Bride of Frankenstein

[brewdexta]

I took her down to Forest Gate in London a few weeks ago, now work has started to get her ready for the Newham Arts Trail. Local artist Hazel will be installing Murial (as she is now called for various reasons, and that is how she likes her name to be spelt) in her front garden this weekend. Here's some photos showing it being readied for this.

Trialling where she will be placed. Hazel's friend Dennis is inserting irrigation pipe ready for planting later

Here's Murial with owner Hazel getting ready for a trial fitting

Here's a couple of Murial in position behind the hedge. There will be scaffold poles inserted into the ground to make sure she is relatively vandal proof.

And finally a couple of her beginning to cover her modesty, she will be covered in Hessian, filled with growing media and gel then planted through the Hessian, so quite heavy when complete, hence the rebar.

The filling and planting takes place over the weekend so by the next time I am down in London in August she will be blooming lovely, we hope

 

[chunkolini]

Well done for uodating, lets see how she develops.

 

[Cal]

That mate is a most excellent job

 

[the snooper]

Well done for uodating, lets see how she develops.

Kinky

 

[brewdexta]

Kinky

I hope not or that will screw up the irrigation

 

[brewdexta]

Here's an update. It has taken a lot longer for Hazel to get Murial in position, but for good reasons. She has opened up her front garden the neighbours and their kids and loads have been helping out to cover her up, fill her with compost, make jewellery for her and fill her bazookas with plants. Newham is very multi-cultural and people that have lived on the same street for years and have never talked to each other have been working together to help out. The kids have really enjoyed it and grand parents who have been looking after kids during he summer holidays while the parents are at works have welcomed the opportunity.

Here's a few pictures just after she was put in position, there's loads more to do, she has an enormous hand bag yet to fit that will also be full of plants. Her left hand is a bit bent, she must have been in her cups and fell over. The hessian in her arms have been filled with seeds so this should start growing through soon.

 

[brewdexta]

So, last years sculpture is going to have a mate, John Gurney is his name, He's a Victorian chap with a tall stove pipe hat which will be planted up once in position. I have a couple of sketches as a brief, he will be waving like the previous sculpture, but also leaning forwards, arm on the wall with a brew in his other hand.

Here's him from the front superimposed over a photo showing where he's being place, you can just see last year's sculpture at the opposite end of the fence.

Here's a side view showing some proportions.

As he is leaning forward and has his right arm raised, his right side won't be as bent as his left, and the tilt of the collar bone line will be quite pronounced as per this skelebob picture, not identical but you get the idea.

Right, into the workshop to ruin various bits of rebar until I get the angle of the dangle right

Cheers
Andy

 

[Kent]

Looks great with the planters in use

 

[octo0072000]

Like it wonder how many drunks it's frightened?

 

[Austin]

you now need to make a male version with hose in hand watering it lol

 

[brewdexta]

There's an idea, maybe with remote control to turn the hose on if somebody's dog is having dump on the pavement outside.

The arms of the original are a bit skinny and therefore proportionally don't look too good, I thought the covering and stuffing would add a bit more thickness and shape. So on this one I'm paying a bit more attention, not sure I'll get it right but worth a go. I have a torso and I'm trying to get the length of the arms right first. I have several proportional diagrams to play with but when you bend the arms a bit and you only have a single rebar it can be difficult to judge.

 

[Kent]

Scale of the real thing. Adult female arm 25" x 6" circumference ? Figure four times as big? 4 scale etc
You can add to bits for effect like. Let's face it everyone loves a full planter LOL

 

[brewdexta]

I need to get this done by the time the kids break up for the summer holidays as he will be worked on by kids in Forest Gate. For the last few weeks the kids have been helping out Hazel with a huge mosaic of a snail for a community garden, that is all but finished now so more pressure to get this done.

I've had the main rebar frame completed for a couple of weeks, I made a few changes to get the slightly twisted torso leaning against a wall look. Once I was happy with it I started to add the welding rod mesh. I took a short length of plastic pipe, about 75mm OD, drilled a hole in it, insert the welding rod then bend it around it to form a coil, I then adjust the size of the coil diameter a bit before snipping bits off. Weld them onto the rebar then lay more welding rod over them to form the mesh, it needs to be about 50mm or so size mesh. Hazel, the artist who commissioned it then covers it in hessian before stuffing it with soil, irrigation pipes etc.

The photos are better taken at night with a flash, will do next time. Here's close up of the arm. The last one I did I made the arm rings were all the same size thinking that the artist would be able to add some shape with the covering. This wasn't true so the arms look a bit like pipe cleaners, far too parallel. So I have attempted to make a lot more contrast in this using different diameter rings.

The head, neck, shoulders and both arms are largely formed now, just a bit more mesh to apply, the torso shouldn't take long, I'm going to get my 7 and 9 year old daughters to have a go at the easier bits at the bottom of the torso. The 7 year old is pestering me to death and wrote " I am an Engineer" on the workshop white board to make sure she got her point across

So far about 2 days of work in it. Probably one more to complete including making the stove pipe hat. I used 2.4mm rod last time, this time its 3.2mm, a bit more difficult to work with but much easier to weld so will stick with this if I have to do it again. It takes about 4 hours to get the rebar frame right, that is critical so lots of welding and grinding off and re-welding. Getting the main wire frame right takes about another 4 hours. Once this is in place its a couple of days of filling in. I could probably do it a bit quicker, say 2.5 days.

Cheers
Andy

 

[tinman123]

maybe you have a reason not to but why not leave the coil of wire you made and had adjusted to size and without cutting it into rings slide it down the frame and mount one end of it, then by twisting it either way you can again adjust it to take the varying form of the arm as you go, you would need to tack it to something to keep the size correct and all you would have to do there is use one or two straight rods your using to make it a mesh anyways.
or maybe im missing something there.
id of probably galvanized it tho, be there long after your gone with a coat of that but maybe thats a 5 day camel ride for you to get something galved, they come to my yard here if i have anything, and leave it back so its handy for me.

your making damn good work of it tho, and herself too, fair play lad, thats harder than it looks.
a nice thing to be involved in.

 

[brewdexta]

Good idea, the spiral effect. Each length of welding rod makes just over two rings at the larger diameter and about 3.5 at the smaller so that could work. That may speed it up a bit. I will be giving it a coat of etch primer and a top coat and the artist tends to give it another coat. I don't think the artist is too bothered about longevity, she will see the demise as an opportunity to do something different and get the kids involved. I agree that they probably won't last too long being stuffed with damp soil, a bit like an old Austin 1100 wheel arch, they didn't last long either

 

[tinman123]

it ill last long enough at the same time if there is that much paint on it.
be a bit fiddly but you could but weld the rods as you go or overlap them a bit which id make it a lot quicker if you didnt mind it been seen which id doubt you would on that.

 

[brewdexta]

I managed to complete the armature this evening when I finished his stove pipe hat. One of the hardest bits are the hands, I think I nailed the right hand holding the mug of tea. Two fingers in the handle, two underneath with the thumb on top. I welded a mug holder under the mug and you can take it out if you want. I drilled a few holes in the mug for drainage as it will be planted up and fed with an irrigation tube. It's a pint tea pot so much bigger than a standard MIG Forum mug.

I'm less pleased with the head, a bit too big maybe and slightly the wrong shape however when he has a beard and hair it will blend in so not so crucial. The stove pipe hat will move a bit lower on his head at a push too.

It's heading down to London next Tuesday morning, it may not fit in the disco so I may have to strap it to the roof bars.

Cheers
Andy