Building a life size wire rhino.

This incredible challenge was taken up by Farayi Mukonde - designing partner in Ghetto Wire - the formiddable wire crew at The Little Shoppe and Studio Project - Hermanus.

What started out as a conversation one morning has become a full fledged project.

Farayi about to board his first flight

The first step on the road was to head up to the Waterberg to meet Anton Walker of the Waterberg Living Museum - and METSI - their eight year old black rhino.  Another first for the crew - would be to get this incredibly close to a real rhino.  And for Farayi - this would mean the first time on an aircraft.



Plane tickets where sponsored by StopRhinoPoaching.com through sticker and arm band sales and founder of SRP - Elise Daffue took the crew to meet the Walkers, enroute discussing the real challenges this current crisis creates on all levels of rhino conservation. StopRhinoPoaching will be the strategic partner of the project - bringing the two groups together under SRP's umbrella.



Measurements of Metsi

After spending time with Anton, Elise and Metsi and taking images from all angles the crew returned to Hermanus to start the process.  Anton sent images of Metsi with his measurements marked in red.  Wildlife sculptor - John Bassi - sent a wax model of one of his sculptures to assist Farayi in the detail.  This wax model was to become instrumental in guiding Farayi in the process of taking a load of wire and shaping it into a full fledged life size wire rhino.



Johns sculpture guiding Farayi

Where do you start ?

Working with 4mm wire on this
scale is no mean feat!

Starting with the head he added the horns and the ears - each shaped individually and attached to the framework of the head.  The horns where filled with squashed up mesh wire to give them a denser feel.  Then followed the body - all HANDSHAPED from 4mm galvanised wire - in long lines down the back - with rib supports from neck to butt. 

The body was constantly matched to the head to make sure that the proportions where correct.  Guided by John's sculpture and Anton's measurements - Wetsi - the wire Metsi - took shape.

Wetsi and Savannah - foto courtesy of
Mandala Art - Hermanus

The legs where added and shaped to give the sense of him being in motion.  Last - but by no means least he added the shoulders to give the unmistakable feel of strength and power of a rhino.  Wetsi is partially covered in a style called Wrapture and is an incredible sight to behold. 

The whole process took him 3 months,  1500m of wire and has a total weight of approx 85kg's.

Please click here to view the whole album of Wetsi taking shape.

To learn more about Farayi's work or to commission Farayi for design work in wire - please click here