Plasterzote Workshop - Headpieces and masks

Having only just handed my last project a few days ago, I thought it would be a struggle to get into a new mode of work, however the workshop we had yesterday concentrating on the material of Plasterzote got me really excited for the project coming up. The workshop was all about 'playing' with the material rather than making final pieces to get us used to it. PLasterzote is a really lightwieght material (so great for carnival costumes!) and by cleverly using a heatgun it can mould into certain shapes. To base my creations on for this workshop I chose  to base it on photos I had taken of really interesting coral at the Natural history Museum....

Having this workshop has really loosened me up into the nature of the project I will be undertaking. Creating it using only the tools that children would was a useful task to work out what can and cannot be done in schools. We also had great advice about delivering the workshops in schools by the co-ordinater Sarah and I feel a lot more comfortable now with continuing with this making project as for the last year I have mainly been doing designing and alot less of the 3D experimentation. 

Starting off the structure using thick plasterzote sewn onto elastic around the head. Structure made from tape and  wood sticks and wire to make them curve...

Using scissors to cut out different sized circular shapes and then used the heatgun to mould them into shapes  to make it similar to the initial coral photos... 

Unfinished headpiece. However, I am really pleased with what  techniques I achieved in this workshop  and with the limited time we had. I will certainly be taking this information into account when starting to design...