scrapartoz

thanks Beth!

PROGRESS:

More junk to make the fan more attractive. These include railway sleeper split pins , flail mower T blades , drill bits ,  vintage  telephone insulators and mounts as well as the worn out spring steel brushes off a rotary road sweeper.

When the glass discs are added to the"ëyes" these decorations will become less sgnifigant.

Thank you Beth and David for the encouragement . More pics in a week . cheers a

Some more progress:: this junk will become head and neck 

I want  the Peacock to display smug vanity / narcissism .   so I connect the head by a bolt into a welded nut . then when i rotate the curvature of the neck to the desired"attitude" i can then make fine adjustment to the turn of the head independent of the necks position

The feet are next . They must be strong enough to hold the weight of the entire sculpture . On the underside of each foot I will weld a nut . This will enable me to later screw in a spike that is hidden from the viewer

The 1" box connecting the feet at the top will be the primary assembly,  onto which all sub components will slip into /onto

Next a verticle housing  is attached to the mainframe  . Into this housing  the 1" post that is attached to the Peacock 'fan' will slip. The fan is balanced (and quite stable ) resting only on the feet on the dirt floor

Next the neck and belly attach via   ' slip on rails'     to mainframe

Detail of slip in and / or  slip over box mounting system.   There is much more to do . The fan has much more "beautification "  to be done including the  "T "feathers and "eye lashes" .

The wings and tail feathers represent some interesting engineering problems to solve .  There is also the addittion of glass on the chest and rise in the back

cheers  a 

Yes Bikecopxxx.......... the base is temporary .At an art show I had it filled with water and  some  grass protruding up from the water. It looked ok but it needs something better as you suggest. thanks for your input . I appreciate the diversity of ideas this forum produces from its members

Hi Eddie and Thomas P

The ring was a complete  blacksmith forged rim off an old horse drawn wagon  wheel . I cut out a section and inverted it .

Im not sure how i will do the feathers that accompany the now floating eyes , as  too much stuff may ruin the effect i am after , though it needs something to indicate the rest of the feathers . i might go a little abstract or minimal with the rest of the feathers. not sure yet .it will come to me in my sleep.

Thank you Thomas Dean . well I will have to take your word for it as there ane not many Peacocks for sale as meat in OZ . (Not any wild ones I know about)

Thomas Powers , yes I would have thought a bit more "gamey" in flavour ( i guess everyone has different taste experience. Can you post me a link to some Renaissance Recipes as  you have me interested . (ive heard of peacock tongues or was it pheasant? )

Toolish ........I have seen the tempered colours done as you describe on a sheet metal Peacock . it looked fantastic . the most beautiful effect on the peened metal.

Beth   my "style" of using the right shaped part  from the start has a simple origin :  I am LAZY and it means less work . cant wait to see your  wall peacock posted. ( I might steal some ideas off you )

cheers a.

Thank you Geoff , frosty , Camero and Mike . 

Im not sure but sometimes I think this sort of stuff looks better in an urban environment . Fountains , pools ,  concrete,  Bricks etc . I think it is very hard to compete with nature and the natural environment so at this stage I think Mike has the winning idea with artificial folliage and an artificial urban environment. 

What do they taste like Thomas?

Here is more of the Peacock  " fan''   .  The U shaped connecting struts are to "float"the eyes in the fan when viewed from the front. cheers

Here is the start of the Peacock project . On looking more carefully at peacock photos I was amazed to learn that the beautiful  fan shaped feathers with 'eyes'; are not the tail feathers but are mounted on the back and are supported at the rear by dull grey tail feathers that prop up the fan . The wings are also tucked under and rear of  the fan . This is not what I had believed so i must change my plan to make it anatomically accurate. So if it looks wrong or silly to you guys check out some photos of the real thing ( a view from the rear )  and you might be surprised how oddly they are put together.

The glass discs were made by my wife . there will be more glass in the neck /chest area in 1 and a half inch rings . not sure how that will work out yet

No , the kangaroos are protected because of political reasons . they are a sort of national emblem and the "green" inspired followers are misled by strong lobby groups to believe their numbers are in danger. If you were to do a tally there would be at least a dozen killed each week in my  local shire by cars or trucks running into them . As you head further west you will see a dead roo on the road every 2-3 km . One good aspect of this is a massive boom in the wedgetail eagle population which feeds on the roadkill. There are sub species that are endangered  but people generally leave them alone. I have a 'mob' of about 80 Eastern Grey kangaroo that travel through my 300 acre hobby farm on a daily basis 

Thanks Beth , Frosty and Camero . I live in Urana  in the state of New South Wales.  My father told me that the incident with the roo was when he was about 25 (before i was born ) We have lost other dogs the same way . You cant keep your dogs on a chain all day . If they are 'working'sheep or cattle and they spot kangaroo they instinctively want to chase them . If your not paying attention or too slow to catch them this sort of accident can happen . it is not the dog or the roo,s fault but rather the owner not training or controlling the dog ;properly . I was quite distressed once when I saw a friend beat his dog badly when it wanted to chase a Roo . He said that the dog would never chase a roo after that beating (and that that beating might save the dogs life one day ). Dont like that option either .

Kangaroos are protected by law so we cannot shoot them legally even though some species ( Eastern Grey) are in plague proportions . I guess you gotta pay attention to whats happening around you ,.

cheers  andrew

great job! love it!

Thanks Mate !   I will start the Peacock thread in a few days  ( its only in my mind at this stage ) cheers  andrew

That is fantastic, your finish is of a  jewellry standard and a Very appealing style. Thank you for posting the "how to" sequence.

Beth , I am interested in tour 2D ? peacocks .Please post progress as you get started. sounds great!

Thank you Johnny and Natkova .......Yes not all  Kangaroos are cute ,their feet can be deadly . When chased by dogs their favourite instinctive act is to head for water . wait in about 1 - 1.5  metre depth . As the dogs swim towards them they balance on their tail ,then grab the swimming dog with their sharp claws on their  hands' .they then hold the dog underwater whilst disemboweling the dog with multiple strikes with the  sharp,  bone like big toes of their feet . I live on a farm and my father lost two of his best sheep dogs this way . the kangaroo held each of his dogs under the water as they swam to the kangaroos position in the dam shallows . My father grabbed a long handled shovel and waded in the water  to hit the kangaroo so it would release the dogs. as he swung a lethal blow to the kangaroos head  he saw a violent splash of water on his left and right  side at  chest height. Only after the dogs surfaced ,  drowned and mutilated did he realize how close he had been to becoming  yet  another  casualty.  

thank you Beth and Eddie.  My next project is a peacock . it will be a collaboration with my wife Daphne . She will be making  multi coloured discs of glass that I will turn into part of the feathers  of the tail,  as well as some beautiful glass discs for the chest area. this hould be a real hoot!                            Im hoping that the rusty metal and coloured glass work well together. Im thinking maybee some copper and wood might  'ease' the transition from rusty steel to glass.

mmmmmm...................................... .we shall see

. Andrew 

You must have a gigantic parts pile to constantly come up with such interesting pieces.

Yes Jawno the pile is big  and always growing, but I have also had a few years looking at the junk thinking: "what can I make with that ?"   I then start a new pile for "that"sculpture and slowly add to the new pile when I see something that is in the right shape and scale . when i have the key components , i then make a start . For the roo the key components were feet , belly and the steering box for the head. All the other parts are secondary as they can be made from many different shaped objects.

cheers and thank you for your interest in my art.

thanks DSW . My mind doesnt work that way either until I have a few   ( toomany) beers

cheers

thank you Dick,  glad you like it.

andrew

thank you Aden , Jim , Trinculo and Beth

. yes  it is a bit of a drag doing the photos but im happy that it gives me a permanent record i can refer back to.

cheers 

Andrew

Here is the sequence of construction for a kangaroo i built...................... it is over 4 foot high and weighs about 180 lb.

 cheers andrew

Thank you ,Geoff, Steve, Chef , Dick ,David and Yahoo for the compliments

As there was some interest on the progress shots  and assembly sequence . I will post another set of  sequence photos for a  4 foot high kangaroo i have built in a day or so.

Thank You ..........DSW , Beth and Guns, 

DSW ..........the frame with housings is important to the plan . it lets me weld each section   from the inside so the work looks more    "clean" and is also stronger as i can weld the parts of the points that are touching.that are out of sight.

Beth......yes in that almost round pattern,  the ripper points almost  look    '' soft   "   like a sea anemone.  

Hi Folks , an Echidna is a native Australian Spiny anteater. I had collected a lot of worn out ripper points off a road grader , so I thought they might work as spikes for this little critter. It weighs about 150-170 lb so I made it in pieces. The base structure has 3 square housings into which 3 rails supporting the left ,right and top  spiked sections drop into. The pipe at the front is how the head slips on and off . the front claws are horseshoes.

The tongue is made from hooks , the mouth and nostrils are nuts , the eyes are old railway bolt heads , the brow is a very large plow spanner head.

cheers