Teacher of the Year display finished

The last couple of weeks have been steady in the shop here at Fossil Forge. I have been completing a interesting display piece for the Lee's Summit School District. The sculpture is part of a new display showcasing the current and former teachers of the year. The frame is made from steel tube. I used large hollow steel balls to finish the corners. The letters and school district logo (a stylized graduate raising an arm, see it?) were cut from a CNC plasma system at the high school. The piece was powdercoated a glossy black. The graphic elements hanging from the sculpture are encased in acylic and attached to the grid background. This will make for easy updating of the graphics each year. Finally, I made a custom metal bracket to hold a video monitor that will highlight the teachers. Thanks to everyone who helped this project along, including the building maintenance guys who lent a hand installing it.

Here’s another image and some information from a school district newsletter.

Leggy garden spider

A big Chevrolet 350 flywheel forms the body of this big metal spider. Wouldn't this sculpture look great standing in the middle of low-growing plants and grasses? Yellow glass eyes reflect its surroundings.

Who you lookin' at?

New Bottle Monster

As some of you know, I love the use of bottles and glass in many of my sculptures. This photo shows the top portion of the most recent 'Bottle Monster'. This piece hold eight colorful bottles that look stunning year-round. Especially in the gray garden days of winter. The monster is made from pieces of an old birdbath, wrenches and other orphaned machine parts.

CRASH!

A friend and I were photographing some of my recent sculptures. A couple of the larger pieces were set-up in the driveway. Well, while shooting pictures of the newest 'Bottle Monster', a huge gust of wind kicked up. I was standing up on a ladder holding a backdrop, so I could only watch as the sculpture and its eight gorgeous bottles tipped over, banged into the car and smashed to the ground. It was a pretty cool wreck, all the bottles were casualties. But the sculpture stayed strong (I was secretly proud the welds held). More bottles and were back in business.