Styrofoam Cup Sculpture
Styrofoam Carvings:
This project entails creating intricate and purposeful designs in a styrofoam cup that utilize the Elements and Principles of Space, Balance, Line, Unity, and Value. You will be taking some type of carving tool available to you and eliminating negative space from the cup, leaving behind a positive space that interacts with its surroundings in an interesting and unique manner, including the shadows and highlights when illuminated.
Negative Space
Negative spaces refers to the area of a project that is void of a physical body or structure; the air or empty space around an object.
In this case, the negative space refers to the cut out designs you will create using an x-acto knife in to the styrofoam walls of your luminary. This way, the light will shine through.
In this example, you can see the spaces eliminates creates a unique design that balances the top and the bottom. The designs coordinate and match with the overall theme and the lines of the styrofoam lead your eye all around the sculpture to create unity. This cup has a type of asymmetry.
Positive Space
Positive space involves the use of physical or illustrated space, with markings on a paper or a literal material that we can see and touch.
With your luminary, the positive space is the actual styrofoam you will be using to build your structure, plus the pieces you cut out and reassemble in to the cup to create intricate designs.
In this example, you can see the positive space lines lead your eye up from the bottom to the sphere at the top, and within the sphere the lines are balanced to create a full composition. This cup has a type of symmetry.
Here are some of the tools you can use to carve out your designs from the styrofoam cups:
X-Acto Knife - this is a smaller blade than a utility knife (box cutter). It is used for precision, small details, and is fit for lighter weight materials, such as styrofoam or paper.
Utility Knife - this is also called a box cutter and is a larger blade used for larger details and cuts. This blade is more useful for heavier materials such as cardboard.
Scissors - while scissors are able to cut styrofoam, it will not give you the neatest and cleanest cuts. Scissors can be used for larger base cuts that are straightforward (no turns).
Metal Rib - this is an unorthodox tool to use and works like an X-Acto blade. A "rib" is an oblong metal tool that is primarily used for smoothing out clay surfaces. The edge of the rib can be used to make cuts or scores (cuts that don't go the whole way through) into the styrofoam surface.
Stylus stick - a small wooden dowel, or stylus stick, can be used to poke negative space holes in the surface. It is a great tool to use when you don't want to carve away, but rather just have negative holes in the styrofoam. Be careful, however, when you use the stylus stick or a small dowel, you may some extra overhang from the hole, so make sure you eliminate it somehow (knife).
You can also use other tools to poke holes: bobbi pin, paper clip, stick from outside, pencils, etc.
Plastic Knife - again, similar with the scissors, this tool creates a large cut that isn't the neatest, but it will be able to do the job if nothing else is available. Remember to clean up any stray bits of styrofoam that are left behind with heavy cuts from the plastic knife and scissors.
Examples of Styrofoam Cup Carvings... please pay attention to how every bit of the cup is used! Pieces are cut out and then reattached and reassembled to be included in the full finished design. The negative spaces and positive spaces, when illuminated, create an interesting pattern and design on the surface, allowing the light and shadow to be a part of the finished compositional design.
TURN IT IN
For your project, you will use carving techniques to create a luminary structure that uses negative space cut-outs to enhance the space, illumination of the candle, and design.
You need to submit the following for grading:
Sketches and notes, detailing how you are going to proceed with your plan. (done in class)
At least 3 final photos of the top, sides, and bottom of the finished luminary, LIT and UNLIT.
When you submit a photo of the cup illuminated, there either must be a light shining ON it or from INSIDE it using a tealight candle (battery powered: NO FLAMES!). This way I can see the shadows interact with the background
The background and table surface must be completely solid, so you can set up paper around it. See the examples above to get ideas.