Jasmine's new bench designs

After our last meeting, Jasmine drew these images in response to student input that the public art piece have some sort of seating component combined with the lockers and the notion of student life. The designs will be made from tinted concrete and steel.  Students, please consider these designs for our next meeting with Jasmine.  Do these designs reflect your intent?  Jasmine has asked that we collect the objects to be cast as part of the piece.  Can you suggest any objects that might be added or are missing?  We will likely not be able to create all of these designs at once, therefore which ones do you like the best? Are there any aspects of student life you would like to see that is not yet represented? Bring all your ideas to our next meeting.  Look for more postings later this week with the updated landscape designs so you can consider how these might be placed in the space.

plaster reinforcement to "mini lockers"

Jasmine visited us again at the beginning of February to show students how to reinforce our "mini locker" molds.  She began the demo by having students place pins along the back and into the rubber casting they had created already. She then applied some packing tape to create a barrier between plaster pieces.  This will allow for two halves ensuring support but ease of release after the concrete sets.  Students learned to mix plaster appropriately and apply it when it was ready to one side.  While we waited for the first side to set, Jasmine showed the student the designs that our landscape company, SKALA had put together for us. We then discussed how the design would work with what we had planned and narrowed down our original sketches to focus on seating and student life as the main aspects for design inspiration.  This was a critical juncture as SKALA's design included seating and students might have easily considered the locker cement molds as stand alone art pieces rather than functional additions to the space.  It seemed unanimous that students wanted something they could use as seating in particular within the design.  Jasmine suggested "bench tops"that we could create out of concrete using the locker form and using the everyday objects we had practiced casting.  This concrete could be cast in any variety of colours and therefore stand out against the comparatively plain rectangular seating forms that SKALA had suggested as part of their beautiful designs.  This was an exciting and interesting way to mimic the final process of casting.