Wired – Majestic Wire Sculptures by Clive Maddison

Clive Maddison is not just a talented sculptor, he’s also an author. His ongoing series of wire sculptures is actually a homage to the vast diversity of the natural world. Clive creates wire tree sculptures from a single, long strand of silver wire.

He doesn’t solder or glue anything together. He makes each piece by cleverly and carefully twisting the wire to create the trunk, branches, leaves and even roots of the trees. The sculpture is then set on a beautifully polished piece of wood like yew or walnut. The structure of the tree might be complex, but they are by no means fragile.

According to an interview, his sculptures are inspired by the trees he sees. Clive doesn’t try to recreate any specific tree, just the idea of a particular species. He does, occasionally, use a photograph of a tree to try and get a closer resemblance.

At first, it took him around eighty hours to create his sculptures, but as he refined his technique, he gradually got faster and these days he can finish one in as short as twenty hours. He twists the wires by hand but sometimes caves in and uses a pair of pliers from time to time to tighten the trunk and main branches.

Clive has even made a few handmade tools to help him in his craft. He said: “I feel it is quite fitting to use wood for the bases of my sculptures as it reflects the beauty of what a tree produces.”

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I guess it comes as no surprise that Clive was an electrician before he became an artist. He revealed at the end of the interview, “I wouldn’t say the materials were influenced by my work as an electrician but it is certainly true that manipulating wires without losing track of what the end goal is comes naturally from my skill in this field.”

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Check out his website. We also have more bonsai wire tree madness on Pondly.

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