Sketching it Out
Before the sculpting process, I started off by picking two objects that I'd be
interested in tranforming into a sculpture. I picked a teddy bear and a Mexican alebrije.
I determined the difficulty level of each by sketching out their individual components
and creating potential instructions as to how I would make the object. The difficulty
level wasn't the ultimate deciding factor. I was particularly interested in creating
an alebrije sculpture because it tied into my cultural roots in Mexico.
Sculpting Process
Going into the project, I only had a rough idea of what I wanted to do. Although I could
have created a rounded cardboard shape, I knew that given the limited materials I had,
the final product would look like a mess of tape. I was also interested in giving my
alebrije figurine a new look because I already thought the rounded body looked slightly
awkward on the original figurine. I ended up making a geodesic body in my sculpture. Once I had committed to the geodesic shape of the body,
creating the original tails, legs, and spikes on the figurine would look unnatural and ruin
the harmony among the components. Thus, I used a simple triangular shape for the tails,
legs, and spikes of my alebrije sculpture. The tail was actually a happy coincidence when
I realized that stacking my triangular legs created a textured dragon tail look. I was also
able to use my SolidWorks drawing skills on this piece. Rather than tediously measuring out
the pentagon shape required to create my geodesic dome, I sped up the process by creating a
traceable template. This ensured that each pentagon would precisely line up with each other
in the body of the alebrije.
