New wall sculpture

[Premiershipman]

Been working on this for a couple of days and finished it today !

Made from copper coated steel and solid copper.

 

[chunkolini]

Stoppit.
That is lovely. May not be 'Art' but I bet people will love it.
I have been looking at line drawings and pondering something very similar.
started by some oaf who wanted the houses of parliament made in wire for two hundred quid. Pillock but he sewed a seed...
I can't think why but it looks very French to me. Railings and bicycles?
premier shipman. The bicycles are beautiful. They would be very sellable at a decent price.
go on admit how many pairs of handle bars went wrong?

 

[chunkolini]

Just looked closer on my phone.
For heaven's sake, the discarded bag on the bench, a touch of genius. It tells a whole story.
tiniest criticism, the top of the back wheel on the mixte frame should have gone behind the seat stay.
Now that is being picky.

 

[Freddy0309]

wow, i really like this, top job bud

 

[eSCHEn]

Great work

 

[ronan]

Thats the business, well done.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I like the drinking fountain , had my teeth chipped on one as a kid......

 

[Premiershipman]

Thanks guys, really enjoyed making this one.

Chunko' - I sell the bicycles separately as part of the range of sculpture that I do, mainly racing, mountain and mixte frame (which i sell as a 'shopper' bicycle).

I made a jig for the handlebars using some thickish steel in a sort of square A shape like this |=|
I cut the handlebar steel to length, make it into this shape |_| and then slide that in between the two horizontal sections of the jig and then bend/curl it round to form the handlebars which makes them all pretty consistent. So not many went wrong

I am always appreciate of constructive criticism, I think the bikes are maybe slightly too big in relation to the sculpture, so I may have to adjust the scale of the rest of it to match up in the future.

Its the largest piece i have done so far for this type of sculpture - about 70cms wide by 60cms high.

The 'Walk in the Country' sculpture sold well as the last agricultural show I was at, so I have done some more of those along with this sculpture.

Its nice to sit down for a long period to create things like this, even though after brazing fails on some joints etc, you can end up more stressed than when you started !

 

[Shedendman]

gets my vote big time,nice work there
Although i'd put a lock on those bikes,with the scumbags around these days

 

[chunkolini]

Regards the joints, when I make my fish using these materials I mig weld the joints first, just a quick pulse of the trigger, probably a bit more than you would expect, it speeds the whole process up massively as you can hold the components with your fingers and get lots of interesting scars. it also makes the joints flow better brazing over the top is quick and finishes it off nicely.

 

[Gareth J]

Brilliant! Really like all the little details, tge way you've ended the fence and the bikes are stunning. To me, the trees look a bit odd, they're sort of a different style and look very wintery whereas the rest feels kind of long summertime evening.

I'd agree it also looks European to me, chain the bikes up, bananna one of the bike wheels and remove everything except the frame on the other if you want to Brit it up a bit! Oh and switch the nice satchel for a pair of scraggy pants

 

[Premiershipman]

There is another option for the trees, which is to punch out circles of copper and cut them in half and braze the semicircles onto the ends of the trees to make it a 'summer tree'.

Great tip Chunko', hadn't actually considered that, it was a bit of a bu99er at times to braze some of the joints when the bronze just didn't want to flow and sputtered everywhere !

 

[chunkolini]

I reckon wintry spindly trees look better. Perhaps a but more bushiness to them.
Brazing all those tiny bits? I remember it driv9ing me crazy trying to hold and jig all the bits in place, get it all set up, light torch and watch the bits roll about all over the place.

 

[steve t]

looks really good

 

[Premiershipman]

I need to use some small bulldog clips methinks to hold things in place which may make it easier !

 

[migman123]

Lovely work! I actually had a go at something similar on Sunday, I found either putting a block of steel on top of the wires to hold them still or putting a blob of bronze on one piece first then holding in place with a pair of pliers then heating again with the torch did the job.

 

[Gareth J]

Not sure if it'd help but you could "tack" in place with braze then infill with solder if your steel is copper coated. Like the next level down from mig tacking and filling with braze!

 

[outofthefire]

I love it, rather than bulldog clips get alligator clips from maplins they have a tube at the end so you can solder them to wire to make simple holding jigs.

 

[chunkolini]

With practice you can hold a length of 3mm bar as short as about 20mm and tack it with mig.
it does take practice though.

 

[gerrymoore]

Great work.....lots of patience.....well rewarded!!