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After a break of several weeks, when I was occupied with other jobs, I've returned to the task of finishing and installing the bird feeder. The weight ended up being close to 110 kg, so I decided to assemble it in wooden carrying frame. It was a challenge to devise a frame that was light, yet...

I think some of you may be amused to learn that there is another Creative Spark out there! Creative Spark

I hope some of our members will find the work of Ans Debije inspiring. I like her colour use and the beauty she finds in ordinary, mundane household objects.

After an almost 2 month pause in the work on my concrete bird feeder, I have completed the half-realistic, half-abstract life size head element. Here is the head as designed in my 3D software: I just need to do a bit of finishing, but thought it would be a good time to show some photos after...

I came across this interesting video today and just had to share it.

As someone who dabbles in sculpture and who is passionate about architecture and design, found this video fascinating.

In the last update I showed my method of making moulds from foam board for the realistic elements. I used the mould for the right leg as an example to illustrate the technique. In today's update I will show how that mould was lined with concrete and how the element was demoulded. The mould...

I got a pleasant surprise when I happened to look at the underside of the mould for the right leg of my bird feeder sculpture. The pieces of foam board that make up the mould form a completely unplanned (but not random) design that reminded me of some of Ben Nicholson’s work. Here are some...

This post describes in detail how I make moulds for the realistic elements in my concrete sculptures. As an illustration of the process I will use my bird feeder's right leg, half of which is realistic, and half is an abstract flat slab that extends up and becomes a part of the torso. The...

I have been working on the bird feeder's most complex element, the right arm and hand. One of the design challenges was obtaining a smooth transition between the realistic Greek sculpture inspired arm and shoulder and the abstract slices of the hand. Another was making the mould for the arm...

It may come as a surprise (but then, maybe not) that I have always taken a keen interest in the world of fashion. Probably not surprisingly, my two big heroes are Issey Miyake and Rick Owens. Here is a video on Miyake, whose fragrance I've been using constantly for many years. I love him for...

I swear I have a mental problem. My concrete bird feeder sculpture is taking up much of my spare time and attention. However, and I can't understand why, the idea of doing some batiks again keeps popping up in my mind. It's probably been about 30 years since I dyed cloth, when I was using...

This update is about the making of one of the elements of the sculpture, the right side torso. It is one of the abstract elements, so just a simple flat slab of 20 mm thickness. Here I have shown it in pale gold: It has four 30 mm stainless steel connector washers embedded halfway in the...

Mainly about Josef Albers.

“Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se.” ― Charles Eames Given that concrete is not as forgiving of stresses as metal, the key to making a durable concrete garden sculpture is connecting the parts in a safe way that...

I steamed some red cabbage in a stainless steel saucepan. When I drained off the water, I saw that it was an intense dark purple-blue. I filtered the water through a coffee filter paper and tried adding some chemicals I had in the kitchen. I found that the cabbage pigment behaved like a pH...

Concrete isn’t good under tension, so the arms and legs will need some orthopaedic plates at critical points. I designed the plates in Rhino 3D, then exported the profiles as .DWG files. These files were fed into a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) milling machine to cut the plates from 3mm...

In Part 1 I showed the mobile table I made in preparation for the construction of the bird feeder sculpture. Today I will show the design steps and reveal what Windows software I used. The very first stage was the idea for the piece. Since I love birds so much, I wanted to express my adoration...

I have finished the design of my proposed concrete bird feeder and I am ready to start the physical work. Over the coming weeks (more likely months! ;)) I will be reporting on the work flow and progress. This first part is just an introduction to show the preliminary work I've done to prepare...

Since regaining my energy levels after recent therapy sessions, I've made this 300mm diameter split concrete sphere with stainless steel elements. The aim was to get my hands dirty again in preparation for a planned much larger concrete bird feeder sculpture. Although the concrete shell is...