For my sculptures, I decided to replicate a wooden clothes peg in 4 different materials. They are enlarged to the scale factor of 4.7:1(+/-) but still have the same proportions as the original. I wanted to experiment, more with materials than with the shape, scale or size to too much of an extent. I chose 4 very different materials that all had interesting qualities that would provide different weights, textures, colours, even elasticity and toughness/weakness are important factors that create a different experience when feeling each of the objects. I started with a pine peg, with aluminium wire for the spring:

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I used the large wooden peg to create my first ever silicone mould, ready for casting the next few pieces:

Then I poured, firstly the plaster of paris, I used the copper wiring for a nice contrast between the colours of the peg and spring:

I continued to pour a wax, then a concrete version of the same peg, using either aluminium or copper wiring for the springs. I left an amount of the concrete in a pot to the side as a proving pot to let me know when the concrete was dry:

  

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The springs were difficult to get right, by holding the pegs together without putting too much pressure on the more brittle materials used. I used a whisks handle to keep the sizing consistent and close enough to the correct scale factor. You can see where I began to run short of wire for the last 2 springs, forcing me to wind them less tightly. This is nicely disguised by the peg itself:

Unfortunately I had a breakage of the concrete peg, where the mixture had dried with a crack in the body and made it extremely fragile. I had some leftover epoxy glue which I then used to fix the concrete peg. Although it has held it together securely, I would need to sand it well to conceal the crack, unfortunately I didn’t have a suitable tool or glass paper to do this, but the other side looked fine:

I was actually very happy with the outcomes and my particular favourite is the plaster and copper peg. All of the pegs remain functional but i’m not sure they’re particularly useable. I was so very tempted to experiment by partially melting/burning the wood and wax pegs for an interesting abstraction of the originals. Equally I wanted to experiment with breaking the concrete one into pieces, to then reassemble it with epoxy glue for an industrial abstraction and glazing the plaster peg with a shiny metallic glaze to imitate a metal peg. Unfortunately I couldn’t pluck up the courage to do so, in case I lost the piece all together:

 

From top to bottom; Plaster and copper, wax and aluminium, wood and copper, concrete and aluminium.

From top to bottom; Wax, wood, plaster, concrete.