The Sidecar Dog

Made by Jon Keller

This is a mixed media project . I used only materials that I had on hand ( keeping in mind that as an artist I have a lot of different things on hand ). Two of the most important components , the driver and the dog, are both made from brown paper bag paper mache . The fenders are also made from paper mache .

• The wheels have cardboard strips ( cut from a cereal box ) for the rims . Thin dowels are used for the spokes with the centers cut from wood. The tires are made from flexible hair curlers ( painted black ).
• I needed to make special jigs to help me construct the wheels.
• The motorcycle frame is constructed using chopsticks.
• The seat is a piece of shaped rubber floor tile upholstered with leather.
• The springs under the seat are coiled paper clips.
• The engine block is a piece of a wooden broomstick and the cylinder head is made by alternating two different sizes of wooden discs.
• The carburetor is made from parts of plastic writing pens.
• The exhaust pipe ( which is not shown well in the images ) is made from a clothing hanger and a Sharpie.
• The gas tank is carved from wood.
• Anything “glass” ( windshield , goggles , etc ) is made from plastic soda bottles.
• The headlamp is a plastic bottle cap and a carved piece of wood.
• The dog is an aluminum foil armature covered with paper mache .
• The driver is a wire armature covered with paper mache. His hands are made from Sculpey and the gauntlets on his gloves are shaped cardboard covered with leather.
• There are some pieces of balsa wood , leather , and wire ( paper clips ) used in various places.
• The sidecar was made primarily from wooden coffee stirrers.
• Everything was painted with acrylic paint , with silver Rub n Buff used on the engine.
• The driver and the dog were varnished with matte varnish and the motorcycle and sidecar were varnished with high gloss polyurethane .

The project was an evolution . When I started I had no idea how I was going to make this . I did draw some plans and spent many hours figuring out how to create this project . The reference that I used for the motorcycle were internet pictures of a 1937 BMW R-20 motorcycle. For the sidecar I just looked at endless images of sidecars and then designed my own .

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