Right away I was intimidated by this project, as I consider myself an artistic person but not a crafty person. The ability to work with raw materials to create a 3D structure is something I truly admire about sculpting artists or builders! When approaching the design aspects of this assignment my first thought was to go with an animal or insect, since I feel their anatomical standards are somewhat looser than that of a humanoid figure. A few different questions ran through my mind -- what animal can I complete within the timeframe? What animal can I concoct that will still be universally recognizable and doesn’t have too many intricate details that would cause me to become frustrated or have to start over? 

 

I briefly considered going with a centipede -- but soon decided that I didn’t quite have the work space to do so, I also at first wanted to work on a porcupine shape! It was similar to a hedgehog, although I realized their body shapes are extremely different -- since a porcupine has a more almost skunk-like body and has much larger and intricately placed quills, I found that much too intimidating.

 

After much deliberation I decided to go with a little hedgehog! They are very round, covered in little quills and have pointed snouts, easily recognizable in an abstract or stylized format -- my next concern was the size requirement! Finding a body base that is round enough but also large enough was a challenge, since most bowls that come in a very large size are not typically very deep and tend to be much wider than they are tall, making for a sort of sad and pancake-like hedgehog design. After some thinking I elected to use quite a bit of tinfoil as a base, since it served many purposes : it was moldable, easily available in the home, sturdy and the “quills” would be easily moved around or plucked in and out at will! Using a very large and metal strainer as a sort of skeletal system to give it the dome shape I wanted, I then collected skewers and toothpicks of various sizes from around the house -- I knew we had some left over skewers that had never been used from many summers ago, as well as the many toothpicks and toothpick refills we had laying around the kitchen cabinets. It felt like a great idea! 

 

The quills, as I mentioned, are made of toothpicks and skewers. I was worried I was going to run out, and did my best to place them so I wouldn’t have many noticeable bald spots. I also considered using old spaghetti noodles in case I was desperate enough, although they definitely weren’t as sturdy and would break very easily, so I stuck with wooden sticks.

 

Using little bundles of tinfoil I felt adding little hedgehog ears would help bring it to life, since hedgehogs do have little ears that aren’t incredible noticeable but do break up the monotony of quills around the head, I just took some scraps from around my little construction area and balled them into narrow ended and fat headed shapes, using tape rolled on the back to stick them on, so the tape wouldn’t be so glaring. I think it adds a nice touch, even if they don’t stick out, literally.

 

The last thing to tackle was the face, as hedgehogs have a small and pointed snout. I was a bit concerned about this at first, since I’m definitely not craft-savvy enough to create a cone out of tinfoil, and I wanted to represent the little button nose at the end of their narrow face -- so I thought I would use a soda bottle! Taking an empty Fresca brand two liter soda bottle I unceremoniously used a bread knife to slice the top cap off and create a rounded and hollow cone with the soda cap as the little nose. I thought, perhaps, a black bottle or a Coke brand bottle would do better for an established color pallet since hedgehogs are generally darker in color, but the ocean green goes well with the tinfoil silver, I think. For the eyes I had a few different ideas of what I could do, at first I thought of perhaps just drawing the eyes with marker, but figured that wouldn’t be very innovative -- so I at first went in search of some large buttons from a sewing kit, but it didn’t quite pan out, so I found a plastic milk bottle cap and used the screwed top of one of our toothpick dispensers and taped them onto the snout! I think the difference in size and color really drives home the soft of modge-podge-hand-crafted effect that this assignment brings. 

 

I also briefly considered putting a cute little cartoon mouth on the bottom edge of the bottle, like a stylized smile of some sort, but figured that may look a bit silly, and may come across as not taking the project seriously, so I tried to give the most realistic approach I could do the assignment -- despite limited resources.

 

Overall I am happy with the construction, considering I have never done anything like this before, and who knows if I ever will again! It did take some heavy thinking and problem solving to make the whole thing come together, from systematic placement of the toothpicks and skewers from finding replacement parts when I couldn’t find the right materials I had initially wanted to use -- like the eyes for example -- and finding a substitute for the body, since that was perhaps the largest hurdle. He may look a bit bald in comparison to his hedgehog brothers and sisters, but he has a great personality. 

 

I definitely feel I have gained a lot from this assignment, and I’m definitely proud that I’ve finished it, even if it’s not as refined or polished as many others, it was nice to have access to the professor's opinion, as I had messaged at the beginning of my construction process to get approval of my materials and get instruction or opinion on where I could go from where I started, how to best address any upcoming issues and make my own decisions from there.