tactile femme sculpture by Lisa J. Murphy

tactile femme is a project I completed in 2019.  The following image is a clay sculpture of a woman’s inner thighs, her clitoris, labia & anus.  Wire mesh is used for pubic hair. The mesh has a great texture.

tactile femme by Lisa J. Murphy. Sculpture of a woman's inner thighs, vulva, and anus.

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A couple photos and description of hand-pressing/thermoforming Bullet Belt Diagram 13 from ‘tactile mind’ the book.

Just a couple pictures of me (Lisa J. Murphy) pressing pages of  tactile mind at home.  For those who have  a vision impairment or blindness, or anyone who is simply curious; I will give you a quick description. In the two pictures, I am putting the master copy Braille page of  Diagram 13/ Bullet Belt onto the thermoform machine. I am laying the page within the confines of the machine;  the base and frame of  the thermoform machine  is layered in tape to get the best suction.  Soon I lay a piece of thermoform plastic on top, press the edges down with the frame, pull the heat source over the diagram and the plastic, the vacuum suction goes – and voila!  A  3-D thermoform diagram page.

Sounds really easy. In reality many things can go wrong. The diagram, for starters can break –  but that is the worst case scenario. Lately, I’ve had a couple problems in my master pages with a knee cap dislodging , a couple nipples coming loose, a background shredding, hearts moving, and a vagina crumbling. Nothing major, very fixable – just general wear and tear on the images.

Also, my trusty thermoform machine can be a little tempermental. I just give her lots of time to heat up, and some break periods throughout days when I’m printing.

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