Planning Sketches
My first plan was to make this sculpture out of wire and nails. I planned to do this by wrapping the nails together at the head with wire and continuing to do this until a spherical form was created. I found it very difficult to work with so I moved on and decided to use smaller nails and thinner, more pliable wire. However, though I found this technique easier I still could not accomplish the shape I wanted to. Therefore, I had to completely change my idea. I decided I would use glue and glue the nails' heads to the surface of a tennis ball. This way acheiving a spherical shape would be much much easier.
Inspiration
Process
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The materials I used for this sculpture were a tennis ball, metal bonding glue, nails, and black paint. I began with placing a small amount of glue onto the head of the nail and placing it on the surface of the tennis ball. To make sure the nail would adhere to tennis ball I applied a firm amount of pressure and held the nail securely in place so it would be sturdy. I then continued this process and glued the other nails as close together- leaving as little open space between them as possible. I also tried my best to alternate the placement of the nails to make less open space visible (see third picture) Despite using this method there still ending up being many open spaces where the tennis ball was visible. Half way through finishing this sculpture I decided to paint the remainder of the tennis ball black to make the spaces less visible. I then continued the process of gluing the nails to the ball until there was no more room left.
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Experimentation
My design plan going into constructing this sculpture was to make it out of wire and nails. I had theorized that I would wind the nails together with wire to form it into the spherical shape I had envisioned. However, it was very difficult to do this. Binding the nails together with wire was labor intensive and instead of creating a circular shape, it looked as if the nails were just bunched together and it lacked form and I could tell early on that I would have to edit my process to get my vision across. I experimented by using a much smaller nail. I thought that maybe this way I could handle the nails more easily and I wouldn't have to use as much wire. I laid out the nails to get a rough template of what I was trying to do. I then used a thinner, more pliable wire to attempt to bind them together but I still ran into the same problem of not being able to construct a distinguished form. After this, I realized I'd have to change my plan entirely and figure out a different method to use. That's when I decided to use nail glue and glue the heads of the nails to a tennis ball. As I got further into this process I realized there was still a lot of visible areas where you could see the surface of the tennis ball and it took away from the sculpture and made it look not as put together. To counteract this I painted the remainder of the tennis ball black so that the core of the sculpture was black as opposed to an off putting neon yellow.
Reflection
This sculpture is similar to the works of Jason Peters, Jennifer Maestre, and Louise Bourgeois. I used Jason Peter's work as inspiration and it prompted be to create my sculpture in a spherical shape. I was drawn to doing this because organic shaped sculptures always have been in favor to me because I strived to create an organic spherical shape out of complex methods. This sculpture differs from his artwork because his sculpture are made of somewhat flat materials and I decided to make mind out of nails as opposed to tires. This made my sculpture have a lot more texture than his. This piece also similar to Jennifer Maestre's work because we both used texture as a main element of the sculpture. We both used pointed/sharp objects to construct organic shapes. Our styles differ because she used color as a main element and I did not. My work is also similar to Louise Bourgeois because I was drawn to the ominous vibe her sculpture Maman gave off. I tried to replicate this feeling and appearance by using nails to give it the sculptural intensity. Overall, I was trying to transform the nails I had into a sphere. I did this focusing on the overall shape and texture of the piece. The main thing I struggled with was planning. My initial plan was to use wire and that didn't work out because I found it difficult to manipulate the nails into a sphere. I also struggled with the bits of color peaking thru the spaces between the nails. To solve this problem i painted the remainder of the ball black but if I were to do this project again I'd definitely paint the whole ball black first. However, I am still very pleased with how the final product came out. It looks very clean and sculptural and one of my favorite pieces so far.