U.S. National Straw Sculpting Competition Fine Art in Straw…

Fran Volz's
Lady Liberty Straw

From Switzerland I returned home to Chicago and eventually moved to the rural community of Rochelle, Il.

Once while speaking with a city official I told her about the straw competition in Europe. She was intrigued. The Rochelle Special Events committee was planning a Fall festival for 2016 so she mentioned the straw sculptures. When they had me come in to explain what it was all about I decided to create a demonstration piece to show what could be done. Why the Statue of Liberty? It was a recognizable figure and patriotic. It could also help recruit other sculptors for our event. (I learned there are no competitions like this in America).

So they found an out of business storefront for me to work where people could look in the window and watch the process. Moore's Hardware became my home. It was mid-March.

The building had 13 foot tall ceilings. Even at that Lady Liberty would have to be built in sections to get her out the door. I welcomed the challenge. Let's get started in pictures....