Miss Liberty (Bartholdi), 1992, is another essential symbol of our country, derived from Bartholdi’s colossus in New York Harbor. The face is carved from the acorn finial of a fence post. The rounded contours at the edges of what is essentially an oval served to provide the facial structure, heightened by a minimal amount of carving to define eyes, nose, and lips. Liberty has a somewhat benign, if vigilant, expression, suggesting a well-fed matron from the last century. The flame is the blade of a carpet knife, and its handle a table leg. The head is mounted on an inverted garden planter and, like the lantern, painted a greenish white similar to the oxidized copper of the original. The neck is a ring from an early twentieth-century clothes-drying rack. The hand aloft signals greeting, as if to a passing ship. A gelatin mold forms her hair. The bent-wire zigzags of Liberty’s crown are fragile and open, attesting to their former life as a wire salad basket yet providing the perfect means to convey the customary silhouette.

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— Franklin Hill Perrell, from "Richard Gachot: An American Original"