Metal sculptures are a popular form of art work. But you don’t have to be a famous artist to enjoy the different types of metal work.

In fact you can make a metal sculpture on your own time at home. It is a relaxing way to use your hands and challenge your mind. Here is an easy plan to help you make a masterpiece out of metal.

Instructions on how to build a metal sculpture:

Step One: Design

Think about your sculpture before you actually put pen to paper. Brainstorm in your mind cool ideas. You can do research and look at other forms too. After you have an idea of what you want to do you can sketch it out on paper. Draw the aspects of your sculpture that you want to include.

Step Two: Buy Material

The next part is to purchase the metal that you plan to use for your art piece. You can go to a home store and buy sheet metal. It is thin and easy to mold and work with. If you want to be thrift you can go to a junk yard and look for scrap metal.

Step 3: Gather Material

After you buy your metal you will want to gather all of your supplies. Look for metal pieces about 1/8 of an inch thick. If you get anything thicker than this size it will be very difficult to bend.?gather all your material and get ready to start building your art piece.

Step Four: Calculate the Measurements

It is important and necessary for each piece of your sculpture to be measured. You can use paint or a pen to mark the outlines of your piece. Use the measurements than put on the sheet metal.

Step Five: Trim

If you need to trim or cut your sheet metal down this is the best time to do that. If you don’t need to cut it you can begin to fold the metal to your liking.

Step Six: Shape

?Shape the pieces of metal as needed. Some people use their hands for the shaping but don’t shape it if the metal is hot. It is a good idea to make sure that the metal is cool enough so you don’t burn your fingers.

Step Seven: Put Together all the Pieces 

Now you can connect the piece together to create bigger shapes. You could weld the larger metal pieces together by using a plasma torch.

Step Eight: Finish

Once you are happy with your design you can finish your masterpiece sculpture by applying a epoxy acrylic coating to the entire sculpture. This method will give the sculpture a glossy appearance plus it will as protect it from nature’s elements and rust?in the future.

Shannon Kaiser is an artist who works with metal as a medium. She goes to American Precision Industries, a machining Portland job shop, for her metal needs.

Image courtesy of nuttakit / freedigitalphotos.net