Several months ago, I found a discarded “Laugh” sign, the kind sold at home goods stores that looks almost as if it were constructed out of old barn wood. It’s not made out of barn wood, but rather out of some gluey particle board.
What I liked about it is that it had a hanging wire in the back. For a while, I’ve wanted to make some kind of mounted fish. I like how these look, except that I don’t fish and it would make me sad to look at a dead animal on my wall every day.
I took the sign home, and started making an armature out of cardboard, foil, Chipotle lids, and masking tape. I covered the whole thing with masking tape and paper mache clay. I realized I’d never achieve a life-like smooth finish. I went to my go-to art supply area: the recycling bin! I added a piece of plywood with wire to make it easy to mount at the end.
I’ve seen some artist work with aluminum cans before, but I never had. I decided to give it a go. First, I bought some sturdy gloves. I found a circle punch in my classroom. Hot glue and Elmers weren’t the best for this, so I went with the E6000. Next, I started punching out some scales from the cans. I used a ping pong ball for the eye.
I’m listing all the supplies below.
Materials:
Laugh sign or any plywood.
Cardboard, foil, chipotle lids
Aluminum cans
scrapwood
wire
