The Great Pork Rind Experiment

Steve from The Sneeze did a taste test of pickled pork rinds a few years ago that was the inspiration for this post. Before he tried eating them, he emptied the jar of rinds and tried to put them back together again, like all the rinds were from the same pig. Well, pickled pork rinds - I'm not a fan of, especially after reading his comments here- http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/cat_steve_dont_eat_it.php. But why not regular fried pork rinds? I bought this little bag (actually I bought another also, that I ate the night before), and tried to put piggy back together again.

So here it is, believe it or not (I've had some doubters, but whatever). Enjoy!


Art Supplies - 99 cents. Hot, Barbeque taste- Priceless.

The especially ugly, hard one that I used for the tail.




It wasn't looking too promising early, and I used every single one!





Oink!!

Baby Steps

Mama and baby move forward with their lives. Just quick shot that I grabbed shortly after the salad image.

I was all set to make a new piece today, had all the objects I needed except a book from the local library, and someone beat me to it. Don't people know I need my props?! Well, tomorrow I go to the used bookstore to buy a book that will work. I still run this operation on a shoe-string budget, but I'll splurge because I'm so excited about the image.

Also, I bought some interesting materials to make a pig out of this evening.

Thanks for all the great comments the last few days. There are a couple that need personal replies, and I hope to get to those soon.

Terry

Dust Blower Bird

Sometimes I take an object from home to make something out of during my lunch hour. This was yesterday's challenge for myself. My wife and daughter think he's cute, so I guess he's a success.

A comb with not a lot to do.

Another busy week at the real job, didn't have the time to create anything. I get grumpy when I'm not able to get any thing new done. So I'll post this photo of the day a comb came by the house looking for work, and quickly realized there's not much he could do for me.

McDonalds As Sculpture Materials

McDonalds as Sculpture Materials

A Quickie Wire "How-To"

This post is for the curious who are thinking about trying some wire bending. One viewer in particular actually asked for, and got some pliers and wire for Mother's Day! Well, I promised a little lesson, and here it is!

The best way to learn this material in my mind is to write with it. That's right, write. You really get a good feel for bending the wire. You will probably discover that this is a heck of a lot harder than it looks, but with practice you can do it.

After a while at this, you might be ready to draw something, and here is the foundation to most of my wire work- the loop.

With loops placed at strategic points in your work, you can build strength and stability. These are the connecting points in the sculpture. Without welds, or solder, you still need a way to connect, and these are better in my mind. Master this way, and other ways seem unsophisticated by comparison.

With a couple of loops and a bend of the wire, we can roughly make a circle.

Now I want to close the circle.

I have cut my wire, but still have a long enough piece to go through one of the holes, but still have enough to wrap around the part of wire just outside the loop. This is another key- when you wrap wire, it must be wrapped tightly and consistantly. This will keep your work from looking sloppy and conspicuous. It's best if you use your pliers to grab the loose end and wrap it around, because your fingers can't usually do it well enough.

Now you have a little base to build off of. Here, I've drawn a hand and connected it through the same loops as before. From here, I can add the arm to something else if I want. If you plan to use the same loops for that, remember to make them big enough for more pieces of wire to go through.

A funny thing about wire is that you can only draw as well in wire as you can with a pencil or pen. It is exactly the same in a lot of ways, even better since you can move and adjust your line after you've drawn it! But the difficulty goes to the next level when you start to make 3 dimensional objects. I'm not going to get into that here, too many variables. It's just a lot of trial and error. But it's worth it when you can make it work!

Good Luck!



(Also, don't be afraid to try your own thing, your own way with wire, it might be better! There are no rules here, if it works for you- go for it!)

Pansy grows stonger...

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