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Banana Leaf Sculpture,WIP

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Published:
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Description

This is the work I was commissioned for at the end of November,the plan for which I previously posted:
[link]
I finished the fabrication today and it now goes to the paint shop, then on to the site where a large cast in place pedestal has been erected.There was some confusion about the deadline so I've had to bust my ass for the past 17 days to get this puppy done.That's 17 ten hour days in a row...
I'm spent.
This thing goes at the entrance to a shopping center called "Palm Square",thus the tropical theme.
TECHNIQUE:
The leaves were all plasma cut from 3/16ths steel sheet at a local industrial facility. I used a huge 250 ton press break to put a crease down the center of each of the large leaves which weigh about 100 lbs apiece.The edge cuts were done in my studio with the hand held plasma cutter. I then made a jig to bend each leaf cross ways where the side cuts meet. I had to use heat (torch) to assist in making some of the bends but the jig I made worked fairly well. The trick is to build a contraption that puts all the leverage and pressure EXACTLY where you want it.Thus you FINESSE the desired shape instead of bludgeoning it into submission,a difficult concept to express but absolutely critical with metal sculpture that is intended to emulate ORGANIC FORMS. The shaft of each leaf is 1 1/4 hardened hex bar.I think it has vanadium in it. The shafts were forged into a taper to fit within a slot I cut in each leaf,then welded on both sides. The base plate is 5/8ths steel plate and each leaf shaft goes THROUGH the plate and is welded on BOTH SIDES(very important) The base plate has three holes for mounting to the pre-cast pedestal with three 1" grade 8 bolts...
The sculpture will be painted a new nano technology paint that has tiny prisms in it that give rainbow colors as you walk around the piece.I guess we'll see...
I'll post a picture when it gets installed.
Image size
1008x756px 214.11 KB
Make
Canon
Model
Canon PowerShot A640
Shutter Speed
1/125 second
Aperture
F/3.2
Focal Length
11 mm
Date Taken
Feb 2, 2010, 10:40:09 PM
© 2010 - 2024 ou8nrtist2
Comments23
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bruno999's avatar
There she is! It looks great. I'm sure it will be interesting with the paint, but I have always been drawn to the bare metal. Once it's painted, it loses some of it's character: plasma edge quality, bluing from the heating/ forming process, welding, etc. I have a laser-cut sign that looked incredible in the mill finish, but once it was powder-coated, it could have been made from plastic and looked the same. Anyway, outstanding job and the best thing is: it could stop a runaway truck!! That's aesthetic-civic-mindedness for ya!!