New Blog Location

I will be using www.artistful.com for my blog from now on. Under my name Joseph Casalino.
See you there.

Finish one and start another.

I am in the process of finishing a number of pieces. The painting takes patience since many coats have to be applied to get the finish that I want. I am also grinding one of my newer pieces. As the weather get warmer, the heat becomes more effective in the studio. That is a big help in the paint drying process.

Creativity

I went to work in the studio yesterday and finished the work on the crucifix. I have been designing my latest sculptures on the floor. I took a hint from David Smith's book and tried it. It is just as he said "you don't really see it fully until you stand it up." But, the "kicking elements around" sure works. After tacking all the pieces together, I put the sculpture on the table and finished the welding. I added a base and then viewed it. It needed another piece on the top. I attached that one and signed it. It will need some surface treatment.

Got wood

I found a nice piece of wood for the base at Mac Beath. I cut it to size and sanded the ends. I did some more cleaning on the crucifix in preparation for painting.

Creativity is flourishing.

My hunt for steel was successful. I got lots of raw material to work with. I also got a base plate for the new piece and attached it to it. I have a supply of metal working bits in my tool box from work and finally put them to good use while fitting the base to the shafts. I finished that piece and started another one. The important consideration when picking out steel shapes at the supply yard is to be able to buy what you can use. Actually, I saw some larger elements that I would like to use in a later piece.

Creative juices were flowing.

I did some minor repositioning of the elements in the 'circle' piece, welded it all together and signed it. It will nne to be primed and painted. I had another idea for a piece that looks like balloons. I welded circles onto rods and then positioned the elements. A great start.

Sunday Afternoon

I went out to work in the studio. I ran out of propane on the larger heater; but, it was warm at that point. I reinstalled the front grate on the electric heater and found that it actually helped it to output more heat. I examined my flower piece again. After a few minutes of trying to add more to it, I decided that it would be fine just as it is. So I signed the work. I began to arrange some of the circles into a new sculpture. By just tacking them to each other, it gave me the leeway to reposition the elements. I stopped at that point.

Crucifix

I began the work of preparing the 'crucifix' for the show. It required a lot of heat to rotate the arms back into position. Last time I welded the elements it required special welding rods. This time the MIG did it easily. I am thinking of sandblasting the piece and then seeing how to finish the piece.

Flower Power 2

Who said that 'Flower Power' was a long time ago? The influence from that time always is present no matter how old you are. The flower arrangement turned out inspiring. It required a lot of repositioning of the elements both before and after welding. The oxy-acet torch is just like a magic wand when held in the hand of a competent sculptor. It delivered the final touches that were needed to give me the inner satisfaction that sculptures sometimes do.

Flower power

I added stems to the flowers and worked on the major arrangement of the elements. My new heater works great at keeping the temp. at a workable level. Right now I have too many ideas for the arrangement. I am also working on getting the 'cross' ready for exhibiting.

Keep Working

I photographed the tube piece and went back to working on the 'flower' piece. I struggled with the concept for a while and then decided to just follow what I had originally planned. All the major components were welded together and ground. I will continue later.

Look turns into reality.

I continued with the piece layout and began to weld the squares together. It evolved into a piece that has motion built into the structure. The exciting thing about welded sculptures is that elements can be held in place no matter how precariously their positions are. You do have to keep balance in mind when you attach it to the base. Unless it is to be an outside piece and then the attachment point is primary. I ground the welds smooth and signed the piece. I am going to paint it when I find a color to suit the feeling.

Inspiration is sometimes a quick look.

I had planned to create a new piece from circles that I had laid out on the floor. As I constructed the main elements, they did not fulfill what I had envisioned. They did not encompass the space that I wanted. I just looked at my scrape area and saw short pieces of steel tubing just laying around. That sparked an idea and my new piece was created. I moved them around to get different perspectives of the spaces that they occupied. I left them for my next day in the shop.

At work again.

Finally I got the rest of the installations complete and can start back on developing the piece that I have been working on. I ground the inner surface of the circles and added some weight to the base to stabilize the piece. When I felt that it was done, I signed it. I began laying out on the floor some ideas for my next piece. I have a concept of flowers on stems. The flowers will have to be very three dimensional and bold. I will need some heavier rod to use as a stem, I think rebar will give the necessary texture to that.

New Toys.

I spent Wednesday afternoon picking-up my new air compressor from the freight company. U-haul to the rescue. Got it in the garage, ready to be installed. It should take a while to get it operating since it needs to be bolted to the floor and a new electrical service run to it.

Surface Treatment.

Went back to work on my newest piece. My choices were painted all black and ground finish. I needed to prepare the surface for painting anyway, so I ground the faces first. I tried to add paint on the inside of the holes. That was not good. I reground the surface with a finer grit of sandpaper after the initial rough wheel. That will work well. I need to grind the inner faces of the holes.

Back to work.

I went into the shop to start work on a new piece. The first thing I did was sweep the floor. That made it feel cleaner and got rid of the wood chips that I made when I installed the fan. On Sunday, Lexi took some photos of the shop and me working. I continued with the pieces that I was trying to place when I was being photographed. After a few 'spot weld and then evaluate' tries. I welded the two pieces together. I ground the weld smooth and began to clean-up the ragged edges. I had to order some rougher grinder pads to remove the rust from the face. I will decide on the surface finish after I clean the face of the plate, maybe high sheen and maybe black.

Getting ready.

On Saturday, I put all the equipment back into the shop, after taking advantage of the great weather in October to weld and finish outside. I also installed an exhaust fan in the shop. It will take the place of the fan that I was using to circulate the air in the shop. With the fan, I had to keep the door open and that let lots of cold air in. I still have not decided on what to do about the heating problem. I do have a large electric heater, that works well when the temp. is not too low; but, the electric cost is high. I did augment that with a kerosene bullet heater, that died after all these years. I have a smaller propane heater; but that is a lot smaller than the kerosene one. I am waiting till I really need more before I buy anything. Maybe another propane one will do.

The JCC was a successful event.

I sold three of my pieces at the Art Festival. One was the piece that I had designed and built specifically for the Festival. I was really excited at all the positive response and comments that the piece got as people walked by my booth. It was an exciting day. Now I will start some new pieces.

Finishing the work

Yesterday, I heated the shop and began the finishing touches to my sculptures. I had in mind to submit a few with just the oxidized (rusty) surface untouched. I really like the look of that red/brown surface. I think that they go the best outdoors, as they blend into and mimic the colors of nature. Two of the rusted ones I have reworked slightly. They incorporate diamond plate surfaces. I will grind the tops of the diamonds to give a sparkle to the pattern and leave the rest of the plate natural. I have , at times, painted the plate and then grind the diamond tops. This time I am going to leave the rusty background and just clear coat the whole piece after the grinding. The piece that I call 'one', I am going to take to its original image. The 'one' is painted black and the 'halo' is ground and left with the 'rough ground' finish, then clear coated. The same idea for 'pegasus' , ground area and the rest left rusty. No coating on that one. This gives the ground area a 'matte' sheen instaed of a shiny one. The 'menorah', the 'trunk and branches' are being clear coated only and the base is painted royal blue. I put the same textural elements running from the trunk, around the base and then down the base in the front. The paint will cover these, with the idea of making it look like the textural element is running under the coating and then up the trunk and branches. I am going to put the final touches on them right now.