Rolling Sculpture Proposal

This wheel is actually a section of cone that will travel in a 100 ft circle when rolled. Weighing in at over 2000 lbs it will need multiple people working together to make it move.  As it moves features of its environment will be framed in the open panel.  This opening also allows passing spectators to see the active participants.  The whole piece can be disassembled  and moved to examine various environments and the people that inhabit them.

House Play Set Proposal

Pictured here is the initial proposal Steve McShane and I have come up with for essentially a full size doll house. We would like to make the roof of a house detachable allowing access to the rooms inside.  The furnishings for the house would be large and heavy but still functional.  Once all the furniture is placed the roof would be set back and pinned into place.

Salvaged Safe Sculpture Proposal

Proposal for a collaboration with Steve McShane.  Old safes are scattered about Detroit, broken and smashed, their scrap value out weighed by concrete within their walls.  Left behind by failed business they stand as a monument to the collapse of the local economy. Here the safes are hoisted high above the viewer, their open doors sway in the wind.  The piece serves as a personal reminder of past business that are no longer with us and drives us forward in our own venture.

Now we just need to wait for the snow to melt, fire up the boom truck and collect some safes.

Back from New York!

Here is the first picture of the altered swing set that I built out at Salem Art Works.  Thanks again to the staff at SAW for allowing me to leave the swing set unchanged for the summer.  I hope they enjoy it just as much in its new configuration.

Lock chased and assembled.

Water wheel spiral pump build.

SAW swing set build.

SAW Spiral Pump Proposal

SAW is revamping its ceramics program. They have wheels, kilns and space to expand. The only problem is that there is no water up at Barn 2. As part of my work exchange I will be building this spiral pump:

Spiral pumps utilize a series of airlocks to pressurize water from the stream and pump it upwards of 80ft above the waterline. Check out http://lurkertech.com/water/pump/tailer/ to learn more about spiral pumps and the science behind them.

Casting Complete!

I got lucky, there's not too much clean up.

First US/UK '12 Iron Pour Complete Success!

Week 3 at SAW

Here is a simple 3D model of what I will be creating while here at SAW. The piece on the left is phase one. After the swing set has proven itself I will cut it up and reassemble it as pictured on the right.

These are the end caps for top bar of the swing.

Here are the finished sand molds.

I'm starting to get anxious to see them in iron!

Now that the molds are all ready I had a chance to drive out to the scrapyard in Rutland, Vermont. After three hours on the brink of heat exhaustion I came home with these:

Two electric forklift motors and a hydraulic pump!

The small one will be the power source for this:

This is a basic 3D model of the traveling sculpture yet to be titled.

The big motor will be put into this guy:

A '68 double cab that hopefully will make an amusing and practical electric vehicle to cruise around Detroit.

Preparing to pour some iron.

This time next week we will be in the middle of the first of two iron pours scheduled for the US/UK Iron Symposium. My molds are all packed. All that's left is to add the gates and vents. Here are some pictures:

Patterns for swing set brackets.

From scrap to dust collector in 5 hours.