How to make a brass bird cage dress in twenty-five easy steps

Step 4 Bending shiny bits

Figuring out the outer shape of the skirt was next, since it seemed like the shape of the whole thing would stem from that.

I worked on measuring and bending a prototype of the belt and outer skeleton. The 1/2" brass strap turned out to be malleable enough to bend by hand with the help of a vice. Hurray! I was very thankful, because I had a ton of bending in my future. I wanted the circumference of the circle to be 16', so worked out the geometry from there [2 * (pi) * radius = (pi) * diameter] . The design morphed slightly and did affect the numbers, but that's at least where it started.

I cut and bent the waist band to try to get an idea of how many vertical lines the skirt would require, then drilled holes to attach pieces so that I could get a decent idea of how it would look.