Category: Uncategorized

I had an idea of making a steel flower series. The first successful flower was a Calla Lily. This one will live in a friend’s garden. These are not going to be exact representations, but a steel semblances of flowers.

I made the Calla Lily out of a heavier gauge of steel than was either necessary or smart. It is actually very difficult to bend cold steel. What I hadn’t thought about was that when you hammer cold steel you are “work hardening” it. Each time you hit the steel with a hammer, it gets harder to bend or shape. Who would have thought? Every blacksmith, metal worker, metallurgist, but not me. So… A forge is in my future. I am building one now out of an old brake drum rotor. That should help with the whole “work hardening” thing. Flowers are VERY curvy, not flat at all. Onward and all that.

I would like to thank John Chicoine and the Haywood County Senior Resource Center for a two month exhibit of Amaranth. I would also like to thank Larry Reeves and Karen Hammett for the invaluable assistance in transporting and installing the sculpture. Drive by the center and see it near the front door.

This project was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

This project was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The last part of the project is finishing up the final report. You have to gather all of the paperwork and documentation, receipts. Write a final narrative that deals with changes The Project Description Narrative helped me realize all of the design iterations we went through. The initial design based on Odin’s Eye was an early discard. The models (paper dolls) helped at the beginning. The first problem was getting a feel for the scale. The second problem was the extreme difficulty of making small changes with out the model falling apart. After research, I found a program called SketchUp. It has a bit of a learning curve, but was still better than the models. It allows you to change the size and shape of the various components relatively easily. Being a 3D CAD program, it allowed you to view the sculpture from any perspective I wanted.

This project was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

When you think you’re finished, you just have weeks left to go. Small paint touch ups, tweeks to the stem, pod and stacked glass. Just all the little fiddly bits. No real visual changes, just small things. We’ve been working on how to attach the sculpture to the ground securely. This will vary according to it’s setting. This brought up challenges on just how to move it. It’s about 4 feet wide, 4 feet long and 5 feet tall and weighs over 150 lbs.

This project was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Here is the whole sculpture put together and photographed. It was a bear to move. I tried to make it so it would break into 2 or three parts. The bolts and nuts will come out but the pieces wouldn’t separate. So, I am going to remove the connectors and weld it back into one piece. It still needs a protective coat of paint on the rebar. The stainless steel leaves should be OK in the weather. We learned a great deal. A bobcat (you know the one you use to lift things not the one that bites you in the ass) is on our wish list because, damn!

This project was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Now that it has bloomed and become a “sculpture”, it’s time we named this puppy.

Amaranth

• an imaginary, undying flower.
• any plant of the genus Amaranthus, some species of which are cultivated as food and some for their showy flower clusters or foliage.
• the grain of certain Amaranthus species, used for food and noted as an important staple grain of the Aztecs.

So, you create a sculpture. How does it sit on the ground? Because it has to sit on the ground. Gravity you know. We discussed a lot of possibilities. A well defined “stand”. Legs like roots (yuck). Four pegs in the ground. The curved legs we settled on complimented the curved structure of the upper arcs.

Who would have thought it was so hard to photograph a sculpture? Not me!

Still final finishing, assembly, and painting. We will get a better photograph.

This project was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Today was a good day. We took a drive and saw some new scenery and one traffic jam. Way cool traffic jam. Worked this afternoon and made progress and changes on the pod and stalk. The large leaves are now stainless steel not rusty tin roofing. The pod is shorter and wider. The cedar has two coats of spar varnish. It is now waterproof and very red. The stem is 1/2” rebar rather than 3/4”. The 3/4” seem out of proportion so 1/2” instead.

The stainless steel leaves were problematic. Like Superman, I can bend steel in my bare hands, but not stainless steel. Who knew? I had to make a tool to put a curve in the base of the leaves so they would wrap around the base. So there Superman! Brains over brawn! I did like his suit though. Next come the small leaves that wrap the stem. New small bending tool coming right up.

This project was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

This is the initial shaped pod. It will be on a steel stalk extending from the leaves upward. I have since covered it with several coats of spar (very high gloss exterior grade) polyurethane. This has given it a deep reddish color. The stacked glass bloom sits at the top of the pod. The stalk will be made from 3/4” rebar.

This project was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

I have the upright overlapping circle that I began with. It will not be used in this sculpture. I had it propped up for welding and like the way it looked. So, when I finish the present piece, I think I just might start right in on a new sculpture, Single Helix. I may “skin” this one in either steel or stainless steel so that you don’t see the framework.

This project was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.