Results!

I’ve been away so long that I thought I’d pulled up an incorrect enry at the home page! I went, “No, I’ve posted since NaNo. Where is that post on sculpture… Uh… It’s… Not…here…anywhere!”

Man, it has been too long! I guess the day after NaNo ended I pretty much jumped right back into sculpture work. That didn’t let up for over two weeks, as it was a piece for a client. Following that, well, you get the holidays and all that craziness, and here we are, January, and not a post to show for over a month! Honestly, though, I was sure that about a week ago I’d posted something. I’ll just have to take care of that right this minute.

The following piece is one I worked on all through 2010. There were a lot of “off” periods where I just had many other things going on and wasn’t able to sit down at the work bench and put time into it. However, I did manage to complete this one for a client in California. Sadly, it was not until some weeks after I mailed it off that I realized I didn’t take one single decent picture of it once it was completed. These are a couple that give you a nice idea of the finished product, if in a rather informal setting.

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In the above photo I was doing some testing before I finally mounted the sculpture to the base. I thought this one turned out nicely. I have to thank my dad for the gorgeous wood base he created for it. It all came together quite nicely.

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Here’s something of a “before” shot. I was cleaning up the sculpture, getting all the flux residue off of it and prepping for the final cleaning. It had just been scrubbed down in the sink, which is why it has water droplets all over it.

I was very happy with this one, and pleased to say that the client enjoyed it too. I have another for you coming up before much longer. It was an extremely busy holiday season, but I managed to squeeze another one in with lots of late nights and a little extra coffee.

Standing watch

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It was so hard to pick a photo which summed up my first full day in the Crescent City. This was a striking image I captured at the end of the day, though. It’s the top of a cemetery monument. The cemeteries here really are as amazing as everyone says. I didn’t even have to get out of the car to shoot this. We were sitting at a red light when I got it.

Metal sculpture!

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Fairhope, Alabama is very encouraging of the arts. Hot as it was while I was there, we still managed to get out and see some of it. This sculpture garden had some fantastic work. Unfortunately, I forgot to get the name down of the sculptor. I took a bunch of pictures. I envied this artist’s raw material! Such great stock from which to work!

If you’re gonna do it, do it right.

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I love this. I absolutely adore this. I like to think that the owner, faced with the dilemma of home car repair, held a roll of silver duct tape, looked concernedly at the bumper of their Ford, and said, “No, this will never do. We can’t have silver on blue. Can’t! It’s ludicrous! Madness, I say!” and then he or she trundled off to the local hardware store and sorted through an immense selection of duct tape while holding a paint chip for said vehicle, and fretting over just the perfect shade that would effectively render the repair completely invisible. Had I not developed such an eagle eye from months of photographic work, I would surely have not even noticed it. Admirable, artistic, amazing.

Legs and stuff

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The main part of the run is all finished. Now it’s time to put the supporting structure in place. The big looping piece that’s describing an arc and being held in place with all sorts of clippy things, that’s what I’m attaching. The lower part that shoots out of the picture will be cut short once I decide the final shape. It will probably have a slight scroll to it. I think. Maybe. Lots of times I don’t know exactly how this stuff will turn out until it’s done. You probably don’t want me building a bridge for you, at least not one that, you know, has to carry anything important. Tacoma Narrows, here I come!

Roll on, roll on!

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I’m still at work on this one. It’s looking good so far. I have most of the run done at this point. It needs the final exit section, and then it will be time to add the supports/legs. At this point I’m kind of wondering at my wisdom in creating the run before building the support structure, but, well, there we are. It’s just going to go the way it’s going to go at this point. No turning back now!

Bringing it together

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And the next night we are awarded with this! Not only did the filing pay off, but a friend of mine who studied to be a jeweler had come over some weeks previous, saw my work, and gave me some advice on getting a good solder joint. They’re supposed to look smooth and shiny and flow right along the joint just as this one does right here. Holy crap, man, after nearly two years of this I’ve suddenly gotten much better! Awesome! (And just when I was forsaking the propane torch of copper for the electric torch of TIG welding…)

Just a little off the top

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Okay, it wasn’t off the top, but I spent a ton of time filing the side of this bit of wire down so it will fit properly onto the edge of the spiral where it will be soldered. This is the kind of work that eats up evenings and leaves you going, “THAT? I’ve been sitting here for ninety minutes, and I did THAT?” Looks nice when it’s done, though. Rolls good too!