Resin, resin and more resin

This is the model or maquette that Grant built for the commisson. He works off it to build the full scale sculpture.

It's now like a tiny off-spring.

The boys have been trowelling on layers and layers of resin to build the curves as well as fibre-glassing the centre twist as a lifting point.

The work has been fairly tedious as there is not much to show at the end of each day. Just a lot of crusty, dried resin in their hair and all over their clothes.

Mark said he has given up trying to wash his work clothes. They just about stand up by themselves now.

They are so close now to finishing this part of the work. The whole sculpture is ready for a fibre-glass layer and then the finishing skim coats are applied before painting.

Grant said last night that the end is in sight....
















Off-Spring with resin dust.

 

Award winning sculptor

Grant sent this sculpture up to the Melbourne International Flower and Garden show sculpture exhibition and won first prize for formed work.

We were absolutely chuffed.

A delightful moment. It is fantastic for Grant to have this acknowledgment for a lot of very hard work.

Meanwhile, back at the studio, Grant has been working on a private commission in between Mark's visits. This little water drop or tear drop shape is just about ready for painting and will be attached to the side of the steel column below.

Once the shape is attached, the top will be welded on. The steel is cor 10 steel which only rusts for a few millimetres on the outside to create that lovely colour. The sculpture is to go in a front garden.

Resin

The boys gear up ready for applying the resin. This is one of the final stages before sanding and painting.

Grant is measuring out the catalyst which makes the mix harden. The other ingredients are resin and a filler.

The method Grant uses to build the sculpture is a boat building technique.

The resin, filler and catalyst go into the bucket and are mixed to a wet cement-like consistency for troweling on the sculpture. The mix needs to be used straight away before it hardens and so small batches are made up at a time.

The first of many layers are applied. It is smelly stuff and this is the first time that a sculpture is being built outside. It is a vast improvement to being in a stuffy studio with all those fumes.   



Grant is still working on the fibre-glassing for the centre.



wire meshing

The next step is to wrap the whole sculpture in wire mesh. The mesh is cut into lengths, wrapped around each pod and then tightened to fit snugly by twisting the wire with pliers, as Mark is doing here.

This process is repeated 3 times with different grades of mesh

and is a fiddly, time-consuming job.

Meanwhile, Grant was fibre-glassing the centre twists of the sculpture to strengthen it as a lifting point. When the sculpture needs to be moved and installed, this is where the straps will go to lift it with a crane, and so it needs some heavy duty reinforcement to prevent cracking.

 These two are never far away. They spend a fair bit of the day rolling around playing and stirring up the dust.

 Job done. It is nice that the project goes in steps that can be completed. Each new step is looked forward to and then by the end, the workers have had enough. I think Mark would be happy to not be twitching wire again for a very long time.

Afternoon smoko.

pink

A glorious shade of pink. We joked we should send a photo to the organizing body and say that we were just on finished.

Maybe they would have said "Great!"

Unfortunately the pink is temporary. Several layers of glue needed to be applied to act as a barrier to the resin. The resin, which will be the outer coat of the sculpture, would eat straight through the polystyrene, so it needs protection with this glue.

The glue is coloured white and it is hard to see where you have been, painting it onto the white polystyrene, so Grant asked if I had any old water based paint. This was it.

It made a strong impression in the landscape.

The next day,  a third coat was applied and the colour changed again to moody purple.  It is amazing how much the colour influences the impression made with the sculpture.

Train station sculpture 2011

From little things...This concept drawing is the beginning of the long process that is the creation of a sculpture by Grant. It is the latest large-scale project to be embarked upon; and the first on our bush block. It is a public commission for a train station in Melbourne.

The following few posts will bring you up to date with what has occurred so far...





The polystyrene arrives...a vast amount is needed to carve the shape and will become the core of the sculpture. It makes it light weight and therefore easier to transport and build than using other materials.

The blocks are stuck together with glue and the first rough carvings are made using a hot wire which slices through the polystrene like a knife through butter.

For the next step, a rasp is used to refine the shape. A lot of polystyrene shavings float around the studio making it look like a snow field.

The pods under the sky light

The pods are cut in two and Mark Cowie, sculptor's assistant, carves out a space to fit the pod to the steel frame, or armature.

The studio is vastly too low to house the sculpture while it is being constructed, so after much deliberation and research, Grant hired scaffold and errected it next to the studio. It has a tarp over the top to keep off the rain and falling debris from the surrounding gum trees and looks amazing in the bush at 7 metres high, 7 metres long and 8 metres wide.



Scaffolding, sculpture frame and the pods get attached.







So, to go back slightly, this is Grant constructing the scaffolding. It took a couple of days all up with Mark's assistance.

In the centre is a gantry with a pulley system, which Grant built. He will use it to lift the sculpture and turn it while he is working on it.

The tarp was attached by throwing ropes across and pulling it taut. It is doing the job so far, as long as there are no gale force winds with rain.

This frame was made up in the studio to sit the sculpture on, keeping it off the ground. Grant carried it outside to the scaffold  using the tractor.

A platform was then built to go on the tractor forks to use like a cherry picker for working on the sculpture. With every new sculpture, new equipment needs to be bought or made. The whole process is one of problem solving to be able to construct something completely new. Grant has learned to be an inventor along the way.

The frame arrives. It was built at a steel fabrication factory in Geelong using an engineer's specifications and Grant's marquette, or model. It proved to be very challenging with the strange angles in the centre and it took a lot longer than expected. Grant made frequent visits to assist and keep their spirits up.

  It's raised into place using the tractor and gantry.

Mark does some final adjustments.

There seem to be many moments in this initial stage where Grant wonders what he has got himself into. The rest of us get excited by the wonder of it all while the weight of responsibility rests heavily on Grant's shoulders. We have a lot of faith in him...

The first of the pods come out.

This is where polystyrene is good. Mark looks like he is under some strain here, but really, it is not so bad.

This is me with one of the site supervisors, Pablo.

The two halves of the pods are glued together and then strapped while they dry.

Our first glimpse of the finished shape. There is a long way to go from here, but it is so exciting to see it come this far.