concrete colour samples

deb and i have been installing the concrete drawings we did. i have some photos of the process but i cant show them yet. i will eventually. 

but as you can see from the photo above we are not done yet. the small holes are from the lifters that we used to lift and crane the large sections of the concrete drawing into place. now we have the tricky task of patching these holes and matching the colour.

since we are new to this process we have decided to do a series of colour tests. each bucket has a different mix of concrete path mix, and oxide. they all look grey until you add the water.

once you mix in the water the oxide takes over and colours the concrete mix. we have done various mixes for each of the 4 colours we are trying to match. above are the calipso green samples

 

these are the white colour samples

  

and the black colour samples

it was very satisfying seeing them all lined up and measuring out the oxides to exacting quantities. we need to let the samples dry for about 10 days and then we will take them to the install site and see which one is our best choice. then we can begin the final patching process.

orthodox christmas

my grandparents are Ukrainian and my other grandparents are polish. i have many memorable food traditions as a result of this heritage. one big one is the Ukrainian orthodox christmas feast. this christmas is held on january 7th, and on the 6th, christmas eve the family gets together and enjoys a 12 course vegetarian feast to celebrate. 

as borris' parents were away over christmas we got together the following week and had a mini version of the Ukrainian christmas feast. the first traditional course is kuitcha, or a boiled wheat grain, poppy seed cold soup. as a kid i did not like this, but as an adult i think it is really nice. i got this recipe from my aunt last time i was home.

here are borris' parents enjoying borscht.

otto came along too but was happy to just lie on the cold tiled floor.

here is the second course, vegetarian borscht. it was really yummy, ans actually so easy to make. 

and then all the rest of the food came out.

we had potato and cheese perogies (like dumplings) and fried sauerkraut, and some pan fried polish sausage. 

in a traditional orthodox christmas feast there would be no meat course, but a fish course. but this was much simpler for me as i made all the food for this feast by myself the day before.

it was a great success. and everyone enjoyed the food. it was nice to have a bit of my Ukrainian tradition here in Australia. i look forward to doing it again next year.

Happy Orthodox Christmas on Wednesday!

plan b

the large cylinders that i have been working on for a while now, have not worked. this happens from time to time in my practice. it just has not worked. they were blown in the studio with the team, then cut in the cold shop without breaking them. here and then put in the kiln and slumped into large sheets of glass. all fine. then i made some stencils of an image to be sandblast into the panels. not fine. they just did not work out like i wanted. there are a few issues, the image i used was too detailed, i was pushing the limits, and that might have been ok, if the black layer of glass on the cylinders was a bit thinner, and the stencil overlap area caused me problems with the stencil blowing out.

it is disappointing, all that time and energy to make these panels, and at the last step it falls apart. but i have enjoyed the process, i have definitely learned a few things along the way. i could not use the panels for the original project, but i have not totally given up. i might be able to find a way to make them salvageable, we will see when i have had some time away from them, so i can return with fresh eyes. its hard to see in the photo, but it just didnt work as planned.

so onto plan B. i decided to make plan B simpler, as i had little time and resources left to make the piece. i decided to use flat black glass that is sandblast and fire polished, with a bolder image.

i got the materials, made the stencils and sandblast glass.

here is me in my respirator ready to spend time at the sandblaster.

here they are ready to go in the kiln.

and then plan B failed.

it is hard to see in this photo but the kiln somehow ran the wrong program so instead of going to 645 degree for ten minutes it went to 650 degrees for 6 hours! a big difference. basically at that temperature for so long the sandblasting almost got melted or polished out of the glass. although not enough for me to reuse the sheet of glass.

so onto plan C. to redo plan B. 

all of this has taken a couple weeks, but i finally delivered the glass to my friend andrew who i am doing the collaboration with. he has made a beautiful piece of furniture that my glass panels are showcased in.

here the panels are in the test fit at his studio.

this piece will be in a group exhibition that opens in 2 weeks. i will post some photos from that show as it happens.

jobs on

since my exhibition opened last month things seem to be operating at a more enjoyable and manageable pace. lets hope that this pace can be enjoyed for a while.

in the studio i have been working on a collaborative piece with a local furniture maker andrew bartlett. i am making some glass panels that will be featured on a cabinet that andrew is making.

the panels are being made from the cylinders of glass that i previously blogged about. now that the bottom and side panel has been cut away i put the cylinder in the kiln and heated it up slowly so that gravity would pull the sides down.

at the right temperature and with the right timing this flattening happens naturally and easily.

this is the controller for the kiln reading out the temperature display in celcius. these cylinders went up to about 670 degrees to get them totally flat.

 

this is what they looked like the next day out of the kiln. 

 

i now have 2 large sheets of glass with a very thing top layer of black glass, backed by a slightly thicker layer of white glass on top of a very thick (about 1cm) layer of clear glass. ready for me to cut and grind the sides to an even and smooth finish. then they will be ready for me to sandblast an image into them. 

the exhibition this is going to be in opens in late november so i have some time to get this finished off.

the other part of my practice that has been keeping me busy is the public artworks.

 

the other weekend deb and i spent a long day sunday cutting an image into some pavers that will be used in a footpath in port adelaide.

this is the artwork deb and i came up with that we wanted to use for the paving.

i took the paver from the pallet and copied the section of the artwork to the paver

this then went to deb who was geared up to use an angle grinder fitted with a diamond blade to follow the lines and cut in the pattern

it was a beautiful day out, and nice to spend it outside in the noise of the angle grinder

as each tile was completed we laid it out in the driveway of the studio

it was hard to photograph but overall the image worked out quite well. there will be a few adjustments to make, after the tiles get paved into site. hopefully this happens next month some time.

deb and i have also just begun the design development phase of another public artwork.

 

we haven;t done anything like this before, so it is interesting to see how we figure things out. the oval and buckets is the layout for the artwork that will be realised in bronze, terrazzo and cast glass

there are 3 installations in the overall artwork, this will be another layout, bucket on crate on terrazzo

 

and a third one with terrazzo area with bronze beam. 

 

the bean will have a bucket sitting on a platform at the top of it. right now we are just trying to figure out proportions, and aesthetics of the objects that will be cast in bronze.

this one is going to take a while to complete.

mirror public artwork

Deb and I have been working on a rather large scale project for the last 6 months. this is a new science and maths building that one of the local universities are building. it is well underway and due to open next year.

deb and i were invited to look at the building and come up with some ideas for public artwork within the building. one of the main concepts of the building is connecting the various levels through these voids within the building. we decided to take this concept already built into the building and expand on it, or try and highlight it. 

our idea is simple, we want to use mirrors positioned in the building to create a site line through the building so that when you walk towards to the building you can see through the building and outside to the sky on the to floor.

 

we have been working with a scale model of the building  but just the other week deb and i got to go on site with some large 1200 x 2400 perspex mirrors and try and test out our idea.

we had 2 scissor lifts and 4 mirrors, and about 10 guys from the construction site lending a hand. 

 

we got to wear our custom CHEB safety gear

 

this is the scissor lift on the ground floor with a mirror positioned so that it looks up through the building to the other scissor lift and mirror on the other side (35 meters away)

this is the location of the first mirror, and it is hard to see but it is possible to see the guy in the scissor lift in the mirror in this photo, and in real i life i could see all the way to mirror 4.

 

this is the main entrance, that give you a sense of scale of the building.

the good news is that it worked, on our model and in the real building. there are still some issues to sort out, like the size of the image we are reflecting down, and what size of mirrors we can use in the building. We also need to consider the reflection of the mirrors and sunlight, we don't want to cause any dramas. 

the next step is finalising sizes and then starting on designing hanging brackets and engineering for the units.

the last few days

 deb and i have been busy the last few days. and deb's partner joe.

 

we spent some time attaching the galvanized stands to the base of the benches.

we think they look really good.

and they work!

they will get installed so about 70mm of the stand will be under the ground level.

then we organised and loaded our rental shipping container with the 38 curved walkway units that we are installing next week.

we had to load them in order into the container, so that the whole container can be delivered to site for install that starts monday morning. at first we were moving the units one at a time on a trolley but then we remembered we have a ute and so we could move then 5 at a time!

here is the first delivery in place.

more on the install after next week!