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.