Photographs

Photography by Chris Keenan

Installation day

A picture of me installing the work around the tree in the school grounds.

A giant necklace......

I have started on the main construction of the sculpture and the rest will be put together as it goes around the tree on the 15th. It's rather like stringing a giant necklace! It's all ready to go now....

Forming the thorn shapes

Today I completed the forming of the flower shapes in the oven. Firstly I had to make some wooden shapes for helping me to mold the shapes, as they are like floppy jelly shapes when they have been heated through enough. It then takes about 4 minutes for the acrylic to cool and harden, plus it was easy to re-heat any areas with a heat gun to adjust any bits. It was a highly satisfying process and it was great to see the finished results piling up on the desk!

Laser cutting

After finally sorting out the software to design the flowers, I started and completed the laser cutting of the acrylic sheet at Deer Park School in Cirencester today. The staff were very friendly and helpful and were good tutors in mastering the use of this machinery. It essentially works as sort of printer, the line drawn is produced by intense heat from a laser that cuts the acrylic and leaves it with a perfect edge with no need for sanding and finishing. As the shapes came out of the machine I polished them to remove any little marks that had appeared. The shapes are now all ready for bending and adapting after being heated in the oven to 165 degrees. The metal is all ready for picking up tomorrow. Things are really taking good shape now! Very exciting.

Flower shapes and sizes

After testing many different sorts of shapes and designs today, I have decided to go for this. The petals bend in different ways to create a flower that seems less friendly than your average daisy! Tomorrow (Tuesday) I will be picking up the fluroescent green acrylic and on Wednesday I will be spending most of the day mastering the software at Cirencester college to enable me to laser cut the shapes....all very exciting. I have also sorted out a supplier for some of the other materials I will be using; stainless steel and aluminium.

Testing...

Please see the photo of Ken and the flower form we have tested in the oven today. Ken is my boss at Cirencester College (and I'm his design technician 2 days a week) but roles have been sort of reversed! Ken is very clever at realising design and making and has been a great help, having the ideal brian to pick.....! Thanks Ken.

The plan...

Please see this image for the latest plan for my piece of sculpture. It will be permanently fixed to the tree (s) in the front of the school where everyone can see it. It will also be a welcome sight for any visitors. This is just a sketch on photo shop for now to give you an idea of my intentions. It is a large thorn-like structure that feeds or lives off it's host; the tree. The meeting with the head teacher yesterday confirmed it is to go ahead.... so all systems go and materials to be ordered ASAP....Aiming to get all complete and installed for July 15th....!!

kiln and studio

Here are some pictures of my kiln and the studio in which I work....

porcelain fun!

Today the children worked very hard on helping me make the shapes out of porcelain. Good messy fun was had by all and at the end of the day, I took the pieces back to my studio to finish them off and mend any broken bits.....hoping to fire them very soon. They can them be hung, attached, displayed anywhere at the school, I'll leave it up to Kellie and the children to decide... this can be a temporary installation....they can be moved anywhere (they are live creatures after all!)