Wire Sculpture

This project truly seemed to me as a challenge. I’d only worked with wire once before, and the wire I worked with was a lot more malleable than this wire. I was also used to using a different method of linking the wire, one that I found a lot easier. This wasn’t completely forgein, but that didn’t take away from how challenging this project ended up being. I feel as if it was the format that ended up causing me the most trouble, but in the end the skills that I gained from that practice aided/helped me in the long run. When approaching this project I wasn’t sure what I wanted to create. I was well aware that this project would most likely be a challenge for me in the long run, because of my very miniscule amount of success with the format. Despite this, I had big ideas, before settling on a specific one. The only specific idea I had settled on was my Kalimba. The idea of making one of my instruments was one that I wanted to pursue, and my Kalimba was the smallest instrument that I owned. I also had a general idea of what I wanted everything to look like in my mind. However, when actually beginning the project I found it to be something that would prove to be a lot more difficult. This is why I ended up making a cup design instead. I had more of an idea of what it should look like, and the design was small enough that it was very easy to work with. There was no specific theme, or meaning, behind the piece. Rather, it was me trying to do well with wire and attempting to get more comfortable. It was also me shifting to an idea that would work for me and my skills with wire after figuring out just what I could do. I also wanted a design that would transfer well, and the Kalimba proved to be something that wouldn’t transfer well. Overall, with my artwork I was just trying to figure out my general comfort working with wire and what I could do with my skills.

This project began with me sticking to the school materials. I of course used the school wire all throughout, however, when finding that the (players?) were not working for me, I asked my dad to use his own. Those proved to work a lot better for me, and allow me to have stronger connections between the different pieces of wire. For the first formative, the tower, I simply used a long piece of wire and cut it into the 10 equal sections that I needed. From there I just continued to work on it. The box was a bit different, as I traced out the square from the paper twice to make two squares before making my eight connections. It proved a little difficult to get the box to be even/flat in height. When approaching my final, it was a bit different. For this I tried to actually USE the object. I traced the wire around the two ends of the cup to make the bottom and the top. After that I started making my connections. It was once again difficult overall to make these connections strong, but to also make sure that the wire sculpture would be the same height as the actual cup. After my connections were strong enough, I added a piece of wire across the bottom to strengthen everything.

I had a lot of trouble throughout this project, and that is what led me to revise my idea and start over. I had already made two sections I was going to use for my Kalimba, but after changing my idea I used this wire to make my end piece. What led me to revise was the realization that my initial idea was not going to work. After figuring this out, I knew I had to change my idea, and be open to other things. I also knew that I had to adapt the idea to fit my skills rather than making myself frustrated as a result. I am happy with my decision, and happy that I knew to take a route that would be good for me.In the end I am satisfied with my end product. It isn’t perfect, but it resembles what I wanted it to and is the same size. It also has strong connections, which was the thing that I had the most difficulty with.