Balsa Wood Sculptures

Architect

Balsa wood, Masking tape, Paper, Hot glue

5.5” x 12.5” x 8.25”

This piece focuses on space, using cutouts to create an internal space, along with tape strands to define negative space in the piece.

Child of an Engineer

Balsa wood, Masking tape, Hot glue

5” x 7” x 6.5”

This piece focuses on repetition seen through the use of triangles.

I developed these two sculptures with the intent that they would be able to stand as individual pieces, but when combined, would form one cohesive sculpture. Individually the pieces are abstract representations of repetition and space, but when put together become reminiscent of an ultra-modern architectural structure.

In Process

To create the geometric paper elements of Architect, I first created sketches of the shapes I wanted and played around with the dimensions through trial and error. After measuring and drawing shapes out on printer paper, I taped the individual shapes together and folded them up to create three-dimensional forms. When I was satisfied with how they looked and fit together, I untaped the shapes and traced them onto thicker paper, cut them out as one piece, folded them, and then sealed the edges down with hot glue.

When experimenting on the walls for Child of an Engineer, I initially wanted the sides to be made from sheets of wood glue, but they dried unevenly and were too brittle, so I decided to create the walls out of sheets of masking tape instead to get a similar transparent surface that wasn't as fragile.