Wire Sculpture

I have spent a lot of time up at the ceramic studio this week working, but I have a deadline for a wire sculpture for tuesday and need to get busy.  Usually my philosophy about deadlines is... "I love deadlines, I love the sound they make as they go swoshing by" but I am trying to break this philosophy and as a senior in an underlevel art studio class, I need to be deligent about getting assignments done.  This class has been beneficial for me as a three diminsional artist. I love clay and it tends to be what I am drawn to and consitently work with, but this class has introduced me already to the possibilites of paper sacks and the frustrations of wire (metal laith and chicken wire to be precise). 

I am translating one of my figurative clay sculptures into wire.  It is not going to be as realistic and I have had some issues working with the metal laith already.  Issue #1... I have to man handle the wire for it to do what I want and even then I am not always satisified with the results and end up with sore arms and hands.  Issue #2... work gloves.... Men's work gloves are cheap (always a plus on a college shoestring budget) but feel like I am wearing mickey mouse hands and I am very clusmy with them on.  They do make ladies gloves, but they cost more.  So I have ended up with a pair of smaller mens gloves with the deerskin leather and they work better than the cheap mens gloves but not as well as say the leather mechanic ladies gloves (which are super cute too!).  Issue #3... wearing work gloves and wearing a T-shirt is not a good plan.  Protects your hands, but not your arms.  I have unfortunately learned this the hard way and my arms look like I got in a cat fight. 

So a tip for anyone wanting to try out metal, at least wear a longsleeve shirt of some kind.  So far working with a metal sculpture, I am still heavily leaning toward my prefrence of clay.  Clay Score +1. Metal is batting ZERO.  Off to work and hopefully keep the cuts and blood to a minimum.