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I Forge Iron

Birdbath


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One of my coworkers wanted a birdbath for his wife. She wanted an organic type sculpture where the birdbath function was secondary. So here it is. A couple tendrils stick out a little to the side and up high to hang bird feeders. The basin is a terra cotta flower pot dish. I tried to talk them into a copper basin, but she liked this better. I suppose if the birdbath function is secondary, then the dish hides better.

--Marc

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To misquote Freud (who probably didn't say the original) sometimes a dragonfly is just a dragonfly :). The customer asked for some kind of critter and I forged and tacked that on. I forged a dragonfly and a hummingbird and have them hanging in my office, and that's where the idea came from.

Edited by Marc
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Really nice Marc.

It's well balanced between complexity and simplicity, enough going on a person is profited by spending a little time looking at each element while not being busy.

Too bad you couldn't talk her into a bowl that was more suitable to the quality of your piece.

I see two legs are propped up, is it contoured for an existing ground profile? A good way to help keep these things stable is to provide a drive point down from the center so it's got a solid connection to the ground.

I especially like the dragon fly. Do you have any process pics?

Thanks for posting.

Frosty

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Thanks for the comments. It's propped up because the yard slopes in that area. That's my back yard, where I took the picture, not the final resting place. I just liked using my shed for a background. The color was contrasting without being glaring, and no features to get in the way.

I meant to take process pictures, and even brought the camera out a couple times. But once I got to working, I was just too focused to remember to take pics. Maybe I should hook up a security camera to take pictures as I work :)

I did have to rig up some stuff to help make this happen, because of the size and weight. I made some jaws to go in my vise to provide a wider surface to clamp the four 5/8 round rods for twisting. I drilled holes through the bottom of the jaws and inserted a rod to go from one to the other. That gave a resting place so I could just drop the thing into the jaws and tighten. The other end was held up by a stand so it wouldn't droop.

The dragonfly was just a basic technique I got from Anvilfire. Same as hummingbirds and I've also done a bee.

It was fun building, even though I got two nasty burns and broke a twisting wrench. All the tendrils, except for the main vines, were done at the same time, without any real notion of where I was going to put them. I just tried to think like a vine and make them different. Then, when I had a bunch, I looked for good places to TIG them in. I tweaked with a torch after each was put on.

The burns happened during the TIGing and tweaking. I would TIG or tweak a tendril, then move on to another. But the previous was still hot. I've got Kevlar sleeves for the next time.

Best of all, I'm getting better at estimating the work. I earned a lot more than minimum wage this time :)

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