Lifeforms Art: The Process of Making The Tangled Twenty-Five

The Process of Making "The Tangled Twenty-Five"
a visual record

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The Tangled Twenty-Five. . . . . . are, in a sense, a gang of trees of various shapes and colours, gathered in a protective circle. Their branches and roots are intertwined, each one stretching into the next. The circle represents protection, power in numbers, the continuous spiral represents energy and growth. Placing a lit candle inside this piece further enforces its magic. The flame becomes a tiny bonfire in a sacred circle. I began this sculpture late in the summer of 2005, worked on it regularly for more than a month, placed the project on hold for the holiday season, then resumed work early in January 2006. The Tangled Twenty-Five was finally completed at the end of January. Because of the extensiveness of this project, I decided I should make a visual record of the process from beginning to end, and share this record with you on my website.
	Getting started. The artist at work. I did very few sketches before starting construction. Most of the planning is done in my head, and all of my creative energy is put into making the actual piece. On the table is a book on Art Nouveau glass vessels, for a bit of visual inspiration.

	At this early stage in the construction, the structure is very unstable. In order to keep the vertical lengths of wire, which become the trees themselves, from slipping out of place, I fasten the bundles with electrical tape, and then tape them to the mold. In this case, I have used a large punch bowl as a mold, to establish a smooth round shape.

	The wire-wrapping begins. I am working upside-down at this point, building up the roots and using the curve at the bottom of the bowl to establish shape and stability

	Roots are completed and ready for beading.

	Early September- Beading on the roots is completed. The mold is removed, and the sculpture is turned right-side up.

	Building up the sides and branches.

	Early January- At the end of a late-night work session. Dramatic shadows cast by the nearly completed branches.

	Dancing tree silhouettes.

	Close-up of the beading at the roots.

	Mid-January- The tree-tops are ready for beading

	The beading on the tree-tops is half-completed. I had decided at this point to vary the colours of the beads for the branches of each tree, in order to define them more realistically. Some trees are garnet, some are carnelian, some jade, some a mixture.

	a close-up of the beading tree-tops

	Close-up of the branches and beads.

	Late January- Completion, at last!

	A worm's eye view of The Tangled Twenty-Five.

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