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Hello all and welcome to the not really bizarre but apparently not really done sculpture making using flat wire thread! Now you may be asking yourself "Wha?". To be honest I don't know how else to describe it. I was messing around with long strips of stainless steel and realised you could effectively do this to it:  Doing so gives the flat wire a few interesting properties: 1 - It can bend in any direction without tearing the wire. 2 - It can support itself and more 3 - After taking a shape it holds that shape. From there I started making sculptures using these as framework. Here's a quick step-by-step to show how I start and what they look like once going. I apologize for some of the pictures being blurry as the camera refused at times to focus on the wire. You start with a length of flat wire. You only need one length to start.  Next at about mid point put a 90 degree fold so that your wire now forms an L.  Now this part can sometimes be tricky. Take whichever end is currently the bottom and fold it across the top like the paper accordion. After the first fold you should have a little loop.  Continue back and forth, each fold over the other. Once you've reached the desired length of framework clip off whichever wire is currently on top at the joint. I'm using a short piece of scrap wire just to demonstrate.  As you can see the wire stays flexible but doesn't wear on itself so you can pretty much bend and shape it forever.   Nothing much too it. Once you have a number of lengths you can just shape them into whatever you feel. If you leave lengths of flat wire off the ends you can use them to wrap around and hold onto other pieces. Here are some examples of the things I've made people over the years: T-Rex from years ago. This is stainless steel. As you can see despite how top heavy it is the legs don't move.  A fencer I once made. I've also done a hockey goalie, football, and ringette players but I don't have good photos of them.  A scorpion. I've made a few mostly because I like scorpions.  Now for newer aluminium stuff. Here is my biggest model, my crow. I almost sold it at a music festival once but the idiot disappeared before he could get it. Still my favourite since the feet articulate.  As a good example of the strength of the wire lengths, here's my moose. The antlers are mostly solid wrapped so the head is a bit heavy. None of those legs buckle if I hold the moose by one.  I don't know why I decided to make this thread but I felt like this is something I'd like other people to mess around with. It's easy modelling and looks interesting in my opinion. If anyone wants to look at other stuff once I make them I set up a Facebook page about it: https://www.facebook.com/minimalistmetal/ If anyone wants to make stuff I'll definitely try my best to show it off. If you've gotten this far then thank you for taking the time to read about this. I don't really know what to call it and I don't see other people doing it but I find it enjoyable and I think others will as well.
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Dec 31, 2016 20:49
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Before when I had nothing to look at other than the title of this thread, I wasn't really sure what to expect from flat wire. But looking at these pictures and the really cool folding over thing you did to make the basic structural strand made me amazed.  Thank you for making this thread, this really expanded my mind about what could be with wire. I know when I was a little kid, I used to make my own toys and figurines out of twisty-ties that you can find at the grocery stores or on a bag of bread, but it's only now that I've been trying to get into sculpting that I'm returning to learning about wire armatures.You are pretty creative, and I especially like the fencer figure.
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Jan 3, 2017 01:46
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Are you familiar with Alexander Calder's work, especially his earlier stuff? It really takes a lot of vision to see something and express it simply with wire. Keep it up! http://www.calder.org/work/by-category/wire-sculpture Pigsfeet on Rye fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Jan 3, 2017 |
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Jan 3, 2017 03:21
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EagerSleeper posted:Before when I had nothing to look at other than the title of this thread, I wasn't really sure what to expect from flat wire. But looking at these pictures and the really cool folding over thing you did to make the basic structural strand made me amazed. Thanks.  Really when comes to this style of modeling the only real limiting factor is making sure you don't cut your pieces too short. But the pieces are generally strong enough that it doesn't become an issue.Pigsfeet on Rye posted:Are you familiar with Alexander Calder's work, especially his earlier stuff? It really takes a lot of vision to see something and express it simply with wire. Keep it up! Thank you for introducing me to this. I had no idea of his work and I like the style a lot. I think people get hung up on what constitutes artistic material and ignore the things around them that can be shaped with the right tools.
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Jan 3, 2017 03:54
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This is neat OP. Thanks for posting. A couple questions if I may: Where do you get copious amounts of flat wire? If you bend one of those strands back and forth a lot will it eventually crack and break?
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Jan 8, 2017 05:07
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redsniper posted:This is neat OP. Thanks for posting. A couple questions if I may: 1 - Right now the best place I've seen to get a lot of it would be off Alibaba or Aliexpress. Once I have some excess money I'm going to order a bulk package from them. 2 - Honestly I haven't had them break. The aluminum is soft enough that it'll take the bending fine. Stainless steel would but it was also a lot more ridged. A single piece of flatwire that isn't folded will eventually snap if you bend it enough times but even that is tough.
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Jan 8, 2017 16:29
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