BlueDream

Well here's the finished piece... it made it through the first round of construction last winter, and now it's made it through the last weekends kiln experiment without any unforeseen what-nots taking it in whole a new direction, (whew).

A quick look at the results of the low-fired yellow glaze infills from last weekend's experiment.

The whole point of this project originally was to test out a idea that would allow me to base works and get results similar to what we would get in the bronze studios.

What I have in mind is built around a simple assembly of welded threaded rod and angle iron, lost-styrofoam cast bronze spacers, and a base.

I started off by sinking the cairns in a bucket of sand so they can be leveled off. Next came the expanding foam... It's Great Stuff eh?

I filled up most of the interior volume with this stuff to keep the weight down and help make it bottom heavy.

After the foam cured, it was a simple matter to sink the welded steel assembly into a concrete plug. The process still needs a bit of refinement, but I'm a bit stoked on how it worked out.

The cast bronze spacers let the piece "float" over the base.

This system allows me change my mind... I can make a base switch if I need to. After all, it's all about presentation and that's still not one of my strong points.

Here's the finished video of this piece making it's way through the studio. Even as a stop-motion, it's a bit long. There's so much that I left out that it almost seems wrong, but hey, ya gotta pick and choose what to show to keep it as short as you can.

PS...
The music might not quite fit the mood of the video, but the kids thought it'd be a good touch.