I had a fun day today unpacking/moving and deciding where and how to mount/place my sculptures in the new yard.  I call this thing Old Albino Eye (no offense to any albino's out there) because I evidently got a stainless steel gear in the mix.  Now the new neighbors will see what moved in.... 

 

Love it!

Awesome Scott!

Nice! Great sculpture for a tree, fence or side of a house. 

You get enough of your sculptures out there and they might come by to ask about them and then you may be getting some sales. 

At very least they will admiring your art as they go by. 

I've had people that live on or around my road mention they notice things I have out, or chickens or whatnot when I see them when I'm out and about.  I live on the corner of two roads and people are always seeing whatever goes on in my yard. Might be good when I get some time to make some larger sculptures. 

There’s a giant concrete chicken over by Lincoln Arkansas probably 12’-15’ tall and weighs several tons I’m sure,

I love threatened to inquire about it dozens of times but my wife says she will move out if I bring that home….

so I’ve looked a giant chicken metal sculptures and she said no.. that she’s not gonna have that in the yard….

so I casually mentioned the roof of my shop building technically isn’t in the yard…. She said no…. 

long story short, no giant chicken for me…

There is an antique shop in Charleroi that has at least two large chickens likely fiberglass and atleast 10' tall, among other large figures. I've never inquired about the price but I would deffinately put one in the yard. Lol

  Thanks Y'all.  Das, you may be right.  Or else they may wonder what kind of kooks do we have here....  I need to be more optomistic.  I'm putting the Mantis That Ate The World down by the road.  Also, I have a deal in the works to buy a broken railcar wheel that I might try to use for a mailbox stand.

  Billy, if you want that chicken bad enough, offer a kitchen re-model.    

There is a shop (tourist trap) in Eureka Springs AR that has dozens of steel yard chickens out front called metal feathers, they have a Facebook page and some of the chickens are at least 12 feet tall, painted up with some interesting colors. Debi just sent me a screen shot from her phone.

Edited February 18, 20224 yr by Irondragon ForgeClay Works
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A little warning, get a length of thinner pliable cable and fix it to part of the mantis that it won't easily come off of then other end to something they can't pull it off or out of, or to a good twisty ground spike.

It won't stop a determined thief, but it will stop those looking for the quick easy opportunity. 

I have my larger praying mantis cabled to a tree. 

My neighborhood is pretty good but you never know. There are always those about looking for a quick easy grab. If they can't just jump out of the car, grab it and get back in those ones will give up quick. Not a whole lot legal that will stop a determined thief. 

IronDragon, google brought up some pictures. Looks fun lol.

Lots of tin critters and things.

  That's a good idea about the mantis on the end of the lane.  I don't have a lot of my own sculptures left, so I would hate to lose that one.  I've never had a sculpture stolen, I have given away most all of my stuff to friends and family.  I sold a few things as well so I have maybe 10 pieces left to decorate the yard/garden area.  I just gave a big ant to my sister.  I usually keep the junky looking ones.  Looks like I will never make a living doing this!

  Nice chickens, IFCW.  I see by their sign they have a flea market too.

  I wonder where they get the sheetmetal to produce those birds?  Car hoods?  Washers and dryers?  I have seen them but never looked up close.

I haven't had a sculpture stollen either and prefer to keep it that way. I just know that things out close to the road are easy targets. 

I dont keep a whole lot of my work either. Mostly just what I give to Elizabeth lol.

 

This handsome fellow guards the entrance to Exeter Scrap Metal in Rhode Island (which is quite a place, I must say):

  That's a cool sculpture.  It's hard to grasp the scale of it unless those "arm" things are drainage culverts in which case nobody's going to walk off with that beast.  The parts on it are hard to identify.

I'm only really catching the tiller tines painted orange around the center. 

  Maybe it's a piece of a jet engine.  I'd like to walk around that thing in person.  Someday, I'd like to travel the world and document all the fantastic scrap metal art going on and get the stories behind it all.  Perhaps compile it all into a huge coffee table book.  That's what I would spend my lottery winnings on.  

Palps is the word I think you were thinking of Das.

I was not thinking of the word, but it is what I was thinking of. 

Just looked again and if you look at the tail or "metasoma", the stinger or "aculeus" looks to be a pick head.  Ugh... fancy word names 

Scott, that sounds like a fun book. If I hit the lottery I'd be making scrap art full time. Then things would get interesting. 

  If you hit the lottery, would you splurge on a new shop?  You could hire folk to go out and find the best scrap materials out there and deliver them.  Australia has some interesting bit's and bob's, so I hear.  I wish Ausfire would chime in.  Hope he's aok. 

   Better yet buy new.  Who cares what new bevel gears cost for eyes?  Ball bearings by the truck load.  Steel direct from the mfg...  I wonder if it would take the fun out of it... Nope!  

Jargon and just like blacksmithing jargon, biological jargon allows you to be very specific and precise.  Me; I've never had a class in Biology if you don't include Paleontology...but I have grandkids who like bugs and a wife who loves spiders and I read a lot.

I think being able to buy everything new would take out some of the fun of finding the exact piece needed or figuring out how to get around not having the exact piece.  Now I have this pile of picks, intended to make drifts from, but the local SCA barony's mascot is a scorpion; perhaps a junk sculpture can be snuck into their camp some event; Bwahahahahahahahaha!

  Perhaps you are right.  I get carried away.  But it would be fun to be independantly wealthy and spend your time creating.  There have been times in my life when I could afford this or that and refrained.  Sometimes making do is more soul satisfying than buying new.

I like the old scrap. I only buy new if a project needs new or sometimes when i have something that I make a lot of and the scrap input can't keep up. 

A lot of sculptures come about from a piece of scrap that reminds me of or makes me think of something.  

A bigger shop would be great as it is easier to find the right pieces when you can actually See the pieces you have. Tho I would dig, find and get my own scrap. One persons art is hard to explain what it needs to give it life to someone else to get the right stuff. Plus finding the pieces is part of the imagination spark. 

 

I dont mind the jargon Thomas. I just have a bad memory for most strange names and have to look it up again most times. 

I often look it up before posting with it as my memory's not as great as it once was too.

The circular thingy between the palps looks like the back side of a steering wheel.

Hunting junk to make things is half the fun. However were I to win the lottery and Deb let me indulge in a scrap art binge, I think buying a junk yard would fill the bill nicely. Folks from all over would bring me junk to sort through and sell what I don't like. 

Of course folk bringing me stuff might like to buy something I cobble together from other people's junk.

Hmmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.

3 hours ago, Daswulf said:

A lot of sculptures come about from a piece of scrap that reminds me of or makes me think of something.

  That's where a lot of my ideas and inspiration come from too.  And the older scrap has character.  Some new material is ok, but you are all correct, older and found is much better.  Having a junkyard would be much fun as well.  Maybe some of those buying your junkyard creations would be buying back some of the scrap they sold you in the first place in the form of a sculpture?  Get them coming and going.... 

 

Funnier would be selling them a sculpture from scrap you Didn't scrap or buy from them. I haven't tried all in my area but the couple I have tried dont want to sell to me. I still will be talking to some others eventually but at the moment I have a lot of scrap to work with. I also have personal incoming sources plus my trickle from my job and occasional dumpster diving. All I can ask for at the moment is time and energy to use some of what I have.