How to Carve Styrofoam

  

This week we examine carving styrofoam or at least how I do it.  I create outlines in cardboard and then mount them onto the block of foam.  The cardboard acts as a guide for my homemade hotwire (years ago I made one using a Lionel Train transformer, an extension cord, PVC pipes, and guitar string).  If you take a look at the video on the bottom you can see me knock it apart after carving the front and side profiles. 

Don't forget to check out my new website http://www.nathaniellewis.org/

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Below I used a large, smooth cake knife to cut off a lot of the excess

Below that you can see a small video of me knocking off pieces after hotwiring.

Everything is In Flux

 

Hi there, 

Forgive me reader, for I have sinned.  It has been 8 months since my last post.  Things have been a little crazy here.  Me and the family have moved ourselves back to Arizona because I got a really sweet teaching gig.  I have received a grant from In Flux to produce the sculpture you see above (or at least something very similar).  

I have also selected the new domain name for my website: http://www.nathaniellewis.org/  I got myself ORGanized.  .net is so 2000 and late.  I also re-designed it.   I didn't have a ton of time to customize it, but I likes it.

I'll tell you more about the sculpture next week.  Below are parts of the plan and the proposal.

 I started with a drawing

 I built an armature to scale

 Then I sculpted the figure (not shown because I can't find the pic)  I used this figure as the base for the photoshop rendering you see at the top.

 

Next came the styrofoam

 

Projected a scaled version of the figure onto the foam (picture courtesy of Maya)

 

Traced it out on both sides ready for rough carving

Next week?
CARVING!