Friday, July 22, 2011

Sculpture Week • 2010

Building up to 2011 Sculpture Week.  Those pictures will follow soon but I wasn't blogging during previous years and for me Sculpture Week is the ideal creative DIY - or better yet DIWF (Do it with Family) - experience.  I posted about our first sculpture week previously here. It was such a success that our younger daughter, Karen decided to take her vacation during sculpture week 2010 and come home and participate in the creation experience.

In 2010 we worked on an idea from David.  He had been designing for weeks on the computer. We knew we again wanted to use PVC pipe but this time we had decided on a sculpture using replication of a single unit - 1 piece repeated over and over but assembled in a way to make an exciting form.  The orginal idea was a towering apex like this...



And it was with that idea in mind that we started cutting, finishing and bolting together hundreds of short sections of PVC piping.




And then we combined sections together into ribbons and soon learned that the construction technique resulted in forms far too flexible to build what we were planning. But ohhh what neat forms it did make......



And what fun we had playing with these new forms and their possibilities. The ribbon was so dynamic that we ended up taking quick videos as we experimented with possibilities.



The sculpture was partially disassembled into lengths we could lift, loaded into the truck and brought close to the site we had selected for installation.  We chose the front hill that faces the road just so the neighbors could also enjoy this sculpture. I wonder what they have had to say about it........?


Sections were reassembled in the middle of a grassy glade.



And we started playing with the possibilities of the ribbon and the site. Here is loop-lump-loop......



Or how about two loops, a big lump and a swirl up the tree?




Each presentation had to be viewed from all angles because the appearance changes drastically from various views.




Every couple of weeks we changed the sculpture. Until we reached the triple loop. It has stayed that way throughout the winter and into 2011.




We title this sculpture "Flexibility" both because in its final version we can change it, and because we were flexible during the construction of it. 

Our DIY sculpture garden is growing. 



Previous Posts of Interest:



©2011 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy



3 comments:

  1. So cool! I am a bit slow when it comes to construction, so sorry if this question sounds lame. To get the tubes together, did you drill holes first and then hold the nut on the inside while you hand-turned the bolt? How big was the hardware you used? Love what you did!

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    1. If it was me I would drill the holes in each end of the PVC pipe, 1/2" to 1" from each end, Then I would probably use 10 - 32 ( or 10-24) screws, about 1/2 inch long. Then after putting two of the sections of pipe side by side, lining up the holes, I would then insert the screw in the holes of each tube, put a star washer or a split (lock) washer over the threaded end of the screw, then run the nut by hand over the threaded end of the screw until hand tight, while holding the screw head by hand or with either a stubby Philips screw driver of a right angle Philips screw driver (This mandates using Philips head screws). Then I would use a quarter inch drive ratchet handle with a socket to fit the nut and tighten it with the ratchet while holding the screw head with the right angle Philips or Stubby Screw driver. Quite lengthy answer, but I'm kind of a detail sort of guy.
      Best regards,
      Peohguy

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  2. Love this!

    PVC is wonderful stuff. We're planning to make DIY tomato cages/ladders out of it this summer.

    Thanks for posting this!

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