Trilobite Metal Sculpture or Wall Art

I was working on another project which I hope to post here soon, and had to cut the bottom out of a brass bowl. I kept it around for a while. My wife suggested making a trilobite so I eventually decided to cut out a trilobite head out of it. The project has a few years in the making and was finally accelerated so it could be my wife's sort-of-late-sort-of-finished Christmas present this year.

Plan the Build

I only have one copper sheet, so I made a cardboard version first out of cereal boxes.

Cut the Copper

Now that we have a plan for this thing, we can cut the copper sheet using the cardboard pieces as stencils.

Real Trilobites Have Curves

So now we take the pieces that we cut out of copper and bend them to make them more like the cardboard model. It takes a little work to get them to match up reasonably well with each other. I also ended up shaping the head later which you can see in the final steps.

Attach With Screws

So now we drill holes so we can attach the pieces together. I used tape to hold them where I wanted them while I drilled the holes.

Adding Some Eyes

Trilobites had a ton of different kinds of eyes. I drew a couple of possibilities for the eyes but finally went with something a little different. cutting out paper shapes helped me to make them symmetric and place them carefully. Then I cut them out with a dremel cutting wheel. Adding some copper mesh helps give them shape and looks pretty cool like the compound eyes of a real trilobite.

Done! ... for Now

Pretty much done here. Sanded off the rough edges and added a couple more screws to attach the head. I'm planning to add some sweet RGB LEDs inside the eyes and along its belly, then hang it on the wall, then write a part 2 of this instructable.