the concrete!

In the pictures you will also see mosaics on rebar that I am calling "popsicles" for lack of a better word. I describe them in more detail in the following post.

Green Mushroom
Cement and tile
15" wide x 19" tall
Fall 2010

Blue Mushroom
Cement and tile
15" wide x 27" tall
Fall 2010

Green Mushroom in situ
with
Butterfly popsicle

Blue Mushroom in situ
with
Sunflower and Saint popsicles

More substrates waiting!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

i have a cat woman collector card. #3 of 11 from the batman series of 55 collector cards. i am wondering if it is of any value to you. it is titled, "sinister smile". let me know. theheines6@gmail.com. thanks!!