Work for Eduardo's aquarium - 4. Installation

I connected the acrylic legs with the porcelain pieces two days before installation. 

This was how the tank looked like before my rearrangement. The tank had a serious problem of hairy algae. It almost covered every plants in the tank, and it was really hard to get rid of. The plants at the left hand side were squeezed together that many of them were rotted, especially the parts closed to bottom and in the middle. My guess was that because they didn't have enough space to breathe. So during the installation, I trimmed the plants, leaving the healthy part of them, and replanted. When I trimmed them, I found because of the rot, the plants were smelly. Maybe that was the reason that the shrimps didn't like walking around, but stayed at the corner. The rot polluted the water. Hoping after the plants grow up again, they will be healthier. 

This is how the tank looks afterwards. The floating parts work perfectly, hoping the moss will spread fast and the shrimp will like it. The light adjusts the colour of the ceramic part, which I think the colour is just alright. 

right hand side. The plant that looks like a net will grow out from the ceramic.

Left hand side

After I finished, some of the shrimps climbed out, which was a good sign. I will keep recording the progress of the tank, and talk about the ideas and evaluation more in the next post.

Record: Change of the Aquarium

This is the setting that I showed in interim show. 

1. the first day

2. after a week

3. after two months

Richard from Photography Department helped me shooting these photos. We set a flashlight with its umbrella at the right upper side of the tank. At the same time, black cards were used at different places to prevent reflection, especially the front of the tank. We took about 300 photos, and these are just nine of them.

It can be seen that the setting changed a bit after the show. The background plants and moss grow crazily and the new plant I tried in the front are not doing so well. The light I am using now is way too weak. There are 30 or even more baby fishes in the tank and the baby shrimps are growing well. This proves that the tank is in a relevantly good and balanced condition. Though there is some algae appears on my work in the front.

This tank may stay like this for quite a while and I will use something else to test my new ideas.

Interim Show Work - 4 Final Effects

This is the final effect of my work for this interim show.

The background was not used at last, since it cannot be pasted firmly on the wall and it did not match the main body of my work.

It is a shame. I like it and really made efforts to make it. Though when I almost finished it, I had a feeling that it may turn out like this.

Feedback:

I noticed that audiences either like the ceramic itself, or feel interested because it is a aquarium. A person belonging to the first kind told me that he wanted to see how these ceramics look like as jewellery. One of another kind of people liked taking to me about their aquarium all the time.

Neither of them sees the ceramic and the aquarium as a inseparable unit. This is crucial problem that I need to solve in my next period of study.  

Inspired by costume 2 - Clouds & rain drops

Here is another piece of work in this series. 

Here is the draft. The shape of this work is inspired by the pattern and the waving fabric in his costume design. I absorbed these elements and made changes. As to the colour, I chose more rainbow-like, dreamland feeling colour. That is the fantasy I want to create.

Making Process:

Material: Royal Porcelain

Technique: Slab-built

Work inspired by costume 1 - outcome 1

Now the work was fired to 1220℃. 

The cobalt is blue, but is too dark for me. The rest of colour looks fine, however I applied too thick that there are some uneven fragments on the clay body. These fragments are easy to be teared off that I don't think this work can be put into water straight away.

I am planning to apply a layer of semi-opaque white glaze on the part of the work, in order to achieve a blur feeling. Actually I should biscuit fire it first, and then apply the glaze. At the beginning, we were told the ceramic studio was going to close in one week, so I don't have enough time to fire twice. That is why I fire it to 1220, cause I want to have a look of the colour after firing. Then they extended the opening time, so I can fire again with glaze on it.

Coloured slip casting test 2

Since the colour of my previous test was darker than I expected, I started to do this test.

By adjusting the proportion of green slip as well as the way and extent I stirred them, I hope this test will has a different result.

Here are some making processes.

The colour seemed to be alright before they dried.

Polishing

The subtile green details look nice.

Work inspired by costume 1-making process

This series of work was inspired by Leon Bakst's costume design. 

Here is the making process.

Firstly, I made the round structures by throwing, then slab built the triangle volumes.

As to the colour, I chose the pink green from Tiranti, NC026 green,NC017 yellow, NC010 red and NC047 purple from Nano stains, along with some cobalt oxide.

I tried two ways of colouring. One is pressing the powder of stain directly into the clay body, another is mixing stain with water first, and then brushing it on.

The cobalt oxide will turn into blue after firing, so the work is a yellow to blue hue with a little red.