Many people who know me well claim I do things far too fast. It’s sims not true. The truth is I have so many ideas and projects I simply need to hurry to get them all done. 🙂 In my studio I have two office chairs which are well worn and somewhat broken.
Peter’s Sign Challenge piece would have been almost impossible to accomplish without the new MultiCam plasma cutter. At the very east it made things ten times faster. The speed of the design in EnRoute and the precision of the cutting made fitting the pieces dead easy. The plasma cutter also allowed a complexity which wouldn’t have been possible any other way. The top section of the box is removable and slides up into the box from the bottom
When we took delivery of our MultiCam plasma cutter we weren’t sure how much we would use it. Prior to that acquisition we had many base plates cut and the occasional shaped piece but it wasn’t too often. Having the plasma cutter handy close at hand changed the way we do many things in the same manner that the CNC router did ten years ago. Few projects are done with the plasma cutter alone but rather the many cut metal pieces are integrated into larger projects which also use other tools along with our hand methods
Work continues on the trade show booth. The last of the sculpted concrete was done yesterday. This meant we could get on with the final coats of paint and glazes. Once the glazes were done we started fastening the shelves onto the backdrop.
Peter is making great progress on his Sign Challenge piece. He’s now finished glazing and aging the top section and has moved on to the wiring. It is amazing to see how the addition of the various coloured wired changes the piece in such a dramatic fashion. The wires ties everything together beautifully and give the impression of incredible detail
As we design any project I feel that two things can do a great deal to make it stand out. These are colour and texture. On the trade show booth we will use both to best advantage in a variety of mediums. Warm rust and weathered patinas will play against cool worn teals and smooth riveted steel against the deep gnarly texture of weathered wood. We are still in the early stages of the finishes but the project is already starting to look pretty cool.
With addition of the top faux I-beam along the top of the back wall the welding done on the front of the booth and it was time to begin the painting process. We had originally planned to have the steel all exposed and rusty but changed our mind to have it a weathered teal green instead. Before we got to that we first had to add the rivets and textured primer coat to make the back paneling look live steel. We used Abracadabra Sculpting epoxy to fashion the rivets. I carefully laid on three coats of teal green on a steel shelf and allowed it to dry
Peter has now finished the sculpting on his Sign Challenge piece and has moved on to the painting process. It is looking pretty amazing!By the end of day tomorrow he should be into the glazing and aging process. My piece has most of the base colours finished but we still have to do a little sculpting on one small element. Once that is painted we will move on to the aging and glazes
The current large project underway in our shop has used our MultiCam plasma cutter in a large way. It has in fact caused me to fall in love with the handy, dandy machine and the ease in which we can create custom metal parts. We’ve taken the design/build approach. Each piece is first sized up visually.