Great video on Reg Butler

A great watch for anyone interested in sculpture:

Reg Butler on the BBC 1951

Finished Table!

The pics are up a little late, but here they are. I am very pleased with the way it turned out.

More pics of table progress

The frame is done for the most part save a few tweaks here and there. I am not happy with the overall stability, so I may have to make some adjustments. She could do with some cross bracing, but it will be tricky not to upset the form in adding them. I guess making a cantilevered, three-legged, table with one connection point is harder than it looks!

 The wood top is also posing a problem because the wood has significant rot and I have to remove about half of it before I can use it. Matt and I may have gotten to it too late. This will be tricky one. I'll check back on that. No problem though, I'm not worried. It will be very sweet when its done, I am sure of it. Ahh, the power of positive thinking or some such bullshit.

Frame with the rough cut oak top on it

All the legs before bending

looks like a bird of prey

Back leg before bending

The aftermath of sanding back my drift for the 10th time. The belt sander is a cruel mistress.

Matt shows me how its done

One oak table top coming right up

Good thing I dressed accordingly.

Sorry sir, delivery isn't available in your area. You'll have to ride home 10 miles in the wind.

Just before I took off!

Great talk on organic design

A great TED talk on organic design by Ross Lovegrove.

Ross Lovegrove on Organic Design

Side table in progress

Here are a few pictures of my new side table design and construction. 

Basic scribbles to start the process.

Inspiration for the piece came from this sculpture at Grounds for Sculpture

Joinery detail.

Designes prior to shortening the "spine"

Side elevation and working dimensions.

A nice proposal sketch done my mom because when I draw figures they usually look like trolls.

Wheat Stalk Fire Screen for Arisans

I got to make two, well, one and three quarter fire screens for Andrew at Artisans over the break. For the first one, the client requested five wheat stalks. Since neither myself or Andrew had ever forged wheat stalks, I got to play/prototype for a day and half until we settled on a winner. I think it looks pretty realistic.

Three 5/16" round bars braided and fire welded at the top and bottom. Once it was all welded, I ran the whole thing under the power hammer to flatten and tighten it. The Hammer also created the flat spots which serve as the kernel shapes. 

Once that was done, I fire welded the the stalks on and reverse tapered them back down to the base. Each stalk has three welds and four pieced of bar. Who says BA students can't fire weld? 

By far the hardest and most tedious part of these things was the "beard" Thats all mig wire welded on the lowest setting. Not easy!

The second one had a lattice pattern with rossets at the intersections. I didn't manage to take any good pictures of the second one mostly because I had to be on a plane before it was totally assembled.

That's a 60 inch fire screen!