Inspired by the movie 'Inception', I found a key word to is very relatable to my theme, which is 'contain'. Relationships are built up of emotions and before we dispose any of them, any factors actually, we somehow tried to contain them. People all have different ways but some of them failed to trash them and keep containing them instead.

The progress of containing and holding in a feeling can be very long but necessary. I can describe it as drowning without trying to float. The most common situation will be the period after breaking up with someone. I see this period of time as the time of containing - the middle point. I found this very interesting and would definitely develop the idea further and tried visualize it.

I have decided to narrow my project theme to focus on personal emotions and how they affect our identity.

About the idea of containing, I went back to the little experiments that I did to start the project but I did not develop them further  but I believe that it will be worthy to develop it further because the shape is very relatable to containing. And also it can visualize the idea very well.

These are some origami cube that me and my friend used one whole morning to made. I wanted to make 24 of them because of a video idea that I got while talking to one of my friend about dividing a cake into 24 cubes and and take them away one by one, which is actually a metaphor of spending an hour with someone is equivalent of losing an hour of yourself. It was just a very spontaneous chat and idea. And I have up the origami cubes because of the time that they takes.

However, now the cube can be a new idea and a form of containing, which really got me excited about although I still have a very small vision of what it will be.

Done some experiment with plastic in Archway with the cooper figure that I made before. 

1st Attempt.

2nd Attempt.

I tried to melt the plastic sheet and wrap it around the model but it was harder than it sounds. I found it really difficult to control the heat of the melting gun, the plastic sheet got over-heated easily in a very short period of time and breaks. So a lot of holes can be found in the first attempt model. I handled the second one more patiently and it was easier to get the right softness of the plastic to bend.

However, it is still very far away from what I expected to create from the material. I might also experiment the plastic sheet with different shapes and see how it goes.

Following the idea that I had yesterday, I went to the ask the technician in the casting workshop about what kind of material I can use to achieve the feeling of water/glass, I wanted to use rasin but they found me a even better and easier way to do it with glass wax. The reason why i wanted to make the whole sculpture transparent is because I want to create a very delicate and vulnerable feeling to represent the sensitive and broken period of human.

However, I actually spent most of the day preparing and buying the glass wax. I was asked to build a holding to hold the cube because I want to glass wax to be poured and fixed in one of the corner of the cube. 

The holder.

Melting the glass wax.

I also put some clay to try to lower the chance of changing the shape of the cube because of the very high temperature of the glass wax.

Bubbles are impossible to avoid as here is no professional equipment for glass wax in the workshop, but I actually quite like the bubbles because they give the wax a sea water feeling, which really suits my idea of drowning.

Final look of the cube. 

On the final day of making! Today I covered the hole of the cube, which is a very tricky part because I can only work and mold the glass on the outside, and the plastic sheets are really difficult to work with only one side of support. So I first stuck the two corners on the top as they are the strongest and I could mold with them with my hands. Then I slowly melt the plastic sheet on a piece of wood to make it flatter, and mold them into shape. I need to be extra careful and slow with the whole process because it will be very difficult to fix if the temperature got too high and burn a hole in the sheet.

I also realized the glass wax that are thinner, such as the area that is around the edges are extremely easy to break, which made the sculpture very delicate.

Final look of the sculpture. 

Response of the final piece:

In general, I am satisfied with the result of my sculpture but there are some aspects that can be improved. For example, I should do more experiment on the colour of the glass wax, such as maxing it with some wax pigments to find out more about it, or trying to do a experimental piece with a similar size to test out the colour in such a large amount of wax because the wax turns out slight more yellowish than in the test piece, However, in reality I could not really afford that much wax for a experimental piece as they are more than £40 for 5kg.

On the other hand, I quite like the muddle wax as it gives the sculpture a more fallen and dishabille feeling, which fits my theme. I think it matches with the imperfect cube. Moreover, I really like the idea of using the broken glass as the 'hidden focal point', it is not too obvious but still able to stand out once it has been spotted. 

I see this sculpture as metaphor of a period of time that we all have. I used the broken glass to represent the subject, which is people who suffer from exhaustion and uncertainty in life. The glass wax is the emotions and thoughts of the subject that are flooding over itself, made it way too difficult to get over. And the transparent cube is the cage that the subject built to protect itself from any more damage from the outside but at the same it locking itself to drown inside.