Window to a Sea Soul (The name could change)

What happens when you need a limestone block as the base for your sculpture and you realise limestone blocks are to heavy and to soft for practical use inside.
You make your own fake block.

South West Showcase Sculpture (un-named)

I oiled the Tuart base using Livos oil, this gives a rich finish. The sculpture itself will be sprayed.

The last word on this piece

I was unsure if this piece was achievable, it turned out to be an interesting piece, turning out how I thought it would. Quite challenging at times. 

I'm not disappointed with it.

South West Showcase Sculpture (un-named)

 I needed a base for this to stand on, using a piece of Tuart 50mm x 200mm x 1.2m. Tuart is an underestimated wood which I really like and it lent itself to this piece. I wanted a windswept look, 3 dimensional, the wind over the sand. This I carved using a Lancelot tool with an aggressive wheel. I refined this using gooseneck scrapers, finishing with 800 grit sandpaper. 

 
This sculpture stands on spines 8 and 9.

South West Showcase Sculpture (un-named)

The sculpture was sanded before I glued it all together  as there was going to be places I would not be able to get to. This was sanded to 600 grit.I carved the edges when it was standing to make sure the profile looked right, I wanted the sculpture to be 3 dimensional, It needed this to make it look more dynamic. Hopefully when people look at this piece there will be a lot of elements they can see.

South West Showcase Sculpture (un-named)

I did a dummy run on putting the sculpture together working out which spines needed to be fitted in what order. 

All the time the sculpture was still lying on the piece of paper, not being able to see the other side or knowing if the sculpture will support itself. The rod was still being supported by the small mdf blocks. I had to also make sure all the outer ends where at the same height, if you move a spine in the centre it would shift it's outer end and vice versa. A couple did move on me which I rectified when carving. 

After gluing and waiting 24 hours I finally stood the sculpture up. I did not know if it would stand and or support itself, also not quite knowing what the other side looked like.

South West Showcase Sculpture (un-named)

I was then ready to glue this sculpture together.
I started with the two legs, which were to support the piece, these, I made sure were exactly right. Gluing and lightly clamping them together making sure they were intersecting at the point I wanted them to. I used the table I was working on as the datum with the drawing underneath as a reference. I then set the stainless steel rod up at the right hight, cutting some blocks at 57mm (the rod was 8mm thick) . Then glued another one. After these had set I put two screws in to hold these 3 together.  

 To explain the spines are numbered and had to be glued in the right order. I started with the  legs which were numbered 9 and 8 gluing and lightly clamping these together, then glued 7. After these had set I put two screws in to hold these 3 together.. Then I glued 6 and 5.  Then I put another screw in that held all those  together, a very long thin screw. Then I glued 4, 3 and 10. Because if I glued 1 and 2 I wouldn't be able to get 11 and 12 in place. I then glued 2 then 11 and 12. Finishing with 1.

South West Showcase Sculpture (un-named)

Once I had this all together I then had to drill all the holes for the stainless steel rod. I measured from the top because that's where the right angle was. The top was square with the curve so I measured down 61mm marked them all. I pre bent the rod by hand using a curve template drawn on the original piece of brown paper, also I didn't use any heat on the rod as that colours it.
Laid the rod on top the wooden spines, with a set square intersected the line that I'd drawn in the middle, this gave me two lines the width of the steel, this I measured in half.  The holes where not at right angles so the drill had to be held at an angle, I eye balled this. The drill piece was smaller than the hole needed. Using a dremel I elongated the holes to fit. then having all the spines marked I shuffled them all onto the rod, placing them all back into their rightful spot. Some I had to fettle a little to make a tight fit.

When it all fitted together I was relieved.