57 Variations and a little from the forge

I had a busy day yesterday working on a new piece for a sculpture in the winery exhibition. This is version 1. The straight bars when viewed at just the right angle (not shown here) trace a curve. I thought it might work well in conjunction with 57 variations, not so sure now.

This is 57 variations without the extra bits.

Also did a bit of blacksmithing in the morning working with the new scroll jigs I made last week. They work great, saving a tonne of time. It’s nice when you invest time and effort into something and then that something just works. Doesn’t seem to happen all that often.

Close up of the base of the stand. I split the feet so that I could curl them or twist them individually at a later date but so far have left them alone. Above that are some scrolls made on the new jig. I made six in total just to prove the concept and used three here. The bottom of the scroll has been drawn out to a point and waits for something, perhaps a curl up or whatever.

This is the top where the poker, broom and shovel will hang. After getting all the other bends nice and even I allowed myself to play a little with the top. I could probably do some more to them, but am just taking things slowly for now.

So over all it was a productive Sunday. Had heaps of fun and made some progress.

WARNING STRONG WINDS

It has been an interesting few days in our neck of the woods. Big storms have been raging through the region. Trees have been uprooted, the Yinnar Bowls club roof was ripped off and ended up in the front yard of the primary school across the road.  As much as it has been “inconvenient” to be without power for a couple of days/nights, it was nice in the evening to just sit in front of the fire with the family.  Wind howling, rain pelting and us warm and safe inside.  Thankful for what we have. Very thankful.

Amid all these excitements I have been a busy boy, work was cancelled so into the shed I went bursting with ideas for a new project. Last weekend while hanging out with Super Kate at GREENworks Press, I was not having fun with a print that I was working on. 2D is not my most comfortable format to work in. I was having a little sook when a lovely lady asked me what I did like doing.  3D! Yeah Yeah 3D! That’s me gotta love the 3D! Anyhow we got to chatting and after some show and tell and shameless promotion of The T7 Project, I received a phone call inviting me to enter a sculpture in the winery exhibition.

New work!! So much else I should be doing. New work! Yeah Yeah!

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. I AM A TRAINED PROFESSIONAL.

I want something dramatic, theatrical, something with a bang!

The trial continues.

Shed Work.

Had a big day in the shed yesterday. Spent the day developing and designing some jigs to help speed up the process while still allowing for uniqueness. Worked all morning only to come back after lunch to redo everything.  Allot was learned in the process. I ended up with some good work.  When all that was done I thought it was high time for a play and had a go at a rams head for the first time.  How do you think it came out?

My Dad came down from Melbourne and turned me up this handle on his lathe. Turned (ha!) out great. Has anyone seen wooden handles on fire pokers before?

Polished Concrete Bench-top

Been experimenting with embedding glass in concrete to enhance the finish of polished concrete. After the first couple of trials we weren’t happy with results, seemed to haphazard and lacked purpose. So we began to experiment with ways to control were the glass went. Was going to try stenciling but dredged up an old favorite technique using a pendulum and PVA glue. Glass was then sprinkled over the wet glue and concrete poured over that whilst the glue was still wet. Waiting to see results of first test polish.

The glue is laid down awaiting glass

After glass has been applied and boxing ready for concrete

 

Testing was less than successful. After the first pass with the grinder the glass is all but gone. Back to the drawing board. Some combination of pendulum, and glue and ???? in order to “push” the glass deeper into the concrete 5=6mm. We’ll see.