My next experiment was with sandwiched Perspex sheets. I melted Jelly Babies onto a sheet of Perspex and then sandwiched another piece on top. This created a really nice speckled effect with the sweets. I took pictures of the samples when placed over a light and the colours look really effective. The light turns the sweets an orangy brown colour and looks almost jewel like when placed over light.

These images are of my Perspex Jelly Baby samples. I used the photocopier to print these pattern like images onto acetate. I really like the different tones and the overlapping of the images. However, they have printed quite dark and I think they would look much better printed in colour. I do think these pieces have potential. I really like the darker spaces where the acetate overlaps, and the pieces are very intresting.

So today I managed to get my hands on some mirrored Perspex. I really wanted to see what the reflections would look like if I melted the Jelly Babies directly onto the surface. The problem I found with using this material is that the surface bubbled and warped slightly when exposed to the blow torch for too long. I decided to cover some sections with really thick layers of the melted mix and cover some other areas with not that much - to see if you could see the reflections. However, 5 bags of Jelly Babies later and the whole sheet was covered. Although the colours are a bit too strong next to one another, I think the piece is quite successful. The colours have blended into each other to create sections of really nice contrast between the charred surface and the dull colour underneath. Teamed with the reflective surface underneath, I think it works really well. My only issue are the colours. I think if I continue on with this idea, I would chose a more limited colour pallet. This piece would be much more successful with some kind of other interest on top of the Jelly Babies and maybe in smaller sections as I think the surface is just too large and busy.

OHP revisited

So the earlier samples that I created, that haven't really got much build up of burnt sugar, have a really nice effect when placed over the OHP. I really wanted to further explore the potential of shadow and light. The colours from the inside of the sweet really shine through and this makes some really nice coloured shadows on the wall. I took photos from these shapes on the wall and I also tried photocopying them in black and white, and hopefully will be able to get on the colour copier soon. The drawings I took work well in smaller sections rather than a whole random composition. They are beginning to remind me of little biological samples. I might begin to play more on this idea.The only problem is the mass of black that doesn't really have any interesting features. However I like the tone in the coloured sections. 

Wine Gums & Midget Gems

So I have now experimented with about 4 different types of Jelly sweets. So far I have used Jelly Babies mainly but I wanted to see if I could find a sweet thats a bit more colourful when burnt. First I tried midget gems, these are really hard and I didn't think they'd work too well but they actually created a really nice effect. However, it was very difficult to spread the mixture around as it solidified so quickly after melting. The underneath of the sweets stayed in tact however the top layer when really black and crispy. I like the effect but the technique is not practical at all.  Then I tried out using wine gums, these had the complete opposite effect and melted really nicely with their colour still intact, however the mixture did not really go solid again, so just stayed as a wet sticky mess - the consistency of lemon curd. I created a small sample piece of each.
I still think Jelly Babies are definatly still the best materials to suit the effect I wantt.

Rich Walker

Rich Walker is an artist who works a lot with Texture. I came across his work on a blog I found whilst researching methods. He uses a build up of colour to create beautiful textured panels. This reminded me of previous sweet pieces I had experimented with. I will try building the colours up to create an interesting textured piece like the one in the image below. I will try dripping the sweets onto plastic to create a random stringy effect. 

Finally Dry!!

So the first pieces of work I created were part of an experiment I tried to see how the sweets react in different enviroments. I placed each sample in a different part of the house to see how they would react over time. The piece that reacted the best, was left on the window sill in clear view of the sun. The sweets have dried out over time, meaning that although the piece is not solid, it is now not sticky and therfore a much more practical material.