Arts & Culture

Can Jello, Butter, and Coat Hangers Really be Used for Sculpting?

Sculptures typically look very realistic.  If someone talks about a sculpture, statues and busts of people come to mind.  But sculptures can be used to depict any object or being, create something abstract, or freeze a moment in time.  Sculptures can be made by using carving tools, casting the medium, or the artist can use their hands to shape it.  Ice sculptures are also fairly common in the world of sculpting.  This article, however, will highlight some truly interesting and unusual mediums for sculpting. 

Perhaps not the most elegant, but certainly the most colorful medium, is jello.  Those viewing these sculptures in person will be hard pressed not to take a huge bite.  Add lights underneath or behind the spectacle and suddenly the sculpture appears to be glowing. 

The most popular jello artist is Liz Hickok.  She creates buildings and cities out of this gelatinous medium, her New York City sculpture being particularly impressive.  

Jello is a very unique medium to work with.  It is primarily composed of gelatin which makes it easy to carve into and even more simple to pour into a mold.  Jello artists typically create their own molds, some even going as far as to use architectural degrees and knowledge to make accurate molds.  Jello is also very flimsy.  While other lightweight mediums can have a sturdy structure hidden inside, anything inside of jello would be visible.  Artists using this medium have to keep this fact in mind, but the leaning jello sculptures are somehow endearing and add a fun, loose feel to the artistic pieces. 

The Statue of Liberty by Liz Hickok

Because jello is colorful and semi see-through, artists use this to their advantage.  They strategically add lights to create a full spectacle that looks especially tantalizing in darker settings. 


Others have gone as far as creating jewelry and clothing out of jello.  However, the unfortunate truth is jello quickly deteriorates.  Because of this, any art museum with “jello art,” such as Liz Hickok’s exhibits, can only have photographs.  These sculptures may not last long, but they are certainly spectacular while they stand in their full glory. Completely opposite jello, neither colorful nor squishy, are coat hanger sculptures.  This medium creates very solid-looking sculptures that have a menacing quality to them.  Despite the somewhat simple and unforgiving nature of metal hangers, these sculptures take on a surprising amount of detail; they almost look life-like. 

David Mach is one of the rare artists who create coat hanger sculptures.  He holds a guinness world record for creating the “largest art installation made entirely from coat hangers” at seven feet tall, nine feet long, and five feet wide. 

David Mach’s record holding coat hanger sculpture

Mach’s sculptures have more components than just coat hangers.  He first creates a plastic mold before attaching the thousands of hangers to the structure.  He welds the hangers together and finishes it off with nickel for a more polished look. 

This next medium must be kept in a refrigerator, or somewhere of similar temperature, in order to survive the day.  Butter is sometimes used as a medium for sculptures and can be dated back to the Tibetan Buddhists and the Renaissance era.  However, America is the true home to butter sculpting.  

A woman from the state Arkansas is typically known as the first person to make a sculpture from butter.  In the late 1800s she created a sculpture of a woman and it was displayed a short time later at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, the first United States world fair. 

Rather than wasting pounds of butter year after year, the butter that was used for older sculptures are recycled and used for new works of art.  In fact, older butter supposedly crumbles less which makes it better to use.  These sculptures aren’t usually made of one-hundred percent butter.  They usually, especially for large scale projects, have some sort of wooden or metal framework inside.  The butter is packed around the frame resulting in the butter being the only part visible and a more sturdy sculpture. 


Nowadays, butter sculptures are practically a staple of state fairs in America.  Cows, especially, tend to make an appearance in each year’s showcase.  Butter might be delicious, but it also makes a great sculpting material. 

The world of art has no limits.  While one might expect a sculpture to be made of plaster, wood, or even ice, humans have learned truly fascinating ways of putting their own spin on this traditional art form.  Some of these unusual mediums have even become more popular over the years!  All three of these sculpting mediums are perfect examples for how anything can be made into a work of art. 

Works cited: 

“Amazing and Wobbly Jell-O Art.” Slate, September 12, 2011, www.slate.com/articles/arts/gallery/2011/09/amazing-jello-art.html

“Largest Art Installation Made From Coat Hangers.” Guinness World Records, www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-art-installation-made-from-coat-hangers, Accessed Feb 18, 2022.  

“Coat Hanger Sculptures by David Mach.” Design is This, March 27, 2012, www.designisthis.com/blog/en/post/coat-hanger-sculptures-david-mach

Zuras, Matthew. “The History of Butter Sculpture is Strange Indeed.” Vice, August 10, 2014, www.vice.com/en/article/mgxzvx/the-history-of-butter-sculpture-is-strange-indeed

“Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition.” Historical Society of Pennsylvania, hsp.org/philadelphia-centennial-exhibition, Accessed Feb 18, 2022. 

Crowder, Courtney. “25 Facts About the State Fair’s Butter Cow.” Des Moines Register, August 12, 2015, www.desmoinesregister.com/story/life/2015/08/12/butter-cow-facts/31569851/

Reiter, Amy. “The Truth About Butter Sculptures.” Food Network, July, 2015, www.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/news/2015/07/the-truth-about-butter-sculptures

Images: 

www.lizhickok.com 

www.slate.com/articles/arts/gallery/2011/09/amazing-jello-art.html 

recyclenation.com/2010/07/recycled-coat-hangers-life-own/ 

mymodernmet.com/king-kong-made-of-3000-coat/ 

collabcubed.com/2011/12/27/david-mach-coat-hanger-sculptures/ 

www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/06/25/413706612/a-toast-to-butter-sculpture-the-art-that-melts-the-hearts-of-the-masses 

www.morrowcountysentinel.com/news/26880/gallery-2019-butter-sculpture-ohio-state-fair-courtesy-american-dairy-associationmideast 

www.delish.com/food/g2812/butter-sculptures/ 

daily.jstor.org/the-decadent-art-of-butter-sculpture/

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