T1-MMT-P3 Molding and casting – Artist Research: Meredith Woolnough, Patrick Delorey

Meredith Woolnough

Meredith Woolnough
with Scribbly Gum Leaf (2014)

Meredith Woolnough is a visual artist who captures the beauty of Australian plant-life in a form of free machine embroidery which she describes as “knotted embroidery threads”. I chose the photograph on the left showing Woolnough with one of her works to give a sense of the scale. This piece is 100cm diameter, a delicate tracery with subtle colouring which beautifully interprets the skeleton gum leaves found in leaf litter.

Here the work appears to be mounted directly on the wall. Suspended with pins the shadows created would provide depth, interest and movement in the gallery space.

Meredith Woolnough
Orange Nautilus

Orange Nautilus, a slightly smaller work, is pinned on paper. Separate smaller pieces of dense machine stitching are combined in a medley of positive and negative space, again with the complexity of shadows providing a dynamic element to the composition. Some moulding of form has been achieved in the detailed colouring of the work. I don’t know if Woolnough has experimented with additional physical moulding of her large pieces. On her blog she has shown small bowls of her stitched traceries (link). These were created for an exhibition after winning the 2014 Emerging Artist – Craft minor award from Craft NSW. The additional depth and layers of patterning of the rounded forms are very effective.

Meredith Woolnough
Embroidered specimens captured in resin

Of relevance to my current research, Woolnough has used cast resin to display some of her small works – “specimens”. In a range of sizes this seems an ideal way to present smaller pieces.

Longer term I am very interested to use resin as a display technique, however it doesn’t fit my interpretation of the current course exercise requirements. The casting exercises focus on the manipulated interior space of flexible vessels and on texture created by pressing objects into the still-fluid surface.

All images reproduced by kind permission of the artist.
http://www.meredithwoolnough.com/
http://meredithwoolnough.blogspot.com.au/

Patrick Delorey

Patrick Delorey
Erosia: Coal (Detail)

In Erosia Patrick Delorey created complex textured panels of new territory, not quite landscape, not quite object. Time and space were collapsed as satellite images of mining sites were layered and blended into new composites. Delorey used a range of materials – aluminium, marble, himalayan pink salt, coal – to produce relief panels of the landscapes.

Patrick Delorey
Erosia: Coal

The works were completed during an artist residency at Autodesk’s Pier 9 – their website shows an exciting range of projects (link). Each material in Delorey’s series required different processes, and it is fascinating to see the range of end effects created (link). I would love to see the actual works, as once again shadows play an important part in the final result.

Patrick Delorey
Casting coal and epoxy mix

Coal uses actual coal, hand crushed by Delorey and mixed with epoxy resin. The method used is covered in detail in an Instructable (link) and involved 3d modeling a relief, machining a foam positive, creating a silicone mold from that positive, processing coal into powder, mixing with epoxy resin until the powder looked “just slightly damp” and casting the final piece.

For my own studies, this process is a wonderful fit with my 3D design and printing sidetrack in Part 1 of the course (link). I am resisting, or at least deferring, the temptation of another tangent – timing is going to be tight enough, especially given cure times in Sydney’s damp winter. However the idea of mixing resin (or other casting materials) with inclusions is definitely on the list for sampling.

All images reproduced by kind permission of the artist.
http://www.patrickdelorey.com/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Casting-Coal-With-Epoxy-Resin-and-Silicone-Molds/step4/Processing-Coal/
http://www.autodesk.com/artist-in-residence/projects/erosia.

T1-MMT-P3 Molding and casting – Artist Research: Meredith Woolnough, Patrick Delorey
Textiles 1 – Mixed Media for Textiles
Part 3: Molding and casting
Artist Research: Meredith Woolnough, Patrick Delorey