5 Amazing Tin foil Art Projects You’ll Fall In Love With
By Yvonne Anderson | Jan 2021
Tinfoil art projects are fun, but when you use the addition of some other household items such as cardboard, old containers and even wire and foam, you'll fall in love with what you can achieve.
If you haven’t yet see our Tinfoil Sculptures page then feel free to check it out (this will open in a new window). It will show you what we’ve learned over decades of sculpting with tinfoil.
If, however, you want to take your tinfoil sculpting game up a notch, then you’re in the right place!
The great news is, everything you’ll need is probably already in your house. After all, what else were cardboard boxes made for?
First off, who are we?
We’re the Pal Tiya International Crew. Between us we’ve been sculpting for decades and have used every sculpting material on the planet. We just love tinfoil. It’s pretty inexpensive, it’s easy to get and it makes for quite a sophisticated sculpting material. In fact, we use tinfoil as the core armature for almost every sculpture we make.
If you haven’t yet see our Tinfoil Sculptures page then feel free to check it out (this will open in a new window). It will show you what we’ve learned over decades of sculpting with tinfoil.
If, however, you want to take your tinfoil sculpting game up a notch, then you’re in the right place!
The great news is, everything you’ll need is probably already in your house. After all, what else were cardboard boxes made for?
First off, who are we?
We’re the Pal Tiya International Crew. Between us we’ve been sculpting for decades and have used every sculpting material on the planet. We just love tinfoil. It’s pretty inexpensive, it’s easy to get and it makes for quite a sophisticated sculpting material. In fact, we use tinfoil as the core armature for almost every sculpture we make.
SCULPTING MATERIAL LIST (depending on what you would like to make)
* heavy duty tinfoil/aluminium foil. We love the heavy duty brand from costco. It’s nice and thick and makes a great sculpting material. However, if you don’t have it to hand, then any roll will do :)
*A spoon and/or regular kitchen knife
* Cardboard (boxes, cartons) and/or plastic garbage (old tubs, bottles, food containers
*Old pair of Scissors or box cutter and mat
*Masking tape
*Galvanised wire (we usually use 14 gauge)
*Foam
*A hot glue gun with hot glue sticks.
There are many many ways you can increase the size of your tinfoil sculptures or generally make things a little more ambitious.
Here are a few ways and a few projects which have done just that.
Weta Workshop Private Commission
Back in 2018, our Creative Director was commissioned to create a miniature village on stage at Weta Workshop in Wellington, New Zealand.
This project started with cardboard and crushed tin foil which was then sculpted on top of with our sculpting medium Pal Tiya Premium
You can see more on this project here (don't worry, it will open in another window so you can still read on).
This project started with cardboard and crushed tin foil which was then sculpted on top of with our sculpting medium Pal Tiya Premium
You can see more on this project here (don't worry, it will open in another window so you can still read on).
Aluminium Foil Ruined Gothic Archway
This one will WOW your friends. Go here to see the making of this stunning archway!
Faery House by Brandon Love
Building with cardboard, masking tape, an old hummus container then hot glue and foil, Brandon created this gorgeous Faery House.
WIRE & FOIL
Using wire and foil can give you even more room for creativity!
We use wire for doing thinner delicate sculptures, which are still strong armatures.
Using wire and foil can give you even more room for creativity!
We use wire for doing thinner delicate sculptures, which are still strong armatures.
Our Human Figure
This human figure video shows how to accurately draw a human figure and make it with wire and aluminium foil.
You can also use aluminium mesh if you wanted to make more delicate shapes like wings and ears etc.
For more Tin Foil animal art projects you can visit our page: How To Make Gorgeous Tin Foil Animals
For more Tin Foil animal art projects you can visit our page: How To Make Gorgeous Tin Foil Animals
God Of Egypt Anubis by Elijah Strongheart Evenson
Elijah created this impressive sculpture with an iron rebar armature and used tinfoil to bulk out his form. You can read Elijah's article about this project here.
FOAM
You can use foam with cardboard if you want to go much bigger.
The project below was a fun collaborative piece. The artists used a cardboard template and foam, covered in a few layers of tinfoil to achieve this amazing armature.
Feel free to put your feet up and watch the 3 min making of video below, or visit this page.
You can use foam with cardboard if you want to go much bigger.
The project below was a fun collaborative piece. The artists used a cardboard template and foam, covered in a few layers of tinfoil to achieve this amazing armature.
Feel free to put your feet up and watch the 3 min making of video below, or visit this page.
Assyrian Warhorse