melisbalcı

Back to the start

Posted by Melis Balcı

I cannot work with Kemal Abi anymore. I went to the studio on Thursday he said he was too busy and he told me to come on Friday. I went there on Friday, and he said they were going to go to a factory with M. Bishop’s class. So I had to wait whole weekend because he had to lock the doors. I went there Monday morning. But I couldn’t guess that the plaster would become so hard during those days. And when Kemal Abi started to put out the plaster, the eyeball broke into the pieces.

And I told him to do it all over again. But he didn’t accept he believed that we could repair it.

Then I spend my hours cleaning it. But the result was a disaster. It looked so bad. So from now on I quit trusting Kemal Abi, and I won’t work with him.

My father’s friend said he can help me. I went there to talk him. I can work with his workers and machines at the weekend.

Eyeball

Posted by Melis Balcı

Since polyester makes the object greenish or reddish, I have bought the “jelkot” which makes the eyeball transparent.

Firstly, I tried to make the eyeball out of plates ball. This try was a fail. Because the ball exploded since jelkot made it too hot.

So we decided to use a new ball and cover it with clay and then use the jelkot.

This failed again.

The ball couldn’t stand stable and while the jelkot was not dry, it fell over. Then I panicked. Then Kemal abi put some polyester while I was panicking. I couldn’t use it because it was green. And the reason I bought jelkot was not to use polyester. And since the clay was not something rigid, the polyester did not take the shape of the ball. So we decided to make the mold out of plaster. And then we covered it with jelkot.

And finally, after one night it was done. I’ll clean it up, insert the mechanism and unite the two parts with jelkot again.

And these are my charts. First one is my original one:

This one is the modified one since the year does not end at the 4th week of June. I shortened sone process.

Eyeball

Posted by Melis Balcı

I did my first attempt to make the eyeball part of the sculpture. After some discussions and brain-storming, best solution for the mechanism was to use an universal joint and make the sculpture turn around on its center by the use of step motor and sticks.

Then I had to decide the lightest material for the eyeball’s appearance. First, the best solution we could find was to make it out of thin metal strips and cover it with fabric. But after I talked with Kemal Abi, we decided on styrofoam instead of metal sticks.

Thursday I cut, arranged and pasted the blocks. It takes 12 hours the glue to set up so I had to wait.

On Friday, we started to shape it. It took the whole day. Then I had to make a hole behind the eyeball because that way it would be lighter and there would be a place to set up the mechanism.
In this photo I’m just posing because somebody has to hold the ball, so that the other one can cut with the machine.

On Monday Kemal Abi started doing something similar to universal joint. Because he said we did not need to buy an universal joint. Because he said, he had done that before and he could do it again. We did the mold with clay then we did the polyester. I was still shaping the styrofoam on Monday. And since there were lots of people in the studio- who are making themselves a coach- we slowed down. Also, we had to help Beren, too.

Polyester was not the best solution because of the friction, it is not something smooth. We placed it in the center of the eyeball on Tuesday, but the metal stick inside the polyester which connects the eyeball to the wall got out of the polyester joint that Kemal Abi did.

Besides, it could not even turn 30 degrees. So we had to find a new solution.

P.s: Scent of the polyester makes you vomit.