Monty Python's complete waste of air.

Monty Python's complete waste of air.  16" x 17" x 2.5" thick.  Air in glass.  2006

silly walking and holy grail detail

dead parrot detail

MP foot detail

This is a piece I did for second-semester glass-working class (advanced glass).  Our project was to come up with a "commemorative piece" and use the method of sand-casting for our creation.

I chose to commemorate Monty Python.  My parents (especially my dad) love Monty Python and so I grew up loving them as well.  I appreciate the silliness and Monty Python's self-awareness of their silliness.  I also think that smiling and laughing are among life's greatest treasures, and Monty Python does a great job at creating smiles and laughs.  To commemorate Monty Python, I decided to make them a trophy.  First place for comedy!  The trophy is made out of air which is surrounded by glass (if I was going to commemorate silliness, I had to be silly, right?).  I decided to call the piece "A complete waste of air" in irony: indeed, this piece is more so a waste of glass.  In fact, this piece is incredibly heavy. 

In case you are unfamiliar with Monty Python, I shall explain each element that makes up the trophy.  On the top, we have a "silly walker", which is in reference to a re-occurring skit from Monty Python's Flying Circus (a TV show).  The silly walker is standing on the holy grail, which is of course from Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail.  The grail is sitting on two cans of Spam ("Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spammity spaaaam!"), which are flanked by a dead parrot on one side (from the Dead Parrot skit), and the Monty Python foot on the other (from everything Monty Python).  The base is, alas, just a base.

To make this piece, I first had to create sculptures of each element ("positives") and then cast them all in plaster in the trophy form; this made a "negative" of my piece.  Then I cast bonded sand in my plaster mold to create a positive with the sand.  Then I used that sand casting to create my final piece; I created a frame and sand bottom on which I place my sand casting.  Then I poured molten glass over the sand (actually... someone else had to do this part for me b/c this piece required so much glass that I couldn't lift the ladle).  The result was negative space (air) surrounded by glass.  You can see that the bonded sand positive broke in a couple of pieces, especially on the stand (it was made of sand, after all...) resulting in a less than perfect air trophy.  Oh well.