Exploring geological shapes

As a starting point for some sketchbook experiments, I have taken some geological shapes and colours that appeal. 

musée cantonal de géologie - wikipedia
this photo reminds me of hermits caves
I can't help wondering what's lurking inside.
A good image for my inner/outer person work

'Bulls eyes' in malachite
http://midgagmsorg.ipage.com/?page_id=1105

Malachite always catches my attention. The colour to start with - it's so very intense!
And the shapes keep your attention going round and round - and intrinsic excellent composition - it's unpredictable but all at one with itself.  

malachite pattern wallpaper from decorpad.com

I'm not the only one who finds this attractive.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/
York-Wallcoverings-Urban-Chic-Malachite-Wallpaper-
RK4508/206976952 caption

I want to have a go at making these shapes and colour relations.



The black and white is here to help me with the tone relationships.


There is also something so interesting about the geological layers in rocks. I particularly like the way they combine the hardness and the friability in one. You can't help seeing the immense timeline involved in making this shape.

This is actually a drawing! by the very patient Kate Atkin
http://visualsundae.com/post/26174216691/kate-atkin-drawing

And sometimes the colours are so vibrant and complex.
It reminds you that the most intense colours are usually made from rocks.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/cusco-peru-rainbow-mountains-south-america-371464/

https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1082467
Canyon rock landscape nature mountain usa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onyx

And look at the complexity of this image. Fantastic!
rock-273392_960_720.jpg

I haven't been able to find the kind of striations I am looking for (which I'm sure exist!) which look a bit like a colourful bendy supermarket code bar. 

What do these images that look beautiful to me have in common?
- intense colours
- wide tonal range from pale to dark
- repeating shapes that despite being repeated are all different from each other 
- the awesomeness of nature 

I want to work with all of these images, but for next time it's going to be the malachite.

https://www.minerals.net/mineral/malachite.aspx

Sample 1:

Using felt in a variety of colours and paper glue I made spirals to capture some of the qualities of the appearance of malachite.
And I made it from double thickness strips which I then cut in half to produce a flatter top surface. 

The four colours weren't working together, and they were far from flat on the top.

Sample 2:

For this sample I used only three of the colours, reflecting the light, medium and dark tones of the actual malachite. 

But the dark brown didn't quite work with the others.

I noticed that using strips all starting at the same point and then rolling them created some unnecessary resistance to making the final shape.

Sample 3:


These quiet circles were made without the neon green. I was getting the hang of the glueing process by now and it shows in the relative neatness.





Sample 4:

This one is made without the brown, and I think the combination of colours has more of the intensity of the rock. (Although at this point I'm just playing around so the moment that the intensity matters is well in the future).
On the right is the same one cut into 2 with large scissors.





Here's the best one of all.

Putting all these spirals together gave me this, which is fun, but I wondered whether making concentric circles would reflect the structure of the rock better than spirals.

Sample 5: 

First I reflected on the best combination of colours. Given that I needed one light, one medium and one dark, the choice was between excluding the dark green, or excluding mid-light tone teal. I went for keeping the mid tone green just because it was nearer to the middle of the two other colours.

 For this concentric circle sample I sewed the strips together instead of gluing them, thinking that it would be easier and allow me to create more interesting shapes than gluing. This first one I made a soft triangle, with two colours in the middle, just like a shape on the wallpaper above.


Sample 6:







Here are samples 5 & 6 joined together. The colours are different because the light is much lower now.

I was able to introduce some of the more organic aspects of the shapes here - different depths of different colours, incomplete circles. These certainly worked better than the spirals, but the sewing meant they took a lot longer to make.






What I learned from making these samples:

• There are three colours (light, medium and dark) plus accent lines, and it's likely to be difficult to find felt in the correct tones. Neon doesn't work as the light colour as it comes forward in the wrong way
• Fabric glue works better than paper glue!
• The finished concentric circles are soft, appealing, and probably hardwearing.
• They look best when there's a spot of one dark or light colour in the middle (or both)
• They are not circles! They are 'compression fit' shapes of different compositions and sizes that gives malachite some of it's variability.
• Making the strips the width of two circles allows me to sew the bottom too and make two at once. They are not identical because there is a loss of structure and some of the layers at the bottom.
• Having variable thickness of the colours is part of the organic look
• Gluing is quicker, but sewing is much tidier and allows deliberate shaping.

What I could try next time:

1. Make a lot more concentric circles with organic type pattern breaks
2. Use PVA or fabric glue instead of paper glue
3. Make longer cylinders that I can cut into slices
4. Try different slicing tools
5. What if I make some with thick but frayable fabric?
6. Or different textures of fabric?
7. How does it work if I sew all the slices in the cylinder separately before slicing?
8. How can I pack them together to enhance the compression fit effect?
9. What if I make the same shapes but with flat cut-out shapes superimposed on each other?