Step 8, Final

Working on this sculpture was nothing but blood sweat and tears. I cut myself several times, burned myself several times, and I even managed to get a metal shaving in my eye. But you know what they say, no pain no gain.

So, starting on this project, I created a backboard that would be my base. From there I assembled my circles with a bending method to make them perfectly circular. I then glued and taped them down so they would stay in place.

After my structure was finished I began randomly cutting cans and layering them in between the circles so that it would have a textured look. After that I layered the bottom of the circles with the tops of pop cans. The idea behind this was to create several circles inside of the circles to make a circular pattern.

After these steps were done I began cutting my cans in the petal shapes they needed to be in and took them to a rock outside of the Fine Arts building and hammered away at them until I was satisfied with each and every one of them.

From this step I made my hinges and glued on my cans. After my cans were on the project I poked holes in the back of the cans and 4 inches under the hinges to align my pulley system. From there I attached the string to the cans and pulled the strings through the outside holes.

The finally, I tied a central knot on the tension points of each of the cans so that when the lever was pulled it would create a “blooming flower” effect

My final product was very satisfying and I am very pleased with how this project turned out.