Nicest Guy ever

So I've been going to the local bars quite a bit lately. I've been going in and asking if I can have some empties. Preferably large bottles since I've been cutting them in half. There has been quite a bit of communication. Most of the time's I've gone, they've told me to come back the next day and they'd have some ready. Today the bartender at Flan O Brian's came to work to find the box he set aside for me was thrown out. I was surprised at how pissed off he was. He cursed a little. Then, he made me a promise. He said his girlfriend is an alcoholic and drinks a lot of wine. I'm jk he didn't say she was he just said they have a huge bin at their apartment full of about 50 bottles of wine they've been meaning to get rid of. He's going to actually bring them to Mass Art for me tomorrow! I hope it works out. I'm really grateful. Also Ulio keeps thinking of better ways for me to construct this piece. He suggested I take the chicken wire off and glue 1/2 bottles to themselves around the wooden structure. So today I got some wood from Nicole Pierce from SIM who is giving away wood she used in her thesis. Awesome Free materials yay ok thats all I have for today I'll post pics soon.

More Images

This is an example of the mosaic style I want to stray away from with this piece

process continues

These are some updated photos. I bought some epoxy which definitely works. It just means I'll have to hold down every piece w/ tape while it dries. I also found a fan which I need to bring up to the room so I'm not affected by the chemicals and to speed up the drying process. To adhere glass on glass I'm going to have to use UV adhesive which requires a blue light in order to dry. It dries so fast! Julio showed me a demo of it. I talked to a couple of my friends who had some great suggestions. Since I want the piece to be interactive, I'm going to need to form a pathway into the dirt which will make it clear for people to know where they need to travel within the space. I will either bury bottles more than half way into the dirt to create a pathway or I'll construct some glass pieces to look like plants in the space to make a clear direction.Well that's it for now...

moving along

I used every piece of chickenwire I bought. I may need to get some more. I took Andrea's suggestion of building the trees up to the ceiling and having them wind down through the space. I'm happy with the way its transforming. I also formed the roots. I am going to need another adhesive for the glass. The insulating foam ive been using will be strinctly to give mass and strenght to the structure. Right now it looks too much like a mosaic and isn't reading like a glass tree. So ,,, we'll fix that and I will post more pics since it's really looking different than the previous ones.

In the making

So I've been told to use insulating foam to fill the spaces of the chickenwire giving the tree more mass. It expands quite a bit. I did a test on a small piece of wood and attatched glass to it. I was happy to discover glass sticks to it really well. I didn't take gravity into account however. When I started using it on the structure, some of it started sliding down and slopping on the floor. why!! why I screamed in dispare lol no I didn't do that. It's pretty messy working with the foam. I think I may have to wait until it dries half way to add the glass. I started doing that a little last night and I think it doesn't look very good right now. I may have to adhere glass to glass to fill up the space because right now it just looks like glass on foam. This is what it looks like so far.

Process Documented

Pump it out!

I've decided its time to move on from the wood and start with the other materials. I have 2 wooden frames complete and have moved all my materials to the room I will be working in from here on out. I am going back to school shortly to pick up some apoxy glue and test it out with the glass. It should work. If it does I will buy my own. Right now I'm in the process of spray painting the tarps I will be using for the dirt. I took out a camera from the Av dept. to document the work and forgot to bring it back on time. They charge a dollar an hour so I had to give $17!! I think that is crazy. Way too much money. Oh well. So heres what I have so far. I just want to get this thing done, it wont escape my mind until its completed.