Painting the Box

When I got round to actually painting my whole box in the Jesmonite cement solution, I had to wait a week as Fine Art said they were too busy during the rest of the week, but the technician who'd helped me with the solution for the samples wasn't there so I was sceptical mixing it myself as these were materials I was incredibly unfamiliar with, yet I feel this was quite beneficial for me to sort things out myself and come up with the right amount suitable for covering the box.

I made a solution with 200g of liquid Jesmonite, 450g of powder solid Jesmonite and 2 tablespoons of water. I was really pleased with the outcome of the texture and colour, it looked and had the same consistency of the original mix the technician had made for me. 

When painting the box I didn't realise it was possibly too runny for a 3-dimensional object, unless I'd let each side dry which may have taken all day, I therefore only allowed a short amount of time for it to try as on the samples it didn't run as they were on a flat surface. Therefore especially on the second larger side featured in the third image there was some drips of mixture than unexpectedly ran down the opposite direction as I turned the box around to paint different sides. Ideally all the surfaces would be like that in the second image, I was really pleased with the grainy bobbly imperfect outcome. This I feel looks more accurately like cement poured roughly to make a block. 

    

It was furthermore quite a struggle figuring out how to cover the edge of the box containing the Rasta laser cut font, if like the other sides I'd poured the mixture over it to try get the smoothest coverage without brush marks it would've covered the lettering completely as it was too thick, I therefore initially used the brush then my finger to mix in the mixture finely into the rasta cut out. Using a brush I tried to make the edges round the box more defined but the brush I was using was too thick and this was the only brush given to me suitable to be used with this mix. I ended up using tissue paper to try blend the edges a little but ensuring the font was still visible. 

As for the inside of the box I'm obviously not going to leave it as it is as it looks messy and the drips of cement mixture are accidental, I may paint it black to reflect the mystery of the templates inside or have it in a matching grey colour which seems more appropriate and after feedback from peers would be more consistent with the Brutalist theme. It could also hint at the structural components on the inside of buildings mimicking the colour of the metal beams as well as the outside walls. Had I had more time and known the mixture was possibly too runny to get it all done in a few hours, I would've let each side dry properly although personally I prefer the imperfections and runny drips as this is more my style, it's less Liam's style and less Brutalist.