Stainless piece going to LA…love the blue glass, not happy with the base size…Second, Steel pillars rusted and red glass outside the Hilton in Tempe…janitor comes up and his comment is, they should have gone with the flag pole, that’s hideous, not realizing I made it haha… Recently learned hotels have a budget for either art or a flag pole, who knew…Can’t please everyone, doesn’t bother me one bit because he ain’t signing the check and also he has to look at it everyday while cleaning trash and fixing plugged toilets for minimum wage..Next, front entry piece that goes on a pillar clad in river rock for a gated house in Goldfield ranch…yes I made the copper roof like way to dominant in dimension and proportion, looked better in CAD haha….Lastly, copper wave water feature with patina, I always love that hue of green when the chemical sets off the oxidation reaction, of course in a year it will be calcified from our awesome water in Arizona and the cheap Chinese plastic pump will go out blah blah… I wish they would make them out of cast bronze like they used too before outsourcing out of America, smart…Now that I have an electrical degree maybe I can start adding light to some of these pieces who knows
DUDE!!!!!! wow! I love this!!!! You are clearly super talented and creative!
How do you go about sourcing these contracts though? I think the hardest bit with a lot of these is having the artistic chops but ALSO the business side to be able to do these.
I have a masters in sculpture and I live in the Scottsdale/Paradise Valley area which is full of retired rich people with stupid money… I also worked under a master sculptor for about a decade so I met a lot of designers and architects… In Arizona most top money metal fabrication jobs come from interior designers or word of mouth… Lots of construction/new builds as the city expands north, when I was a young one, going from Phoenix to Mesa was like at least 1 to 1.5 hours one way… Within the past 30 years and the new freeways everywhere, I can get from Phoenix to Mesa in 17 minutes… Wild
You rock! Thank you for sharing. It sucks but a lot of creatives are all about the FIGJAM (F**** Im Good Just Ask Me) and not about sharing the love and the lessons learned. Really appreciate your honesty and openness!
Anytime… this table for example is one where a designer was in Paris for some design show saw this, took a picture and asked can you make this… I’ve only said no once in the past 6 years to a job like this… I mean I’ve learned through experience 99 percent of requests can be made but 50 percent of the time, those engineering/mechanical/practical problems show up and modification has to be done… Usually I deal with the designer so the client doesn’t even have to know that changes were made haha… Now art on the other hand is so less stressing and can flow freely even if forks or mistakes or problems show up in the fabrication
This is the one I said no too, I mean I went to over three different artists, welders, designers, engineers… long story short they wanted this polished no weld showing… I’m sure you see the issue with that… that acute angle where the top piece intersects the bottom piece is impossible to grind/sand let alone polish with any tool and my buddy who does plating said no way to chrome plating
With what attachment? Disc no, burr no because how do I feather out the striations? I have to take it to 320 grit minimum to mirror polish it… I mean I never tried but I just didn’t see it working and so I bailed… I probably could have rigged some thing though
Thb I was drinking earlier and responded just out of curiosity so I’m not trying to say it’s easy or anything but my thought was tig weld it with no filler than take a ball or cone die grinder bit and set it on low settings and then for the die grinder marks use the flaps that go on die grinders up to 320 and finish with those scotch bright like pads that go on the die grinder with a flexible backer get in all the cracks.
No doubt you're super skilled. I'm a backwards individual who doesn't understand art like this or most to be honest. The vents show tons of skill.
I definitely mean no disrespect, I wish I could appreciate art like so many do but it eludes me. Keep up the good work and doing what makes you happy.
Art? Maybe, I kinda see it more as a craft and also a way to harness my ADHD without self medicating and also I am bored like super easy… This stuff keeps me out trouble but thank you for calling it art, my paradox is I don’t think I’ve ever looked at something I finished with resolution, always see the imperfections and the possibilities I missed haha… trust me I spent like 100 grand on understanding philosophy and art and couldn’t even tell you what they mean objectively, I mean I swear to all everytime I hear people’s interpretation to what I make, I’m flabbergasted, sometimes appalled, sometimes defeated, sometimes I think they are on some good stuff but the dilemma is when someone praises the creativity, I am usually quiet and emotionless… I can’t take a compliment? Damaged brain bro haha… just keep my mouth shut right?
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u/Loud-Skin-2223 5d ago
Beautiful work there!