Today was a beautifully sunny day, lucky for us because we planned to go out into the Forest to do some plaster casting. We wanted to record the comings and goings of people in the Forest, showing how much of a social area it actually is. We found bike tracks, horse shoes, dog paws, footprints and even some tractor tyres (although didn't cast these). I (Hannah) have done lots of casting before, mainly for my degree show and mostly waste moulds, so I introduced this to Cara who seemed to love it as much as me. The back of my car became a mobile plaster station for the day with casting plaster, water, powder paint, frames, measuring jugs, bowls, scales, and even some lard. Plaster picks up every detail and even we were surprised at what we found in our casts, things we hadn't noticed in the ground.
Once the plaster had set we went about taking as much mud off as possible too see what we had. Using palette knives and brushes we felt like archaeologists excavating an ancient site, wondering what we were going to find underneath. This felt appropriate as archaeology is about people as much as it is about the past, which is what we are trying to show about the Forest. We decided we wanted them coloured to show as much contrast as possible between the natural and the man-made and as I use only white in my practice this was something very new to me - I haven't used colour for the last 5 years!
Once the plaster had set we went about taking as much mud off as possible too see what we had. Using palette knives and brushes we felt like archaeologists excavating an ancient site, wondering what we were going to find underneath. This felt appropriate as archaeology is about people as much as it is about the past, which is what we are trying to show about the Forest. We decided we wanted them coloured to show as much contrast as possible between the natural and the man-made and as I use only white in my practice this was something very new to me - I haven't used colour for the last 5 years!
As we were driving around, looking for suitable sites we came across the Loughton Log Company who source, split and season wood from the Forest, and who very kindly donated two logs for our flocking experiments which we will do next week. They are some lovely apple wood, complete with new shoots.