a new project, at last!

I'm finally home, and my father is doing well following his surgery on his rotator cuff- you know what that means. Project time!

I've been sketching for awhile, not really landing on anything, until my very good friend suggested that I keep in line with my current trend (animals) and make an elephant. Of course, once she mentioned the idea, I fell in love with it. But the question remained- what type of material? Since I use found objects, my options are rather limitless. But I decided to do something a bit different, something I hope will be visually captivating while still retaining the essence of a found piece. Ergo, I decided on pipe. With pipe, I can cut the pieces to many various lengths and then bind them back together at different angles to form the body of my elephant. I doubt the end product will look anything like what's in my head (the sketches don't either!) but I'm going to do my best.

Here's one of my sketches, with reference points for me regarding the elephant's form and face. I haven't yet decided what position I'd like her in, but I have no doubt that I'll come up with something.

I'll be using copper pipe, 1in in diameter and 2.5in in diameter, cut to varying lengths. Copper pipe is gorgeous, and I think even more so when it's slightly worm and aged, which is what I'll be using. This is not the exact pipe I'll be using, but it's similar-

I hope to begin immediately... But first, I need to run and buy a pipe cutter. Amazingly enough, in both of our massive garages, in all of our toolboxes, we don't have a simple little pipe cutter! This will allow me to make clean cuts in the pipe without losing so much of it, as I would with an electric saw.

More updates as they occur.

Cheers,
em