Venturing into the DNA World.

A DNA project in process...

The "under-glaze" has been applied.

“Complicated”, “challenging” and “patience”, are the words that keep bouncing around in my head as I’ve been working on this representation of DNA in sculpture.

The “helix” I’m realizing is practically impossible to make in it’s actual likeness in clay.

But who needs actual likeness? This is art, and a representation is something that will also work.

So I’m experimenting, entering the wierd and crazy "nano-world" of the inside of a single human cell. First, I created a central hollow tube of clay curving around here and there. I wanted it to look like it is floating in liquid, like inside a human cell. This core is the “structure” on which to build the swirling helix strips and the core structure of other “balls” (very scientific in my terms eh?) of the DNA circling along with the swirls. I hope that the photo above will help makes sense of this crazy sentence.

Now, to make the strip swirls and those balls you see showing on the central black tube, the tube had to dry enough to support itself. It is only then that I could actually build all the swirls completely around the central tube. So I had to make things in sections. Doing what I could with all the braces in place, (the swirls and the balls) then when it became dry enough to take the supports away, I could continue in those rather difficult locations.

I could not lift the piece and set it upside down for example so it became quite a job dealing with the “underside” parts, making the strips smooth and continuous.  

The rest of the inner DNA matter is represented by the balls protruding from the centre core. See the first two pictures where You can see I made a lot of balls, cut them in half when they are a little dried, and painted them with under-glaze before I “set” them on that tube. Doing it that way helped give them a better edge between their color and the black of the tube. If some of the bonding clay squished out I could wipe it away quickly with a dry brush. That usually left somewhat of a smudge on the black tube, but usually away from the edge of the ball I’d just placed. I also got finger marks on the black tube in the process of setting the balls so after that was all done I had to go over the black tube and touch it up.

Then I painted the strips in under-glaze also. Everything needed three coats so that also took a while. Most of the balls also needed further coats.

The plan now is for the piece to dry and be bisque fired. Then I will paint clear glaze on the swirling stripes and on the balls. Not on the black inside tube. That way the DNA aspect will stick out with strong bright color while the inner core tube will remain a dull un-interesting black. This I hope will then be a backdrop (support) that kind of disappears while the rest stands out as the DNA proper.

And I used to think God knowing the number of hairs on our heads was impressive...

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

Psalm 139:13