Prototypes. A Tale of Wire and Srring

During the start of the new year I began dabbling in sculpture. I have a very talented photographer friend. Him and I are in to the same aesthetic, so I proposed a collaboration.

I came up with a few sketches and dove right in. I decided on wire and cotton as the primary materials because they were cheap, expendable, and pretty easy to work with. I've never sewn, or made any physical sculptures like this before so it was a good learning experience.

I understood sculpture in concept but not as much in execution. I had previously toyed with some 3d modeling software. This was useful in getting into the right mindset. I needed lines and planes. The wire would be the lines and the fabric the planes. Then it just had to be held together by string.

sewing was new to me as well so I just went over an under a bunch until it stuck. This was the early prototype stage so I wasn't concerned with the design being streamline. It just had to capture the silhouette of the idea and let me familiarize myself with the medium.

It was beginning to take shape. It wasn't pretty by any means, but it was a necessary step. Throughout the month I would learn many new techniques and increase the scale ten fold.

This photography was not done by my friend. I just took some basic pictures and added a tone similar to his work.

I used these as concept art to get him on the same wavelength as me. After showing him he said he knew exactly what I was going for. I was not disappointing by our collaboration a month later.

It was a surreal experience within itself to start bringing my ideas into the real world. I had to scale my ambitions down to prepare for the more elaborate pieces to come. Some of our ideas involved figures taller that humans.

Let me know what you guys think of these concept sculptures. I will be posting the creation of a few larger ones, along with the completed first collaboration later on. Remember, sometimes you just gotta dive in.