Project 4 from KSmith. Category: Decorative Metal Art – Wall Sculpture

[KSmith]

I live in Washington apple orchard country. In the winter, I sometimes see apples still hanging on the trees, bare of leaves. I’ve even seen golden delicious apples, still yellow on the tree in winter. When I came across a couple out of round brass bushings, I snatched them up to use as winter apples in a wall sculpture.

I cut the brass bushings into 3/16” thick rings on my 4x6 bandsaw. I built a frame of 1” x 1/8” angle, 28x28” square. The frame would support a sheet metal background.

The tree was made from various thicknesses of steel rod, tig rod end leftovers, some 1/8” and 3/32” tig rod. I Mig welded everything together. I soldered the brass rings to steel wire stems which I Mig’d to the branches. I made a single copper leaf. The tree branches and trunk were drilled and tapped to be held into the frame by machine screws.

I tacked the sheet metal background piece into the frame from behind. After cleaning the tacks on the front, I began making the abstract landscape, using patinating chemicals.

The photos show where I am at so far. I patinated today, and so far am happy. The sky portion will be patinated futher with white, a winter sky, and other details will be added in the terra portion.

After the background is done, I will begin finish work on the tree, and the patination of it.



The last photo's color balance is a bit off, not quite so yellow overall. Stay tuned….I will be adding photos as the work goes forward.

ken

[SeanMurphy265]

That's cool! How do you get that textured look?

[KSmith]

That's cool! How do you get that textured look?

I'm using the Scuplt Nouveau patinas http://www.sculptnouveau.com/
Have used it on steel and copper. The rust was Japanese Brown, which also can be used on copper. Then some green stain sponged in. The sky is first the Tan, and I am adding white now. Finally you seal it with a clear finish, lacquer or acrylic. Who knows what it will finally end up as. I will post photos.

ken

[hokiefd]

Definitely cool. How do you make the copper leaves?

[KSmith]

Definitely cool. How do you make the copper leaves?

I saved some apple tree branches I cut this last winter, so I had a model for the leaves, and the branches for the project. I started with a flat piece of copper, I forget the ounce weight. But about .030 in thickness. I cut the leaf to an approximate shape, since there is quite a variety of shapes, which surprised me. Using some short pieces of different thicknesses of copper wire placed beneath in the branching pattern, I hammered the top of the copper piece to bend around the wires. I used a planishing hammer to distort the leaf in some double curvatures, but one could use a sandbag and a ballpein hammer too. The leaf edges were saw toothed shaped, so I used some pinking shears, alternating the pattern over the edges.

The leaf is not done, and will get some mottled brown patina. When I soldered the copper to the steel wire stem, the copper changed color in waves depending on the amount of heat it got.

Something that surprised me...I was mig'ing the branch together. I had some short pieces of copper wire laying there, while making small twig details, so I thought what the heck. The mig attached the copper wire to the branches. I guess that makes sense, melting the copper with the arc, while adding in the mig wire, melting it to the other steel part. I had just never thought of using mig to weld copper. I'll have to experiment with that some more.

I will make some details photos of the leaf and share them in a bit.

ken

[KSmith]

Detail shot of copper leaf

ken