Part Two SOAP CARVING "The Full-Bellied Platypus"

Assignment 2 Part 2
Soap-Carving Changes

To begin with I would like to share with you my inspiration for this project. A few years ago I wrote this poem about a platypus, because the animal just intrigues me. They have no vision, yet they have eyes, they have no hearing, yet have ears, they do not have a sense of touch or smell either, yet they have four limbs and a nose. They find their way and their food through their extra sense, like ESP. Isn't that so cool? Well, when my granddaughter was having tummy aches and not choosing the right foods, I picked the platypus to guide her, and wrote this poem in hopes she would decide on better eating habits. 

"The Emptied-Bellied Platypus"

Once upon a platypus

In the lands of Amber Sun

An empty-bellied platypus

Side’s to side’s she’d have some fun. . .

Yes, I must readjust my fare of foods

River prawn just doesn’t fill

Those wiggly worms I cannot catch 

And these yabbies pinch my bill!

She felt upon a Concord bunch, waddling

No eyes, no ears, no nose. . . 

She sensed their plump of purpleness

Amid the yore bury orchard rows

Now, Pratel is this?

I’ve come across. . .Never, did my eyes did see!

You know my belly is too empty for a platypus. . .

Ha! But not for long I be!

Seriatim. . . how she gathered them. . . 

A store within her cheeks

Only to return to the river’s edge

One bonzer feeding feast!

Grapes from vine, O’ I ne’er dined

No shrimp I’ll ever eat

No emptied-bellied platypus here

It is all I can do to speak!

Belly full, Aye! She had her fun. . .

So pleased to call it a night

That platypus curled and burrowed in, maffling

“ ugh. . . My tomorrow,  let’s do rice. . . ”

After carving my two platypuses, (PART 1) our assignment now, is to choose one of the two sculptures and make 8 changes, by removing something and adding something to the animal.

My Steps.
1.Hollowed out her belly by removing the soap. (removed)
2.Stuffed her belly full with "grapes" (added)
3.Stuffed her cheeks (added)
4.Reshaped and removed excess slip.(removed)
5.Added googlie eyes (added)
6.Made the whole body bigger by adding more soap (added)
7.Made bill bigger,  adding and subtracting slip (add & remove)
8.Removed googlie eyes then Embedded them (removed & added)
9.Removed excess slip (removed)
10. Added bigger feet (added)

 My first step was to hollow out her belly, I removed the soap from the underside of my platypus. Now she really is an emptied-bellied Platypus!

Adding water to the soap shavings,  I had saved from the initial carvings, I added a little purple ink to create some yummy soapy "grapes".

Using a medical syringe I squirted out a bunch of little "grapes"and then let them dry before putting them back inside the belly.

 After stuffing her belly full, and
  stuffing her cheeks,
 I added a layer of the white soap to cover them up.

 I did this by melting the extra shavings I had saved,  into a bit of warm water to make the "slip". I liked the texture of purple grapes bulging through. . . the purple cast it was creating through her "skin".

 I then added two little googlie eyes... but, she looked too fake. I want her more realistic.

 So, I made her a bit bigger, adding another few layers of  the white slip.
 I grew her bill, continually adding and removing layers to get it right.
 made her webbed feet alot bigger, and
 I also embedded her two googlie eyes instead.

             After letting her dry for a day, I was able to refine her even more so...

                    Meet my Full-Bellied Platypus on her Cornucopia Grapevine Base!

Architectural Relief Project.

This assignment is an Architectural Relief project instructing us to select four architectural time periods, and by merging/combining/and adapting the elements and principles of each style, we are to create a relief sculpture that will demonstrate our inspirations of two, out of the original four.

I chose these four cathdrals,(below) and then thought about 

The Four Marks of the Church... a term used to describe four specific adjectives of the Christian Church,  "one","holy", "catholic", and "apostolic". . .

"One" as in one body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one church. I drew theAngel to represent "One"
The church is "holy", because God is holy. "...upon this rock I will build my church." The Pointed stone arch is the "rock" that I made from masking tape.
The word "catholic" is a Greek adjective meaning "universal", or "whole",
where my whole cathedral  combines the "apostolic" . . . the four churches, The Catholic Church, The Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, and The Church of the East. 

The following four cathedrals that I chose, are of each of these four orders mentioned, and each one also represents the actual places mine and my husbands ancestors originated from.

Cathedral of Trier, Trier Germany

Romanesque Design -c.340AD.
The Cathedral of Trier is the oldest cathedral in Germany, still being used today. 
                              

Saint Andrews Cathedral in St. Andrews, Scotland

Saint Andrew's Cathedral is Gothic-evolved, from Romanesque architecture, that was eventually succeeded by the Renaissance architecture. Its characteristics include the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress.

A flying buttress is made up of two parts: the buttress, a large masonry block; and the “flyer,” an arch spanning between the buttress and the exterior wall.

Westminster Cathedral, London, England   

Neo-Byzantine - c.1903 

St. Michael's Basilica, Mirimachi, New Brunswick, Canada

Neo Gothic-c. 1921 AD.The Gothic Revival movement emerged in 19th century England.n the mid-18th century, with the rise of "Romanticism", an increased interest and awareness of the Middle Ages.

"Kimmy's Cathedral"