Open Art Competition WIP - Potential Disaster Two and Three

Yesterday I managed to over come the potential disaster of the plaster crumbling away around the crisp packet by applying a thick layer of PVA glue. Today, with 24 hours to go before submission, I am unbelievably behind schedule. That's my own fault...

Yesterday I glued a layer of sand to the surface of the piece and it was looking really good. Then for some completely bizarre, stupid, unknown reason to myself, I thought it would look better with a second layer of sand. This created two problems. Firstly, as I dug into my pile of sand it was damp underneath, so it stuck on in clumps and looked hideous. Secondly, it still wasn't drying by this afternoon. There was only one thing for it - I had to scrape all the sand off to start again. I did this with a useful tool known as my thumb nail.

Once the sand was off I noticed potential disaster number three. The wood has warped slightly and the plaster is cracking.

With the warm sunshine and gentle breeze that we have today, I am hoping that my new layer of sand will dry thoroughly before tomorrow, and as long as the plaster doesn't come away from the wood maybe the sand will hide the little cracks.

Tomorrow, I will either have a competition piece to submit or I won't. Due to the wood warping, I still don't know if the piece will even fit into the frame, which is potential disaster number four.