Takeoff
2016 Bronze, glass. H 15cm/ W 23cm/ D 15cm
Have you ever seen a swan taking off from the water? Well you should take a look at this because it's such an epic view :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcnUPJoh15c
The swans are so large and heavy it takes a lot of effort for them in order to gather enough momentum to take flight. They have to flap their wings a lot while running on the water surface before they're able to reach a high enough speed to finally rise up in the sky. They look ridiculous and somewhat gracious at the same time at those moments. And this is what inspired me to create this little sculpture.
It captures the very beginning of the swan's flight. The exact moment where the bird's feet aren't touching the water anymore and it is about to take up to the sky.
The meaning my 18-year-old self tried to put behind this piece was that no matter how hard the beginning might be, the feeling of the flight will always be worth it. Or I don't even know. I just like birds.
Yes, Danny, even seagulls :D
This sculpture was made out of bee wax originally and was cast from bronze directly, and of course the wax figure got destroyed in the process and there are no molds left, so it can't be copied, which makes this guy unique
For the pedestal this time I picked glass because this material perfectly represents water
Working with glass was a difficult but also a very exciting process. Will definitely try combining bronze and glass again in my future projects!
The four pieces of glass were glued together and then put on top of the fifth one to make the whole thing more stable
The layers have minimalistic wavy lines carved in them, and each line is positioned on a different level. So when the light passes through the glass it looks like there are a few waves inside of the pedestal
Also these matte waves perfectly hide the part of the bronze figure that's inside of the glass pedestal, and now it looks like the swan is barely touching the water with its tail, which is exactly what I wanted to achieve as a final result
I also sanded the glass on the top and the sides to make it matte so that it can't bee seen through.
These are all the 5 glass pieces ready to be glued together. The waves are carved in the glass with a Dremel rotary tool (an absolutely irreplaceable machine to me)
And this is what the swan looked like right after being polished. Fully prepared for the next step which is adding a few layers of patina
Found some sketches of this one in an old sketchbook. You can also see some notes I made in the History class on the other side of the page.
Yeah, I've never heard of notebooks obviously
Another one
Thanks for scrolling all the way to the bottom! Here's a fat goose for you :)