Hippo Brief - Feedback

Jane came into college today to check on the progress of the hippos and thankfully she loved them. She was really excited about the whole project, which was refreshing because obviously having stared at them all day everyday the hippos were starting to lose their appeal but this just brought it all back into perspective. Lovely.

I gave Jane a demonstration of how the molds work - throughout this whole brief I've had to bare in mind that the process needs to be as simple as possible so that I can teach Jane then she can easily teach the technique to as many others as possible along her production line. The plaster is basic fine casting plaster which is available from your average hardware stores like B&Q etc, all you need to mix it is a bucket and your hands, and I'm providing her with the molds so I'd say I've got this simplicity angle covered. Thank god.

I showed her how to prep the molds for casting - binding the jackets with a belt, wedging the neck joint together and leveling the whole thing out. I also had one in the mold that had already set when she came in so that I could show her how to take them out.

So with Jane 100% happy with the first mold it's full steam ahead for the rest of them! Because the vinamold is such a precious resource in the 3D studio I reckon 10 molds worth would be about as much as I can muster - and even then they're having to order in a fresh batch to meet my demand!

Talking to Don we realised that we're going to have to come up with some sort of signing out system for the materials. The vinamold is recyclable and is constantly used in the workshop, so removing 10 molds worth will be detrimental and they simple can't take the risk of it not returning. So I think what we're doing is getting Jane to pay a deposit for the vinamold which will be returned when the materials come back into college - sounds pretty fair.

This whole mass participation project is running alongside a larger project involving 5 commissioned artists creating hippo-related pieces to be displayed in Armley town centre. Jane suggested that I be one of them! A real job! With real money! And for a real purpose! The only problem I have at the moment though, is that the festival spans 3 weeks in July, and if I get accepted on Camp America then I obviously won't be here and so won't be able to do it.. This is all getting very complicated.