How to make tiny wire sculptures

Gather all the materials on the supplies list. The insulation foam comes in a big sheet. We cut it into 3" by 3" blocks. We also cut the pipe cleaners to about 6" and the Twisteez wires to 12".

For this example, we are going to make a person flying a kite.

We'll start with the shape of a person. Get one twisteez wire.

Bend the wire in half and twist to form a loop.

Keep twisting the two ends together to form an upper body. Leave the two ends with about 2 inches untwisted. Spread the two ends to form legs.

Next you'll get a pipe cleaner. We will use it to wrap the lower part of our figure.

Wrap one end of the pipe cleaner around the hip down to one leg. Use the other end of the pipe cleaner to do the same to the other leg.

As shown above, our figure is still missing arms. Let's put some arms on it.

Get another wire and center it on the body. Remember that this wire will become the arms, so we want to line up the wire below the head.

Start by twisting one end of the wire around the figure. Keep twisting the arm until it's length fits the proportion of your figure. repeat for the other arm.

It should look something like this.

Use two pipe cleaners to cover the upper part of the figure. We might want to use a different color from the one we used to make pants for the figure.

Wrap it around to cover the whole top.

Use the other pipe cleaner to wrap the arms.

We'll use another wire to wrap around the head loop to form a three- dimensional head.

Make sure to not wrap it too tight, or the head will be too small for the proportions of the body.

Shape the head as needed.

Let's give it a pair of yellow shoes. Wrap the yellow pipe cleaner around each foot.

Those are good-looking yellow shoes!

Position it on the foam block.

Use the skewer as a tool to make two holes for both feet so your figure can stand on it's own.

Now we just need to add a kite.

You'll need another wire.

Bend it in half to make a traditional diamond kite shape.

Twist it to lock in the kite shape.

Bend one end forward to make it looks like a rope. The other end will be shorter and trail behind the kite like a tail.

Then twist the kite rope around one of the hands of your figure.

There you have it!

Tiny wire sculptures are fun and easy to make with any age group. It allows you to explore your imagination and turn them into physical three-dimensional shapes.

Explore simple shapes and techniques such as wrapping to create "springs". They don't have to be complicated. Create whatever is bendy and twisty in your mind!

You can imagine you are drawing in three dimensions! Most of all, have fun exploring your creative side.

We also have a video about Tiny Wire sculptures - take a look: https://vimeo.com/111942416