Current work in progress

[ChrisJohnsSculpture]

This is my biggest piece of sculpture to date. It will be the main feature of a memorial garden for a school in Birmingham.

It's made from some ungodly number of individual pieces plasma cut from 4mm and 3mm mild steel plate.

Most of the welding is TIG. It's actually turned out that tig is the most productive process for this, especially as most of the welds can be autogenous. The welds certainly aren't as neat or clean as tig would normally be but visual concerns mean that they're heavily over-engineered in any case and I've found that hot, fast welds without much filler rod (ie 170 odd amps on 4mm plate) are actually much faster and neater than mig or stick. TIG is also much easier for the random positional welds that this job requires (you will notice that its's hanging off an engine crane in the photo).

 

[outofthefire]

Looks good , have you got some more pics?

 

[stuvy]

reminds me of the blades of a jet engine

 

[ChrisJohnsSculpture]

More photos up :

 

[chunkolini]

looking damn fine.
I was going to ask what it is but that would be rude.
Better off posting pics direct to this site as online photo sites can ake things confusing along the line.

 

[outofthefire]

looking damn fine.
I was going to ask what it is but that would be rude.

I couldn't think how to ask without being rude either

I like it even more with the new pictures.

 

[the snooper]

I was going to ask what it is but that would be rude.

too late

 

[dickie bell]

come on guys it's obviously a thingamajig or a Whatchamacallit
cool tho !

 

[chunkolini]

Stop it!
I recognise it.
Cant remember what it is though.
Reminds me of something or other I have looked at in the past.
Doing m,y swede in.
It is not Razer from Robot Wars but has a similarity to the 'wings'.
Some kind of biomechanism?

 

[dickie bell]

makes me think of stargate when i look at it also reminds me a little of the fibonacci spiral.

 

[ChrisJohnsSculpture]

Well it's getting close to being finished now. Pretty much done structurally and just a bit of patination and finishing to go

As to what it is...that's a good question. I tend not to like to work too slavishly to themes or specific subject matter and kind of let thing suggests themselves as they go along.

A lot of my stuff is inspired by a combination of proper old industrial buildings and machinery and at the same time looking at how engineering problems are solved in nature (so the Fibonacci spiral is quite close to the mark) . SO three's often a bit of a bio-mechanical feel but more a case of finding the overlap between the two rather than two contrasting opposites.

This one was based on a small piece I cast in iron over Christmas and new year in terms of it's overall form and the client wanted some reference to text and language so some of the detail is loosely based on calligraphy which I think fits quite well with the overall flow of the form and softens what could have been a bit brutal and industrial.

I'm mostly playing with shapes and patterns with my work and the more conceptual stuff is very much a background thing so I'm always interested to hear people's different interpretations. In fact it's always interesting when people pick up on something which might have been in the back of my mind when I was making something and obviously shows up somewhere.

 

[shenion]

Fist pics had me thinking "big lobster"

Very cool. I like it; it is something everyone will swear they have seen before but not recognize. Organic, industrial (bottom edge reminds me of rusted-out equip), mathematical (fractals) all in one.

 

[outofthefire]

I really like it, how is it going to be mounted.

 

[Robotstar5]

Makes me think of a feather

 

[wheresmejumper]

i was thinking seahorse tail

 

[ChrisJohnsSculpture]

Nearly done now

It's designed to be inherently pretty stable so the installation should (hopefully) be pretty simple. I've made a simple bracket which will be concreted into the ground fencepost style and bolted to one of the internal bracing plates, with a shallow buried cross bar to give some extra lateral stability. The cross bar will be stick welded to the bracket/post on site.

Hopefully the bracket will be more or less invisible and the sculpture will look like it's just sitting on the ground.

The 'wings' are held on with stainless button head bolts which provide nice bit of contrast to the rusted finish. Multiple layers of wax oil and copper grease should keep any galvanic corrosion issue well under control. Any bits which might collect moisture get an extra coat of underseal and waxoyl.

 

[stuvy]

i love the colour of it, it really suits the flowing shape.

off topic, whats the maroon van in the back round?

 

[ChrisJohnsSculpture]

The van is my dad's Austin 7 pickup

 

[stuvy]

from what i can see it looks lovely condition

 

[outofthefire]

I really like it, I love the way it flows. It reminds me of something but for the life of me I can't think what.