For our second project in 3D Design, we were asked to create a sculpture out of wire using line and giving the piece motion.

Once again, I reached for my sketchbook. While I look around and others are taking off with their wire projects, as if they’ve been doing this for a million years, I scramble to come up with ideas.

I kept getting the feeling like I really wanted to do something with bikes, as my husband happens to work for Bike Friday. I see him take off on his bike every day, taking our daughter to school, pulling loads around with his trailer, working on bikes, talking about bikes. He even got me a fancy art bike designed by Alexander Girard.

She’s a beauty I’d say. My back was injured, which is why I was given this particular bike, to have the freedom to ride again, as I missed biking. There is nothing like that feeling of riding and having the wind blow in your hair, being a part of nature around you, rather than being another sardine in a tin can. Inspired by all this, I wanted to capture these feelings— of flying, of flowing, being unhampered by fear, trusting in where you’re going and, to some degree, sacrificing control to get there.

The other thing that really ensured that I was going to do this was a video I saw of a man who knew just that: how to completely let go of fear and jump through to the realm that we all wish we could get to. I struggle to explain what I mean by this, but what I can tell you is that we (myself included) restrict ourselves from total freedom of movement, held back by our most deep seated of fears. Imagine I asked you to just fall backwards without thinking or looking. Would you do it or would you fear for your safety? The only way I can truly make sense out this is by showing you Danny MacAskill in action.

If you watched the video, I guess you know what I mean. I’m sure you can imagine the difficulty in trying to express this in wire. I’ve never worked with it and I did not want to disappoint my husband (though he’d love me anyways) that didn’t even remotely look like a bike. Meaning, this bike had to be anatomically correct. Also, Andy expressed how great it would be if your piece not only showed motion, but actually had real motion, such as a bike wheel turning. So I enlisted my husband’s help to show me how to build a bike in miniature. He also helped me learn how to work with wire and let me make use of his tools.

After many attempts with the wire— and let me just tell you there was cussing, cutting, and pinching— let’s just say I did not like the wire. I really wanted to give up at this point. The next class, we were all working on our wire projects and I’m looking around and everybody’s got something that looks really good and I can’t figure out how they just figured this out because most said they never worked with wire. Somehow, I had to let go of my fear and just do it. That’s when it started to happen, like that day you first learn to ride your bike and you look back only to find no one is holding you upright.

With all the hating of the wire, I have to say, I’m pretty pleased with how this piece came out. It’s not the greatest sculpture, but to me, it’s the best I’ve ever done in wire. Who knows? Maybe more wire sculpture has yet to come out of me.