For my first structural sample I used cardboard, paper and tape. To begin with I made the head which is made up of two pieces of newspaper that was folded up and put into a triangle shape, to keep this shape I tightly wrapped one sheet of newspaper around the triangle and used tape to secure this into place. Next I drawn a circle onto a piece of cardboard with a pen, then cut it out using a craft knife, after this I cut the circle into half with scrunched up newspaper inside to give it that 3D aspect with tape to attach the head to the section that i created.
Next I created the body and the legs of the bug. For the legs I taped two pieces of wire together so that they would be stronger allowing the bug to stand up by itself. The body was created by cutting out 2 pieces of think paper of the same shape, I then filled the body with scrunched up newspaper and put tape around the edges as I went along to keep the newspaper inside and to also attach the top and the bottom.
The images above are to show what my bug now looks like from each angle and to show that the legs are strong enough to hold the weight of the bug up.
Finally to make the model secure I applied paper mache which is strips of newspaper that are then tightly wrapped areound the bug to keep the shape and stuck down with slightly diluted PVA glue. Once dry the newspaper becomes solid.
Advantages: The advantages of using paper mache is that it is very light when complete. Another advantage is that paper is a very easy material to manipulate allowing you to create intricate shapes, features, etc.
Disadvantages: The disadvantages of paper mache for me it that you would have to complete the model in one session because whenever I left my model, it would fall apart. Another disadvantage is that once the paper mache had dried you can't go back and fix any problems that are on the inside of the bug.
The next material that I used for a 3D sculpture is wire, for the first step I created a basic 2D shape by attaching two wires together as one wouldn't have been long enough and bending it onto the outer shape. I then added the wire down the middle and the 3 across the length of the body for support so that the wire didn't bend too much from the original shape.
Ater I had the basic structure completed I added 3 half circles to the top of the model and a wire that went straight through the middle of them. Once these wires were secure I began to slowly pull yhe top and bottom apart which created the 3D aspect of my model.
After this I created the head by bending a single piece of wire into a small triangle and then I attached another piece of wire across the center and this was bend in the shape of hald a triangle to create a gradual incline on the head. I then used 2 smaller pieces of wire to attach the head to the body.
After the head was attached I went back to the body to make it more secure by wrapping a thinner type of wire around each of the 3 intersections to keep the body stable and strong.
Finally I added the wings to my bug by bending 4 wires, the two top wings were the same and the two bottom wings were the same, I used the same piece of wire that creates the wings to attach then to the body of the bug. To finish I added a design/pattern to one of the wings to show the many different things that could be done with wire.
Advantages: The advantages of wire are similar to paper in the sense that it is incredibly soft wire meaning that it is easy to bend and mold into any shape that you can think of. Due to this you can also go back and fix any mistakes that you have made with ease.
Disadvantages: As well as an advantage, the wire being soft is also a disadvantage because this means any slight pressure you add to the bug will bend the wire in ways that you didn't want to. A disadvantage for me is working on such a small scale because I have quite large hands and wire is a small enough material anyways, so I would struggle to wrap the wire around other pieces which can be frustrating.
For the final 3D sample I have used modelling clay which is a substance that has to be continuously worked on as it will begin to dry out and turn rock solid as soon as it comes into contact with the air. To start my model I created the head and body from one piece of modelling clay, I put water on my hands every so often to keep the clay soft and also to smooth the model out because I didn't want there to be any cracks in the finished product. I then created one wing from a piece of modelling clay continuing to dip my hands into the water, when attaching the wing I used a "tool" to create a cross-hatch where the wing was going and on the wings itself where I wanted it to be connected to the body, I did this because when torn or cross-hatched the modelling clay is very fiberuse inside meaning that when two separate cross-hatched pieces come into contact they will easily join together due to all the fibers inside each section joining together.
With the wing now on I had to support it by putting a box underneath the wing because at the modelling clay hasn't set fully yet, if I left it unsupported then the wing would fall downwards or maybe even fall off the model completely.
After the modelling clay was completely set the supports were removed from the wings, I was pleased with the result as the wings were able to support their own weight and none of them broke off meaning that the joints were also strong and I didn't have to re-joint any of the wings.
Advantages: The advantages of modelling clay is that it is incredibly strong once fully set which is completely the opposite of wire which isn't even considerably strong once completed. Another advantage is that when dried the model has a smooth surface meaning that you could easily paint the model to add detail and to make it look more realistic in a sense.
Disadvantages: The disadvantages of the modelling clay is that you have to work quickly which isn't something that I particularly like to do as I like to have an attention to detail.
For this extra wire piece that I did I created the frame using the same process as the previous wire sculpture by bending/manipulating the wire into the correct shape.
To the simple wire frame that I had created I lined up a row of matchsticks long enough to cover the length of the back and then attached them all together with a piece of tape. I then placed this feature into the correct place and used 2 pieces of wire (one at the front and one at the back) to keep this feature in place. I added this to represent the hard shell that my bug would have and using these matchsticks also created a bumpy/rough texture. However to improve this I could have painted the matchsticks to match the colours that I had on my final outcome.
For the wings I used acrylic paint on a plain piece of photocopy paper, after the paint was dry I cut the pieces of paper to match the wing that it would be placed on. To attach the wings I pierced holes into the paper and wrapped small pieces of wire around the wire frame that created the wing making sure that I went through the hole that I had created, I repeated this process until the paper was secure and I was sure that they wouldn't move. To create the patterns on the wings I used a softer wire so that it would be easier to bend by hand, I created spirals and placed them on top of the wings and attached the end of the piece of wire to the wire frame that creates the wing. I then repeated this process until I was pleased that I had used the space efficiently and had a variety of spiral sizes so that the wings didn't look exactly the same.
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