Found Dreaming

I digressed from casting bronze (for a while) to welding steel wire. It has been a welcome respite. Here is my latest:



bare wire



gold paint-----boring



it's starting to get more interesting







As usual, it began as a simple three week project and turned into six months. That's the story of all of my work.

Richard

WOW, that looks bloody great Richard
. Is it mild steel wire

I use galvanized steel wire, which is hardened. I dip it in muriatic acid to remove the galvanizing.

That does look great. Is this a commissioned piece? I used to play sax many years ago.

When I sold my last welded wire piece at our annual art exhibition...



...a man there told me he wanted a saxophone. I didn't pursue it. On principle I don't do commissioned work. An architect friend once said to me, "Richard, I design beautiful houses. But almost invariably I design a house for a man that I consider aesthetically perfect, and then the wife gets involved. She wants this change and that change until my beautiful creation has turned into such a hodgepodge compromise that I no longer want my name on the plans."

But still, I began thinking about saxophones. They have a certain aesthetic appeal; they're so complicated. So here I am, a year later, with a saxophone. The man from the exhibition may hear about it and buy it---but if not, someone will.

It was cold here last night. That Arctic blast came down across the Great Plains and down into the Valley of Mexico, over the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains and nailed us. It was 56 Fahrenheit here last night (13 Centigrade), the coldest it's been in quite a few years. We recovered though. It was 85 by 11 am. (30 Centigrade).

Richard

We had 13 too, 13 F with 6 1/2 inches of snow. We don't need to go out so we're just staying in and watching movies. It will melt someday.

Looks good!

-8 F right now. We got around 9 inches Monday... Rain in the forecast for Saturday/Sunday..

That is awesome Richard. I cant imagine the patience involved in bringing that together.

As a kid an old guy told me about the ship welders working on galvanized in closed conditions. They always had huge dispensers of ice cold milk so when they came out they could drink plenty to counteract the poisoning. Have no idea of how well that really works and of course best to avoid it in the first place.

I have some huge rolls of wire, I initially thought they were copper because of the coating on them but its a very stiff steel. I was told they used it on the supersize hay baling machines. It is several strands all wound together and if you dont unwind it properly a real PITA to get them untangled. it sure hods a bend though but also tough to make straight or bend the way you want it, once its there though it stays and the coating keeps it from rusting.