My art journey
Working out how to make some thing better

Let us go forward in this battle fortified by conviction that those who labour in the service of a great and good cause will never fail.
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My method is completely different
Having decided to turn my hobby into a business the first thing I did was look at the wire sculpture market to see what sort of sculptures were popular, and athe quality, detail of the work.
Fairies, dragonflies and other insects, seemed popular. I noticed that most wire artists were making their wire sculptures using a method called “wire wrap.“
My method is completely different. I solder braze or weld my pieces together, that is what makes my sculpture stand out from other artists, as I am able to get much more detail, in say, a fairy face or dragonfly wing. I am able to replicate all the veins in a dragonfly wing each wing takes about 12 hours, perfection is never easy or quick.
Shortly after I started making and selling dragon flies, I was asked by a friend if I could make her a fairy, and for how much. So looked at the market, and the only wire fairies I could find were wire wrapped, stainless steel or galvanized steel wire. No wire artists were putting faces on their fairies /figurines.
I really love a challenge
I soon discovered why. Trying to make beautiful females faces in wire in any size is by far the hardest thing I have ever tried to make. I really love a challenge. What drives me is working out how to do something. After about 8 months I produced my first fairy in an archer pose. For more info go to Faries tab.
I was also getting lots of customers for my small dragon flies, which I was developing into a better product. I do not want to keep making the same thing. I want to be creative and make new exciting things, then switch to something completely different. So often at craft fairs I would persuade people to come for a workshop rather than buy a dragonfly.
So that is how the teaching side of my sculpture business began, My teaching mantra is “Anything I make I can teach you.” to book a sculpture course with me go to “my courses.“
If I made drawings and jigs, other people could make their own dragonflies, and with practice their sculptures could be as good as mine. Teaching sculpture is now my main income, which is great because I am free to make whatever I want, in my own time, with no deadlines.
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Reproduce any of my sculptures in any size
The manufacturing process I have developed allows me to reproduce any of my sculptures in any size, micro to massive, in high definition. Smaller sculptures in wire, larger ones in steel.
My home town is Whitehill Bordon. I was asked by the local community Trust that manage our woodland if I could make a very large bee 1.5 meters long. I accepted this commission without hesitation even though I had never made a sculpture that large before, after making some detailed drawing and a 300mm model the Trust Whitehill and Bordon Community Trust gave me the go ahead, and cash upfront to buy the steel rod and tube.
I scaled up my drawings and reproduced them on large sheet of plasterboard, this is my template.
I also had to invest in a bending machine, that could bend and roll 16mm solid bar and 22mm steel tube, then my Chinese welder burnt out half way through. I learnt a lot making the giant bee which is now on permanent display in a tree in my home town. I could not make any of my large sculptures with out my Metalcraft XL5 Power bender , please see link WIRE SCULPTURE (metal-craft.co.uk)
