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Brainstorming
Wire Cloth
Julia
M wrote:
Hi Ms. Berrien, I came across your web site when I was trying to get
ideas for the kind wire or wire cloth I could use to make life size
torso sculpture as a part of a larger installation for my MFA. Could
you offer any suggestions for the kinds and gauge size of wires and
wire fabrics that might work for this? I think your work is tremendous!
Thanks for the kind words, Julia.
I'm glad you like my web site - be sure and check out my online
wire sculpture workshop.
It will help you open your mind to the wide range of materials
available. While the first 2 workshop sections (I'm still writing 3
& 4, they'll be up soon too) deal mainly with single-strand
sculpture, meshes are also fair game. Go to a hardware store, building
supply house or scrap metal yard and ask them to show you all the wire
mesh they have. Most of it will be in the "fencing" department -
hardware cloth, chicken wire, etc come in everything from 1/4" mesh to
2" sq and more, in all sorts of gauges.
My recommendation is to consider the rigidity of the various meshes,
look for the "feel" your hands like best. It won't matter so much if
you're just going to chop plates and sections as if it were sheet
metal, but for more spontaneous sculpting you'll want something that
responds to hand-shaping.
If you've got time and really want to knock the viewer's socks off,
consider making your own wire mesh, from scratch! Arline Fisch has a
great book called "Textile Techniques in Metal". Her emphasis is on
jewelry making, but all textile techniques can work with big wire
sculptures, too.
If you weave or knit some wire into a mesh, don't worry about making it
perfect - too perfect, and the viewer might presume it was
manufactured! No matter how clumsy the effort, a hand-made mesh will
have a wonderful raw and organic feel to it.
I'd love to see what you come up with - keep me posted!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Berrien
www.wirelady.com
________________________
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Dread
Hinge Effect, part 2
Roger
G wrote:
I'm wondering if you'd be so kind as to illucidate as to the meaning of
the "Dread Hinge Effect" for the
benefit of online workshop
attendees such as myself. I would endeavor to make use of it with my
4th graders
in September when we undertake creating wire sculpture self-portraits
as the first class project of
the year.
Thank you.
Roger G
Peninsula School
Menlo Park, CA
Roger,
For my first few months as a high school wire sculptor, I had the
blessed crutch of a welding torch to persuade strands of wire to adhere
to one another.
Upon the close of the school year, my parental units quashed any notion
of setting up a torch in my room - some quibble about fire marshall,
death traps, etc.
Warily I approached my teacher/mentor, Mr.
Curran,
whose mantra was, "I'm a very busy man. Don't come bugging me unless
you can define your problem and tell me what you already done to try to
solve it." [looking back thru time, I can see that very busy man quite
clearly - he was usually reading something riveting, unless momentarily
distracted by a supplicant].
I said, "I've accepted that the home torch setup is out. But I think I
got it solved - I'll find some machine shop that'll let me se their
equipment in exchange for some cleaning up or some other menial labor".
This was enough to make Curran look up from the printed page, take off
his glasses, polish them on his shirtfront, re-install them on bridge
of nose and peer at me, as if some rare but noxious insect had crawled
across the page and obscured the text. He spake: "Kid, I think you're
trying to solve the wrong question. Remember how when you started
welding, I nagged you to make sure it was a really stable joint before
you zapped it? Well, I been thinking, maybe if you just make better and
better joints, some day you woundn't need to zap it at all..."
We shall draw a veil across the exasperations experienced in the
ensuing three years. Suffice it to say that I would wrap, tie, hook,
loop and angle the wire every-which way, stand back for a proud scan -
and watch the whole works collapse like a house of cards.
Masochistically analyzing the collapse process, I became aware of
specific traitorous joins - the Dread Hinges.
Putting a name on them, and studying why one would collapse while a
near-identical one heroically held the line, taught me a lot. In
accordance with Mr. Curran's teachings, I tucked away some Dread Hinge
Effect concepts for future use - if I leave one or more in on purpose,
and I'll have kinetic wire sculpture!
4th graders are a fine age to mess with wire sculpture.
Does your school have discretionary funds for engaging itinerant wire
sculptors for workshops, K 2-12?
Finest regards,
Elizabeth Berrien
________________________
|
Working
on several wire projects
Wire
sculptor
Edward N wrote:
Hi Elizabeth,
I am working hard though the heat here slows me down a bit. My MS does
not like it so hot. I now have a barn to work in... what luxury. I just
love creating, it is always good to have several works on the go. I
find when I become brain dead with one piece then working on a
different piece refreshes the mind and soul.
Glad you've adopted the custom of working on several works at once.
Heres another useful tip: Don't wait for brain-dead to make that shift.
When I look around the studio (an amorphous term that engulfs barn,
rented space in town, great outdoors, living room, and passenger seat
of car), I see at least a dozen works in varying stages of completion.
I work on one for as long as it has my focused attention. When I feel
the attention drift, or I begin to suspect I'm getting stuck, I put
that piece down and pick up another, that's been resting. And while
that piece was resting, my hind-brain figured out a fresh approach to
resuming work - it's amazing how many problems dematerialize before
they get full-blown.
Finest regards,
Elizabeth Berrien
Elizabeth,
Why are you so wise? Such advise is gratefully received. No
notice will ever be taken but hey that's a bloke thing. We like to be
proved wrong. - Edward
________________________
|
Homework
- who's gonna do it?
My
daughter
is doing a school project on Pegasus
in Lousville airport and needs to know the size of the sculpture, can
you get back to this address with that information?
many thanks, susanne C
Dear Susanne,
Thanks for asking!
I know how important it is for your daughter to do her own research, so
I'll let her glean this Pegasus
article
for the wingspan size.
Then, she's welcome to email me with a guess about how large she thinks
the Pegasus itself is... extra credit for measuring in hands.
Finest regards,
Elizabeth Berrien
________________________
|
Seamy
sculptures?
James
wrote:
Dear Ms. Berrien. Where are the seams on your sculptures, and where
should I make the seams on mine? ...I'm
having
a hard time with getting basic structure... Yes, that's the name of the
game. Think of it as trying to teach yourself ice skating or riding a
bike - how do the pro's make it look so easy? Lots of practice, lots of
falling down and going boom.
Well, that "hand" idea went "boom", lemme tell ya. I decided it was too
ambitious to attempt a 3-dimensional project right off the bat, so I
went 2-D instead: I made a figure of a lady's head with her long hair
blowing in the breeze, and I'm pretty satisfied with it as a first
successful effort - looks like a more primitive version of a car hood
ornament...lol.
Today, I did a sprig of leaves. The challenge with that was finding a
way to attach the center veins (or whatever you call them) to the tips
of the leaves - I finally up just folded the ends over the tip as
inconspiculously as possible....hehe.
I think I'll try to copy a magazine picture next.
Any tips you might offer would be greatly appreciated.
Dear James,
Thanks for writing! Have you found my free online wire sculpture Workshop
yet?
Yes indeed!
Very helpful in an inspirational way.
My works are "seamless" - the wires just flow wherever the sculpture
seems to need them.
Ah, I thought
so. Just wanted to make sure.
To see plenty examples of wire sculptures from around the world, with
and without seams, google up the "wire magic" site. And be sure to
check out the juried wire sculptors at the Wire Sculpture International
DIRECTORY...
Already had
it bookmarked! Some really fantastic works there: I'm particularly
impressed with Jestrabek-Hart and Ryan Stimers - the way he makes
things out of a single wire is very interesting for its simplicity (but
not as fascinating as your wonderfully complex stuff).
Most important: relax, have fun, just mess with it. When you're
improved enough that your early works embarrass you, hide them a few
years. When you come back, you'll be more forgiving and they'll look
surprisingly better.
Keep me posted!
Elizabeth Berrien
www.wirelady.com
I deeply
appreciate your taking the time to reply. What a kind lady you are! ;o)
Warmest Regards,
James
|
The
One Wire Sculpture Rule Written in Stone: DON'T PUT YOUR EYE OUT!
If
you have any questions or comments to add to these, I'd love to hear
them. It'll help me create upcoming workshop sections tailored to
prticipants' interests. Just email
me...
|
World
Class Wire Sculpture · Elizabeth Berrien (707) 445-4931
· email wireladye@yahoo.com
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