Today I'm going to share with you my final project for my sculpture class. Tomorrow will be my projects for painting and next Saturday will be my photography projects.
Our project theme was "dwelling". We were to use wood and one other material to build a dwelling that we could fit in to. Obvious solutions, like a house, were not going to be acceptable for this. My classmates came up with a variety of things, including a coffin, a nest, an outhouse, a tree (not the most original in my opinion), a circus tent, a beach hut/play fort, a bench, and a chair.
For me, in thinking about a dwelling, I thought of it as a place that housed life. I don't talk about it often here, but I am rather obsessed with shapes, lines, and textures. Last fall, I picked up a milkweed pod and brought it home to be a part of my growing collection of nature. I love the shape and textures of it and wanted to keep it around to inspire me. Same with the other items I've been collecting.
And lo and behold, my milkweed pod became my dwelling. It houses life in the form of seeds, which are released in late summer/fall, in order to continue the plant's existance.
My challenge in building this was that I had never worked with wood before or power tools. My experience with wood and tools stopped at a handsaw used to cut branches and an axe to chop wood for a fire.
I made it through, with a little help, and am pretty happy with it. These photos are the only proof it existed, however, as I did dismantle it. I had thought about bringing it home to use as an outdoor chair, but Chad wouldn't have been keen on that idea, and really, it would probably have ended up covered in dog pee.
My other materials here are canvas to cover the outside and a chunky yarn to bring the interior of the pod to life. The yarn was a last minute addition - one that I thought of just days before critique - and I'm glad it came to mind. It really brought my project to life. To give you an idea of size, this stands at about 8 1/2' to 9' tall.
The only thing I kept here was the yarn, which I will be making into something for next winter. Probably another cowl.
I hope you are enjoying your weekend! See you tomorrow for more.
3 comments:
Was there a written portion to the critique? Your thought process adds so much to the project.
Hey Katie,
learning something new everyday: I had to look up dwelling and milkweed pot ;-)
I think you did awesome and not just the obvious! The yarn really looks like the center part of the plant capsule!
I love the shape of your dwelling and the yarn really does bring it to life. It sounds quite a feat making it so big.
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