DIY Network

Narrative Wire Drawing Create a narrative scene out of wire. From "Craft Lab" episode DCLB-128

Guest C.W. Roelle joins host Jennifer Perkins and steps it up a notch and demonstrates how to create a narrative scene out of wire using old photographs as his inspiration. For a final touch, he shows how to create an elaborate wire frame for your 3-D wire drawing.

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	Guest C.W. Roelle creates a narrative scene out of wire—using old photographs as inspiration.
	Figure A

Project designed by C.W. Roelle.

Materials:

photos
dark annealed steel wire gauges 16, 18, and 19 (22 for fine detail)
4" long nose pliers (with spring)
black enamel spray paint

Narrative Wire Drawing

1. Choose a photo or group of photos to work from. The photos help with the core elements of the piece. You could also use models or just draw from your head if you want.

2. Make a contour (or continuous) line drawing of the figures and other objects in the scene. You can create an image that is just like the one you have pictured or you can grab things from several different photos and put them together to make a new scene.

3. The eye is a good place to start. Pick a point in the eye to begin and bend the wire to make the shapes that you can see in the eye, then the face, head and body. This piece doesn't have to be all one piece of wire. If you get to a point that you need or want to stop the line and continue elsewhere, just find a good spot to cut the wire (your pliers should have a snip in them) and tuck away the end, usually just by wrapping it around another part of the wire.

4. Remember that you are basically just outlining figures so you can see right through them (figure A). If you want a figure to be standing in front of a couch, think of how you will only see the couch on either side of the figure, don't make a whole couch and just place the figure in front of it. You should make the ends of the couch and place them on the side of the figure and set back a little depending on the depth you want in the piece (these pieces can be flat line drawings or the line can be manipulated to create depth like you would get in a pop up book).

5. Once the main objects of the image are in place make a border around it with a single line. This is the edge of both the image and the inside edge of the frame. This line also helps to finish off the finer details in the piece like wood floors and pictures on a wall.

6. Make a back brace to hold the piece off the wall by creating a shape that is larger than the border you made around the piece by (by an inch or two) and a couple of inches behind it but the same shape. Makes tabs that connect this back shape to the front one. This is big in helping to support the piece when it hangs.

7. Make a frame with wire that connects to the front border by creating some kind of repeating line design, just make something solid enough to keep the empty space in the scene from looking thin.

8. Spray the entire piece front and back with enamel spray paint to keep it from rusting.

GUESTS :

C.W. Roelle
PO Box 5691
Providence, RI 20903
E-mail: cwroelle@hotmail.com
Website: cwroelle.com