Still going...

It is pretty amazing, Grant is still sanding. It is coming back to me now, how long the finishing process takes.

He is going solo at the moment. He didn't need Mark to do the last check for smoothness before painting, and now this last check has been going for more than 2 weeks.

We miss having Mark here. Grant particularly misses having his company and has run off a couple of times to have a change of scene and to chat with someone other than me. Right now he is surfing which does him the world of good.

So, I can't say when he will be painting, but it will be very exciting when he does.

The the hard part will be making the decision to stop.

So close now

That's right. It is down to the nitty gritty now. The paint is being ordered for next week.

Grant will probably go over it once more to make sure it is completely smooth in the next few days.

This is a new sander for very fine sanding. It is being run by a compressor.

All the blobs on the photo are from dust that constantly float around the sculpture.

The pink patches are from the car body filler.

Part of the reason for dust flying everywhere...

Quite a lot of the sanding today and yesterday has been by hand with Mark smoothing out the crevices and tighter curves leading away from the centre. The mechanical sanders just create grooves.

It's incredibly laborious but it is almost done now.

Sanding, sanding and more sanding

This part of the job is must be feeling endless now. The weather has been really cold and every square centimetre of the sculpture needs careful and precise sanding.

At least they are not held up by the rain or cold. There was squally weather a couple of days ago and they just kept moving around to find dry sides of the sculpture to sand.

Grant has been using car body filler to go over any dents in the surface.

Grant devised this plastic applicator which smooths the body filler over the curves of the sculpture. It is sanded after it dries.

Mark uses his hands to find rough spots. They are so small now that you can't see them while the sculpture is unpainted.

Fibreglassing

This part has been a very sticky job. The glass fibres in the resin stick to everything.

Sheets of it are hanging over the tractor platform and get stuck on over the sculpture using resin.

Grant found that putting a fibreglass layer on towards the end stopped the sculpture from cracking with the expansion and contraction in changing weather.

Mark's knee has finally poked through his pants altogether. They simply cracked open. Grant offered to fibreglass it over again.

The weather has been so cold that the resin wouldn't set, so the boys got on with another job this afternoon. Mark will thank me for including this photo!

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.