I was asked by one of my jobs to start creating giant wire forms that kids could then papier mache. Having never worked with chicken wire before, my obvious response was "Yeah, I could do that." I figured people have been making things for floats and the like for ages, so being the industrial type that I am, it would be a piece of cake.
I wish I had taken a picture of my hands and arms after working with the stuff for a few hours. It looked like I had been attacked by a bunch of kittens.
Fortunately, though, I finished my first chicken wire sculpture. Since it happened to be the first day I had seen snow, and I hate snow so much, I decided on a cactus. Cylindrical, lives in the desert, not too crazy, a good first attempt.
It is really hard to photograph chicken wire. Especially in my dumping ground of an office.
To make it tall enough to live in a planter, I had to tape it to a cardboard box. This didn't last, but at least it got to a good height. After a few days of living in the art studio, with the help of about 50 kids and a few employees, it turned to this.
The purple lines are masking tape. As it turns out, coffee filter pieces soaked with flour and water don't stick to wire mesh. At all. So I wrapped the cactus form in masking tape, and it ended up having just enough texture for the filters to grip to.
Oh yeah, coffee filters. Did I mention that I rarely do any papier mache with newspaper? Its too weak. It tears when you try to remove excess paste. And I hate the feeling of it on my skin. Yuck. Coffee filters are actually quite strong, and my job just happens to have several thousand of them laying around for art projects. Its a win-win!
To be continued...
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