Tag Archives: RBS

“Lunar Walk” new sculpture completed with video!

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It has been a very full day for yours truly, but the sculpture video must be posted before another moment passes! Especially this one, because it is a bit of a departure for me in some ways. You’ll see what I mean, and I’m sure you’re going to check it out!

I have been trying to keep the price of this series of sculptures right around $200, but Lunar Walk just begged for a little extra treatment, and I had to do it right. It’s slightly higher at $300, but still a very reasonable office piece and well worth all the effort I put into it. Do you know anyone else who has something like this? No! And you very likely won’t anytime soon either. Now how cool is that?

I’ll let the video speak for itself. I do hope you enjoy it. I loved the creative stretching this piece afforded me. Oh, and take special note of that crescent moon frame as well as the relaxed pace of the action, both characteristics for which this piece was named.

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“Opportunity” Rolling Ball Sculpture Completed!

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It has taken me nearly a year and a half to create, but my largest, most ambitious rolling ball sculptured, “Opportunity,” is finally complete! A commission received back in November of 2011 started the whole project moving. Since it was of a size and scope that I’d not tackled before, I had to make some adjustments. I had to tear out a shower that someone had built in my basement back in the 60s. I had to install more shop lighting. I had to build a wooden frame onto which I could mount the sculpture as I built it. There was a lot of work to be done before any work got done!

Finally, however, it got down to the real sculpture work, and I learned how to square a frame and how to weld a frame without having it tweak itself out of alignment. That was the barest tip of the iceberg in all the learning experiences I had with this piece, and some of them felt extremely unpleasant. I’m the wiser for it, however, and even when things seemed at their worst, even when I welded something on and then hated it and wanted to tear it off (friends said leave it alone, so I did, and they were right), I kept moving forward and the end result is nothing short of fantastic!

This piece is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to build when I first laid eyes on Eddie Boes’ “Island Exploration” video. It’s the sort of work I’ve been dying to do even when I was first learning on copper at my dining room table. I was able to push myself farther, create more, show the world more of what I am capable of building than with anything previous. And you know what? I’ve still barely scratched the surface. This one is wonderful, and I am happy and proud to have completed it, but if you think I’m going to rest on my laurels, well, you couldn’t be more wrong.

The response to this video has, in the space of hardly a week, been outstanding for me personally. Over 1,000 views already, and it hasn’t stopped! Please take a look, share it with friends and add a comment if you like. It would be a big help toward me pursuing my art and creating even grander pieces.

Finally getting back to work!

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It has been quite a while since I last posted, and that’s not by choice. Of course, the holidays bring with them the usual bustle of various sorts, but that had little to do with my step away from here and from the shop. The cause of it all goes way back to my teenage years when I was in a car accident and cracked a vertebra in my neck. (Note: Always wear your seat belts, kids!)

As time has passed, the old injury on occasion makes itself known to me. This time it happened because I was talking on the phone too long with the phone crooked between ear and shoulder. I know not to do this, but sometimes it slips my mind. It started bothering me, so I put the phone on speaker, but apparently all had been undone already, as I awoke in the middle of the night with my neck screaming in pain. I’d done myself a number good this time, and for weeks on end all I could do was lie flat on my back or sit upright and look straight ahead. No health insurance meant I couldn’t just run off to the doc for a checkup. I also was out of work, because I could hardly do a thing physically. I finally went to a chiropractor with the help of some family intervention, and things began to improve. I am now 50% better according to the doc, but it feels like 80%. It’s definitely better than when any movement at all sent jabs of pain up my neck and how sometimes all the muscles in my left arm would start jittering.

The doc said I could finally start doing things again if I took it easy, so today for two hours I worked on the big sculpture commission I’ve been working on for the past thirteen months. It needs a different motor put on for the lift, so I am working on the retrofit. I worked carefully, and there was only one point when my fingers started tingling (pinched nerves in your neck make your fingers go numb), so I stopped what I was doing and moved the work around.

It wasn’t a huge day as far as sculpture progress, but it was a huge day for my own progress. I hope to be back to getting some real work done soon. I hope to get this big sculpture finished so all of you here can check it out! I also have a new commission that I got back in late November that I would love to build and show off as well. That one is going to be pretty special with some very unique elements added to it that I’ve never seen on any RBS ever. Fun stuff in store, so stay tuned!

New sculpture video!

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I am very pleased to announce that I have completed a video of my latest sculpture, Triangle Twist. This is the first all-steel piece that I have completed and the first to have a decent quality video made of it as well. It is all stainless steel with 1/8″ rod for the main track plus some stouter rod for the pyramid frame. I also threw in some perforated sheet stainless for some fun visual variety. Take a look below, and feel free to comment and let me know what you think. If you care to purchase this piece, you may find further information on my main site here: http://tomharold.com/works/948091/triangle-twist

You may also subscribe to my Youtube channel for future video updates, and I have a Facebook page that you can “like” for other info as well.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy the video.

Getting things done

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Doing this kind of work, lots of times there just isn’t “the way that it’s done.” Sure, there might be “a” way that it’s done, but not “the” way. And lots of times a way that worked before won’t work again, because something else is different, like now you’re against a wall whereas before you had plenty of space behind the thing, or before you had plenty of running room following the thing you want to do, but this time you only have, say, three inches, and the ball will be going much to fast to make that happen, whatever “that” or anything else may be.

I’m sure you get my point. Lots of times I take photos for my own remembrance of things…although cataloging them would probably be an excellent idea. Well, never mind that for now, at least many of them are showing up here. Matthew Gaulden and Vic Chaney both mentioned specifically that it’s important to write down how you figured out a way to solve a problem, because lots of times you come across that same problem again, but you can’t remember how you solved it the first time!

Here’s a common problem: holding a couple things together so they can be welded. I solved it in a rather unstupendous but quick and easily repeatable way. I used a bunch of my steel blocks (again I say “YES” to my wonderful habit of picking these things up on instinct whenever I run across one) and just stacked them all up so they would hold these two pieces of solid bent rod in alignment long enough for me to tack weld them.

It’s really hard to see (I congratulate myself on making a very close joint!), but look at the small stretch of rod that is closest to the table’s surface and positioned between the two sets of blocks. If you look closely you can see the parting line where those two pieces have yet to be welded. It turned realllllly nicely, I am very happy to say. That doesn’t always happen. It worked, though, and this thing now holds up a couple of different pieces of the sculpture, including two loops from the loop-the-loop section. It holds up some neater stuff that I’ll show a bit later. Until then, best of luck in your creative pursuits.

rolling ball sculpture construction

I made another thing

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Man, since January I’ve not posted? Wow. I guess I’ve had a lot of other things going on, many of them either not blog-worthy, or things I just can’t share (but hope to before long).

At any rate, I can share this sculpture piece. I completed it a little while back, but I’ve had to do some vetting of photos on Flickr, because I’m nearing my limit for the free account, and I’m having a hard time justifying spending cash on the paid account. Sure wish I could find some money lying around. Oh, I did try the lottery twice in desperation, probably around January, but the winds did not blow in my favor, so I just picked up additional work. More on the additional work in a moment.

Sculpture:

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Nifty, huh? I kind of love it, although it was a ridiculous pain to build. It fought me at several points. There were odd little things to square away to keep marbles from rolling all over the floor, and then I went and got really crazy and built that seemingly simply brass piece at the end. I was under a tight deadline, and the “steps” seemed like such a simple idea. It was brilliant!

Brilliant, yes. Simple, no. I figured it would take me, well, I don’t know how long, but not long. Maybe I was thinking an hour or two. I believe it was closer to six or eight, and with the schedule I was on at the time, that was like adding another week to it. It did underscore my need for some metal-bending tools, like a brake or a small press. With a press and an appropriate die I would have had that thing made in half the time.

However, it all turned out very nicely. The steps are of brass, and since they are suspended rather freely on the copper they have a fair bit of ring to them when hit by the marbles. It’s a nice affect, and precisely what I was going after.

I did learn a lesson from this, and that was on the practical side of time investment and pricing. I think I priced this appropriately at the time I was commissioned for it, but in the future my prices will have to change. I simply cannot produce work like this in a short time span. I tracked the hours on this one, and it overshot my estimate by fifty to seventy-five percent.

I am quite pleased with this one, though, and with all the help I received on it in various forms from other people. It sapped a lot of my time at some rather crucial points, and the understanding I received at those times was pretty wonderful.

Results!

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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.

NaNoWriMo 2010, Day Sixteen

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Wow, it’s been a while since I updated! Ten days worth! This month’s schedule is apparently just as full and harried as I had thought it would be. If I’m not writing, then I’m sculpting, and if I’m not doing either of those I’m attending to something like the regular job, or sleeping. Occasionally I eat. Oh, and I have been doing drawings with Jem! So, yeah, been busy.

I’m feeling a little run ragged at this point, and I honestly feel like NaNo was actually kind of easy the last two years! I mean, heck, I pretty much dropped everything to write those years, and this year I’m still trying to pile other stuff on top. I must be a sucker for stress.

The sculpture is continuing to progress, however, which is awesome and kind of amazing. I hope to do some significant construction with it this weekend, start actually sticking one piece to another, add the frame, that sort of thing.

The novel is, well, I don’t know what it is. It’s…coming along? I’m struggling a bit. I’ve had some parts where I feel like I literally Scotch-taped some scenes together to make them work. It’s clunky, but I’m forging on. Tonight I wrote a scene that I like. Well, I didn’t so much like the way I wrote it, ’cause it was a bit rushed, but I like the scene itself. I will enjoy rewriting it. (Did I just say I was going to rewrite this thing…!)

So the novel moves ahead. I should compare notes with last year. I wonder if I felt like my novel was just starting to gain momentum at this point last year as well. Oh, and I’m at 30,258 words – and NOW I feel like it’s picking up? Geez!

NaNoWriMo 2010, Day Six

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I am officially at 12,600 words, which puts me ahead from the daily average of 10,002 for today. That’s not bad, but I would like to be further ahead than that. I hope to possibly write again a bit this evening before going to bed. If not, there will be much more writing tomorrow.

I worked on sculpture this afternoon, and was pleased with the amount of work I got done. I put in something like three hours on it. It didn’t seem like I got much done until the end, and it still sort of seems that way, but as I often say, “Well, I had to sit there for X hours to do it, so it doesn’t matter if it seems like a lot or not, it was going to take me X hours regardless.”

These are the major elements of the most recent sculpture.

Tomorrow, more sculpting, more writing. So far I believe I’m on track for both, or closely so. Sculpting is a littler harder to guess, but if I break it up into four-week estimates, I guess it looks like I’ve gotten a fair amount done for one week. Similar progress over the next three weeks should (hopefully!) result in a finished product at the end of the month…I think?

Continued good luck to all my WriMo friends! Keep at it! We’re one-fifth of the way through!