This was inspired by a humans face. It is made from wire. Wire is something I have never really worked with, so making a 3D face was a whole new experience! I used 22 gauge wire and 19 gauge wire. I started out with the front of the face and just tried to create all the major features like the eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows and so on. Then I began to attach them all and made the main lines for the face so I would have a good starting point. It was definitely a challenge to get everything to connect and stay where I wanted it, but in the end I was pretty happy how it all turned out! I then created the back of the head making it pretty simple so you could really see the features of the face. The ears where difficult but I got them to stay on the head pretty well. Then to top it all of I made the neck so it would have some good supports to stand up. I used the thicker wire in places like the eyes, nose, eyebrows, ears, mouth, and the bigger outlines of the face. Then the thinner wire in places like the cheekbones, lines around the eyes, and any extra lines I had to add in.  I didn't want to use too many wires, so that you could clearly see all of the features, but just enough so it would all stay together. I learned that wire really is a strong material and can keep its shape and hold itself up. You can pretty much mold it into anything you could possibly imagine. Yet it can be difficult to bend the thicker wires and to connect every piece. All in all I'm very happy how it turned out. The dimensions of the wire head are 9.5 inches by 7.2 inches.

This piece was inspired from a rose. I used paper for this project. Each petal and leaf were carefully cut out from paper then curled and glued into place. I did not have much of a challenge for this piece because I have worked with paper before but I did learn that there is much more you can do with paper than you could ever imagine. The dimensions of the rose are 5 inches by 4.5 inches.

This piece was inspired from my paper model above. It is made from clay. I split the rose into three separated pieces, the main rose part, the leaf, and a petal. I made the rose by first creating each petal separately then placing them together one by one. The petal was carefully shaped then curled on one end and pointed on the other. The leaf was shaped into an oval shape with a point on one end and a stem on the other. Then I created points on the edges and added some texture on the inside to give it more of a leaf look. I felt like molding the clay was much easier then putting together the paper rose. The clay was soft and very easy to mold making it quick and easy to achieve a beautiful result. The dimensions of the rose is 2.75 inches by 2.75 inches, the petal is 1.6 inches by 1.4 inches, and the leaf is 3.75 inches by 2 inches.

This sculpture was inspired by the paper and clay pieces. It was made from plaster. The rose took a very long time to make. I poured plaster for each piece into a medium sized container the let them set for an hour or so. I wanted them to still be soft so I could carve them out easier. I am so happy I did cause after a while it did get harder to carve them. I began by first shaping out the rose then carefully started to indent into it to make each petal. I have never made anything out of plaster before, so this was a fun experience. I went a bit more abstract with the leaf and made swirls on the inside to give it a whole other affect. I'm happy with how it turned out also. I learned that making something from plaster is definitely more time consuming and takes a lot more work and concentration. Also having some good and small tools can go a long way with helping out. The dimensions of the rose is 3.75 inches by 3.5 inches, and the leaf is 4.4 inches by 2.75 inches. 

This piece was inspired by things found in nature. I added a picture of the mold on the left and the final product on the right. The mold is made from clay and different objects that I found outside. Then the the main piece is made from plaster. I started this piece by making a round circle from clay, then pressed in some flowers on the left and right sides. I used pieces of a stick for the tree, some spruce needles for the grass, a rock for the snail, added some forget-me-nots in the middle, and a pinecone. I pushed in everything as much as I could to make a good imprint. Then I put up some clay walls around it and poured in the plaster to make the imprint. I was pretty happy with how it turned out, but do wish that the flowers on the outside stuck out more. I painted everything and think that it is a really unique piece. The dimensions of the piece are 7 inches by 7 inches. 

This was homemade clay that I made. It took me a while to find a good recipe and everything I would need, but in the end I only used 4 simple ingredients. I used beeswax, baby oil, petroleum jelly, and baby powder. I got some water in one pot and heated it up, then placed a smaller pot inside. I melted the beeswax first, then added in the petroleum jelly. I turned off the heat at this point and slowly began to add in the baby powder, then lastly added the baby oil. I was a bit afraid at the end because it was still liquidy, yet I just decided to pour it out on to a pan with tinfoil. It became a puddle, but hardened up quickly and became clay! I kneaded it all together and it came out to be a smooth clay. I was really happy with the results, and the clay molds very nicely. I am amazed how well it turned out and even after two months it is still just as moldable as day one! I learned that making clay really isn't as hard as you may think.

This piece was inspired from an owl. This is a sketch I did for the armature of my owl.  I enlarged the head and gave it big eyes to make it look cartoonish. I also gave it a branch to sit on, to help support its large head and hopefully keep it standing upright. 

This piece was inspired from my owl sketch above. I used wire, foil, sticks, and rocks for the armature. Then clay for the outside. This project was a bit of a mess, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out! I exaggerated the head and the eyes. I added in a log for support and to help the whole piece stand. I used a lot of wire in my structure to try and make it strong, yet in the long run the head was just too big! There really wasn't much I could do, so I just kept woking. I ended up putting rocks in the log part so that the piece would stay standing. Then I began to wrap the whole piece in foil. This was difficult! The foil did not want to stay, and it seemed like I really needed more wire cause the head was so big. Of course though, I dragged on and smoothed things out the best I could, then started to add on globs of clay. Right away I knew that the wire structure for the body was way too small, like a stick figure, compared to a giant-like balloon head. It took a lot of work to keep the whole thing up, and I ended up poking sticks into it from the top to keep the whole piece standing up right. This worked to some extent, even though the piece still wanted to lean some. I added in a lot of texture cause the whole piece was hard to smooth out, and I really like how it all turned out! The log was a big help and so were the rocks inside, cause I noticed that my owl had sunk into the log, but the rocks made it stop from going all the way down. I definitely would have changed a few things if I started all over. The head would have been the first change, it really was just too big. Changing the head would have made everything else way easier. I would have added more wire to the body helping it stand up better. Maybe even using something else other than wire for the structure could have helped. I learned that making a stronger armature would have helped a lot and to not go so extreme on one body part. Other than that I'm happy with how it turned out, even with all the difficulties I ran into! The dimensions of this piece are 6 inches by 8 inches.  

This project was inspired by some little plastic bears that I had. I used silicone to make the molds and then poured in plaster for the bears. I mixed my silicone with some blue food coloring then plopped it all into the corn starch. I was using a plastic spoon and had a hard time getting it all off, so I had to use my fingers. It was really sticky, but I continued to use my hands to mix it up. It felt pretty good, so I began to mold it around my bear. The putty was still too sticky and it all just stuck to my hands and the bear! I ripped it all off and tried to clump it together into the corn starch. This kinda worked, and eventually I got it to a good enough consistency to mold around the bear. I did another one and again struggled with it and the putty came out too dry, but at this point I just wanted it to mold around. It was hard to get the stuff to stick to the bear and I was afraid it would not make a good mold. I tried to just mold the sticky silicone around one bear with no corn starch. I made three more and I would say they worked a little better. I went and popped out my bears. They came out with some ease and I was just happy that I didn't have to break my molds to get them out. I made up some plaster and poured it into each one. I let them set over night and came back in the morning. You could say this was a mistake, because popping them out was so hard! I was happy I made extra, because two of them lost their heads and I forgot to shake them to let out air bubbles, so some of them have lots. I had to break open just about all of them, which I should have done in the beginning, but I was happy to see that some of the bears did come out. This was a crazy experience, but I definitely learned a lot. I would highly suggest gloves, and I feel like using a different material than silicone would be better. Also making sure to shake your plaster before letting is set, so there is no air bubbles. Yet I’m happy with the results I got, even with all the difficulties I stumbled into along the way. The bears range from the size of 1 to 2 inches.

This project was inspired from a VHS tape. This is a deconstructed VHS tape. There was just a few screws and then the rest just came apart. I organized the parts by size. The bigger parts are in the bottom left side. These are all of the outer parts of the VHS tape. Then I put together all the screws, wire, plastic, and metal pieces. I put the film roll on the outside to pull the whole image together and stretched it out so you think of the endless possibilities that could be done. I learned taking apart a VHS tape is actually really easy and cool to see what lies on the inside. 

This piece was inspired from a galaxy dress and a VHS tape. It is made from cardboard and pieces of a VHS tape. I decided to make a cardboard dress because I have always wanted to make some sort of dress out of a different material than fabric. I sketched out a design first then just dived right in. I found a large ziplock box that worked perfect for the top part. I folded it many times, so that it would bend and curve easily around me. Then I got a big box and began to cut out different sized squares. I stripped the cardboard to give it a different affect and make it more flexible. Then I began to glue on each square slowly working out to make a skirt. This was a bit difficult and I had to add some some supports underneath with more cardboard so it would hold up. I wanted to use some of the VHS tape I deconstructed, so I decided to make some interesting details using gears, because some of the VHS insides looked like gears. I glued these gears all on the dress bodice and then made a bow at the waist from the film in the VHS tape. I had to cut down the back and placed velcro there so the dress was wearable. The cardboard makes a very stiff dress on this large scale. The gears and the stiff skirt make it appear like a galaxy dress. I’m really happy with how it all turned out! I could have changed the skirt part some to make it more even and lay better, otherwise I felt like everything else was good. I learned that working with cardboard is a lot harder than you may think especially trying to wear it. It is very stiff and not easy to mold but with lots of endurance and patience you can do it. The dimensions of this dress are 4 feet 2 inches by 2 feet 11inches.