JC week 13: Sword Blade made from bible paper

NB: journal entry for the Jewellery and Small object module at South bank Griffith university (QCA) to view the full journal click here

Creation of the blade for JC final artwork.

paper blade : talks about the spiritual connection, non litteral, its not a weapon for physical battle but one for spiritual battles . The blade is made out of scriptures relating to core beliefs which have importants to me.

Direction of the writing on the blade : western reading/writing is left to right, top to bottom. So the writing will be directional from the hilt/handle of the blade towards the tip. Indicating the intended direction of the beliefs/scripture.

Note the blade has a threaded steel rod running its length, so that it can be displayed free standing. As mentioned in the proposal, this is to give the sword the appearance of weightlessness, referencing Bill Violas 'tristans asscention', and transendentalism.
Tho i feel that this work will be best displayed 'used' or as a performance item as it is something to be used and not displayed.

Bill Violas Tristan's Assention video still SOURCE: http://hyperallergic.com/114411/bill-violas-moving-void/

Creation of the final paper blade

BELOW: For this portion of the project I had proposed on using actual bible pages to construct the blade from. My local library has book sales on each saturday and I saved this king james version bible from the throw out box. It was torn, tattered, filled with foxing and had definately seen better days and appears to have not been read very often ( 1952 publication/print) as the pages are not feathered/marked/written in etc. I felt that using it for this project would give it new life and purpose.

BELOW: The first step was to line the molds ( 2 molds for each half of the blade creating a shell) with 6 layers of paper.The prototype blade only required 3 layers but due to the thin paper of the bible and the wax content of the paper double the number was required. The glue used for this process is bondcrete, chosen as it dries clear and rigid and is waterproof. These were then allowed to dry  for ONE hour, which is touch dry.

ABOVE: The still damp paper was then clamped, due to the thin bible paper it creased easily with the glue and needed to be flattened out. This was allowed to dry overnight ( 12 hours approx)

ABOVE: Once the two halves of the blade were dry the threaded steel rod (120cm in length) was layed into the lower half, making sure that 1 inch of the thread was exposed on the thinnest end of the blade ( for the stand) and the remainder was left exposed. At 3 inches from the thickest end of the paper blade a 3/8 inch bolt was thread onto the shaft. This would be inside the blade when finished holding the blade in place. The threaded steel and bolt were then layered with bible paper tightly around the shaft attaching it to the lower half of the molded blade. 

This again was allowed to dry for 1 hour ( touch dry time for bondcrete) then a futher 20 layers of bible paper (approx) were added to the inside of the blade until the entire inside is filled. A further hour for drying was allowed. While the internal paper was still damp the second half of the blade shell was place ontop. 

BELOW: Gentle pressure was applied to the two halves of the blade shell to aid in the bonding.

NOTE: the "brown" material around the blade is plastacine, I used this to support the lower mold as the added weight may have broken then mold and/or the blade shell.

The blade was then allowed to dry for 12hours (approx) then released from the mold. The blade then was lent vertically against a wall and allowed to air dry for a further 12 hours.(BELOW)

BELOW: Once dry a quick test of how the finished project would look aesthetically with all of the parts together.

The final layering of the sword blade would be the key scriptures from the bible that form and maintain my belief system. These are :

Ephesians 6

Colossians3
Peter 3
1 corithians 10
Hebrews 11 faith
Romans 14 some people eat what others cant
Titus leasdership
1 timothy 4
Proverbs 1 wisdom

John 1 17 moses and jesusRomans 3 23 salvation
I went through the bible (ABOVE) and gently removed the relevant scriptures and placed them next to the blade with the intention that they would not go to waste. (BELOW)

With the blade suspended between two tables I slowly and carefully added the scriptures to the blade, and dried them with a paint stripper. ( this was to minimise warping of the paper layers )

BELOW: The finished blade with final layers of bible paper.