Assemblage Sculpture

When first introduced to this project, I knew I wanted to use an object/objects that I used frequently, and while brainstorming and originally planning to do this project WHILE I was away I also needed something that was very accessible and required also accessible materials. For the card rose, I simply needed cards, a pen to roll them, scissors, and glue. Hot glue would work best for this project, but I did not have any at hand so I did initially decide to use a sort of liquid cement to see if it would stick because I didn’t really trust normal glue. This didn’t end up working, so I decided that I would have time to do this project when I got back and I was correct. I chose cards for my medium because things such as card games have been important to my family for a long time. A lot of the memories I have of us all together and us with more distant family members are mostly while playing card games. They have been an important part in ‘family bonding’ and just getting along and getting together in general, and although these things don’t happen nearly as often now as people get older, I still wanted to preserve this memory using these cards. I also knew that I wouldn’t have things such as tin cans and buttons available to me while away, and although at home I maybe would have had some of these things at home I still wouldn’t have had all of them so the playing card rose was the absolute best option for me. For this project I was also trying to figure out just how to make something such as playing cards into a work of art, I had never used them for something like this before, and I knew my medium before my idea so I began to research ideas for my project to ensure that I could use the cards.

This project began with a plan to use less materials than I actually ended up using. Initially the materials for this project were simply playing cards, hot glue, scissors, and a pen. However in the end I ended up using things such as cardboard, face roses, pinecones, and felt like making a complete piece rather than just one little thing. I made the rose the highlight of my piece, but surrounded it with the ‘extra’ materials. Another “material” I used was a video on how to actually cut and fold the cards to make the rose, but after seeing how to cut and fold them I ditched the video because the process was actually more simple than you might expect. All I really needed was the guidelines on how to cut the cards and just how many I needed, after that I was on my way. You cut less off of the cards as you get further out of the rose, closer to the outer edges, and more as you get to the inside. Though the center is just one card rolled up and glued together. The hot glue worked perfectly, it was a perfect material to hold the rose together and was very efficient due to the fact that it dried very quickly. The hot glue kept the cards in the position that I needed them in, and allowed me to fold them more even after gluing. When I was done with the playing card rose, I knew I wanted to create a surface for it to sit on using materials I had gotten from the classroom as well as from my own recycle bin. From my own recycle bin, I cut off a section of cardboard that would be perfect for this, and glued the felt (which had been cut to resemble grass), the roses, and the pine cone onto it all around the rose. I also used tape and newspaper to make the armature that resembled the stem.

The first process was really about deciding what material to use, and if it would work, as well as what I wanted to do with this material. After this, there was a single idea. The first revision/decision was made in the first gluing process. I didn’t have access to hot glue where I was, and when I tried to use a different adhesive it did not work so I knew I needed hot glue. The project began as a smaller idea than it ended up being, and the big revision/experiment was when I decided to add things such as cardboard, a pine cone, felt, and fake roses in order to create a landscape for this creation to sit onto. The research component was really just on how to make the rose, and after getting the basic instructions I was on my own and created this by myself. In the end, I am satisfied with this piece and actually think that this project and this challenge was fun and was a nice experience.