As part of my residency at the University of Chester I have been doing a project on scaling my work up. I decided to enlarge reciprocity.
This has involved 3D scanning an existing sculpture and using software to divide the sculpture into slices with pre-set thicknesses that match with the plywood or planks the final sculpture will be made from. Enlarged outlines of each slice can then be transferred onto paper using a CAD machine. These outlines can then be copied onto plywood or planks of wood and cut our using a jigsaw or scroll saw. Each slice needs to be labelled so it can be positioned correctly before sticking and clamping together. This created a rough and unrefined version of the enlarged sculpture which can then be refined using chisels.
I found it was more practical to make the sculpture from vertical slices as there were only about 10 of them and they were easy to fit together. I did try horizontal slices, there were about 50 tiny pieces and it was very hard to identify their correct positions.
My first experiment was a small increase in size from about 30cm heigh to about 45cm high, so a 50% increase in size. for this I hand produced paper templates, drew them onto planks of black walnut and cut them out with a scroll saw. before gluing and clamping the tree pieces together. Once dried I used chisels to refine the shapes and create the inner curves and smoothed the surface. The black walnut took a smooth finish really well and looked great once oiled and waxed.
So next is to use to a CAD machine to increase the scaling and the accuracy…….. more to follow.