Metal/Lawn Art/Hanging Art – PICO-Ballooning

I got into metalworking 20 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, an inspiration from one of my favorite books (I guess you can figure-out which book)…

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 are 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.

Below are two pair of Halloweens 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.

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).

I grew up at the beginning of the space age. Much of my life has been nothing more than an obsession with anything/everything in the sky (astronomy, meteorology, aviation, space flight and so on). 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.

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 13 years.

Here is a brief video of the wind vanes “in action”. The background is the frozen pond behind our house.

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.

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.

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. Has been outside continuously for over 18 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 12 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…

Two new additions 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.

So how is this casting done?

Metal casting is almost as old as astronomy and prostitution, though to have started around 3000 BCE. The process really hasn’t changed much.

One of these days I’ll photograph the entire procedure. But at the moment here is a brief description.

The sand, which is called “green sand”, is poured over the pattern (which in the photo below is a black horseshoe) and packed down firmly. This part of the wooden frame is called the “Cope”
The whole arrangement is flipped upside-down and the other half of the wooden frame, called the “Drag”, is filled with sand and a few big holes are made which will allow the molten aluminum to flow thru the mold.
The cope and drag are then separated, the pattern removed, and the cope and drag are put together again. Alignment at this stage is critical.
The aluminum is melted in a furnace (aluminum melts at about 1200 degrees F). When it’s liquified, i’ts poured into the mold and allowed to cool (solidify) for an hour or so. Then the cope and drag are separated and the piece is pulled out, the excess aluminum is cut off, and finishing touches are applied to the piece.

The cope and drag, with the pattern removed (black horseshoe in the middle of the pic). The cope is set on top of the drag and clamped down and molten aluminum is poured into one of the large holes in the cope, flows thru the mold, and flows out the other hole. The hydrostatic pressure of the two holes filled with molten aluminum help press the aluminum into the mold so it will fill completly.

An aluminum flat moon still sitting in the sand. After cooling, the excess aluminum will be cut off (and reused for another piece). The sand is also reusable.

A horseshoe still in the sand. The scorch marks on the wood are where a bit of aluminum has flowed out and contacted the wood.

Anyway…

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…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 Horus on the top-center. The wheel is made of sheet copper gifted by some friends (as is the top) when they had the copper . It doesn’t take much to make copper look “weathered”, just let it sit outside in the humidity and rain until it has patinaed to your liking. 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 me by a friend.

The devotee simply gives the prayer wheel a spin while sending thoughts to the intended destination.

You can watch the video to see how it moves.

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, 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.

Inspiration 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.

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.

Back when I was in the Army, one way of making coffee “in the field”was to drain a bit of diesel fuel out of atrucks, pour it into a small container that had a bit of sand in it, and light it to make a small fire. We could then place a pot of water over this fire to heat water for coffee (another way to heat water was to place a metal container of water on the exhaust manifold of an idling 2-1/2 or 5 ton truck. This would bring the water to a boil fairly quickly, but the noise of an idling truck plus the smell of burning diesel fuel wasn’t conducive to concealment or sensory pleasure).

Anyway, I always liked looking into that little flame. So my time in the Army came and went, and having once become a civilian, I didn’t think about those memories all that much.

After a too-long absence, I returned to my yoga practice. One leader of our practice would bring in candles which she would set in front of her. I use to look at those candles a lot. I recalled the peace I would find when gazing into our little hot water heater back in the day, and found that the attraction of fire as a meditative/focusing power was still there. Thus was born the firepot…

The Meditation Pot. This video is about 3 1/2 minutes long and does have audio.

For those inclined to mechanics, it is, from outside to inside, a cylinder 3D printed from ABS plastic. Next is a very small airgap, then a layer of refractory material molded around a small food can. Then another air gap and finally a smaller food can that serves as the fire chamber.

This piece is a “one-off”, I’m not likely to ever make another one. It now resides with someone who probably has no idea how much good she does.

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf.” Thank you Elsa.

AKANATEN AND NEFERTITI

Nefertiti was the more well-known of the couple, at least in the modern world. She was the wife of Akanaten, the Pharoah of Egypt around 1300 BCE. Known chiefly for abandoning polytheism and adapting monotheism, he believed in only one god, Ra, the sun disk. After his death Nefertiti ruled Egypt for a short time. After she passed, their son Tuthankhamen (known chiefly because his burial chamber eluded discovery by grave robbers until the early 1920’s) restored polytheism and made an effort to erase any memory of his father and mother.

The figures were 3D printed with PLA and painted by hand. I took some artistic liberties with the colors as the historical records in that regard and incomplete.

The figures are in a five-inch deep box lined with felt and a glass window.

Three years in the making (just because I kept putting it aside) its on of my few works that contains no metal.

The below was inspired by a personal need. I was feeling down and was looking for some hope that things would get better. This work is one that I made for my own well being…art therapy of a sort. But while working on it, I became aware of someone that was facing one of the most difficult times one can imagine. So it has moved on to a new home. Haley, rest in peace. Mark…the song has ended but may the melody carry on.

Once again, cast aluminum. The plaque I had made for $15. The plaque and screws are brass and have been coated with a lacquer that blocks UV light and will protect against precipitation.

Plaque reads “Haley has taken to the wing, and is followed by the love, in our hearts. Her parents have it now.

2025 INDIANA STATE FAIR

I put two pieces in the Recycled Arts category at the Indiana State fair this year.

“Howling at the Moon” got a Third Place…

The photo isn’t that great since the piece was behind glass. With the exception of the wolf (lower right corner) everything was made of recycled material.

“Tanagers” came away with an Honorable Mention…

For some reason that is hard for me to imagine, whoever set up the display decided to leave the list of materials (required for recycled arts entries) covering half of the piece. Can you say “annoying?”

WHAT’S NEXT?

I’m just waiting to be inspired 🙂

Back to home.