"Under the Prairie Sky" Delivered today to King George School!

It was an exciting morning! My friend, Brad, once again lent his help and truck and trailer, to pickup the sculpture for King George School from the powder coaters and deliver it to King George School.

Here are pictures of the sculpture at the powder coaters, load up and delivery. Thank you to the wonderful volunteers that helped bring "Under the Prairie Sky" into the school.   I appreciated the warm welcome from students, staff and volunteers when we arrived!  It will spend the winter inside and then be installed in the spring outdoors. Thank you to King George School students, Staff and School Council for their patience in waiting for the sculpture to arrive!

Sincerely,

Geoff

The sculpture is completed and at the powder coaters

The Under the Prairie Sky sculpture is finished and at the powder coaters! It's been an incredible experience and I have enjoyed collaborating with the King George School students and staff and school council!

Thank you very much for the opportunity to create this sculpture, for your research, your element ideas, and patience through the long process.

The powder coaters think the clear coat will be applied on or before December 15th.

I have updated the slideshow to show the progress to Nov 26th when we delivered to the powder coaters!

Final Weld is Placed, and Dog Ate Respirator Mask!

Hi Everyone

The sculpture has been oxidized and I will take some more before Geoff starts sanding. I updated the slide show below so you can see how far the progress is. Geoff was very excited as he placed the final weld tonight! However, our dog, Kona, stole his respirator mask off the garage door handle and had fun chewing on it. Yuck! Good thing Geoff is done the welding now, and doesn't have to worry about fumes.

Now its time to do the final sanding. Then it will be off to the powder coaters. The "To Do" list is getting shorter and the sculpture has become very heavy! We will have an adventure trying to flip it over!

All the Best!

Corinne

King George School - Under the Prairie Sky Progress to Nov 26, 2011

The slideshow now shows progress to Nov 26th.
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I just edited the slide show and it shows progress to November 17, oldest to newest photos. Click on a photo to enlarge. Thank you!
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Here is a quick progress report on the King George School collaborative sculpture "Under the Prairie Sky" up to 9:30 at night tonight.  Geoff was still hard at work when I was taking the pictures, so I will update captions on the photos this weekend. The newest photos are at the end of the slide show.

Creative Collaborative Project "Under the Prairie Sky" - King George School

The riveting is done!  Over 2000 rivets set and the fescue grass is now complete.  Just have to blacken the riveted plates.  Now I am hard at work on the framework.  

Over 1600 rivets and still counting - King George School Creative Collaboration

Geoff is busy working on the King George School Project "Under the Prairie Sky".  He has asked me to post the pictures taken today of the progress on the sculpture.  

To see the earlier progress, please click into the slide show at the right of the blog.  

I hope you enjoy the pictures. Geoff appreciated all the words of encouragement and amazing cards given to him by the students of King George School at the Fall Fling.   It's just what he needs to help get him through this final stage!  Geoff is looking forward the moment he can show the students the final sculpture.

Thank you for your hospitality at the Fall Fling!  Our children, Caelin and Kierra,  and we had such a fabulous time!  It was an awesome event!  

So ... what is left to do?  Here is a check list:

 - Finish cutting, assemble, drill, drop the rivets through, then tape and set them from the backside

 - Build the Aspen tree trunk from the 4" aluminum support pole

- Add support system on the inside of the sculpture panels

- Attach receiver tube for the bison side support pole

- Plasma cut the back and fit it and weld it on, 

- Cut out the lower panel and bend the round and flat bar and drill and bolt to sculpture.

- Weld the backing panel on, grind and sand the back

- Build custom angle pieces that mate to the tree foliage (1/2" X 2"

 flat bar is then welded to it, the whole bracket is then welded to the tree trunk.

- The mating 1/2" flat bar is welded to the back of the sculpture then holes drilled for bolts.

- The leaves and grass is then oxidized and sanded.

- Overall sanding and grinding.

- Deliver the sculpture to powder coaters.

- Deliver the sculpture to King George School!

All the best,  Corinne

 (The artist's wife :)

Bison and work currently in progress of the fescue grass

Burrowing Owl and some tools

View looking across the sculpture

Sulphur Chrysalis Butterfly

Looking down

1600 rivets set.....

 4 " OD , .25 wall Aluminum Support Poles (24 feet long before Geoff cut it down)

Aluminum Sheet backing plate to support sculpture (Tack welded together  2- 4 x 8 sheets)  Geoff was silly enough to carry them around by himself!  Very heavy!

Aspen Tree

Weasel

Spirit Face in the tree

Close up of face in negative space of the tree

Red Tailed Hawk

Samples of the aluminum plates textured,  blackened, sanded and clear powder coated.

Burrowing Owl in the Fescue grass

Burrowing Owl, Fescue Grass and current work in progress on grass

Work in progress on the fescue grass

texturing hammers on cardboard and then coloured with pencil crayon

Close up of rivet and texture 

King George School "Under the Prairie Sky" collaborative Sculpture progress

Hi Everyone,

On the right side of the blog is a new slide show that is showing the progress of the "Under the Prairie Sky" collaborative sculpture progress.  If you click into the pictures you can see them larger.

I will continue to add pictures to the slide show as the sculpture evolves.

All the best,

Geoff

King George School "Under the Prairie Sky" collaborative Sculpture progress

I am working on the King George School "Under the Prairie Sky" collaborative project right now.  It is an incredible experience working with the King George School community.   The students researched what was on their school grounds before their school existed and determined what elements (grasses, animals, trees etc) they would like represented in the sculpture to show what they had learned.


Then the students spent 3 days hammering textures on the laser cut aluminum aspen leaves.  


12 students visited my studio to check up on the progress back at the end of June.  It was fun to have them out and be able to share with them the progress, techniques and equipment.  I appreciated their visit very much and was excited by how interested they all were.  


Maryse Samson, Principal, came out last Sunday and helped out shearing some extra aspen leaf forms.  These are going to be used to fill in spaces where only a portion of a leaf is needed.


Here are some pictures of the progress to date, newest at the top.  So far I have used 400 rivets and I am not quite 1/2 done the riveting yet.

The Red Tailed Hawk with leaves positioned.  Not all the rivets are set yet. I used a particular texture for the red tailed hawk to make it stand out.  The textures will show more once I have put the finish on.

The aluminum round bars are a combination of  5/8' and 1/2 "

Welded Aluminum framework on the side that I still have to plasma cut the backing for.   It's not as heavy right now if I work on only one half first. There is an aluminum flat bar that goes around the sculpture 1/4" thick.

The very first rivets set through the aspen leaves and into the backing plate - they are not oxidized (blackened finish) yet. I had to flatten and anneal them first.

Some tools to set the rivets - drill, riveting hammer, aspen leaves and rivets.  Not shown is the rivet set.

 Rivet Set

Hammering Stations that the students worked on to hammer on textures to the aspen leaves

One half of the plasma cut backing for the sculpture

Plasma cutting the backing plate

Working drawing of the final design with the students input - bison rubbing stone, red tailed hawk, native spirit, chinook wind, aspen tree, fescue grasses, sulphur chrysalis butterfly, weasel

My original design to generate ideas - it was a sculpture a la carte, buy by the bird, small mammal, large mammal etc. I designed it to make it easier for students to fit the sculpture to their research results and their budget.