kustomsteel

Thanks Whirly!

Sorry Danger, I didn't do any preparatory drawings for the bronze wings, worked it out directly on the metal. One could say I winged it... :P

I don't have any process shots either, I'll try to put together a tutorial on that soon.

Thanks for your comments Tantofolder. Most of my sculptures come 90% out of my head and 10% sketches. Then add 200% working out issues directly in the metal. This is a horrible business model but it leads to some interesting designs/ shapes/ forms. This project started out as a spider monkey swinging on a vine. I googled spider monkey, found and printed out some photos that showed the monkeys in positions that showed how their anatomy worked in the pose I wanted. I did a super loose sketch of what I thought I wanted and started sculpting.

  this is the basic armature 1/4" pencil rod 3/4" sch 40 pipe

  front view of armature. You can see variuos monkey pics in background

  more rod added to define areas of the body. I had the head half built and tacked on to see how it fit the body

  more anatomy

  now I start making paper templates of areas that need to be filled, cut them out of 1/8" plate, then heat and form them in pipe ends, on the anvil, whatever helps raise the shape

more plate work

  this pic illustrates how I attach plates. I get them fairly close to fit, tack in a good corner, then heat and peen it until I have all the corners tacked and all the edges flush with the pencil rod

  thigh musculature being added. At this point I welded up all the seams and realized it was heading in too serious a direction, whereas the head was more whimsical. So I cut off his head and started over, ending up with the other monkey.

I hope this helps a bit, every time I do this It seems my process changes slightly so it's hard to give a formula as to what I do.

Thank you very much SC, and you too Beth. I am thinking of incorporating another set of wings in a sculpture, we'll see!

Laertius, Wroughton, Tilaru, and Beth thank you for the compliments!

My answer when asked what the monkey is smoking is "the stuff in the pot". When asked what's in the pot I say "the stuff for his pipe" :P

Great post Avadon, I have a chunk of steel in storage and you have given me a use for it! It isn't as big as what you used but it will be better than nothing. Thanks for being so informative with your process.

Man that looks slick, nice job!

I like this. Are you treating the wood at all? Stain, oil, etc.?

I appreciate you taking the time to look at my work Kent, and I'm humbled by your comments. Good luck with your class and hopefully I'll see some of your work soon!

Gives a whole new meaning to dishpan hands!

Those are really cool, it would be interesting to see some sort of fossilized creature embossed into a large plate? Seems like your sculptural bird forms would lend themselves to it.

Thank you all, I really appreciate the encouraging words and especially coming from peers who understand the joy and curse of working with metals! I will try to post more projects here, as I have said before I'm new to blacksmithing but I think there is a shared understanding of how to move metal whether under a power hammer or with a torch and masons hammer. I also have photos of my work at   kustomsteel.tumblr.com  if you are interested.

Sorry no website yet!

Flying Monkey? Hmmm, think I could come up with a pair of wings! Thanks for the comments, I struggle with whether I'm making art or not, by modern standards. The positive reinforcement tends to make me think I'm heading in the right direction with my creations.

I'm going to add some progress shots and I apologize in advance if this is too image heavy, I'm not the best editor!

#1- 2" hollow ball with mouth detail hot chiseled in, 5/16"? solid eyeballs w/ 1/2" solid bar wrap, 1/8" plate nose w/ built up weld nostrils

#2- top and side profile of skull shaped with 3/4" x 1/8" flat. forehead and cheeks formed from 1/8" plate

#3- all fill in plates added and head ground

#4- refining the head.  pupils drilled, side burn pieces added, fill in weld added to shape face

#5- pretty close to done with the head. eyelids carved in

#6- 3/4" sch 40 pipe arms forged and ground. pipe thighs and calves forged. stomach plate forged

#7- bent pipe for spine shape, parts added with solid balls for knee joints

#8- body plates added, arms cut off to allow finishing of the body

#9- all welded, ground, and texture, texture, texture!

#10- arms back on. I changed the position of the left arm, and these are the original hands and feet that I shaped out of 1" x 1/2"flat bar. They will eventually be trashed.

#11- forging the tail. 1" round bar and yes that is my POS anvil and my lil' homemade single burner forge in the background.

#12- pot made from hollow ball

#13 parts coming together

#14- new fingers and toes die ground from 3/8" round bar

#15- all cleaned up an ready for patina and lacquer!

Thanks again everybody! This piece is primarily 1/8" sheet and 1" sch 40 pipe. The mouth area started out as a steel ball as well as the eyes. The tail was a piece of 1" solid round and all the digits 3/8" solid round.

I have been inspired by this site to try forging more of the elements of my work, I enjoy the process but it really slowed me down, sculpting this took 82 hours.

Frosty I need to get some shop pics up, but I have to admit I'm a little shy after seeing some of the smithing equipment around here!

Danger, maybe we should make an 80' tall version so it will have a proper bowl :P

Thank you all. I have a ton of process photos, and you know i never put a tape measure to it but he's about 18" tall.

Hello all,

  I'm finally getting back into the game after I took a 2 year sabbatical to build myself a new shop. here's my latest...

Fabricated steel, a little forging, a lot of welding and grinding!

Good piece, I like the part that is wrapping in a vine-like fashion around the main curve, maybe it could be cool if more of the was happening. Keep going, there are some really nice forms emerging.

I have to agree with previous posts, a full face shield is a must. We wore them for all operations when I worked at a foundry, and i feel unprotected without one now. I also became tired of pulling wire barbs out of my chest and arms so I put on leather sleeves over my apron when I have long wire brushing sessions.

An inspiring workspace Matto, I hope you don't paint over the graffiti- cool to be surrounded with a little history. In the first photo it looks like a half dozen leg vises hanging on the wall. Is that correct or an illusion?

That's awesome!

Really nice work Beth. I agree with you in that I like raw steel better than painted but you have to give the client what they want. It's a solid design that will come through no matter what the finish!

Great work!

Spectacular sculpture! Such a dynamic pose.

Great knife! love the way the skull integrates into the grip.

Ironstein I have no advice for you, I just wanted you to know that I'm pulling for you to come out on top of all this. Reading this whole thread, I can see that you dotted your I's and crossed your T's to make sure you did nothing wrong. And sadly there are horrible people in the world who just manipulate money and people to get their way, and many times rational people like you or me decide it's better to walk away than fight a losing battle, but then these people get their way and they don't have a conscience that causes them guilt for the underhanded way they acheive their desires. I applaud you holding your ground!

Great work Beth, very balanced. From what I can see the paint looks nice and smooth, all the flower detail shows. Did you spray it? I just did a hand rail with a brush on finish - 1 primer coat and 2 top coats and it is thick and bumpy, I wasn't very happy with it....