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3 D Design The Chicken

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3 D Design         Unit 5               Nancy Munier                                        23 April 2021

Going from a drawing on 8 by 10 inch paper to 5 foot high and about 4 foot wide sculpture was a challenge.   The original idea of using chicken wire, 16 g rebar tie wire and plywood quickly morphed to using drip irrigation tubing, fabric strapping, table cloths, fabric, foam insulation board and a camera tripod. 

Challenges were to construct a moveable sculpture that was larger than my 5’2” frame.  The ability to transport the artwork turned out to be the hardest challenge.

Process:

 1. Scale up the drawing and find materials. I used my logo chicken that Torrie created for my model.

 2. Assemble the tubing into circles of graduated sizes. I had a bunch of drip line tubing so I used that and used wooden clothes pins to connect the ends of the tubes.

 3. Figure out, and cut fabric strapping to support hoops. I took a page from old time crinolines and how they were assembled and able to squinch up on one side to pass thru doors.

 4. Sew hoops together while maintain about a 12 inch spacing between hoops and keeping the strapping equally tensioned around the row of hoop. This was probably the most time consuming step in the assembly.

 5. Using the tripod to support the hoops I then had to figure out how to shape the top 24 inches of the head.  This was done using the foam board and cutting it into graduating shapes, then gluing them together.  I did discover that the purple foam insulation board is hard to cut with a hand saw and it was too tall to use with the band saw.

6.  Cut and sew fabric for “skirt” and head.  Discovered that the yellow fabric let too much light thru so I added black table cloths as a liner. This added to the weight but helped hold her shape. (Thanks Joanne Rice for the yellow fabric.)

 7. Using a length of board – 8 foot 1 by 2 cut in half- I set the wood on cardboard and sprayed “crack filler foam insulation” on for legs.  This required a 48 hour cure and painting with spray paint. I also used the spray paint on three shorter boards to make a tail.  All boards were hinged with bolts and wing nuts at untreated end to allow for transport and adjustment. 

8. The arms/wings were created using pvc pipe (1/5 inch) and covered with fabric.  The hand parts were spray foam.

 9. Her top knot was made from twisted 16 g. wire and felt, hot glued onto the wire. 

Transporting from my house in my Subaru was done by collapsing the tripod, folding up hoops and shoving her in.  I had to finish the feet (added plastic straw toes) and attach her skirt in the lab.  Then we moved her to the photo site in the back of a small pickup truck which was quite funny.

Sculpture I Tin Horse Mask

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Requirements:  to create a wearable mask using tin and soldering.

Materials:  Tin, soldering kit (iron, flux, cleaning block, brush, solder and various metalworking tools).  I also used copper, brass and jewelry wire for the face decoration and knitting wool for the mane

I chose to do a stylistic horse head using primarily the tin cut into flat shapes.  I then used the bender, cutting tool, roller and the ripple edge machines to bend and texturize the shapes.  I had problems with the ears not setting up on the top of head as I had planned. So they wound up going out to either side.  I also had difficulty with the upper cheeks of the horse.  I had planned for them to go as more of a connection between the neck and face.  That became problematic as the metal did not want to bend the way I wanted.  This created a bit more void and empty area between the neck and the face and also aloud the neck to flex more than I planned.  It did make wearing the mask a bit more stable though.

My order for assembly after cutting out the pattern from paper and transferring it to the tin with a felt tip marker was as follows.   1. Do all folds and creases in tin.  I discovered that if you use a strip of blue painter tape on the edge of the tin then you can line up the bender edge to get a more even bend and fold.   2.  Attach with solder the cheeks to the mane face using the flux and heat to cause the solder to flow under the two pieces.  I discovered later that I should have ‘tinned’ both sections of the tin before putting them together. 3.  I used a jig to start the bends of the decorative wire and finished by soldering them to the face front.  Some metals use much more heat than I was able to apply to get them to solder easily.   4. I punched the holes for the mane in the center neck strip of tin, then connected the neck to head.  5.  I inserted the wool yarn in the center strip thru the holes using a loop method.   6.  Mane strip and ears were then attached to the face.

This project was a challenge but a lot of fun.  I am already planning to use the method in part of another sculpture in 3 D design this semester. Thanks to my son-in-law, Jef, I learned a lot more than was taught in the class. I think I have a long way to go to be proficient in this type of metalwork, but next fall I get to play with welding and such! If I had access to all the big benders, little benders, cutters and such from the class, I know I would make better and more interesting sculptures.

ART 115 3-D Design Project 1

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Well, I am off and running and having fun. Here is project 1. Relief.

This project was to be made as topographical style of some area that had meaning to you. Made out of 1/8 in cardboard, it really spoke to me to do part of Wyoming. Although it is not of the exact part of the search area, I chose the one of Johnson Creek Reservoir road for the feeling of depth. Reflecting back on a search we did for a 62 year old male, I keep remembering how scary some of the area was. I literally crawled part of it on my knees and elbows! The thought of why an old lady like me, I was around 60 at the time, should be doing this search still wanders thru my mind. Never think you cant challenge yourself and come out better for it, I learned a lot about myself up there on the Bluegrass creek. And I have learned something else about me in doing this sculpture, I love sculpture… not just seeing it but doing it! Yep, changing my major, partly thanks to encouragement from my Sculpture 1 instructor.

As to the actual nuts and bolts, or cardboard and glue, work: Use of the internet to find the USGS map, and thanks to Staples for enlarging the section I decided to use. Careful tracing on layers of cardboard then cutting with Excato knives and polishing edges with the Dremel sander discs. Lots of alignment and layer by layer glue (Elmer’s) and adding a touch of water in the form of Rainbow Gallery braid.

Cold good morning from Arizona

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A chill in the air out here in my office/garage. Joanne grumbled this morning… “they said move to Arizona, it’s warm, ha!” At 45 degrees with high expected of 55, it is cold after having triple digit heat for over 100 days this past summer! I think our blood has thinned. Still, I am glad not to have to scrape windshields, shovel snow and break ice on the water tank for livestock.

Have a good day what ever your weather is and remember, we are to tiptoe into 2021 and hope not to disturb that bunch of evil elves, perhaps they will leave us alone this new year!

A new year, a new website

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As 2020 draws to a close, thank goodness! I have decided to also redo my website and blog… oh, and portfolio!

This will be an ongoing shift of life as all life is. My art, needlework (also part of my art), and writings will be the majority of this new website. I need to focus on what I enjoy and that is NOT selling, but creating. Feel free to comment at any point in this journey. Life is but a journey with smooth paths and very rough trails. I have traversed so many trails and some good paths. I hope the next part of my life is filled with more smooth and less rough. We learn through the rough and we rest in the smooth. To be continued…