A Theory of Forms and Ideas in Progress

Last Wednesday I started cutting wood for the first of the small scale sculptures in the A Theory of Forms and Ideas series. I started this process by printing out a copy of each of the small perspective drawings that I made, making them twice as big so that they would be three inches and four inches wide, taping them into a notebook, and measuring the sizes for each section that I need to make. I numbered each segment according to what I thought would be easiest to cut and piece together if need be. I went to the Lowe’s and bought varying widths of 3″ craft board only later to realize that it was actually only 2.5″ wide. I also went to our local art store and bought some three inch 1/16th and 1/8th inch balsa wood since the hardware store didn’t carry wood this thin; Balsa wood turns out to be the exact size that it says it is. I went back to Lowe’s and bought 4″ wood which is actually 3.5 inches and purchased widths of 1/4th, 3/8th’s, 1/2″, and 3/4″ so that I could glue them together to make the widths that I need.

The first piece that I’m making needs 3 pieces that are 1 and 1/4 wide so I cut 3 pieces of 3/4″ and 3 pieces of 3/8″  at 4.25″ and glued them together and clamped them. After they dry I’ll have to cut them down to 4″ and 3″ to make them the right size. I also cut some spacers that I needed for the piece as well. Here’s a photo of the 3 pieces clamped and drying on my workbench. Hopefully I can get around to finishing them soon but this might not happen for another couple of weeks.