Saturday, March 20, 2010

MOD Madness Process

I didn't use any of the colors previously decided upon.

I also completely changed my entire idea from something that was outside freestanding with post to something that hung on the wall.

During my process of cutting and preparing the wood I would think about what colors I would use and how I would place them on the plywood background.

I first bought a sheet of birch wood and cut it in half. I began the staining process and did not like the way the stain absorbed into the birch wood.

The first test was with a purple stain. It was too light of a purple so I went over the purple with a black stain. This was too dark.

So I flipped it over and tried to do a fading effect from black on the top to a purple on the bottom. I did not like that either.

3rd trial: maybe its the color that is all wrong. So I tried a silver, then just a gray, then a gray and silver mix, and finally a gray with a silver overlay. I did not like any of this.

So I decided to try a different type of wood. I went and bought a cabinet grade pine plywood. Stained it with the purple and a light black overlay. This looked good so I went from there applying the small cut stained pieces of wood.

I thought I would cover the entire piece with horizontal and vertical arrangements, but as I started I felt that it would be too boring and too much. It needed direction and movement. I began in the upper left hand corner and placed my pieces kind of spread out and as it crossed the square I began to put the pieces closer and more congested as it reached the bottom right.

I also never intended to have pieces coming off the work onto the wall itself. That just kind of happened once I was finished and felt like it needed even more. Like something was missing. I'm glad I went "outside the box".

Over all I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Dot dot group final presentation: Kiara, Rachel, Sean, Jamal, Megan (my daughter) and myself.