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Sculpture: Mold-making and other Art News

Summary, 20 March 2024:

  • Mold-making process videos
  • Art Exhibit in Vinci, Tuscany, Italy
  • Tips for hanging / displaying your art collection


Dear Art lover,

     Hello and happy Spring!  I have news to share and I feel thrilled about that.

     First, I have been working.  Not a lot, but it feels good.  I had started work last spring on a sculpted face to be mounted on a wall behind a water spigot.  After seeing the client's space, I realized how new the plumbing work was.  If they had to call a plumber to install the face (since they want the faucet coming out of the mouth), the project would be prolonged and become costly.  Ironically, my accident last summer caused a tremendous wait.  

     Thus, my idea was to design a face that could separate into two parts, one to install from beneath the spigot, the other mounted from above and fitting over the lower section.  Thankfully, they wanted a man.  What can a man have in all shapes and sizes near the mouth?    Yup:  a mustache!

Man's surprised face for a wall mounted sculpture behind water faucet



     Still not being healthy for me to lift heavy things and needing more rest that I imagined at almost nine months of healing, it took me a month to get two different molds made.  The first is a two-part mold:  the traditional flexible rubber mold that picks-up details and form from the sculpture, and then the fiberglass hard mother mold to support the casting from losing its intended shape.  The second, separate mold was straight plaster.

     Why two molds?  Because I want to cast in concrete or maybe at a future date, bronze (hence the two-part mold).  And I also want to offer a version in terra-cotta ('baked earth' from water-based clay).  The porous plaster is intended to help absorb the water from the clay to enable a release that the rubber mold cannot do so well.

     On my YouTube channel, I have shared the mold-making process.  While I still have to put together and edit the plaster mold and the creating of the concrete face videos, I do have the first mold-making videos online.  Check those out at:

     

  • Sculpture:  How to make the Flexible Rubber Mold for Art "Fountain Face" 2024-02-17 Mold making Pt 1     https://youtu.be/1bL7MiqNIrI
  • Sculpture:  How to make a Fiberglass Mother Mold for Art "Fountain Face" 2024-02-20 Mold making Pt 2     https://youtu.be/FqEoGcbI2A0   
  • Sculpture: Removing the 2-Part Mold for Art "Fountain Face" 2024-02-22 Mold making Pt 3 (De-molding)           https://youtu.be/stoMeFrBt14   


     If you enjoy these working-studio videos, please subscribe to my channel there and hit the notification bell so you know when I post new content.  Thank you.

Plaster mold shows reverse image from the clay sculpture below it, art by Kelly Borsheim
Casting concrete, upper portion of face with artist Kelly Borsheim's signature on the back of the wall art

 

    
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Vinci Art Exhibit!  April opening

     I met an Italian woman named Matilde in 2022.  I had gone to a small art event for some professors that I know.  Afterwards, all artists and guests wandered to a nearby cafe for a small aperitivo.   Later we walked over to a restaurant that could house our large group.  What a fun evening, even with rain pouring down as we exited the restaurant.  Matilde sat next to me during dinner.  She loved my work.  

     She contacted me again last December with a proposal for a group art exhibit.  Through a long-time chef friend of hers at a five-star Michelin restaurant, Matilde was presented to a young chef who shows real promise of making a name for himself with his edible creations.  Matilde hand-chose artists that work in a variety of media (including a Japanese video creator) to exhibit at the new space in Vinci (yes, the town of Leonardo in Tuscany, not far from Firenze/Florence) that this chef and his civil engineer wife are renovating now.  

      When Matilde came to my home to see which works she wanted, I was lucky.  She wanted three stone carvings (but sadly, the abstracted swan is one I am not physically able to finish before this event).  She also saw two charcoal drawings that I had done of the rugged Vernazza shoreline of the Cinque Terre.  

     And when she looked to another wall, she exclaimed, "Oh, how I love this!  Do you have more?"    She had seen a large print of a photo I had taken of some ruins in Pescia, the town where she lives.  Matilde was delighted when I said, "Yes.  In fact I have a collection of 15 images, framed and ready to go!  I had created them for an exhibit in a local small town.  However, Covid hit and the project was a bit forgotten about as the world opened up again."  We took them out of the corner where I had stored them and placed them on and around the couch.  She chose 13 of them.  

     Thus, I have THREE separate media and of different subjects of my work in this event!  I am so happy and I hope you are able to make it to Vinci.    

     I also showed her the marble carvings of my friend Kumiko Suzuki that I have been storing since Covid hit.  So, Kummi will also have a work in this event.

     I share here a few images of the site on March 4th when artists went to drop off our selected works.  The space is gorgeous and upstairs the couple is renovating six bedrooms for overnight guests to the famous tiny town.  It is so exciting to see the beginning manifestations of a dream coming true!

     The opening is planned for 21 April, all-day events.  Once I receive details, I will pass them onto you.  The mixed-media exhibit of about ten artists (and the chef!) will continue through November.  The location is right across a small piazza from Centro Espositivo Leo Lev di Vinci,  https://www.leolev.it/

Curator walks along a wall of unloaded photos to insure she wants them in the exhibit
the mosaiced piazza in front of exhibition space in Vinci Italy
Vinci in Tuscany, Italy

 


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     Doing a little "Spring Cleaning"?   Perhaps these two articles will inspire you to change up your environments a wee bit:

Tips for hanging / displaying art collection:
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-hang-art-collection-expert

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-collectors-storing-art


Happy Spring Celebrations, from Norooz to Easter and more,

Kelly

https://BorsheimArts.com


P.S.  Just yesterday I had my first therapy session since my accident and subsequent surgery on my spine last July.  After today's session, I will write a new update for the donor page that really helped my medical bills and months of not working at all.  All free to read.
     My siblings set up this page to share the story.  If interested, click here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/back-surgery-rehab-for-sculptor-kelly-borsheim
Thank you.

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