Completed Wind Turbine

      After two semesters working with metal, the wind turbine project, which I have yet to name, is finally completed. These two pictures were taken in the halls of the Shafer building at  ECSU. The piece came together with relative ease. There were some complications putting together the base but overall I am pleased with the way the piece turned out.
       The piece was created with the intention of blending my politics major with my studio art minor. The turbine is a statement on the current state of our nation. It symbolizes the need for the nation to sustain through all the hardships we have been going through lately. The original concept for the turbine was created around the time of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The nation at that point was just starting to feel the effects of the receding economy.
      The piece is a combination of sheet metal, copper, and found object. The cone or dome of the turbine is sheet metal with copper strips to mimic the stripes of the flag. Sheet metal was also used to create the blades. Copper accents on the blades, support pole, and base spreads the copper throughout the piece. The base and support pole are found object. The pipe was found in the scrap room of Shafer and had the perfect bend. I wanted to achieve some sort of alteration on the way the dome would fit on the pole from how a real turbine is assembled. This pipe follows the originally intended angle and configuration. The base was a donated umbrella holder filled with concrete to allow for the turbine to stand alone.
      Better images that show some detail will follow.

Wind Turbine: It Stands Before You

Here are pictures of the wind turbine on its temporary base. I will construct the actual base within the next few weeks. 

The pipe goes through both the dome and the support metal and is then bolted down. I split the end of the pipe and flattened it out to allow for a easy surface to bolt to. In this picture you can see the flat bar supports on the wings that were mentioned in an earlier post. These supports will eventually be  better incorporated into the overall design.

Wind Turbine: The Two Hour Battle

 This is the thick metal sheet that fits inside the dome. The shape was created using a paper template and allows for the wings to be attached to the dome without interruption. The hole in the center of the metal was a pain to get to its current state. I first had to drill through the sheet using increasing bit sizes. This was time consuming due to a coat of something, I'm assuming plastic, on the surface of the sheet metal and the thickness of the sheet metal itself. Following the drilling, a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade was used to slowly cut away at the metal. The cut could not be made in one pass because of the tight curve of the circle. I had to chip away at the circle one cut at a time. This too slowed me down. As I moved along the circle, chipping away one piece at time, the cuts began to be more and more difficult to complete. I finally stopped with my circle being about half a centimeter smaller than needed. The only solution was to file out the circle to the correct size. The hole took a little over two hours to cut out, but it fits perctly around the pipe that is to be placed into it.

 Here is the hole cut through the bottom of the dome.

This is the final outcome of the day with the pipe containing the originally intended bend. 

WInd Turbine: Connecting the Dome to the Wings.

Here are the wings connected to the dome with the star resting in its eventual position. The wings are connected to the dome with two nuts and bolts each. The sheet metal is rather easy to drill through, but cannot support the full weight of each wing without warping. The wings themselves will bend at the crease without being supported. 

 My solution to these problems is the use of a thicker sheet of metal inside the dome and pieces of flat bar on the wings. This was a simple solution that only required more drilling. 

The Metal Wind Turbine: Catch Up

Here is a piece that I began in the spring. My intentions were to blend my major, politics, with my visual art minor. This wind turbine is a statement on the current state of America. That through all of the financial troubles, disasters (the oil spill at the time), and wars, we as a nation must sustain. That we will come out the other end of these hard times in one piece as long as we stay at a constant forward-moving direction. I came upon the idea to represent this statement with a turbine after a dabble in some sustainability classes. The wind turbine is in constant motion, is powerful, and sustainable. The following sketch is not as the turbine will end up looking. The sketch portrays the turbine simply leaning over; this was a back up plan if the correct support pole could not be found. The original idea was for the pipe to come straight up and then bend; giving the dome and blades the same angle, but in my opinion, a more visually interesting method of doing so. This piece will be made out of sheet metal and copper. 

At the end of the semester I had completed the dome, the three wings, and the star. They were all separate and the way they were to be connected was not figured out at that point. 

Brains! pt. 2

Here are the end pieces from my brain mold. The first is cast with Smooth Cast 326. This product is another two part mixture with a color additive; in this case blue.

The discoloration in the front part of the brain happened because there was water left over in the mold when the Smooth Cast was added. The light blue discoloration is also slightly pliable. This was the first cast with the mold, so errors were expected. Still, with the discoloration, I am pleased with the cast and how the mold captured every crease.

Here are the three casts that I created during the same week. The two on the right include another plastic cast; this time in green, and a foam cast that is a result of an error in judgement in the amount of material I needed. The foam increases 6 times the size of the material you place in your mold. I underestimated and came up with half a brain. The green plastic cast and foam also demonstrate how the different mediums take the color. Both were cast with the same green dye, but the foam takes the color differently creating a lighter tone. One of the most interesting views of the plastic pieces are from the bottom with the light shining through. You can really see all of the creases and it creates an interesting pattern. I'll add a photo later if they come out well.

This cast is in foam with red dye. This time I did not underestimate the amount of material needed. Actually, there was foam pouring out of the top of the mold. The foam is much like that found in a stress ball, but a bit more tacky. 

Here is the link for the plastic product used: Smooth Cast 325 Series

Link for foam: Castable Foam

Brains!

This is another project for my surface design class. The end product will be a mold in which several materials will be cast. Today I actually started casting in plastic and will post those pieces soon. These pictures are of the clay form on which the mold will be created. They are in the earlier stages of being created. The end result is slightly different from these.

From these clay forms, I created a rubber mold using Rebound 25. A product of Smooth-On INC. The product was relatively easy to use, as are most Smooth-On products. The process simply involved mixing a two part solution and then brushing it onto the form. The only down side to the process was the wait time. It was, at minimum, a 30 minute wait between applications. The mold needed four layers, resulting in about a three hour process that was 90% waiting.

Like I said, I just started casting today, and will post the end pieces soon! For those who are interested, here is the link for the mold material from Smooth-On. Rebound 25 from Smooth-On INC