Lalala…

You were the sweetest, strangest, fluffy little puppy-cat and I can’t begin to describe how much you’ll be missed. We love you.

Last night, I finished my sculpture. I’ll be the first to admit that for a while, as I realized my plans weren’t going to work, I was less than fun to be around. I threw a tantrum, I pouted, I got loud and wasn’t very nice. Then I threw out my old idea, grabbed some wire and “sketched” out a new plan. While looking at several examples of dragons, I worked out a face. I’d only planned on “doodling” with the wire and then doing the real thing, but more throwing out previously held ideas allowed me to use my play dragon head in the finished piece.

I abandoned making a large dragon wrapped around my sphere in favor of this smaller guy. His face has so much character, I can’t believe I just whipped it up in one go. The little guy transformed the whole piece from serious to something much more whimsical. After having a day to contemplate the whole thing, I think I like it.

The tip of the tail to the widest part of the orb under the head makes up my required 18” measurement. I also like that instead of a bunch of heavier copper, the dragon repeats the colors and the curving, twisting elements of the tree.

I’ve discovered that wire is an absolute pain in the neck to photograph. I’ll try again after the project’s been graded & returned.

Say hello to Wisdom.

While it looks like this, I’m staying inside. Just saying.

The first assignment for my Design II class is a wire project.  I may be thoroughly sick of wire.  I have nightmares about wire.  I wonder why I always have to be an overachiever and couldn’t just follow the letter of the assignment, which is to create a three dimensional form within another form.  It’s as simple as that…an object within an object.  One of my classmates is doing a bird in a cage, another is running with a Wizard of Oz theme with Dorothy in a tornado.

Me?  I decided to do knowledge.  Go figure.  I have multiple representations of wisdom and knowledge making up my piece.  Eastern dragons symbolize wisdom, as does the pearl they carry.  In Korean mythology, without that pearl, a dragon is just a really big lizard.  I also figured the pearl could also represent a seed (again, of knowledge) and within the seed, a tree (yes, more knowledge).  So my interpretation of the assignment is a dragon surrounding an orb with a tree inside.

Lucky for me, there are piles of old electrical wiring in the basement from the gradual process of rewiring the entire house.  I had help from the family stripping off the insulation and, in some cases, un-plying the stranded wires.  I supplemented this small fortune in copper wire with finer gauge wire from the craft store.

The tree itself gave me the fewest headaches.  The orb that should have been simple, was not quite that.  My plan was to solder the stranded wire at the base and then solder the tree on top of that and figure out a base so that everything stayed upright.  The biggest problem?  I can’t solder for crap.  I did gain a soldering iron and a new pencil torch, though, mostly because I don’t know what I did with my other torch.  Yay, tools!

If I didn’t have E to bounce ideas off and to offer up his own suggestions, I would probably be crying in a corner right now because I couldn’t make the sphere.  Instead, I have both a base for my sculpture and a sphere.  I scavenged for the smallest metal container I could find.  This is where the sample tea containers from Adagio saved me.  I filled the lid with solder and sunk the loose wires of the sphere into it.  Then I ran out of solder, needed more, destroyed the lid pulling the base out and had to find another lid.  I couldn’t build up the metal in a nice, neat shape without that lid and the preexisting base wouldn’t go into the fresh lid, so I melted everything back down again and this time, used more solder.

After the base cooled and I did a bit of cleaning and polishing to brighten up the metal a bit, I shoved the tree inside and wrapped the roots to the bottom of the sphere to secure it.  After that, it was a matter of making the branches “pretty” and making sure everything was contained within the orb and there were no sharp ends sticking out.  I could stop now and have a finished project, but no…that would be too easy.

Up next, somehow fashioning a dragon out of wire.  I’ve already made piles of copper jump rings with the intent of wrapping a wire form in chain mail.  I have until Tuesday to get this done.

1. moved to a different state


2. rode on a motorcycle


3. got fired


4. applied to college


5. got drunk for the first time


6. was accepted to college


7. went to New Orleans for the first time


8. got a passport


9. spent a week in Barcelona & ate paella in Las Ramblas


10. divorced


11. fell in love


12. found myself


13. took a spur of the moment overnight trip out of state


14. realized I can do so much more than I once gave myself credit


15. have gotten along better with my mother


16. am learning to be a mother (wonder if that has anything to do with #15?)


17. canned jam for the first time


18. have learned to make my own decisions


19. have learned to admit making mistakes


20. have learned to forgive myself


21. started loving myself


22. have been happier than I have in years


23. ...