Module 6

1.       Videos

-          Through the Eyes of a Sculptor – One of the key things I learned was that sculpting, at least as depicted here, was a team effort. A number of people in a given workshop will work on a single piece. The sculptor will conceive of the piece and make the original model, but others may be involved in making the life-sized model, roughing out the stone, etc. I hadn’t realized how many steps were involved – from sketch, to clay model, to silicone mold, to plaster model, at a minimum, before moving on to the stone itself. The ability to find the right stone to work with, and how difficult that may be, was also key.

-          Glass and Ceramics – The video showed how versatile glass and ceramics are – both in art and in industrial/commercial uses. Glass can replace other materials in the building process (especially “green” buildings for temperature and noise control) and some ceramics can be made to be as strong as steel. And yet, both materials can be used to make delicate works of art. I’ve been to the Corning Glass Museum to see glassblowers at work and the wide variety of objects they can make.

2.       Relation of videos to text – For both videos, it was helpful to actually see the steps in making a sculpture and to actually see how glass was made. The descriptions and pictures in the text are helpful but the videos provided much more information. I also think the video did a better job of showing the team effort involved in sculpture.

3.       Opinion of videos – As noted in number 2, both videos were helpful in showing the process of making these materials and the creative process. While it was interesting to see the work involved in getting the marble out of the mountain (and the potential danger involved) I felt the Through the Eyes of a Sculptor video spent too much time on the history of the community where the marble was quarried.