18/04/2018 - JIC CUTTING OUT AND EDGING

Now that my work was painted, it was time to cut around the piece and edge it, ready to insert the mirror. I have previous workshop experience which always comes in handy with cross disciplinary works such as this, but still always feel a bit nervous when moving from comfortable painting to the loud and dynamic environment of the workshop. The piece was very detailed, and I worried that the process of cutting around would be painstaking and some of the details may be lost.

I was a little shaky to start, however once I got going with the jigsaw and started to feel more comfortable I picked up the pace. I thought the work was going to take me all day, however at just under an hour I had already made great progress and cut around the entire outside with just the middle left to go.

Once the middle was cut, I moved the piece slightly and was amazed and the amount of weight already shed. Next I wanted to file the edges down so they were rounded to increase the artefact-like nature of the work. I also hoped around the mirrors edge in particular, this would give audiences the sense of being able to truly look 'into' the work, giving it the illusion of literal depth.

I was really happy with how the workshop session had gone, and was quietly kind of impressed that I had gotten it done so quickly! Finally I painted the newly rounded edges black which really rounded the work off (see the difference between the unpainted bottom edge in the below photo and the painted areas in the middle section). The next step was the fix in the mirror!