How to Make a Geometric Sculpture Using Cotton Swabs

Cotton swabs, consisting of sticks with sticky ends, make construction of geometric forms very easy. Use these materials to make cubes, pyramids, octahedrons, dodecahedrons and little geodesic domes.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Waxed paper
• Pencils or drinking straws
• Cotton swabs
• Rubber cement

1. Lay a sheet of waxed paper over your work surface. The waxed paper will catch any drips rubber cement.

2. Lay parallel pairs of pencils or straws on top of the waxed paper, about an inch apart. You will place your wet sticky sticks on top of these to dry.

3. Dip the ends of the cotton swabs into the rubber cement, getting just the cotton part wet.

4. 

   Lay the wet swabs across the pencils to dry. Let dry for about 5 minutes.

5. Connect the swabs by simply pressing the ends together. The rubber cement will make them stick enough to hold together, but not so well that your cannot easily pull them apart and reposition them.

6. 

   Try an easy geometric shape first, such as a cube or pyramid.

7. 

   Gradually add to your simple shape, making it more complex. For a real challenge, try a shape based on a pentagon.

Tips & Warnings

• Cotton swabs sometimes come in different colors (the stick part is colored, not the cotton). If you can find colored swabs, your sculptures will be extra artistic!