Discovery Playground at Mirabeau Park

We had the pleasure of working with Ginno Construction and Design Concepts community and landscape architects on several sculptures for their latest destination playground in Spokane Valley, Washington. In addition to our giant pumpkin (see previous post), we designed a 6 foot tall cypress Adirondack chair, 3 varieties of our 4 foot tall steel flowers, a steel northern chorus frog, and a 4 foot tall dragonfly and cattail combination. These pieces were placed in the Secret Garden, an area surrounded by tall shrubs and accessed by a small archway in the greenery. The park also features a fossil dig, music area, water play, sensory garden, and is accessible to children of all abilities. We feel honored to be among the other artists and designers who make such a magical place a reality.

The Great Pumpkin- a new installation

Our newest sculpture is one of great size and just in time for the fall season. We were commisioned to make a series of sculptures for a fabulously fun new park in Spokane Valley, Washington (more on this in my next post!). The 7ft tall aluminum pumpkin comes already "carved" with a hollow interior playspace. Solidly constructed and handpainted with durable UV protective paint, this piece is ready for visitors!

New custom stairs for the true Duke Fan

In August we created a custom set of stairs with a central backbone for the treads to rest. The customer wanted stairs that were architectural in design but industrial in function. Casey came up with the "floating stringers" that are supported by only two 4"x4" steel columns. The visual effect makes these sturdy stairs seem to defy gravity. The effect will be emphasized when the sheet rock is placed over the metal studs in the background. The customer also wanted a way to load furniture onto the upper landing without having to go over the railing. We created a removable section of the railing that swings up and out of the way by simply removing a few bolts. This makes for a wide loading dock on the second floor. For the finishing touch, the color of the stairs exactly match that of the client's favorite team- Duke Blue.

UNC Hospital Skybridge- Roof top garden

This last week we installed the first phase of the UNC Hospital Skybridge Roof Top Garden in Chapel Hill, NC. This is located at the back of the hospital, outside the skybridge that connects Women's and Neuroscience hospitals. As the year progresses, we will add many flowers, ants, hummingbirds, mushrooms, and other critters -over 35 pieces in all! This scene is designed to camoflauge the air conditioning units that are prominant on the black rubber roof, and provide an uplifting view for patients, visitors, and staff.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

Frogs are Done!!

We finally finished the Poison Dart Frog Sculpture for our very patient customer in Utah and it looks great! We have two other frogs made as well- one for our next installation at UNC Children's Hospital 2nd Floor Roof Sculpture Garden and one to climb up the outside of our shop! Above are pictures of the first frog pre and post paint. Enjoy!

Children's Medical Center, Dallas TX

We had the pleasure of working with the fine folks in Dallas to create a hanging installation in the new children's wing of their hospital. The piece includes 165 swallowtails, monarchs, and dragonflies suspended at varying heights from a stainless steel structure mounted between two large columns. The ceiling of this room is incredible! The whole surface is lit up with LED lights to create a night sky-complete with shooting stars. The installation itself was a new concept for us as it is our first hanging scupture. Check out the results above- we hope to have professional pictures once the hospital wing is complete.