Working with silicone has been really interesting however its came with a lot of challenges. When looking at Lucy Simpson’s work I thought it would be easy to manipulate and mark make into but I was wrong.
I started off getting to grips with the silicone on cardboard, this gave me some time to get use to working with the medium. I wanted to incorporate my skillset into this by using my mark-making techniques, I looked at my reference images and started to be reminded about the lines within the microscopic structures and how this juxtaposes with the small circular clusters.
Looking at this in regards to mark-making I thought about creating lines. I used a ruler to score through the silicone whilst it was wet and allowing to dry for an hour, this created a really cool texture on the cardboard. I also played around with spreading the silicone really thin across some of the fabric, to change the texture of it. The smooth almost rubber texture resembles the cellulose within the plant cell, relating my project even more towards my intended brief.
I also played around with smoothing out the silicone and using an object to morph a pattern into it which sounded like a good idea but in reality just turned out terrible! the object got stuck, it was all different layers and just a disaster!
Moving onto fabric i decided to look at both of the techniques combined as the dragging method was successful in changing the feeling but adding some mark-making gave the piece a more interesting feel. Looking back at my original images i really liked the structures alignment of the cells which also related to the lines within the mark-making.
I decided to use the mesh material as I was curious if I could create this cellulose opacity. Would the silicone sink through? would it create a pattern? would it not work at all?
I feel the silicone worked really well! it gave the fabric a new texture but also body! the mark-making also replicated the cell structure and having the small elements of pattern conveyed the clusters. I also feel the piece although using a heavy material still looks delicate and weightless which fits really well with the opacity and texture of the cell!
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