kustomsteel

A little gate project I recently completed. 1/2" round bar, 1/8" plate and 1"x 1/4" for the latch. The bird is 16 gauge stainless and silverware. Fun job!

 

               

Here's a candleholder tree I made years ago. It sort of falls along the lines of twisting a bunch of pieces together that others have mentioned,  although I incorporated a lot of welding. I'm sure you could eliminate the welds by figuring out your roots, trunk, and branches and clumping the whole lot together- then twisting it to get them to lock together.

 

 

Awesome work, so clean!

I like the pointy, survival of the fittest! Nice sculpture!

Very nice project Beth, I like that the design incorporates a trellis into the bench. it gives it a bit more visual impact. Well done!

Thank you all for the comments, and yes Frosty but that demand is slow coming for me. Maybe that's a good thing!

T

hat's just about the craziest fire pit I've ever seen! Love it when people work outside the box.

Killer Kustom, keep them coming! I like the texture and smooth surfaces together, organic and armor-ish.

Thanks danger, I was hoping you would see this. I forgot to mention that these are being mounted on glass doors so you will see that contradiction in surface.

Thanks for the comments.
DSW the molds were $250 each (1 left 1 right) and each casting is $325. I did all the metal finishing and patina so that brings the price down.
Bigfootnampa they were sent the wrong doors so when they straighten that out I'll get installed pics.
Yes Peter and Dave, this job went fairly smooth considering the time crunch, client is talking about a lot more work spinning off of this project.
MLMartin I'll try to post some pics of the burrs I use- it actually goes quicker than you think. But man is that stainless tough, I don't think my hands would survive 28 of them!

Hello all,

 

I was recently commissioned by the Ravens to create door pulls for the pro stores around the concourse level of the stadium. A few people have shown an interest in how I fabricate wings so I took some process photos this time around.

#1- concept drawing

#2-cardboard template from drawing transferred to 1/8" stainless steel plate

#3- front and back blanks with feather indications

#4-blanks bent to shape cold, sections that have too tight a bend are forged hot over a crude ball shape tool I clamp in my vise

#5-blanks welded around perimeter like a pillow

#6-piece added to close off bottom 

#7-rough grinding to bring out feather shapes

#8-welds added to make feathers pop a bit more

#9- welds ground smooth, ready for detail carving with a straight die grinder and pencil grinder with various shaped carbide burrs

#10- finished front. details carved in, a little black shoe polish rubbed on to bring out details

#11-finished back of wing

 

At this point they were really digging what I had made and doubled the order to 28 wings total. At 12hrs each to fabricate and some other work all due in a month, I decided to cast them in bronze at a foundry I used to work at.

 

#12-first batch of bronzes

#13-I had the bronzes nickel plated since they wanted a steel look

#14-I applied Sculpt Nouveau Magic Black to get the antiqued effect

#15- Finished!

Thank you Loyd and Buffalo, yes I do love that table but it does have a slight hump in the center. When I find the time I'm going to get it blanchard ground.

Sweet sculpture! The proportions, materials and joinery are all spot on. Another great one, good luck in the competiton.

That's funky! Cool piece.

Really well done, so fluid.

First off, excellent piece of forging. Second, thanks for making a "warts and all" video that includes the mistakes! I would like to try making one of these and thank you for a very clear illustration of how to do it!

Is casting out of the question? I worked on a lot of pieces at the foundry in this style. 1/4" wall castings, refine surface as necessary.

Good work!

Impressive! Good torch work.

Kinda look like the little dudes from "despicable me", I dig em'!

Thank you Paul and Dan! Yes I am trying to sell my sculpture, and yes pricing is very difficult. I would like to get $2200.00 for the monkey, that price is based primarily on hours to build and a bit extra for it being one of a kind. I still have the dragon and praying mantis, they are big ticket items. My plan is to create enough pieces to have a show and maybe do an etsy page. Whatever I have in artistic ability I completely lack in business savvy!

Most of my smaller pieces are tig welded. I have a mig as well and will use that to lay beads to build up areas quickly and run long beads as well. But you really can't beat a tig for control when doing things like welding eyebrows on a face that's only 2" across. I learned to weld on an OA set up, and that has served me well, and while I don't weld with it any more it is invaluable for creating sculpture. But the real trick to getting the look I like on my pieces is the grinding. I spend a lot of time refining/ cleaning the surface and carving details.

Beautiful piece!

Love em'!

2Tim215, Highsider, Mark, thank you!

I love a nice tree form rendered in steel. Good work!

I just started using sculpt nouveau metal oil, it is formulated to bind with their clear guard lacquer. You can put the oil on warm metal or cold, they recommend two coats and then if you want spray it with the clear guard. I did an exterior railing for a place in northeast PA, two coats of oil and 3 lacquer. It was installed late september 2012 so we'll see how it does....

http://www.sculptnouveau.com/Results.cfm?category=7