Senior Franklin Reitz explains his hobby of creating objects out of pipe cleaners.

How did you get interested in making pipe cleaner models?

I just started to do it one day and it kinda killed the boredom. So I just kept on doing it until they looked like actual things.

About how many pipe cleaner models have you made?

Close to 1,000.

How much time do you spend making these?

It just depends [on] what I’m making because each thing takes a different amount of time. The arm [I made] took two days since I don’t know anything about human anatomy.

What do you do with your models when you’re finished?

I give them to people. If anyone wants it, they can have it.

Where do you get inspiration for your models?

I don’t know. I just start working on it [and it] just turns out the way [it does].

Do you use other materials besides pipe cleaners?

I’ve been working on cloth. I used to do tin foil, but it always kept ripping.

Where did you get the idea to begin this hobby?

Well I think it all started in elementary school. There’s always that one project people do with pipe cleaners. Everyone was just so terrible at it, [and] I almost cried. I’m serious; their people didn’t even look like people. I kinda just wanted to be a little better at it.

What kind of creations have you made?

I’ve made a lot of people, but I’m not really good at the faces. I make animals and flowers. And if somebody just has a request, I’ll try to make that too.

What is your favorite model that you have made?

Definitely my fox. About [3 feet] long with two ears, a nose, a jaw that opens and closes, a rib cage, four feet, a tail, and [it was] red. I gave it to a friend.

What is the ultimate model that you hope to make?

A full human body. To start I would need about 4,000 red, and about 2,000 white. And since they’re constantly changing colors, I can’t really keep up with it, so I would have to buy them all at the same time. It would take a month or less. [It would take] two days [for] each arm, plus both legs, torso, head.

What was your most difficult model?

There’s one I never got to finish, I don’t even think I could. I tried to make a room, like a box room. But the only way I could think of making [it] so it would actually stay up were pillars. I still have the grid and a few of the pillars.

What do you like about this hobby?

I can do anything I want. It’s kind of like painting; I have all the colors of the rainbow and all the imagination in the world to do it with.