Eco-sculpture project - Tufted Puffin metal sculpture

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By Evelyn Flores, Isabella Goossens, and Sophia Goossens

I worked with 2 SOTA students to create and plan a metal sculpture in 3 weeks. The project was to gain awareness of our endangered animals in the pacific northwest. Funny enough, my teammates were also sisters. They were fun, determined, and artistic people to work with! We started our project with our main concept and ideas. We all agreed on making a puffin with an egg. Telling the story of the tough beginning of a puffin and baby. Usually, they do not live long enough to even be born. It is mostly caused by their habitat being destroyed by us humans and other factors we play part in. We added lights to our sculpture to highlight details. Added plant elements to our projects, so that our sculpture can add to the world around it. To improve plant growth in the world and not take away from it.

We planned the layout and tasks, sketch designs, drafting a story about puffins, and made paper models. Researched and learned about plants and the effect we have on the world. We also coded our own light for our project. All that work was done with research and our skills, with the help of Mr. Erlendson. Next, we got training on machines and practice with Mr. Devine to make our puffin. We learned how to use machines and techniques with metal. We then cut out all the pieces, sanded them down, welded them together, and finally painted our sculpture.

I am proud of this project because of our teamwork, determination, and our final product! We all had different skills and abilities that were all important in the process. My skills were used in gardening, welding, planning, and drawing. Bella’s (my teammate) skills were being leader, designer, researcher, painter, and storyteller. And Sophia’s (another teammate) skills were coding, gardening, welding as well, and making models of sculpture. We focused on many things at the same time, allowing us to effectively get everything done on time. Our project was done in a short time frame, which caused some issues for us. But we made it happen! It turned out amazing in every way we could have imagined.