Troweling plaster wet and carving it back before the surface sets hard.

Relief work · 05:10

Plaster only stays workable for a short window before it sets, so this film moves fast: a trowel loads the surface in thick ridges, and Ariesson carves back into it with a palette knife while it is still soft enough to move but firm enough to hold an edge. Dust lifts into the lamp light with every pass. The last minute of the film is quiet — plaster setting under his hand, no more carving possible, just the shape it has settled into.

Materials Used

Casting plaster, palette knives, wide plastering trowel, oak panel base.

The Finished Piece

Relief Study III

The carved surface from this film was later sealed and given a thin pigment wash that settled into every cut, darkening the low points and leaving the ridges pale.

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