Soap Carving
Artist Statement and Self Eval.:
2.1 Soap Sculpture:
Statement:
I ended up making a talisman out of a soap by carving it away. I made a fox because one of my childhood memories (Brother Bear by Disney) inspired me to make my spirit animal into a necklace (though I don't think I'm actually going to make it into a necklace because... well... it's soap). It's unique because you don't really ever see a red-and-white soap carving of a fox everyday, let alone one that is based off of the personality of the artist.
Evaluation:
2.1 Soap Sculpture:
Statement:
I ended up making a talisman out of a soap by carving it away. I made a fox because one of my childhood memories (Brother Bear by Disney) inspired me to make my spirit animal into a necklace (though I don't think I'm actually going to make it into a necklace because... well... it's soap). It's unique because you don't really ever see a red-and-white soap carving of a fox everyday, let alone one that is based off of the personality of the artist.
Evaluation:
- My effort throughout this piece was pretty strong. I worked really hard on making sure that it was shaped the way I wanted it to be and that it was pretty close in terms of proportions. The toughest part actually ended up being when I was chopping away the bigger pieces of soap because I didn't want to carve away too much and not leave enough for me to work with.
- I actually thought really hard about what kind of talisman I wanted to make before hand because I wanted it to mean more than just some random carving. I made sketches of different animals and objects that have meaning to me, but I ended up going with the fox because it resides with my personality very well. I also went through and marked the soap before making my official carvings to keep from carving away too much soap.
- I used the tools well to my advantage, using the different sizes and styles to create different textures and carvings. It was difficult with the soap I picked because it was more gel-like than the others, but eventually I got the hang of it and what tools and methods worked better. Also, I even managed to add some diversity in the color by adding white flakes from a different bar of soap.
- I learned that soap can be difficult to work with, but it's easy to learn the best ways to work with it. Also, I learned new tricks and techniques that I can use for future sculptures. Lastly, that I really don't like gel-like bars of soap.
- I feel I did pretty well shaping it and making it clear enough that it's a fox. Also, I think I kept proportions really well considering how difficult it proved to be. Along with that, I think that I did well making it 3D rather than just relief (as I had originally planned to do).
- I think I can work on using my materials more wisely when it comes to the size of my project. I actually ended up scraping enough soap pieces to make maybe two more foxes of the same size. Other than that I could probably work more on making my different textures stand out more against one another.