I got into metalworking 15 or so years ago. I became disenchanted with the so-called lawn art that garden centers and hardware stores sell. My experience with these mass-produced products is that they have a very short lifespan out-of-doors. So I decided to do something about it.
I classify my lawn/metal art into two categories, pieces that are made with recycled aluminum, and everything else.
Works that are made with recycled aluminum I make by melting scrap aluminum in a small propane-fired furnace. The molten metal is then poured into a particular shape, this process is called sand-casting. There are many types of casting methods, investment casting, lost wax casting, die casting, gravity casting and so on. For a guy who is casting metal at home, sand casting is my method of choice.
Works that are not made of cast aluminum call for a variety of assembly techniques, welding, plasma cutting, specialized epoxies, fasteners (think nuts and bolts). To the extent that I can I use metal pieces that would otherwise be destined for the landfill.
My works are all-weather. They are highly resistant to rain, snow, ice, ultraviolet radiation from the sun, heat and cold.
At times I’ve sold pieces, and have made custom works for a fee but I wouldn’t call this avocation a “business”.
Below are images of some of the works I’ve made. After that will follow a “how I do it” description of the processes.
The Works
FIRST, a seasonal favorite…
Title of the Work: “It’s Hard to keep a Good Man Down AKA Dracula”
This piece is made of welded steel (the coffin and the nosferatu). The name plaque is aluminum etched in acid to bring out the letters. The bottom of the coffin is spray-painted gray, the lid is polished steel with a protective coating. Dracula himself is sheet steel and hand painted. I don’t know that Bela Lugosi would approve of this rendering, but given my lack of art painting skills I’d hope he would forgive me.
Some years ago I attended an exhibition at what was then called the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The exhibition was about the works of J.J. Audobon. One piece that caught my eye was that of a scarlet tanager, which became the inspiration for the following piece.
Title of the work: “Sunbird”. Both the Sun and the Bird I casted from scrap aluminum. The leading edges of the bird wings are copper strips, her colors were hand painted. The gold in the Sun isn’t paint, I adonized it after masking off the face of the disk.
Back to another pair of seasonal favorites…
Cats and Bats! Plate steel cut with a plasma cutter, then welded to steel legs. We normally have a fall croquet party, so these were mounted to be croquet wickets.
Ankh.
The ancient Egyptian hieroglyph symbolizing life. The Ankh is cast aluminum, the support pole is a cut-down shepards hook. This piece has been outside for over seven years.This Ankh was gifted to a friend who had lost a dear pet. The pet was named “Alice Cooper” (not named after THE Alice Cooper). The plaque holder is a steel hook welded to a cut-down Shepard’s hook. I had the plaque commercially made as I don’t know how to engrave.
The image below is NOT an original work of mine.
In the above papyrus rendering is Ra, the Sun God, passing down a few Ankhs to Akhanaten and his wife, Nefertiti. One of their daughters holds a modified Ankh.
Back to birds…
Another cast aluminum Tanager. This bird is mounted on steel cored fishing line, so it will twist and turn with the wind. I’ve added a pot holder to the pole. This pole is rebar (aka concrete reinforcing bar). Its been outside for about six years.
I grew up at the beginning of the space age. Much of my life has been nothing more than an obsession with anything in the sky. Here is some proof.
Title: “Racket zum Mond” (German for “Rocket to the Moon”). In this work I pay tribute to many… the German effort to get into space (the rocket isn’t a V2, it’s an A4). In the upper right is Sputnik, the first man-made object to orbit the Earth. The white stripe with the black band across it represents America’s Jupiter-C rocket, which put our first satellite into earth orbit. The USA and 11 of course serve tribute to Apollo 11. The rocket and moon are cast aluminum, Sputnik is a copper ball, the frame is rebar. Sputnik and the Moon are held up by black-coated metallic fishing line and can move with the wind.
Below is an all-weather variant intended for outdoor display.
The backdrop is 1/4-inch thick plate aluminum. Rocket and moon are cast aluminum. The moon is a copper ball. Been outside for three or so years.
An indoor-only version.
Rocket is cast aluminum, star is sheet aluminum, backing is painted plywood.
Speaking of the wind…
Dual wind-vanes. I’ve made several of these. One is on permanent display at the Kavanaugh Fine Art gallery in St. Charles, Illinois. Another was gifted to some friends, and the one immediately above resides in our backyard. Copper, glass, rebar and aluminum. Its endured our Indiana weather for about eight years.
One of my fitness activities is yoga. One of the works that was displayed along with my wind vanes was an artistic rendering of the yoga asana “Peaceful Warrior”.
“Three thousand stadia from the earth to the moon…. Marvel not, my comrade, if I appear talking to you on super-terrestrial and aerial topics. The long and the short of the matter is that I am running over the order of a Journey I have lately made.”—LUCIAN’S Icaromenippus
Whoever, or whatever, first gazed up from Earth at the sky it is, I think, a safe bet that the Moon drew attention fairly quickly. This is a simple waxing crescent moon. Cast aluminum with a sheet copper edge. Here we have the Sun and Moon free to swing with the wind. Both Sun and Moon are cast aluminum. The Moon is edged with copper, and the disk of the Sun is also copper. Another aspect of the Sun – Moon.A diorama of a waning crescent Moon about to set behind the mountains. A fox, content with his place in nature, enjoys the serenity of the moment. Fox and Moon are cast aluminum, as are the feet of the diorama. The mountains are thick sheet aluminum cut to shape with a plasma cutter.
Another habitant of the heavens…
Title: “AlCu”. The symbols on the Periodic Table of the Elements for Aluminum and Copper. Simply a cast aluminum star with a sheet copper border. Its been out in the weather for about nine years.
These two have taken up residence in our front yard and seem to be quite happy there…
The hummingbirds and cast aluminum. The frame is rebar. Black fishing line and a spring support them and they turn with the wind as they please. So far weather resistant for 10 years.
Another memorial.
Someone who lost a friend…a friend who was and gentlemen and a bit of a cowboy…asked for something to place on his gravesite. The boots are cast aluminum, the supporting rod and plaque holder steel tube. Out of respect and privacy for the requestor the memorial plaque is hidden in this photo.
Getting back home again…
Title of the work “The Hoosier”. I’m one of those. Cast aluminum with two half-spheres of glass in the center. Rotates with the wind and, when the Sun angle is right, it becomes a “sun catcher”, sunlight not only reflecting off the surface but being guided by the glass spheres. Continuously outside for about seven years.
Back in the day when one could actually see stars from central Indiana, I would take measurements of variable stars for the AAVSO. One of the stars I would use for aligning my telescope was Gamma Corvi, the brightest star in the constellation of Corvus the Crow. Gamma Corvi was named “Gienah”,which, in Arabic, means “the right wing of the raven” (even though on modern star charts it’s shown as the left wing) a name given to it in antiquity. I always liked that name, so below I present her in a somewhat unexpected way.
“Gienah”. She’s a groundhog. In this rendering, a stainless-steel ground hog. She can withstand any kind of weather. The basic shape was made by cutting the figure out of a plate of stainless steel with a plasma cutter. The relief work was done with a Dremel Tool and painted with acrylic paint. The final touch was an eye 3D printed out of PLA (polylactic acid). filament and detailed with black acrylic paint.
Gienah is very proud of herself…and her mirror image sister…
A new addition to the family has appeared.
During the SARS COVID outbreak, we all had to stay home a lot, and it was not exactly a happy time. I thought it might put a smile on a few faces by sending them an unexpected gift in the mail.
It’s not what you think. This is not a symbol of any professional athletic team. It’s a “lucky horseshoe”. The top photo isn’t all that great, but you’ll get the idea that the Sun shining thru the glass produces a nice effect. The horseshoe is cast aluminum, the blue spheres are marbles. The mounting stand is 3D printed. I think I sent out about 12 or so of these to friends. The hole drilling (not too big or the marble would fall thru, not too small or the effect would be lost) was somewhat tedious, but during COVID we all had time on our hands.
In parts of Asia, the devout did, a long time ago, develop the Prayer Wheel.
For those who wish to pray or show their devotion to whatever higher being they honor, but don’t want to “hit their knees” at every turn or just don’t have the flexibility to do so, the necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention is this…the prayer wheel. Prayer Wheels are quite common in south Asia and have been around for a very long time.
For this prayer wheel, I’ve include the Eye or Horse on the top-center. The wheel is made of sheet copper gifted by some friends (as is the top). It doesn’t take much to make copper look “weathered”, just let it sit outside in the humidity and rain. The Eye of Horus is a piece of copper treated with alcohol ink. The base is the balance of a disassembled brass bell, also gifted to my by a friend.
The devotee simply gives the prayer wheel a spin while sending thoughts to the intended destination.
My initial thought was to perforate the copper cylinder with swastikas, but events of the last 100 years or so have made the Hakenkreuz a rather unpopular symbol. Given that the swastika, derived from the Sanskrit language meaning “conductive to well being”, is to this day a prominent symbol in Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, its demonic reputation in the western world is regrettable but persistent.
Made of copper and stainless steel, I originally intended this to be a one-off. But someone saw it and liked it, so I made two more for them to enjoy. I often try to make objects look old, sometime ancient, which is the case here. The copper was patinaed by letting it sit outside for a few weeks. This one was a bit tricky. I had to make a controlled break in the wine bottle to get the right look. This took more than a few tries, but none of the wine went to waste. The base is cast aluminum, and copper makes up the rest. While the edges of the glass may look sharp, they have been sanded-down to remove any threat of cuts. This holder will support a real candle or an LED candle as is shown here.If you don’t know what this is, you are far too young! Made of recycled rebar, the challenge here was to bend the rebar into a circle. Once that was done, a few welds, primer and spray paint completed the piece.“Bay of Rainbows”. The name is a knock-off of the the impact crater named Sinus Iridium on the Moon with the same name. When viewed thru a quality telescope over successive nights the changing light conditions make it a favorite target for lunar observers.
The work is 48 inches long and 24 inches tall. The sun and moon are cast aluminum. The mountains are cut from sheet aluminum, as is the surface of the sea. The background colors were applied to a primed piece of plywood with an airbrush. The moon is set off the background about an inch, and the mountain range is layered, giving the piece a 3D effect.“Sunbirds” Twenty-four inches wide and 48 inches tall. The sun and birds are cast aluminum. The sky was airbrushed, cloud layer hand-painted. This work also has a 3D effect as the sin and birds are set about 1″ off the background. The stars at the top are fragments of beryllium which were attached to the canvas with epoxy. Tedious work, but in the end quite worth the effort.
Inpiration can sometimes come from having to fill a need. We have a few lines of evergreens in the backyard, and one of them died. Eventually it’ll get replaced, but in the short term it was time for a little lawn art to fill the gap.
Red Sun
This was pretty simple and quick to make. The photo doesn’t show it well, but it has a bit of a 3D look to it. I cut the silhouette of the sun out of a piece of sheet aluminum with a plasma cutter, then painted it. The representation of a red-hot sun is another sheet of aluminum painted red. Putting the sheets together and mounting them on an aluminum pole finished the work.
I have more photos to add, and as time permits I’ll update this page with more photos and maybe a new creative idea or two.
