I'm creating an engine. Engines need fans.
I was heading to a meeting, on the street was this air vent laying around. I postponed the meeting and brought it home.
There's someone caring for me, between the stars. It's too much a coincidence. :)
Tomorrow I go scavenging!
I finished the first drawing for the 'Buenos Aires sculpture'. It'll be a brutal machine.
I doubt if the sculpture will be the direct result of this drawing. When I make new work the good ideas come through it's 'provoked chain reaction'. Being creative and busy excludes the 'voice in the head'. It keeps you going.
I realised that if you need something in Buenos Aires, you have to think in terms of dedicated shops. They're mostly located in neighbourhoods with all the same type of shops.
I found my clay and plaster, let's make some pistons!
I'm de-jetlagged. 2 Days of ease and rest. Rewarded with a clear mind
Under the guidance of reggaeton I'm making the first quick drawings, developing the idea of the sculpture. The current ideas are:
- Focus more on car engines, no tturbines.
- Keep it simple and tight: 1, maybe 2 sculptures.
- model the sculptures in clay and cast in plastics.
- integration of sound, inspired by the local culture.
For my ambitious 'The Enterprise'-series, I'm developing most of my sculptures abroad.
CheLA is an art platform in an old (chemically cleaned) asbestos factory, in the neighborhood of Parcque Patricias, Buenos Aires (Arg). The factory used the be up and running till the late seventies. During the crisis of 2001 it founds it's new purpose as an art platform.
I arrived two days ago and will create a series of sculptures from scratch. You can follow my developments on a daily basis here in the blog.
Buenos Dias!
In a week I leave Belgium. I will make sculptures abroad in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Two months of work.
I'm working for my 'The Enterprise'-series and will create a lot of works from scratch. It's getting itchy.
I like this high-pressure environments. It forces me to be pragmatic and stay in focus. Failing is not an option. The stress is the fuel. :)
2 aluminium pockets plus some profiles and a bit of welding makes a fan. :)
I've made a video and its soundtrack of the work in process of the latest 'Heat Sink'-sculpture.
Check it out: :)
'Aluminium Heat Sink' is my first sculpture of 2019. Also my first in aluminium. I sum up the roadblocks that crossed my paths:
- There's no such thing a firing up the Tig and starting without preparation. ALU is a whole different ball game.
- Aluminium spreads heat as crazy: Your arms will cook fast, the workpiece tends to warp quickly and can even crack.
- Aluminium welding needs to be clean and secure: keep the arc small and tight. When you dip the puddle, switch immediately the tungsten.
-If you're workpiece never endured rough environments or the outdoors, you can do it without cleaning.
- If you want professional results. You need to clean al the workpieces. It avoids 'black pepper'.
Shamelessly I have to admit that I didn't apply for years one of the basics of metalworking.
I never center-punched before drilling holes.
Since today, I do. And what a difference in accuracy and time-saving: you're adjusting time on the drill-press is significantly lowered.
Welding Tig means a nice bad sharp Tungsten.
I put my 'needles' in my cordless drill and sharpen them on 80-grit sanding discs. It's important that your 'sparks' are flying away in a straight line on 12 o'clock and avoid a 'sanding curve' that bends away from the center of the Tungsten tip. In that case the grain in the tip grain would steer your plasma (during welding) away and your puddle will be less tight.
Yesterday's hard work is paying off in the 3rd iteration of my Heat Sink sculptures. The learning curve is not that steep anymore. The welding of aluminium is getting into my fingers.
A day at work doesn't need to be suffering. :)
I'm surprised by the mess aluminium sheet cutting and grinding creates: a lot of saw dust and you don't want to have much of these particles floating around and piling up.
The excess dust can form a dangerous mixture in high concentrations, especially in combination with metal particles. Sawing and grinding aluminium is all times kept separate from my 'Hot Metal Workshop'. A flame or spark initiating a 'pile of wild formed thermite' would be a matter of time.
I love my studio too much for taking such risks. The future is bright enough, there's no need to burn my studio. :)
Systems speed up. Systems helps to cut corners. Systems provide oversight.
I love systems. :)
I'm preparing the cuts for a new aluminium 'heat Sink'-sculpture. Behold my preliminary drawing:
Mostly I use a 'scribble' as draft. When I'm measuring on the actual sheet of aluminium I decide the size of cuts based on my 'feel'.
When decided I create the sawing pattern: A time- and resource effective system.
Yesterday I've spent the time making a digital hand drawing for an upcoming turbine-inspired sculpture.
Based on the render I made the day before in Blender, I used the marvelous open-source software 'Krita'.
In combination with my drawing tablet and old-skool drawing training it's a very rewarding process: In shortcutting, ease, generating a digital file and it's broad spectrum of opportunities.
My technique improved!
A little, though. It's growing and I'm learning. The hardest is to avoid 'dipping' with the tungsten in the puddle and the ultra-fast heat spreading. (With burst and cracking risks)
I'm moving forward and apparently I'm making a 'series'. ;) With already two 'heat Sink'-pieces, a third one is coming soon!
I'm working back on my first turbine-inspired-sculptures. It took more then a year. Sometimes stuff have to 'ripen'.
I'm creating volume on these sculptures with expandable foam. It's savvy on the time and easy to sculpt. I consider PU-foam more as a carrier and filler with a limited visual role. Sturdy plastics like epoxy are added latter on as 'shell' for the sculpture.
The computer as an essential tool.
I learned Blender for a project in Buenos Aires, 2 years ago. It comes in handy and I use it in developing preliminary and conceptual drawings for new sculptures.
We have those great (and affordable) tools that helps to speed up and cut corners. I'm obliged using them. :)
I fired up my Tig-welder for an easy carbon steel butt-joint welding.
When making contact it really sputtered and the junk was flying around. After cleaning the metal (your surface needs to be dust and grease-free), tinkering with amperage settings and gas flow and switching the Tungsten, it appeared one of those very basic things:
The gas bottle wasn't open. :-)
(ten minutes after posting this, I've made the same mistake. Again... :| )
Every New Year's Day I show up in the studio.
A tradition. I take it easy and take some time for reflection. I clean, organise and set everything for tomorrow. Then starts the real deal: fighting against myself again in a nice and tight studio :)
I'm very fond of high gloss UV-resistant Polyurethane lacquer. Technically it still yellows, you don't notice it and blocks a lot of the uv-rays.
The picture above is from a sculpture I'm coating. It's base material is a sort of epoxy that professionals use for making their carrier moulds.
I love the viscosity and the colour, but it turns out green very fast. (In months)
UV-resistant lacquer or varnish helps a lot. The gloss surface makes it easy to clean. :)