World Class Wire Sculpture · Elizabeth Berrien

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Elizabeth Berrien's remarkable technique involves interweaving single strands, using only her bare hands and a pair of wire cutters. She has been inventing and exploring this rare and highly complex technique, a hybrid of lace-making and structural engineering, for 37 years. To dispel chicken wire myths, Elizabeth demonstrates often - inspiring a whole new generation of wire sculptors. In 2004 she founded Wire Sculpture International, a guild whose mission is to gain greater recognition, respect and validity for this highly diverse medium.

Bear Spirit, work in progress No, it's NOT chicken wire!

To begin a wire sculpture, I gather all the reference images I can and plaster the walls and floor of my studio with them. Then I start my "pre-wiring dither" selecting the right wire, fixing a cup of coffee or tea, putting on slippers, putting on some music, as I settle into a meditative mood. Sometimes my husband reads to me as I wire - this week it's a biography of Queen Elizabeth I. Sometimes it's a murder mystery, or something from Terry Pratchett - anything to engage my surface mind while my subconscious runs loose with the wire. If I'm working on a bear, I may immerse myself in the images around me til I forget whether I'm human or bear. I start at the animal's head, twisting a few single strands of wire together to create a sort of nucleus. As I continue to weave in dozens or even hundreds of additional wires, I seek out and follow the energy lines of muscle, bone and fur that translate the bear's spirit and essence. Often, I get a sense that the half-done sculpture is already alive, watching me as I work and suggesting that I veer this way or that with the wires. The feeling of communing with the animal is even stronger when I weave from the inside of a large work; it's like looking outward through the bear's eyes and feeling its heart beat. For tall animals like life-size bears and giraffes, instead of climbing a ladder I use this system: kneeling on a floor cushion, I weave up the head and/or neck til it's too ungainly to continue as lapwork. Then I attach it to a rope suspended by an overhead pulley and hoist it. From then on I weave downward, while hoisting the animal ever higher. Sometimes a half-done animal, emerging from its cloud of twisted wires, looks so magical just as it is that I stop working on it - and leave it as an expressive "figment". As I create my "three-dimensional line drawings", I incorporate a hidden, embedded structure to the sculptures, making them much more rugged than the airiness of their lines would suggest. The feedback I've had from people who own my sculptures has made me aware that they seem to put out more good energy than I'm aware of putting in. Now that I'm aware of the semi-metaphysical aspects, I try to just let the animal's personality come through without imposing my artistic ego into it. All my works have a basic infused intent - to bring blessings and harmony to the people that come in contact with them. Explore the creative process! Elizabeth Berrien's free online Innovative Wire Sculpture Workshop, Creativity-Portal's "Feature of the Month" for March 2005!

World Class Wire Sculpture · Elizabeth Berrien

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