Swirly Girls

Photo by Jeanne Adams

One of my favorite things to do is to make art with other people. I call it "social art". Yesterday DJ and I worked on the "Swirly Girls"(c) . The swirly girls and us go back a few years, when we learned how to solder copper wire together, they were created from original art created by DJ at Leslie College..... while she was in class, while pursuing her Master's Degree in Expressive Therapy. Happily, she got her Master's and we have swirly girls.

There's something wonderful that happens when you make art, it makes the weight lift from your shoulders. Sometimes, working with DJ, we have long, long silences. I treasure these silences. We're engaged. It's not the long awkward silence that feels like it must be broken. Sometimes we stop and watch each other work. Usually we break our silence with, "Want a coffee?"


To make the swirly girls, we recycle copper wire. Some of this last batch came from the latest remodeling done in "this old house". A plastic coating covers the wire(s) and it's stripped using a knife. The copper wire is shining and clean as it is pulled from the usually dirty coating and wound like garden hose. Pieces are snipped and twisted to form the "girls" and the pieces are tied with thin wire at the joints. Flux is a gray paste that is brushed deep into the crevices of the wire. A propane torch is lit and directed at the copper wire to heat it, then solder is melted into the crevices. It's not difficult, but there is a definite method to the madness. The swirly girls end up very strong.


We ended up with 14 swirly girls almost completed.... we're pulling together to have our first ever studio open house the first weekend in December. It won't be the first time we've sold art together, we've had a couple of art parties and I even had an Art Yard Sale once - but that's another story! -- Jeanne