Sam Ludden Ceramics : Hinaki Starts to Take Shape

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Hinaki Starts to Take Shape

After much deliberation and strong "debate" about how to proceed Sam's sculpture Hinaki is finally starting to come together. His design concept is one of the more technically challenging much to the delight of Chou his assistant who is totally up for a challenge. No better time to try something new than when you have a sculpture teacher, 50 artists, 4 assistants and no bill to foot eh?

The frame or skeleton of the sculpture, welded in steel

Marking out Eel length piecies of steel to be cut

Bending the steel into the basic shape of an eel

The eel shapes being welded onto the Frame

Winding on chicken wire to steel to hold the clay

Starting to take shape....

Putting the two halves together for the 1st time and deliberating with the Dream Team on how it looks. Oops....some of the eels are going the wrong way. We have since taken a day to take them off and redo and its now looking tip top

A close up

6 comments:

Aaron said...: Sculpture looks great!!

Didn't realise you guys were heading over to China until I googled Sam today to try and get in touch. When are you heading back to NZ? Are you going to see any of the Olympics?

Aaron; August 14, 2008 at 2:58 AM
Bella's learning journal said...: Hey Aaron,
Its Janine here we were just talking about you the other day and about getting in touch! We are here till Sept 10 then heading to UK to work and play for a while. We'd love to catch up. Email Sam from his website then we have your address www.samludden.com (contact page)
Yay! look forward to seeing you soon
xxx; August 17, 2008 at 6:45 PM
Aaron said...: hmmmm...your contact page (or me) seems to be broken, keeps asking me for my correct email address...have re-typed and tried 3 different addresses but can't get it to work : (; August 18, 2008 at 7:38 AM
Aaron said...: will keep trying...very keen to catch up when you get to the UK; August 18, 2008 at 7:50 AM
Bella's learning journal said...: Hey Aaron,
thats wierd. email sam at samuelludden@hotmail.com you'll reach him there. i will let the website people know that thanks.
c ya in london!
xx J9; August 23, 2008 at 1:06 AM
Bella's learning journal said...: Hey Aaron,

Sam got your email but when we replied it would not deliver. Something up with receiving emails at your end mayb?; August 31, 2008 at 8:41 PM

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ABOUT SAM'S HINAKI SCULPTURE

The Hinaki sculpture represents the traditional stories, passed down from generation to generation, of the New Zealand native eel. The form of this eel sculpture is based on the shape of Maori traditional eel nets which are called 'hinaki'.

This work is a homage to the ecology of the rivers and waters of our world which are under constant threat from urban development and human pollution. The natural world of our land and our rivers are of huge cultural and historical significance to the people of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Eels are inconic creatures that have been woven into countless stories over the centuries, stories told by both young and old alike. The hope is that this sculpture will visually communicate those stories in a way that increases understanding of NZ culture and inspires people across cultures to work together to protect and preserve our natural world.