A request for wire sculpture ideas came up on Getty
list. Samantha recommended wire toys from Africa:
Since I have two push toys (a bicycle built for two--
that has one rider playing a drum - and a little guy
on a two wheel cart) - a wire Volkswagen bug and wire
airplane from Kenya - I decided to see what I could
find out there. Here is a commercial site where you
can find images:
http://www.africancraftsmarket.com/wirepage.html
I liked the lizard and fish.
Here are some sculptures that look a lot like ones my
students made many years ago. I got free copper wire
from Westinghouse (motor winding wire)
that made great sculptures (no reference to Africa on
the page -- but it did come up in the search):
Ranie Botsford
http://ww2.fwdart.com/gh/dynadex+Username=botsford
Billy Makhubela's (scroll down)
http://people.brandeis.edu/~mausland/memoryscapes/horvitz.html
"Billy Makhubela's wire sculptures, Woman and Man,
1985, represent fine art versions of the traditional
African decorative wire sculptures. Today, street
artists in Africa commonly sell wire animals and wire
baskets to earn a living. Makhubela's choice to use
human subjects reflects his own vision of the Western
tradition of portraiture. These pieces are
complimented by one of the masterpieces of tourist
art, Charlie the Crocodile--a large wire sculpture."
(I couldn't find any more works by him online)
(High school sculpture idea -- combine with Sokari
David Camp http://www.sokari.co.uk/ Nigerian artist,
based in UK. Welded steel sculpture inspired by
traditional African art.)
Janet Goldner -Welded Steel Sculpture
http://www.biddingtons.com/GALLERY6/goldner.htm http://www.biddingtons.com/content/creativegoldner.html
I am seeing kids doing some kind of pierced copper
tooling foil --antiqued with liver of sulfur (stinky
--but beautiful results) - include some repousse. I
have pierced tooling foil so know it is doable...Xacto
knives work.
New images from Indigo Arts (folks this site changes
all the time - so check back from time to time):
http://www.indigoarts.com/gallery_africanart_folk1.html
(fun push toys - already sold! - so I imagine the
images will be gone soon)
GREAT IDEA! make a wire treasure -- and frame it with
a foil tooled frame.
http://gecko.netfirms.com/wirework.htm
I have done 9x 12 foil tooled frame from one piece of
foil -- cutting out the center (foil saved for other
projects)....and have also done larger frames by
wrapping strips (cut about 3" wide - and mitered at
the corners - overlapping a miter cut over a straight
end tab) around a corrugated cut mat. The larger ones
are just tooled right on the cardboard whereas the
smaller ones allow you to repousse more - the smaller
ones are also folded around a corrugated cardboard cut
mat.
I saved the Gecko for me:
http://gecko.netfirms.com/images/Wirework_Gecko_Small.jpg
And here are the links from Samantha the got me on my
way:
Wire Sculptures - one word: galimotos
these should at least give some ideas for a starting
point...~Samantha
Incredible Art Department wants a lesson plan for Wire
Sculpture - any culture would do...but if anyone wants
to latch onto these African Wire Sculpture links ---by
all means please do.
Gloria - jump in any time and tell us the grade level
you are working with. Just reply to this message.
(remove the bulk of my post when you reply)
