User:Melisacola

Melisa Bonding and Fusing 0877883@hr.nl

WHY I MAKE

5 sentences

1. To express 
2. To learn how to control materials 
3. To bond and collaborate 
4. To communicate with visuals  
5. To own my emotions

Essay

My way of making comes from a personal interest and need. My mind can be all over the place and making something from scratch can get things straight for me. I'm not great with words and i tend to overthink things if i keep ideas in my head to long, so for me the process of making and reflecting makes things clear for me.

LATEX

Latex is a stable dispersion (emulsion) of polymer micro particles in an aqueous medium. It is found in nature, but synthetic latexes can be made by polymerizing a monomer such as styrene that has been emulsified with surfactants.

Latex as found in nature is a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms). It is a complex emulsion consisting of proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins, and gums that coagulate on exposure to air. It is usually exuded after tissue injury. In most plants, latex is white, but some have yellow, orange, or scarlet latex. Since the 17th century, latex has been used as a term for the fluid substance in plants. It serves mainly as defense against herbivorous insects. Latex is not to be confused with plant sap; it is a separate substance, separately produced, and with separate functions.===

PRE-INDUSTRIAL MAKING PROCES

LATEX

Latex is being used as a natural rubber to make gloves, ties and boots, for example. It takes several years for rubber tree to mature. After that you can slowly tap from the tree, a process that is still happening.

The colors of latex was determined by what kind of three it was made from. It also took several days of tapping for the rubber to recover and a lot of baths. Fire ovens were build with a smoke room above where the rubber hang for 5 days, in order to prevent mold.

TECHNIQUES

1. Started making prints with rubber, but it fused together

2. Working in layers to create rubber

3. Combining with textiles

It is usually applied using a disposable sponge and would take about five to ten minutes to dry depending on how thick it is applied. As it dries it solidifies to a rubbery consistency and in the processes ends up shrinking. As the latex dries it becomes very sticky and will stick to itself if accidentally folded over. Alternatively, shimmer powders can be dusted over dried liquid latex to create metallic effects. One advantage to the tackiness of liquid latex is that it can act as an adhesive to attach things to the paint. Liquid latex is removable by peeling it off since water does not reactivate it.

PUSHING THE MATERIAL TO THE LIMIT

Latex is usually used as a mal in the cheramic station, which i tried to avoid, by making the material the end piece. But to experience with it and push the material, i tried everything with the latex. After choosing the mal to work with, i went two different routes, casting and layering.

CASTING

casting makes the material smooth, which makes it able to use it as a textile to make gloves or clothes. I used a mirror and an old painting with some structure and colours.

PROCESS casting ---- 20 hours ---- object

BRUSHWORK

END WORK

Inspiration

I knew i wanted to focus on material pretty early and i was inspired by de work of Eva Hesse. She was a sculptor known for her pioneering work in materials such as fiberglass, and plastics. She is one of the artists who ushered in the post-minimal art movement in the 1960s. Her work often shows minimal manipulation to a material while simultaneously completely transforming it.

1. 2.

1. Eva Hesse's "Untitled (Rope Piece)" (1970) was made when the artist was dying.         
2. Aught, 1968, Latex, canvas, polyethylene sheeting, rope and unidentified materials, metal grommets

I'm not that focussed on manipulating materials in my work so far, but i always had an interest in working in layers. Layers can create an different interpretations from the viewers, depending on the area it's put and the position of the viewer. To me latex was an interesting material to work with cause of the transparency it creates when you cast it on all at once, instead of layer after layer which people use to create a mall.

work