FMP21

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All done and installed. Was a pretty stressful few days. Self doubt and heat certainly didn’t help. Juggling home life, and running back and forth to Camden with a lot of items had its challenges .. relieved it’s done. Fingers crossed all stays in place for when people come to see it.

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Fully painted and hole for light cut out and light in place. Let the build commence..

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Exhibition time !!!!!whoo hooo .. today was a hot and sweaty few hours getting our spaces ready for our pieces to hung, installed .. whatever needed. More tomm, when we look at lighting and start places our pieces in place.

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Having a little dress rehearsal at home prior to setting up the exhibition after halfterm. Looking at how it will all come together .. this isn’t exact as not all pieces here .. but will give you a good idea though setting will be different and darker with lights.

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These are my final pieces .. glazed and ready to be fired. Will pick them up enroute to setting exhibition up !! Taking it to the wire .. 😬

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I had a few ants that I made first in three pieces. These I hand painted as needed to glue them together and not glaze and fire. I decided to personalise this little lot and had a lot of fun doing so.. you have:

Angeles wearing her pink face mask.

Suzanne with her paint brush.

Maria with her paper

Trish with her glasses

Jo with curly hair

Me in my apron

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Having attached the lighter wings .. I thought I’d see what she looked like in the crown. Wearing her own mini version.

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These are my second set of wings for the queen as first we’re too thick snd therefore heavy. So I created new ones with less resin.

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With the crowns glazed and fired I also added the gold on to those. Contemplating whether to add jewels or ant decals on the crowns .. which was the original plan however I’m now quite liking the simplicity of them given the queen is such a feature and will be inside.

I also added wings to my queen bee with will be an observer of the ant colony.

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After some careful surgery, including sanding, painting and a little gloss.. the queen is back in the game! Looking a little weathered .. but hopefully you won’t see it in my final installation.

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Tuesday 18th May: Got everything out of the kiln with a good mix of good and not so good. Ants all came out pretty well a few missing antennas or a leg here and there.. but the queen ., due to her weight and the poor quality of the nichrome wire pins slumped on to the pins.. the pins then crumbled .. needless to say a little repair work required. Surgery to commence.

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I have 8 ants, that haven’t been glazed due to having to have been glued together as they were my first ones which I made in three parts. I added their legs and antennas today.. and a part of me wishes I did the whole lot in white ., I love the way they look. I also find these 8 have more character.

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Having spent best part of an hour rubbing inka gold on this half of the crown .. I dropped it !!

So disaster ... 🤬

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Using inka gold to colour my broken crown .. and loving the effect.

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Starting the wings for the queen using silicone mould I made. Getting the wires to stay flat is proving difficult and it’s still ever so slightly out ... will continue to push down as drying.

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As an added precaution incase the wire slumps a little in the heat we took all the ants back out of the kiln and covered the trays in horticultural sand. Another option would have been a type of paper used when firing glass however this creates a lot of dust and therefore sand a safer option.

So all ants and crowns are in ! Fingers crossed for the big reveal on Friday!

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Protecting my sore thumb and finger with masking tape as I get the last 22 ants glazed and standing for the kiln!