Sculpture within a Sculpture

This piece started out with 21 individual wire mesh pods that I made from a roll of chicken wire (steel mesh hardware cloth) that can be found in any home building supply store.

Each one was dipped in Southern Ice porcelain paper clay slip until the desired thickness was achieved. It took me about 2 weeks to get the thickness I liked.

The initial process was slow as I had to wait till the slip was completely dry before the next dip was made. As the layers build up, I was able to dip about 4-6 times a day depending on the weather conditions.

The final stage of this piece was assembling the individual pods into three groupings. This allows the sculpture to be arranged into different formations, each one giving a different feel to the composition.

As the steel wire is embedded in the clay, the work was fired to Cone 06 (bisque). No glazes were used. A clear coat was sprayed on the piece to seal the surface.