My Sculpture Blog: NP625544312235

10/22/14

NP625544312235

Machine art, digital fabrication, Metal Sculpture

I have a couple of gems to show off this month everybody.

It took me a little longer than I had anticipated to finish these because of reasons I will explain further down. But here they are, all shiny and new.

Dimensions on these are 5.5" long and approximately 2.5" wide/deep.

Materials are a mixture of aluminum, stainless steel, bronze and copper.

Each one rests on a removable stand. I went through many iterations for stands on this piece. I wanted a stand that could hold the work at a 45 degree angle, but nothing too complicated so as not to distract from the actual objects.

I realized I would need something that would be more or less molded to the contours of the interior geometry of the work without marring the finish. So I turned to my 3D printer to come up with a solution, as plastic would be the most appropriate material for that particular job.

The printed piece is the black part you see on the stand in the image above, it is a little more crude than the rest of the work, print lines are very apparent in person. But rather than try and refinish the plastic to something smoother, I chose to leave it exactly how it came out of my printer, a little rough, and very obvious that it is a 3D print. I figure, this is where my current technology is when it comes to this process and I think, as I most often do, it is best to embrace your process rather than fight it. It does not distract from the work at all, especially when mounted, so I am happy to incorporate my first bit of 3D printed material into one of my works.

Here are the pieces in their storage case, I thought they look really nice this way, so I snapped a quick pic.

This is an image of one of the earlier iterations for the stands. Originally I had intended to display the works in a vertical orientation like this, but after shooting some test images, it just didn't feel right, It felt too stiff. I had thought I was finished with the pieces, but it turns out I was wrong.

The stands interfered with the composition too much and although I sort of liked the split detail on them, they did not add enough to make it worth keeping. So I went back to the drawing board and worked up the new stands you see in the finish shots. They are simpler than these, but show off the form much better. I thought it interesting enough however to share this first attempt.