Adventures with Chicken Wire

Making mosaics which are three dimensional is fascinating to me as it requires so many different techniques to bring a piece into existence. One of the methods of creating a sculptural base is to form a shape from chicken wire, wrap it in bandages made from old sheets and then use a mix of sand and cement to firm it up and make the surface on which to mosaic. The challenges in using this method to create the vision in my head when I started are many - and I don't always completely succeed, but like many unplanned outcomes in life, sometimes I like the end result just as much. It probably also says a lot about me that I really enjoy the hands on element of creating a shape from such humble materials and then glamming it up with sparkly glass mosaic. The transition from ragged strips of cloth over wire to a solid prettied up end product never fails to amaze me, like the magical properties of grout, of which more in a future post.

In the meantime here's my latest work from my adventures with chicken wire.

I have called her Purple Haze Puss and here she is cozying up to some purple flowers in the garden.