It's Elemental: Barium

For the last art project of the school year this was a lot of fun. I enjoyed carving and printing, and I did not cut off a finger. This type of project wasn’t new to me because I printed during summer camp but didn’t focus on negative space or matting art. My element was Barium. Some interesting facts about Barium is that Sir Humphry Davy discovered Barium in 1808. It’s Atomic number is 56 Barium is found in salts that are used to make fireworks green. Barium is also used in metals to make them heavy sometimes used in silverware and X-rays. My print is called Barium Man. It suits the print because the carnie is holding up an anvil that is made by Barium. I had other sketches for Barium but this sketch was perfect At SLA we embrace using the five core values and during this project the values were useful in many areas.

Inquiry: The first question was which sketch shows the uses to Barium?  A good question that I asked myself was would this be easy to carve without cutting my self?

Research: To make my sketch I had to learn more about my element. I researched more about Barium to get an accurate design to see what it looks like. Based off of printing from before, your sketch should be easy to carve. Another thing is to know about negative space. If you know where your negative space is your print will turn out better than expected.

Collaboration: When it came time for printing we all collaborated as a whole to put out paints and take turns using the different rollers because there was more paint than rollers. Another way we collaborated as a whole was the clean up. We all came together to clean up the room when we were done so we wouldn’t be late to our next class.   

Presentation: For my presentation I matted the best print out of all the prints I made. I also decided to show the world my creations by blogging about them. It’s a good way to show off something you are proud off.

Reflection: Over all this was a fun project, if I could do it over I would try a new design that would have thicker lines and less detail. The more detail in the print the harder it was to carve. With a design that has thicker lines and less design it is easier to see the print and it looks a lot neater than mines was.