Detritusphere – progress report

As I’ve just returned to working on my rusty metal sculpture 'Detritusphere', I thought I’d give you a quick progress report.

'Detritusphere' (work-in-progress) metal sculpture, 2024, artist Wayne Chisnall

The work is made up of small pieces of flat metal plates that I’ve mostly either found on the roadside or dug up from Victorian rubbish dumps that I discovered in the woods of Shropshire.

'Detritusphere' (detail showing metal staples outside of structure) metal sculpture, 2024, artist Wayne Chisnall

I’m constructing the sphere by first beating the plates into the correct curvature, then overlapping them and drilling small holes through the overlapped sections, through which I thread handmade metal staples. Once the two legs of each staple are threaded through the holes, I twist them tightly together to secure the plates in place. I was pleasantly surprised by how ridge the structure became through this method of construction.

'Detritusphere' (detail showing metal staples inside structure) metal sculpture, 2024, artist Wayne Chisnall

The reason that I put this project on hold for some time was because I wanted to wait until I had a greater diversity of metal components to use in Detritusphere’s construction. And a few days ago, I got my wish when Jim Rollason, a local scrap metal dealer, very kindly allowed me to wonder around his scrap yard, collecting the choicest rusty pieces. So I’d like to say a big thank you to Jim for his donation of materials.

'Detritusphere' (work-in-progress) metal sculpture, 2024, artist Wayne Chisnall