Group Photo!!

The highlight of any project for me is seeing the final outcome! and this was definitely mine!! ^^ This is a few of the students posing in their costumes so far when they parading around the playground. Collectively I am super pleased with how they all look as a sea of monsters together, each session has met the aims I wanted for each of them however I am a bit worried about the flimsyness of the tentacles on the collars (falling down in the wind?) and also the elastics on the masks, as the children cut the elastic too tight and some have pinged off causing the plasterzote to rip. I have arranged with the tutor to go in for a day and possible put sticks behind the tentacles and sort out the elastic as well, and hopefully after this it will all look even better together! 
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Final finished Prototype!!

After all of my drama with the plaster cast mould of the mask and the plastic to make the masks, as well as the time consuming task of making the collars and tentacles (actually a lot quicker than I would of thought) I have finally finished my prototype and all of the mass producing of the components for the costume too!! :) I feel so pleased and relieved to of completed this and now feel satisfied with my Squid design. I always said that I wouldn't feel completely assured until I had achieved the 3D version. Doing this project has really made me aware that I need to at least have samples or visions in front of me to in order to be certain and content with my designs. I feel that as a practitioner I have improved in becoming more confident in my own designs which people have always told me to do but for some reason I never end up thinking that I have done that well. I think it is important to feel  self assured when creating or designing in this industry as you need to be able to talk confidently about them but at the same time able to take constructive criticism. I believe that receiving criticism makes me a better designer and more likely to achieve a successful project because it will be more related to the clients brief and exact specifications, who are the people you ultimately want to impress... 


I have taken on board all advice that has been given to me during the whole process and have made relevant changes where necessary to make my design better.... 

Head shot of the mask decorated with paint, latex and bits and bobs from the  scrap store.
The plasterzote has turned out a lot more successful than the plastic ever would of. I am so pleased that I had an alternative, even if I didn't plan for this to be an alternative when ordering!

Tentacles made thin free plasterzote then using System3 paint  and PVA mixed together to  cover the white. Hopefully the children do well with painting and decorating them to make them all look consistent and bold...

Moulding for the mask...

After the comments received from tutor and steering group and the fact that they both thought I could do better with my design I thought about scrapping the hat and making a mask which is more suited to the gloopy/scary sea monster idea I wanted to create because actually I know that the small eye mask wasn't the best idea and I was thinking too simply... I have decided to change this and make a mask which has been more inspired by my research as there are many artists I have looked at (images in sketchbook) who have used tentacles as an influence...

I started off by using clay to create a mould of the mask initially by sculpting the clay on top of a clay face. I got some advice from a make up tutor about the best way to do it and tips about making it okay to use in the vac form machine.

Above is the first test of using the vac form machine and plastic. I put the clay into the machine, it got sqaushed slightly so i knew that for the final design for the mask I will have to create a plaster mould so that it would be strong enough to vac form 31 masks.... I think this mask is quite a successful first attempt however, I wanted the head to be a lot more purtruding so it will look more monster like rather than just fitting onto the face, I want it to be coming above the forehead.



Below is the clay sculpture of the next stage of the mask with the pertruding head making it look more monster like and strange. I am going to try it out with all different types of plastic and materials to see which one works, however, think I might stick to the plastic as I know its a safe option and have found a good place to get a good price on the green HIPS plastic.



I already feel that I am learning more about my practical techniques as I have not worked with clay before and am really enjoying the experimentation side of it and finding solutions to various problems...