innermetal

Piling up

Getting ready for Miami

Church gates for Upleward

Here are the completed church gates for the people of Saxony ...the waves at the base are a testament to the fortitude of a community that has battled both with the sea and those that landed from it .... the wild rose shows that no matter how much we tame our surroundings ...nature has her way ...

A small gate for the wind garden

Taking the same elements and letting them play in the vertical ...

wind gate

wind is the theme at the coastal castle in Ireland ...this gate will sit in a line of hedges 

tree in the wind

After a couple of days struggle with the roots  the windswept tree is in it's element ...soon to ship to a home by the sea ...

tree outside and alive

3000 leaves

The forge has been crowded out with branches and leaves since December .... yesterday was the first with no snow on the ground outside the doors so I took the opportunity to spread everything out .... I can't wait to get all the elements polished and coloured .... I have kept the sections smaller so that I can colour them in the oven ..it will take too long with torches. My assistant Ramsay did 90% of the forging so this will make a nice addition to his cv ..... yes,everything is hammered from round bar ...10mm to 30mm ...I deliberately chose a cross texture to emphasise the sweep ..a lot of this will move in the wind

windswept tree

This is what we have been working on through the winter ... a tree for outside the castle walls on the edge of the sea ..... It looks a lot flatter than it will be cos I still have to polish and colour before putting it together in 3d ....

stairs with handrail

finally a picture with the stairs in Ireland with the handrail bars in place

two joys in one

I'm still working a lot in Ireland and Germany .... but for light relief here is a sculpture I am making for the hill where I teach skiing every winter

Castle gates, Ireland

For those of you who enjoy seeing a work in progress, here is a link to some pictures of the last 6 months of gate making ....

new flowers

Thanks to some great new tools in Rhino I have a virtual forge wherever I go ......... here are some new flowers for the gates in Ireland.

 

a little closer to finishing the stairs

Almost ready for the marble ....... take a peek

stairway to heaven

The orchids and leaves have evolved into a stairway in Ireland .... progress shots can be seen at :  Photos

Look out Liverpool .... I'm on my way and ready to knot with whoever you've got

I keep forgetting to publish the great shots of people helping me with knots at the Blackie, Liverpool ..... I will try to organise something soon.

exploring orchids

Well ..... I said I would take a few months off to explore the inner workings of my heart....within two days I had a call from Ireland, and before I know it I'm designing gates and a great sweeping stairway which is growing from my passion for orchids and leaves ... I have designed the stringers to have a basket weave similar to the wattle fence in Germany and this will allow for a natural growth of the ballustrading .... Ahh ... there's nothing like a life of doing what you love and even getting payed for it .....

 

I found a superb link to orchids that I know you will all find inspirational ... such great shapes to abstract from ...

here is the link; http://www.edit.ne.jp/~fkoichi/index.html

 

enjoy

I will keep a record of the orchid explorations at : http://web.mac.com/metalgarden/iWeb/New%20Site/Library.html

Epiphany

A model for a town centre piece  .......waiting for godo  .... and the burning  bush is there all the time ...

Spring 2006

The village of Upleward in Germany is completed.... although I think I am now to make gates for the church ....

Take a look here for a few initial images .... more to follow

finishing germany

On the last stages of the village in germany ... last container should be loaded on January 5th !!

here are some images of the garage gates in progress..