Three-dimensional and sculptural processes: modelling, carving, construction, assemblage and casting; working with clay, card, wire and found materials; maquettes and form in the round.

What this dot point is asking

Three-dimensional and sculptural work makes an idea exist in real space, and it is central to the Three-dimensional Design title and available in others. Edexcel asks you to experiment with and select appropriate media, materials, techniques and processes, including three-dimensional ones. This page covers the main 3D processes, the materials, and how maquettes and thinking in the round help you develop a 3D outcome.

The main 3D processes

Sculptural processes divide into adding, removing, joining and casting material.

Materials and tools

Different materials suit different ideas and skill levels.

Thinking in the round with maquettes

Three-dimensional work needs to be considered from all sides, and maquettes are how you develop it.

Why three-dimensional work rewards process and the round

It is tempting to treat a sculpture as a single object made in one go, but Edexcel rewards the developmental process, so the maquettes, trials and material experiments are the evidence, not just the final piece. Working in three dimensions also forces a different kind of thinking from drawing: you must consider the form in the round (its silhouette from every angle, the balance of mass and void, the surface and how light changes as you move around it), which connects directly to the form formal element. Maquettes are the key habit, because they let you test and refine forms quickly and cheaply before committing to a final, and photographing them from several sides records the development for AO3 while the trying-and-refining is AO2. The choice of material carries meaning too: found and recycled objects in assemblage bring their own associations, smooth cast plaster reads very differently from rough modelled clay, and wire gives a drawn, linear quality in space. Sculptors are widely studied: Henry Moore for hollowed organic forms opening mass into void, Barbara Hepworth for pierced balanced forms, Louise Bourgeois for charged constructed and cast forms, and Marcel Duchamp and later artists for the readymade and assemblage. Analysing how a sculptor handles form and material, then testing it in maquettes, links AO1 research to AO2 experimentation and an AO4 three-dimensional outcome.

Try this

Q1. Name four three-dimensional processes. [Knowledge recall]

• Cue. Modelling, carving, construction, assemblage and casting (any four).

Q2. Explain why maquettes are useful when developing a sculpture. [Short explanation]

• Cue. Maquettes are small, quick trial models that let you test forms, proportions and structures fast and from several angles before committing to a final piece, so you can refine the idea cheaply, which is strong AO2 development, and photographing them records the process for AO3.