Wire sculpture/Spot welding

During a meeting with Will Hargreaves, the Costume lecturer involved in the live project i'm involved in, it became apparent that the use of silhouettes in the poster may be interesting. I had experimented briefly cutting out satirical character heads out a paper sail for the frame sculpture, but it had been put to one side as it wouldn't have been clear in the photographed image. Will was intrigued by them and wanted me to develop the idea.

Silhouette art was popular between 1760-1860 with the middle classes, as many couldn't afford to commission paintings. I looked back upon some earlier research when I went to Winchester Library and found a book on Silhouette art.

Will was keen on me trying to find a way to modernise silhouettes. I considered different ways that I could create silhouettes. A rough illustration I did inspired me to try sculpting with wire. I was also intrigued what shadows would be created by wire sculpture.

A short tutorial on how to spot weld in the workshop allowed me to create a simplistic silhouette of a naval captain...

The wire creates very dark lines in the shadow which makes the shadow a little more illustrative. I still think the form is a little undeveloped and little clumsy. I intend on using black wool, to cover the copper wire and possible make the model more solid by threading the wool from one line to the other.