Making my Crucifix with mod-rock

Earlier today three of us went out and purchased the mod-rock we needed as the school didn't have any so we needed to get our own. We quickly popped in to town to buy it during break.

Using the mod-rock was actually quite simple, we had to cut the rolls into small strips, and quickly put them in water so they were covered in it. This way the cement like stuff on it would spread out and also stick it to the sculpture like cement. I covered my crucifix in the mod-rock until it was a few layers thick so you couldn't see the wire sticking out from underneath. Simple task it may have been it was quite messy and it covered our hands in white cement like stuff which was quite hard to get off.

I then left it to dry, meanwhile i wanted to print out the pictures i took with the film camera on the weekend. I just followed the normal procedure of putting everything together in the black bag and putting the film on the reel, i then put the different solutions in the container with the film in it to develop it ready to print out the pictures.

once I had completed this task i noticed that only 2 of my pictures had actually come out which was extremely disappointed as all the other pictures i took were a complete waste of time. I was going to print out both my pictures but one of them was too overexposed so there was no point in printing it out as you could barely even see it. However next time I'll be much more careful with this as i know what i did wrong now and ill do it better, I'm glad i did my test shoot with a film camera as it would have been a complete disaster if these were my final shoots and only one of the pictures ended up being use able.

My crucifix had now dried so i began painting it. I decided to paint it a dark purple colour, not for any reason in particular. I first wanted to paint it silver but there was no silver paint so i had to choose from another range of colours. The purple was quite dark so i thought it would be okay and wouldn't look too peculiar.

I think the end result of it turned out to be okay there were a few dents in it where the mod-rock had sunk into the metal mould. It wasn't completely even all over however i think it was quite good, it was quite a difficult and long procedure all together and took quite a long time.

Developing My ideas.

I started today off by printing out my test shoots and sticking them into my sketch book and then annotating them. After i had completed this task I started to decide what i was going to mount my pictures on and what i would make.

At first i was thinking of things which would be relevant to my photos and my ideas of witchcraft, ghosts and fear/evil.

So i first thought of making a wigi board however to make a proper wigi board and for it to actually look good would consume way too much time and would be far too complicated. Also i wouldn't have any room to put my pictures on as it would cover up the board itself, so i decided against this idea.

My second idea was to create a book of shadows, which is basically a spell book that witches are said to use. This would be quite simple all i would need is a big leather book and i could decorate the cover to look relevant to the subject of my project. What i was planning on doing was to take loads of pictures and put them inside the book with spells and charms written underneath, although i wasn't completely happy with this so i thought of what else i could do.

The third thing i considered was to design my own Wicca altar, which i would make with a wooden box or small table and hang the pictures off around it if it was a table like curtains, or if it was a box on top of it and inside it. However i needed other things for this such as a pentacle, an athame (basically a double bladed knife), a cauldron and a wand, typical things you would have at a Wicca altar. So this became too complicated as there was no possibility of me getting a hold of all these objects and a box or table with pictures hanging of it was simply too boring for my liking.

So i decided to think of less complicated things which we're easier to make and didn't involve me having to buy/find any peculiar objects.

The first idea which came to mind was to simply make a pentacle/pentagram with some wire and then mod rock later and then hang the pictures off it. I thought this idea would be suitable as its a symbol of witchcraft and magic.

However a better idea came to light which was to make a cross out of wire and then put the pictures on it. I thought this would be quite a contrast to the pictures which represent dark and black magic. A few centuries ago when Christians believed there to be witches or witchcraft present in the area they went on a witch-hunt to find them and kill them as they were considered to be evil and devil worshippers. So i thought it would be quite thought provoking if the person looking at my project just saw a cross with pictures of a witch or witchcraft in it. However I thought it would work well because its almost as if they're opposite, as they were enemies. So a cross would be a good thing to mount my pictures on.
By the end of the day i had began designing my cross out of wire, which was quite a simple task which i would have imagined to be quite complicated. I have now made the mould of my cross and next week ill put some mod rock on it to make it more textured and a nicer shape obviously. After that I will paint it and put my pictures on it once i have taken them.
I also decided that I would take some more test shoot photos to have some more practice and be more precise on what exactly i want to photograph. This time however I've decided to use a film camera to have more practice using so therefore my final pictures will turn out better.

Test shoots.

Here are a few of the pictures i took for the test shoot of my main three ideas, which are magic, fear and ghosts. Although this is only the test shoot so the actual pictures will obviously be better than these as they will have a lot more effort put intoI'd say this picture represents magic and fear. The light of the candle could be associated with magic and the way she is looking into the light. The smudged black makeup also adds to the effect of the photo. Its quite a dark picture, which would make it seem more related to fear.

I think this picture represents magic, the circle of candles is something which is typically known to be magic-like. Also the stripey socks are also considered to be witchy.
Tarot is definitely associated with magic, it could also be with fear. Because tarot cards have been perceived as evil many times in the years they've been around. The candles again add to the effect especially because of the way they are positioned, in a circle.

This picture was meant to look like the girl in the picture was a ghost, so we dressed her up in this specific outfit for it to stand out in the dark room. However it doesn't look too ghostly, you cant see her feet though so she could be hovering above the ground and her face is quite distorted too.