Mike Roig, Sculpture
The Texas Two Step: Avian Edition
January 20, 2020
The toppers are ready for birds. In the photo above I prepare to do the final welding on
one of the armitures, and below you get the first taste of what kininetic means in sculpture,
and that is motion.
I picked up the birds from Alro Steel. They did a beautiful job cutting them out.
A friend of mine came by several mornings over the past couple of weeks to lend a hand.
Paul's a retired chemical engineer with a background in working on nuclear power plants. He and
his wife Ginger make sculpture these days and I think he liked getting a little insight into how I worked,
and I certainly appreciated the good help and company
.
Sanding the birds takes a good deal of finesse. They each go through a couple of rounds of sanding and
polishing both sides, so that's a job I like to spread out over several days. It looks like we'll wind up with about 140
birds between the two armitures. I've got about three quarters of them done at this point with one more pattern
to go.
Meanwhile, the completion of the interior cross-bracing for the base meant it was time to take it out
of the cradle I'd built it in to this point and move it into the studio. The top part of the tapers got an underlayer
of steel plate for added rigidity, and then the outer skin started going on.
Each side is defined by creating a butcher paper pattern cut by attaching the paper to the frame
and finding the exact outline each side requires.
Those patterns are then traced on the sheet steel, cut, and on by one applied to the framework.
As you can see below, Paul wasn't the only one offering help.
Before I got the form totally closed up I spent the last couple of days creating two access doors to
the interior that will allow me to reach in and secure the anchoring nuts at installation.
So, two more sides to go and it will be on to running the weld seams and sanding and polishing. It's satisfying to see
the form taking on substance as she closes up.
Til next time, I'm back at it.
- Mike