OntheWing3

Mike Roig, Sculpture

On the Wing

A commissioned sculpture for Automation Direct

in Cumming, Ga.

Late May 2018

The shows are done, a fun commission accomplished, and I see the progress on the building

where On the Wing will site is making good progress. Time to return the focus to this project.

First the hub needed some attention both in beefing up its connection to the axle, and in

adding some substructure on which to hang the sheet stainless faces of the main body

of the sculpture.

The axle and hub themselves are not stainless and so get coated with a heavy-duty, rust preventative

paint. They will obviously never be exposed to the elements, but this precaution eliminates any concern for

rust stains weeping out the condensation drains over time.

The first cuts in those big five by ten sheets of stainless came next...

...and finally I got to try out that roller.

Not bad. It took a little intuitive finesse to learn the idiosyncracies of the new machine.

But once I learned to compensate for the extra pressure needed to curve the metal as it

got progressively wider, I was very pleased with the results.

Then it was simply a matter of figuring the logistics of adding them to the base plate one...

...at a time.

Once they were all tacked on it took some time to play with what it would take to

actually get them held in an approximate position that would have them start to take the

precise form modelled in the maquette. I had to invent a system of bondage that would

stretch the individual pieces out and hold them while still allowing me to begin adding the

various planes that will make the form into a rigid structure. That's for the next update.

For now it's enough to see for the first time just what kind of impression this

shape was going to make at full scale.

I'm liking it. Every maneuver with these big pieces of metal requires a

lot of planning and strategy. My brain is working at least as hard as my body, and that's

a grand thing.