On Influence

So I found this artist a couple weeks ago. you can probably see my interest in the work (a little jealousy too!)

I have to state that I developed my fiber balls before having ever heard of her work...but check out her sculpture section... That was a real facepalm moment.

Based on the length of her career I assume her fiber balls existed before I ever came up with mine. Similar materials and methods as well as aesthetic. Not to mention a career as a sculpture artist that I'm working towards.


Jeez.

Another bird nest prototype

I'm trying to do different stuff on Instagram and Google Plus as The_Pimpernel and pimperneldesigns so please check those out as well.


I've been allowing myself to drift into building methods used by animals to see if I could retain the ruggedness of say, beaver dams and nests by some of the more ambitious birds, while creating a beautiful thing I could make consistently without ridiculous cost.

Working from the Secret Sauce coatings I went full stucco on a piece I'm currently weather testing.

The outer layer is just sand soaked in Secret Sauce and coated in Spar Urethane, over a standard clump-form nest. It's prototype-y as I built it when in one of those moods where the world outside my head and hands does not exist.

 You can see the ring marks from the cottage cheese container I was using as a work stand. Shows you the challenges of working in a medium that takes hours or days to set.   If I move these into production I'll have to make a jig that won't leave marks.

Here is a quick one I whipped up to test a plexiglass and pine frame jig I came up with for making corner nests, something akin to a swallow's pocket nest.

This one is sand, a little loose fiber, Secret Sauce, and a little Portland cement.

This sucker is really firm and super durable so I think my new common ingredient is portland from now on!

                                                                 The jig.
I like that it looks like a book!

Structure

More Work on bird nests.  I'm really narrowing down my materials and techniques so I think I'm on to a final products for these things.

It's been a few years but now I can see that I'll actually have a beautiful, naturalistic nest that's also durable out in the environment!

 Yes.

I leveraged basic archway physics for this but it shows the durability of the final product.

It's just bailing twine, plus a couple secret sauces, then paint.

I have no doubt it could hold a lot more weight. 

 So I bit the reality bullet and realized I had to provide more structure to the nest before the final coating(s).   Here's a look at the spiral form I started using rather than the clump method which looks frickin' cool but leaves big soft spots that loose structure if they get damp.

 Unpainted, the surface gets crumbly when left in the open outside but due to the tight coils, it's still as strong as the painted version.

I didn't make the back for these since their in testing but the closure will look the same and will be (and is on earlier pieces) removable for cleaning.

                                                  
This one===>
Is a proof of concept piece where I deliberately omitted one of the structural steps on a clump method piece and just coated with spar urethane. It gets soft in the rain but remains intact and firms back up when it dries.



You can see some of the clump pieces before I dialed in weather durability here.

 A shot of one of my earlier nests that I converted into a lamp. It casts an awesome multi-colored pattern on the wall! 

                                                  Boom.

Also available, contact me if interested!