Wire Tree Reflection

I enjoyed working with wire. It was a really fun experience.

Main difficulties:

• Kept poking/scratching myself with the wires
• Thicker pieces of wire (twisted together) were difficult to cut with the wire cutters

Vocabulary/terms in this project: (there really wan't a lot of vocab)

• Adhesive - glue; sticks pieces of wood together, important to use different adhesives for different materials
• Metal wire - slender, string-like piece of metal that can be manipulated through bending or cutting
• Wire cutters - tool used to cut wire

I've never worked with wire before. Mr. Swinehart suggested that I could make a wire tree. I found some pictures, and thought it looked cool. I like the overall composition of my wire sculpture. I used a rock as a base. In a way, the rock can represent Jesus, the foundation. The tree can represent my faith. Through Jesus, my faith can grow like a tree. Anyways, I think I could have done a better job with the roots. I tried to make the roots more "natural" and had some roots longer and more twisted than others. I like the branches. It's nicely spread out. However, it would be even better if I had a wider variety of branches. Overall, the wire sculpture looks decent. I like the silver color of the tree.

Wire Tree Process (December 16)

From the last time I left off, I combined three smaller trees together to form a larger single tree. In an attempt to make the tree more "full", I combined one more smaller tree to the larger tree. I ended up with a lot of roots, so I trimmed some away with the wire cutters. I twisted some of the roots together to make them thicker and others thinner, like a real tree. The ends of the roots were frayed. I spread out the branches and the roots. I brought a few rocks from home and chose one that I thought would make a good base. I ended using the biggest one that was slightly uneven. I wrapped the roots around the stone. If the roots were too long, I cut it with wire cutters. Finally, I used Scotch spray glue to spray the stone, attaching the roots on firmly.

  

Wire Tree Process (December 11)

Three smaller trees combined into one tree

To make a wire tree, first you have to cut pieces of wire that are of equal length. The number of wires you cut out varies. It depends on how big or thick you want your tree to be. The more wires you put together, the more branches you can make. Twist the wires in the area where you want the trunk until you have a solid stick. Spread the roots out for stability. Then, twist the top wires together to make branches. At any point, you can separate the wires to form smaller branches sticking out from the thicker ones. Make a few more trees and if you want, combine them together to make a bigger tree. That was what I did. I created two trees, one bigger and the other one smaller, and combined them. It looked kind of lopsided, so I created a third one and wrapped that one too. After putting them together, I had too many roots. I think I'll just cut a few.

Wire Tree Inspiration/Artists

Two artists captured my attention with their wire tree sculptures.

Minskis (from Deviant Art)

The wire sculptures look very realistic and show the imperfections of trees in nature. Trees in nature do not stand completely upright. He also creatively put the trees in a setting with rocks. I'm not sure if it represents anything, but it sculpture itself seems to hold the artist's emotions. The overall presentation is very nice.

Sal Villano

Sal Villano was born into a large extended family of artists. From a young age, he payed close attention to art and was attracted to different kinds of visual expressions. He worked as a a part time sulptor while he was attending college. His uncle inspired him to become a sculptor. Sal saw his uncle creating figures of animals using wire and tissue paper. 

I like the expressive shape of the trees. The wire sculptures he make show the different seasons of trees. I especially like the wintery ones, the ones without leaves. The form of the tree was clearly thought out and not randomly put together. Again, the trees are really realistic. I hope that I would be able to use this inspiration and create something just as creative.

Wire Tree Planning

Objectives:

• To experiment with wire
• To think creatively when creating a sculpture

Materials:

• Wire
• Wire cutter

Procedure:

1. Form the wire into a shape you want
2. Use the wire cutter to cut of any excess wire
3. Combine the wires together to form a sculpture

Initial Ideas:

Mr. Swinehart suggested that I could make a tree, so I made one.

Felt Needle Reflection

Working with felt needle was fun. I didn't really encounter many difficulties in this project.

Main difficulties:

• Kept poking myself
• Sometimes, the felt would get stuck in the sponge (minor problem)
• A bit difficult to make the penguin's body parts equal

Vocabulary/terms in this project:

• Blending - mixing fibers of different colors or types together
• Carding - using carders to spread wool out and separate it into fibers
• Felt - fabric where wool fibers are entangled
• Felting needles - usually 3-sided needle with barbs on the side for meshing the felt/wool together

This project was more an arts-and-crafts project. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. Sometimes, it was difficult for me to get the proportions straight. In my opinion, the best part of my felt needle project was the penguin's head and body. Well, that's pretty much the whole thing. Anyways, I liked the head of the penguin because it was well-proportioned and round. For the body, I originally created it using white. But then, i added on grey felt. So, the body is kind of like a mixture of white and grey. The effect is pretty cool. Unfortunately, because I poked too much, there are some small holes, where the needles were, on the body. Next time, I should challenge myself more and try to create something more detailed and creative. Penguins are cute and all, but there really wasn't a lot of creativity in it. The creativity in this project would include the colors chosen, the overall shape, and the style.

Architecture Reflection

This was my first time working with wood. I learnt a lot from it.

Main difficulties:

• Some measurements were inaccurate --> differences in structure
• Hard to cut the thick boards in a straight line
• Cutting the windows were time consuming
• Some gaps in structure - wood pieces did not line up perfectly

Vocabulary/terms used in this project:

• Adhesive - glue; sticks pieces of wood together, important to use different adhesives for different materials
• Adjustable clamps - (I called them "long clamps"); consists of a screw and bar with moveable shoe to allow a wide clamping range
• Carving tool - in my case, I used it to smoothen out the sides
• C-clamps - clamp shaped like a c; used to secure wood to an object (ex: table)
• Cutter - tool used for cutting objects (ex: wood)
• Drill - power tool that makes holes in objects
• Sandpaper - strong paper coated with a layer of sand for the purposes of smoothing or polishing
• Saw - tool used for cutting thicker objects; has a thin blade with sharp metal teeth

This architecture project was unlike anything I have done before. The structure of the architecture was carefully thought out because we wanted it to look as realistic and as "cathedral-like" as possible. I liked the pillars and the front part of the cathedral the most. It made the project more realistic. However, the sides was not elaborately decorated. This was because we didn't have a lot of time and our skills (carving) wasn't good. Any attempts to carve a design on the side may ruin what we have done. But, next time, we should decorate it more, just like a real cathedral. Perhaps, we can cut arches into the wood. Also, in the future, we should make sure that we have precise and accurate measurements to avoid having pieces of wood not lining up. Overall, it was fun working with wood. By thinking of a design for the project, it got my creativity flowing.