Teaching at CIA- started with tutorials, focusing on the development of ideas. In the afternoon gave a 2-hour Rhino 3D introductory demonstration. It was a hands on session, which I think went quite well.
Tuesday:
Back at the RCA to a busy week making the moulds for press-moulding and looking into rapid prototyping a model to produce a vacuum forming mould from. First of all I had to explore whether the cone pieces use true cones. Martin suspected they aren’t so I spent a few hours on the train & in the afternoon testing whether it’s possible to bring 2 truncated cones together with an even 2cm gap separating their ‘sharp’ ends. In the end I came to the conclusion that it’s not possible, the centre must be started from 2 circles, each lofted to the outer ends of the cones, then those lofted to each other.
Wednesday:
Started the day with a meeting with Nick Grace up in Rapidform. They are under pressure installing new machines and helping 2nd years prepare work for their final shows. Still, he gave me time to discuss preparing a Rhino model for production on the ZCorp machine. The cost is huge – 25p/cc doesn’t sound much but when my model is 1.34 litres we’re looking at £300! However, my models need scaling down to fit within the 250X200X200 bed size. So that will bring about a reduction in cost. Meanwhile, I returned to the analogue!
I had some plywood discs cut, based on Cone 6 dimensions. Angled lengths of 2X2 connected them. The space between the discs was then filled with clay.
Thursday:
Woke early so was in college by 8.00am. Continued with the moulds
< These are the inner cone moulds over which I'll form the clay. 
This is the outer cone made on Friday, with an extra disc on top. This one is to have the plaster applied directly onto the surface, building it out in line with the discs. When the former is removed & the plaster is dry, it can be used as a press mould for the outer cone.
At lunchtime we had another of our research cluster get togethers. They are an opportunity for one of us to discuss an aspect of their project. I set up the first meeting to help me define the core of my project. The perspective of my fellow students is extremely helpful, though our projects are quite different to each others, we have enough overlaps and shared interests to make our group very supportive.
Today, I had invited Alison Britton to discuss her new work on show at Barrett Marsden Gallery.
At the opening night Alison used phrases like "taking risks", "loosening up" and "relaxing", and it was these aspects of moving towards a new body that I thought were relevant to some of us. One of the most interesting parts was her description of how a piece of work can initiallly be inspired by a theme, such as a place, a piece of writing, personal views and that it may loose it's link to it's original starting point as the piece progresses. The title always comes last and generally doesn't have a relationship with the original theme.
The question I would like to ask Alison is "How does a viewer then interpret the piece? What are the criteria and how much are we expected to understand of the context in which the the work is made?" These may seem like naive questions, but for me that are worth pursuing.
Friday:
I was in two minds about staying in London this coming wekend to complete my moulds and visit some galleries. However, my eldest daughter, Rowan wil be home from Manchester, the garden and the surrounding countryside are so beautiful at this particular time of year and the fact that I can have some time to relax has made it an easy decision to go for the 18.45 train north. I'll also be able to prepare the written parts for the interim examination scheduled for the 24th.
From the backdoor, looking across the side garden towards the woods
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