Hair Metal

Sorry for the poor photograph. I wish I could see everyone's pieces today, but my daughter is home sick!

When I was designing this piece, I really wanted to emphasize the importance that sites can have on particular pieces. In this case, my piece would absolutely be incomplete without resting on my head, as my hair needs to wrap around and through the wire. Hair Metal also serves as documenting a particular moment in time. Every time I take it out of my hair and re-wrap it, the finished outcome can never be repeated exactly. It also is unique to my head and my hair length at any particular time.

We live in a time where it is extremely easy to change your hair style and color, even on a day to day basis, which not only shapes our wardrobes, but the opinions that people have about us.

Garden of Eden

For my project I was inspired by the Garden of Eden. I made a vine that wraps around someones neck and leg to show how how temptation can get you in a chokehold and not let you go making it hard to resist. The materials I used were wire, beads, spray paint, ribbon, and glue. I used thick wire to make the vines and smaller gauge wire to wrap around it. I attatched beads to the smaller gauge wire and spray painted the entire vine green. To make the flowers i used wire and glued ribbon to the underside. I spray painted three flowers toward the center of the vine to represent the forbidden fruit in the Garden.

Man made flowers

The idea i had behind this project was to make metal flowers. There are 4 flowers and there steams coming out. It attaches to your leg and goes across and around someones whole leg. The found object was vines going around the steams.
In cities they have man made nature, no true nature. My metal flowers show that show how humans have almost controlled nature in the way they want it to be and look. The fake vines show that humans try really hard to cover it up that isnt not man made but it so obvious that it is.
Objects Used
wire metal
fake plant/ leaves

Wire Sculpture Project

Remember we have critique for the wire sculpture project on Tuesday, September 29th. Come ready to wear your piece!

(piece above by Polly Verity)

Cardboard Structures

Here are some hilights from the cardboard structure group projects...

Check out our flickr site for the rest.

The Mask of Possesion

I decided to make a mask. The mask came to me in a dream and I did some changes and there it is. Using wire as an internal skeletal structure and using tissue to make the external structure. Smoothing out the mask and making a strong surface for indurance through anything.

Pharaoh

For the wire project, I had in mind a Pharaoh which is what the Egyptians wore on their head. I will start by measuring my head and making the ring around to measure the size of my head. From there on I will make the outline of the design and hold each vertical piece of wire with a horizontal wire to give it the proper design. I think I will use tissue paper a bright yellow or gold and cover it with blue stripes to give it that Egyptian feel to it. However I might modernize it to show how society can take old fashion and update it. Maybe they will be back in fashion one day again.

Leech

For my wire project I wanted to make a leech-type creature. I plan to have it wearable on the head to act as a parasite for the wearer. I want to add yarn to the leech or use a map to cover the leech. I am just not sure of the size I want the finished product to be.

Red Heel

So, for the wire project I want to make a strappy high heel. I decided to make a heel because for this project it has to be wearable and I love to wear high heels! I want to make the heel and the base more sturdy and the straps to look more gestured. After I complete the heel I want to spray paint it probably red. I hope the final product turns out better then my drawing!

Decorative War Gauntlet

One of my ideas was for this gauntlet. I am thinking of decorating it with copper wire and maybe some tissue paper. The hand will feature actual joints so that it moves with the wearer.

Dragonfly JetPack

My idea for this project is a Dragonfly Jet-pack, I would use wires to replicate the dragonfly wings which will be mounted on to a backpack. As an add on a jet-pack thrusters will be placed in the center. For the dragonfly wings I plan to add some type of paper to give the wings a more realistic feature, I don't know what type of paper to use though.; any ideas?

Hand Extension

This will be something to wear on your arm or wrist that will extend your reach I will use something like rubber bands and/or strings to give control to the wire hand so that it is a functioning piece.

wire feathers

My idea for the wire project is to make wire feathers to be put on a head band. My inspiration for this came from the feather hair bands flapper girls wore. I plan on making the feathers out of thin shiny wire. The other material I will use will be the hair band the feathers will go on.

My idea that came to me when I first heard of the assignment; I want to make a vine that wraps around the body like a sash. With green wire I would make the vines and leaves and I would make wire flowers with various colors of beads. I thought of using pearls as the centers of the flowers. I want to make it very elegant, the way it would look over a beautiful dress. Although it’s not something anyone would wear in real life I could definitely see it on the runway.

Flower Belt

The idea is a flower belt to have flowers are coming of it. On the belt is going to be flower and leaves all over it. It will be like a floral 3d item. I cant draw so its hard to show on a sketch.

The Vest

I was thinking about creating a sort of vest from the wire. With an opening two part front that would have hinges. The other material I was planning on using would be an old shirt cut into strips and then attached some how to different parts of the vest.

Hair Metal

One of my ideas for this project is to use my hair as a second material, weaving it in and out of a series of wire link-type pieces. From there, I have two types of construction in mind: a loose, movable headpiece or a rigid, stationary piece.

Wire Project

So I thought about making a baseball bat for my wire project and possibly attaching it to hands. I am not totally sure about the hands yet but definently a bat. My other substance would be string to be placed around the end of the bat for the grip.

Project #3

I thought about making a tutu out of metal. To me tutu's represent art and performing art. I've always been involved with theses things, whether it was dance, marching band, or jewelry making. I thought I might put little charms though out the tutu like my instrument I play and other things from my experience with art.

Wire Project

For my wire sculpture I want to make "fancy" gloves. I want to make them start near the elbow as lace and end as bear paws for the hands. I'm thinking of using white string on the lace part as well as wire and for the actual paws I am not quite sure what to use to make "fur" but have a few ideas.

Wire project

The two images I posted are of the same idea, but from two different angles. For my project I wanted to have a purse , and coming from the purse are snakes that are latching on to the body. The extra material I would be using is a snake skinned patterned fabric. The fabric would be used for the snakes, and details on the purse.

The sketch on the left uses wire to form two seperate jellyfish that wrap around the figure. I think it would be cool to wrap the jellyfish in tissue paper and set a flashlight in each one.

The sketch on the right uses wire to form a human heart and veins. Somehow I want to use liquid as the second material but I'm not sure how I could incorporate it.

Cookie Cutter Town

My Piece is about how towns are built now a days. The economy was at such a high and they built all these neighborhoods that now after the fall of the economy are now empty. Most of these towns were built so fast that they are really poorly made, like they were built out of paper walls.

20x23
PVA Glue
Construction Paper

Deforrestation

This piece is about how nature is being overrun by urban expansion. I chose to do this because this is my theme in most of my work and I enjoy nature. I thought doing a stop-motion animation film along with the paper sculpture because I thought it would be fun and I enjoy making videos. The materials I used were construction paper, glue, and coat hangers.

Paper Sculpture

For my paper sculpture I chose to try and make a realistic vase with flowers. I love Photography and when I go out and take pictures, I usually choose to photograph flowers of many types. My vase is made out of tin foil then I used paper mache' to coat the foil with white tissue paper then a Japanese print paper for the top cover. The stems are also made out of tin foil then paper mached' with a unique Japanese paper. The flowers are cut out of printmaking paper then I soaked it in water and shaped them into flowers.

Life or Death

Life is just a big games and so is this dart board. I chose to make a dart board because people have always liked to throw things to gamble with and what is better then to gamble with life? Notice that there are only 18 numbers. These numbers represent your 18 years of childhood. You are to go in order starting with the #1 and must hit every number in order till you get to 18. First one to 18 and to score on it wins their life, others may parish.

Mechanized Control

For this piece I wanted to focus on the subject of the environment and mankind's attempt to control and subvert it with technology. The robotic hand exploding from the ground grasping upward symbolizes mankind's drive to control what is in essence uncontrollable.

To construct this piece I used Mat Board, Bristol Board, and Pva glue. The individual pieces were all folded by hand and cut out with scissors and an exacto knife.

Rings

In doing my paper sculpture I wanted to explore the idea of human development and death which led me to compare it to a tree. Here the dead tree(because it has been cut down) lies exposed, as well as the human. The rings on both the tree and the human face can be seen. Just like the tree has left something behind, it's stump, the human will leave something behind, not as a stump, but biologically a human will live forever.

To make the tree stump I used about 30 pieces of paper cutting a hole in the center of each piece and gradually increasing the size as I got out to the top layer. After that I glued them all together and glued them to my mat board. With a utility knife I carved away the sides around the rings. Afterwards with india ink and colored pencil I drew in the details on the rings and with acrylic paint mixed with resin sand and ceramic stucco I painted on the tree bark. After the tree stump was done I moved on to the human face.

I wanted the human face to look old so I made it droopy. The face was done in sections; the forehead was done first, then the left cheek, etc. After I would put one section on I would carve it some more with a utility knife to smoothen it out and shape it. After all sections were set in place and glued together I painted the face white and glued it on to the center of my tree stump.

Doing this was a process, as is aging for a tree and a human.

Materials: acrylic paint, resin sand, ceramic stucco, india ink, paper, colored pencil, black mat board, PVA glue.

size: 12"x12"

When Demeter Wept

When I started planning this, I knew I wanted my sculpture to be wearable. Unfortunately, attempts and broaches and hats and everything else failed. In the end, I settled on this masquerade mask. The title refers to the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone. Demeter killed off everything that grew on earth, but I also wanted to show the raw life that was still there, and the ability to produce at a single word from Demeter.

The All Reaching Pyramid

I went with an abstract idea for the project, that of the idea of government being embodied by the shape of a pyramid, and the many variations and intrusiveness of governments as the tentacles. Adding to that the colors are meant to reinforce those ideas as well; green of course being the color of both money and greed, both things governments struggle with. Purple in ancient times was usually reserved for royalty because of the expense of obtaining it, plus the fact that many leaders and governments have declared themselves ordained by a higher power to do whatever they think is necessary. Which in turns reinforces the idea of government intruding into every aspect of ones life, with the many tentacles.

Like the proposed idea that creation began in a primordial soup and sprang forth from such, I choose to mimic that idea with having my object upon a beach. As when governments are created or ran, those involved think they have the best ideas and that they will create a paradise on earth, hence the beach.

Juice Tree

My paper sculpture explores the idea of placing the origins of a food product in juxtaposition with the final consumer-ready product. This was accomplished by carving a fully developed orange tree out of an empty box of Tropicana orange juice. The organic form of the orange tree and the rigid shape of the synthetic juice box greatly contrast eachother, despite the fact that one originates from the other. The tree is also positioned in a way that it appears to be the source of any orange juice pouring from the jug. This could represent the idea that food products are so easily attainable in America that they almost seem to flow dircetly from their original sources right into their containers. As for my materials, I used an exacto knife to the carve the tree out of the juice box and then paper glue to attach some of the additional pieces.

Chapter 3

The overall idea behind this piece was the ignorance and lack of objectivity found in society. People bury themselves so much in one point of view that they fail to view the issues of the world with a sense of open-mindedness. All of the materials used act as symbols to convey this concept. I paper mached over a mannequin head and used a saw to cut a hole through a book, and then inserted the head into the book. I then drilled a book into the back of the head. I also added hair cut from the mannequin and used it as a bookmark for the book. I chose these materials because they assisted the best in conveying my concept and offered a powerful image to compliment the idea.

Materials: Newspaper, glue, Reader's Digest Condensed Books Vol. 4, The Nun's Story by Kathryn Hulme, Mannequin head
Size: approx. 12" x 12"

Cloud 300

There has been an invisible dark cloud brought upon the colleges and universities of Arizona. That Cloud is called Proposition 300, this requires all non-citizen students to pay out of state tuition for college; even if the student has lived most of their life in the state. They may also not receive any financial assistance or state funds. The golden butterflies in my art work are the dreams of these students of continuing their path to a higher education. The black smog shrouds the light in their dreams and kills of the golden butterflies. In other words their dreams die.

For the butterflies I use the scoring technique and apply the stop motion concept to make them appear as they are flying. I made a blue and green screen 40"x52" and used putty to mount the butterflies on to the sheet; as a result I was able to give the effect that they are flying in the sky.

Materials: Paper, Bristol Paper, Blue and Green construction paper, Adhesive Putty, Digital Camera, Soundtrack.

Size 40"x52"

Big Brother

My piece "Big Brother" is based on the book 1984. The idea for this piece came from the concept in the book of "Big Brother" always watching. I feel like our world today is becoming a lot like that of the world in 1984. There are cameras watching us and photographing us all over the city, I feel that in time these means of "security" may even invade nature. We may one day not even be free of cameras in the depths of woods or deep within deserts. My piece evoloved from the idea of even nature watching us.

Wrapped all around the tree is text from the book 1984, reminding us of their world in the book and the similarities of our world to theirs. The eyes are cut from magazines, they stare blankly signifying the amount of eyes watching us daily, as well as the amount of media pushed on us everyday.

"Big Brother"stands 13 inches tall and 16 inches wide. It is composed of wire, tin foil, masking tape, news paper, text printed on drawing paper, and magazine clippings.

Lifes True Beauty

In Chinese culture, Cherry Blossom Trees represent femininity as well as good luck. In Japanese culture the Cherry Blossom's beautiful but short blooming represents human life. Cherry Blossoms have always been deeply symbolic to artists and have been used as inspiration for poets, musicians, and painters.Cherry Blossoms can be found in almost every Asian country and a few places in the United States (they were given to the U.S. as gifts of friendship from China).

My piece is a zoomed in view of a Cherry Blossom Tree. I chose to make this 3D sculpture to really show how feminine Cherry Blossoms can be. I chose a zoomed in view instead of far away in order to be able to illustrate how a Cherry Blossom tree curves and curls (like a woman's body).

The idea of the piece was to zoom in so that tree branches would be coming from every direction and the viewers would be able to get a close up view of the flowers on the tree. The blue background represents the sky, which is what the viewer might see if they looked through the branches of a Cherry Blossom tree.

The way I formed my branches was by shaping them with aluminium foil. After the branches had their shape, I paper mached them using a layer of newspaper and a layer of tissue paper (so that the branches would have a smooth finish). After the paper mache dried, I painted the branches dark brown. The reason I used the technique of paper mache was so that my branches would look more realistic and stick up from the background.

The way that I created my flowers was by getting two pieces of unryu paper ( a pink piece and a natural piece). First I drew a flat 5leafed flower on one piece of unryu and then using pva glue to glue both sheets of paper together. After that, I cut the flower out (while the paper is still wet) and then I pinched the center of the flower and twisted it until the flower looked 3D. After they were dry I used pva glue to glue red rhinestones into the center of the flower. Then I used pva glue to attach the flowers to the branches. I chose to use unryu paper because it looks like a very traditional Asian paper and I knew that it would make the flowers look like they had veins.

Items Used:

Aluminum Foil

Newspaper

Tissue Paper

Unryu Paper (natural and pink)

Light blue Poster Board (20''x26'')

Gold Mat Board (30''x40'')

PVA Glue

Brown Acrylic Paint

Size: 30''x40''

"All that's left"

Title of piece- "All that's left"

For my piece I decided to display the problem of Bamboo deforestation, due millions of people using the bamboo for construction. However bamboo is not the only thing being destroyed, but various animals are becoming extinct due to this loss such as, pandas, lemurs, and certain types of gorillas. Therefore, I decided to show bamboo and pandas used as a decoration, where as if we don't alter our ways, this is all that will be left of these species. My techniques for the project went from paper mache for the panda, to braiding the paper for the stems, to almost sculpting the paper for the leaves. I choose to do the braiding for the bamboo because I wanted it to have a natural look, as for the panda, paper mache worked out best for the design and look of a panda.

materials used: paper mache, styrofoam, various colors of paper, gloss finish, and paint.

size: 27"

My piece is about how easily beauty can come and go. When I first decided to make a dress for my project I didn't really have a reason behind it. I was up for the challenge of making a paper dress even knowing it would be harder than it would with fabric.

The morning of critique as I was walking to class my top and bottom pieces fell apart. As I got closer to class my piece just started falling apart at the seams and thats how I got the new meaning behind my project. Something that is beautiful may not always stay that way. While it lasts it should be cherished but when it starts to deteriorate there needs to be something that can take it's place; such as a sense of humor or a great personality. Just like how my project needed to have a strong foundation to hold it up even when the outside started to crumble.

I used foil, newspaper, paper from utrects, tulle, wire, and ribbon for my project. For the bottom I used newspaper as a main foundation and then paper mached over it. In between layers of newspaper I put a frame of wire to keep it sturdy. Underneath I added a few layers of tulle for an added touch.
For the top I made a foil mold then paper mached newspaper to the inside so the foil wouldn't scrape on the skin. I paper mached pink paper over the outside of the foil a few times and I added tulle right around the bustline.