Workin' away
I'm overdue for an update, as messaging with one of my LJ buds has made me aware. This will be short, but have pics(!). I've been out in California for some family stuff, and while I was there I got to meet with a couple of fellow sculptors who do the same stuff I do. It was a blast, and I wish I had time to fully chronicle it here, but maybe I'll be able to put some up on my non-LJ blog in the future. I'm still writing the experience down, and I'm several pages into it and only maybe halfway done. It was an experience to say the least.
Aside, around, behind, before and above all that stuff, I've been working on the sculpture for my latest client. This thing is awesome, or at least I like to think of it that way. ;-) I'm pretty jazzed about how it's going now, although a day never passes where I don't say, "Well, I would have liked to have gotten farther, but..." I always am wanting to get farther along - wait, further along? I'll have to look that up later. Anyway, pics of stuff I conceived in my own little brain and then brought forth into the real world by patience, persistence and plenty of head-shaking and wire-bending.
Here's some general swoopy grooviness. You can see some of the uber-complex methods I employ in my work here: a C-clamp in the background holding a big strap of flat steel in place as a backstop so I know how deep to make my curves, and a little piece of copper wire bent up to hold something hanging where it's supposed to hang until I get other stuff stuck in place. Yeah, really high tech. The heavier bent rod is actually a failed prototype of a forklift headlight cage. It was scrap from work that they tossed. It did exactly what I needed it to do here.
I made this thing, and I'm pretty stoked over it. This idea has been in the works since December. I am involved in hot rods and drag racing at times, and when I was at a racing trade show a shop was selling these dies that allowed you to put a belled curve around a hole. In metal working this is done to keep the hole from starting a crack. I just looked at it and went, "Totally badass. I must own these things." I bought as many as I could afford, which was only three, but they'll do for now. I've been waiting to try this out. The piece of steel I cut free hand. I drilled the hole and used the die on it, and then welded the whole thing onto the sculpture. It actually does provide a certain amount of rigidity, plus I think it looks really trick. I've not seen this on another rolling ball sculpture yet, so I may have myself a first.
This pic isn't the best, but it shows the sort of setup I have to do to weld something together. There's a ring under that clamp and it's being welded to the bent strap with the holes drilled in it. I had to clamp it all down, because I needed to keep the arc of the whole thing constant, and when you weld stuff it all distorts and bends and throws everything off, so you clamp stuff down tight and hope things don't move too much by the time it cools off. This one worked. I was extremely pleased!
Sometimes I think I have too many steel blocks. Then this happens, and I think I'm a genius for having so many steel blocks sitting around.
Those steel blocks are holding up one end of this thing, the wire that's going off to the leftish part of the pic. I needed something to hold it in place while I welded on a track spacer.
Here's an overall pic from one side looking toward the other. It's pretty hard to make out what's going on here, but, well, I can't think of another way to do it. Someday there will be a video camera in my hands, likely toward the end of this project. Until now, you get stills. At least you can get the idea that it's wacky and bendy and swoopy and stuff.
All right, back to work!
Aside, around, behind, before and above all that stuff, I've been working on the sculpture for my latest client. This thing is awesome, or at least I like to think of it that way. ;-) I'm pretty jazzed about how it's going now, although a day never passes where I don't say, "Well, I would have liked to have gotten farther, but..." I always am wanting to get farther along - wait, further along? I'll have to look that up later. Anyway, pics of stuff I conceived in my own little brain and then brought forth into the real world by patience, persistence and plenty of head-shaking and wire-bending.
Here's some general swoopy grooviness. You can see some of the uber-complex methods I employ in my work here: a C-clamp in the background holding a big strap of flat steel in place as a backstop so I know how deep to make my curves, and a little piece of copper wire bent up to hold something hanging where it's supposed to hang until I get other stuff stuck in place. Yeah, really high tech. The heavier bent rod is actually a failed prototype of a forklift headlight cage. It was scrap from work that they tossed. It did exactly what I needed it to do here.
I made this thing, and I'm pretty stoked over it. This idea has been in the works since December. I am involved in hot rods and drag racing at times, and when I was at a racing trade show a shop was selling these dies that allowed you to put a belled curve around a hole. In metal working this is done to keep the hole from starting a crack. I just looked at it and went, "Totally badass. I must own these things." I bought as many as I could afford, which was only three, but they'll do for now. I've been waiting to try this out. The piece of steel I cut free hand. I drilled the hole and used the die on it, and then welded the whole thing onto the sculpture. It actually does provide a certain amount of rigidity, plus I think it looks really trick. I've not seen this on another rolling ball sculpture yet, so I may have myself a first.
This pic isn't the best, but it shows the sort of setup I have to do to weld something together. There's a ring under that clamp and it's being welded to the bent strap with the holes drilled in it. I had to clamp it all down, because I needed to keep the arc of the whole thing constant, and when you weld stuff it all distorts and bends and throws everything off, so you clamp stuff down tight and hope things don't move too much by the time it cools off. This one worked. I was extremely pleased!
Sometimes I think I have too many steel blocks. Then this happens, and I think I'm a genius for having so many steel blocks sitting around.
Those steel blocks are holding up one end of this thing, the wire that's going off to the leftish part of the pic. I needed something to hold it in place while I welded on a track spacer.
Here's an overall pic from one side looking toward the other. It's pretty hard to make out what's going on here, but, well, I can't think of another way to do it. Someday there will be a video camera in my hands, likely toward the end of this project. Until now, you get stills. At least you can get the idea that it's wacky and bendy and swoopy and stuff.
All right, back to work!