When Nirit Levar found her calling as a bike chain dog sculptor she never looked back. Dedicating herself fulltime to the pursuit of dog portraits created from this unique upcycled and repurposed material.

Bike Chain Sculptures – Unchained Dogs Series

Nirit Levar did not start out as a bike chain dog sculptor but began her creative life as a wedding and evening gown designer. Her designs where so popular she opened her own series of bridal chains but after 10 years Nirit finally decided to move on and return to her artistic roots.

The first decade of her artistic creations found Nirit working in jewellery, pottery, sculpture, ceramics and metal and then one day everything changed.

One-day Nirit made a random visit to a bike shop with her son where she became fascinated with bike parts and she started spending her days collecting chains, gear parts, pedals and bells and spent her evenings making dogs.

A dog that belonged to a neighbour shop owner inspired Mooky, a Rottweiler , then came Princess (top left), an Afghan hound that is extremely large at 63”Hx23”Wx49”L.

Despite the industrial aspect of the materials, the bike chain dog sculptures have a gentleness and sensitivity to them.

The compact coat of Nikita is created with a special mix of potter’s glue.

Tuzy is capturing our attention with a less than polished pose, never the less, the pose is one all of us dog owners are only too familiar with.

Black eared Buli has been embellished with bicycle bells for ears, how adorable!

Bells aren’t the only bicycle part embellishments Nirit uses in her bike chain dog sculptures, this cute dachshund had a seat for a head and peddles for feet.

Saluki is slightly different than the other bike chain dog sculptures in that he has no bike chain incorporated into his sculpture at all. Instead he is made from metal bike gear parts, which are round and allow air to pass through the multiple voids within the gears. The airiness of the gears creates a graceful and fragile appearance befitting the breed.

While part of the Unchained Dogs Series, Lord of the Watches is only made from his namesake.

Bike Chain Sculptures – Junior Series

A simplified form of Nirit Levar’s bike chain dog sculptures is her junior series. Smaller in scale and requiring far less chain, the final results are slightly more abstract but just as appealing.

The looseness of the tabletop bike chain dog sculptures within the junior series adds a certain zest to the overall feel of the compositions.

Almost flat, but not quite, Maxine reminds me of a dog in the middle of summer trying to cool off in a puddle of water.

With the scale of the bike chain staying the same but the size of the sculptures shrinking dramatically, much of the detail has been replaced with suggestion.

Bike Chain Sculptures – Wally Series

The Wally Series within Nirit Levar’s bike chain sculptures are two dimensional portraits that are designed to be mounted on the wall.

The Wally series incorporates round, glass beads for the eyes and noses that catch the light, giving life to the faces of the portraits.

It really is amazing how Nirit captures so much life in these portraits with so little detail.

Unchained Dogs by Nirit Levav

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