It’s very rare that the first cut works.

A few posts back I showed you the drawing for Geisha #2. I’m going to follow the progress of the piece on here for those of you who have said you are interested in the process. All others can come along 🙂

Each of my wall sculptures involve many individual pieces cut and hot glued to create the rough form. You would think that once you have an accurate drawing all you would have to do is copy each shape and place it into position. Wish it was that easy. If you take any rectangle and lay it flat it works that way but lift one side and you now need a larger piece to fit the same area. Then raise an opposite corner to create a compound angle and the measurements change again. It becomes a trial and error process. All the while I have to visualize the angle and depth of the individual section I’m cutting. What is the elevation? How will the next piece fit in? What do I want it to look like when all of the pieces of the puzzle are connected?

On this piece I have added compound curves to the mix, both convex and concave plus the compound angles. After working on this for a few hours my head is spinning and I have to walk away from it for a while. Sometimes it will take several cuts for each piece before it fits the way I want it and then each piece has to be supported underneath to provide the structural strength that I want. When this construction is completed it is only the beginning.

This is a photograph of where I am on the piece a week into the project. On the left is the drawing I’m working with which in effect is my floor plan. On the right is the elevation in 3D.. Very rough at this point but all art starts bad and grows from there.