Concrete Bookends: Egyptian Cat God Bastet

[Hermes2020]

I have not been able to do much art work for a few weeks, because a lot of my time has been taken up with upgrading my PC. Now that the upgrade has been done successfully, I've been able to get back to some of my experiments with concrete. So, I finally finished the Bastet cat god bookends. I took an existing Bastet image, but put a contemporary twist on it by applying my favourite slicing technique to it. I wanted to give the concrete a patina that made the bookends look like ancient artifacts, but without looking too kitschy. I think I have managed to make them look battered and old, as if they were found in a tomb in Egypt.

I included some objects in the second photo to give a sense of scale.

 

[pcj]

These are beautiful.
How did you do them ?
Cheers,
Patricia

 

[ntl]

Your work is beautiful. Yours is a worthy interpretation.

 

[Hermes2020]

Thank you Patricia and ntl.

 

[Hermes2020]

These are beautiful.
How did you do them ?
Cheers,
Patricia

I used my usual material, rapid set concrete, for the cats and the black stands, reinforced internally with another staple material of mine: stainless steel mesh. I sliced the model in Rhino 7, printed the slices, and cast the slices in moulds made of plasticine slabs that were rolled out 4mm thick on vinyl sheets. The slice profiles were cut into the plasticine slabs. The concrete slices were then glued together with concrete slurry.

 

[Triduana]

These are fantastic!

 

[Artyczar]

These are amazing. Do you sell them? I can see them in high demand. Absolutely superb!

 

[Hermes2020]

These are amazing. Do you sell them? I can see them in high demand. Absolutely superb!

It's nice of you to say that. These will not be sold; I made them for someone close to me who is a great reader. She has just gone through a trying time, so I hope they will cheer her up.

 

[Donna T]

Wow! These are incredible and so beautiful! Thanks for explaining how you made them - what a process! What a generous and thoughtful gift these are.

 

[Hermes2020]

Thank you Donna!

 

[Hermes2020]

Sorry, guys, but I forgot to mention the size earlier: they stand 240mm high.

 

[Enyaw]

I don't care how but you did them and they are great. They look old and antique without the garish look of an imitation. Great job.

 

[Hermes2020]

I don't care how but you did them and they are great. They look old and antique without the garish look of an imitation. Great job.

I am so glad you think so, because the person I made them for as a gift has impeccable taste. That's why I wanted to avoid a kitsch look at all cost, which I think I have, judging by the responses here.

 

[ZenDruid]

These look great. Your process is amazing! You definitely got the ancient patina.

 

[Hermes2020]

These look great. Your process is amazing! You definitely got the ancient patina.

Thank you!

 

[laika]

Yup, the process sounds very interesting and the effect is definitely impressive. Very well done!

 

[triss]

These are absolutely beautiful - love the surface finish, and that shot of their profile is phenomenal. I don't even like cats, but I'd be thrilled to have these on my shelves - I'm sure your friend will treasure them! It's about twenty-odd years since I messed about with digital 3D (back when Rhino was at version 1/2, I think), but it's really interesting to read how that plays a part in your process.

 

[Hermes2020]

Yup, the process sounds very interesting and the effect is definitely impressive. Very well done!

 

[Hermes2020]

These are absolutely beautiful - love the surface finish, and that shot of their profile is phenomenal. I don't even like cats, but I'd be thrilled to have these on my shelves - I'm sure your friend will treasure them! It's about twenty-odd years since I messed about with digital 3D (back when Rhino was at version 1/2, I think), but it's really interesting to read how that plays a part in your process.

Thank you very much. I do a lot of digital sculpture to work out details of the size, composition, and technical details of my sculptures. Recent Rhino versions have powerful rendering capabilities as well. I used to do photorealistic rendering in Cinema 4D, but find I can do everything in Rhino 7 now. I play around with ideas in ZBrush as well, because it behaves like traditional clay. But for parametric work down to an accuracy of 0.1mm in my case, I use Rhino.

 

[snoball]

These are simply amazing. The recipient will be delighted.