Chicken Wire Form and Presentation at the Capital City Mall

At the end of January, I received the requested donated materials from Home Depot and so I started to form the chicken wire form. I started with two cylinders/cones to make the body. Then I added the head from another cylindrical piece of chicken wire that shaped while wearing thick garden gloves to protect my hands from the sharp ends of wire. 

I continued to work on it when I had the chance to in between work and school throughout February and March. I had the form finished to promote girl scouting at the local mall yesterday, March 11th. The event was meant to demonstrate to the public that Girl Scouting is about more than cookie selling. Many Girl Scouts and Troops were presenting their bronze, silver, and gold awards along with information on the origins of Girl Scouting. I was very proud to be a part of this event!

Asking for Donations

I project that this sculpture will only require about $30 worth of materials: two rebars, a 10ft x 2ft roll of chicken wire, two 80lb bags of cement, and water sealant. I am asking Lowe's and Home Depot for donations using the letter below. I looked online for a guideline on how to write letters like this but I did not find much. After writing these, I will put them into an envelope and deliver them to the managers of each store which is also who the letters are addressed to. Then, I will check back with each store after a couple of weeks to see about the donation. I am in no rush to get the supplies since I will not be able to make concrete until it starts to warm up again. 

The Plan

After research and using knowledge from sculpture classes, I have decided to use chicken wire form to create the dragon. I will use rebar on the inside to give some support and connect it to the base. The base will be made from a cardboard mold and will be solid concrete so that the dragon will not blow away in the wind. The dragon itself will be hollow. Its chicken wire frame will be covered with cloth that has been dipped into concrete, using a method similar to paper mache. The video below is one that I found while researching of someone else using a similar method and their progress. After it is covered in concrete and cured, I will apply a simple mosaic over top to mimic scales on a dragon. 

The Purpose of My Gold Award

For my Gold Award, I decided to attack the lack of  individuality and art in my community. I feel like suburban communities, such as mine, often lack a fundamental part of life. Art is extremely beneficial to the mind and soul. Numerous studies have shown that exposure to Art improves the quality of life, as seen in this article from Be Brain Fit: The Mental Health Benefits of Art Are for Everyone. This article explains how art can increases creativity, boosts self-confidence, promotes brain growth, makes children better students, and much more. The point of my gold award is to expose the students to art everyday that they go to school. I hope that the exposure to art will inspire them to be an individual and to expand their own creativity through art, bringing more art to normally, creatively blank areas of the world, like the suburbs. .