Friday, February 20, 2009

Press

Every now and then, we are humbled to receive some press about the work that we do here in the shop. This week, we were approached by Todd Drake, a fellow UNCG alum, and he wrote a nice piece about our hospital projects on his blog: Make Art Like You Care. Thanks Todd!




Thursday, February 12, 2009

Reno over and out

We are crating up the concrete planter with the metal flowers and shipping it off to our client in Reno. We are pleased with the result and hope they are too!
The stainless steel tree arbor is coming along- we are now making the small branches that will carry the copper roof. Harrison has taken over the TIG welding from Mike and is stuck with the tedious task of making hundreds of limbs.




Mike is working on an "O" so big project out of aluminum.

Of course, Casey had to test it out...

We have the best jobs ever.


Monday, February 9, 2009

Flowers and trees

Over the past week, we have been steadily working on two major projects and many smaller jobs have come in and out, filling the spaces in between. I've been painting the steel flowers for our Reno, NV client and have only a few more details left until it all gets put together.






We made a few copper suns to have on hand with two 24" pieces already going to new homes.






The other big project- that is currently taking up most of our floor space- is the stainless steel tree arbor for Kiefer Landscaping in Durham, NC. Four metal trees will be holding up the roof and their bases will be on a stone wall. Last week the tree trunks and limbs were in fabrication stage and this week they are being welded into their basic formations.



In other news, ground broke today on our shop addition, which will give us more room to work and more space for equipment. Pictures to come!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Snow Day

Here are few shots of the shop and the last bit of a winter dusting.







The sculptures in the front yard are going to UNC Children's hospital for another roof top sculpture garden.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Today at the shop.

We have lots of projects taking shape in the shop this week. My new goal with this blog, is to show work in progress on a weekly basis and some of the tools we use to make it all come together.
These pieces are part of a sample sculpture for a hospital in Reno, Nevada. I'm hand painting these life size steel flowers and then placing them all in a huge concrete planter. The planter will be placed out side the building as a barrier to keep cars from driving in to pedestrian areas. If they like the final sculpture, we will be making several more (and I'll tell you where you can see them in person!).
Another project on the table is a pergola for Kiefer Landscaping in Durham, NC. Here, Mike is using our Miller TIG to put together some stainless steel tree branches. These will be the supports for the roof.
We always have copper wall hangings on order from our online store. The 24" copper sun seems to be the most popular size these days, where as last year it was always the 36". This sun is heading off to Dallas, TX and Darren is going to make sure it is perfect. He is polishing out the work marks with a Blue Point 90 degree pneumatic sander. Careful steps are taken after this point to not get any finger prints on the copper, which will cause it to tarnish.

Harrison is busy running the Calypso Water Jet for one of our industrial customers. This machine can cut almost anything we put under it with WATER! Not just metal either- stone, glass, rubber, and plastic as well. This customer needed over 100 precise parts cut from a woven stainless steel mesh material.

Check back to see how these project progress and new ones we add to the list!