Thanks Lars!

26 of June the project is finished. Thanks Lars for all the help, I couldn't have done it by myself this time.

Done!

 Everything in place.

The figure is painted with a polyurethane paint suited for industrial use. Inside it's treated with rust-proof for automobile use.

Building a space traveler.

After making templates from cardboard I started to cut out the pieces for Spaceboy, new name, from 1 mm sheet metal. We folded the parts as we would have working in paper. Then we started to weld the pieces together. First with a spot welder and when everything was in its right place, we used a Mig/Mag welder.

First tryout in full size.

Yellow star.

 Ready to mix concrete for the yellow star. Top is Yellow Ochre pigment. Left is fibreglass and right is white cement to get an as bright yellow as possible. At first we experimented with readymade white concrete but failed so we had to start over again twice.

Lars mixing concrete, trying to add the exact amount of water necessary to create a workable mixture.

 Yellow layer done, starting to build layer two.

Revisiting black star.

No new posts in a long time. So I better recapitulate some parts of the process. 

Lars helped me building the concrete layers in the finished mould. We started with a pigmented layer. After that we put the stainless steel reenforcement in place went on with a layer of concrete without pigment. The concrete in both layer is mixed with fibreglass as a reinforcement.

Here we are almost done. Good to be able to work indoors. It's cold outside.

First layer complete and reenforcement in place.

The first finished star out of three. It's always exciting to turn the mould upside down, hoping everything has cured as it should.

Framework.

I'm making a frame out of 12 mm beech plywood. It will make the mold sturdier and it won't flex when we start to pack the concrete.

Fixing the frame to the cured fiberglass mold using epoxy mixed with filler, then reinforcing on both sides with strips of fiberglass and epoxi resin.

Preparing the mold.

 After the mold had cured i used a jigsaw to saw of the excess fiberglass and resin.

 Feels like this actually might work.

 After some bending and prying i managed o lift the plug from the mold. The release agent worked well. Last time I made a mold like this that did not go so well.

This is the almost finished mould. To do now is some sanding and building a frame attached to the mold. The frame will make the mold more rigid which is necessary when working with concrete. The finished stars will be heavy, about, 75 kg and it will probably take some force to get the finished casts out of the mold so it must be strong.

Laminating.

 My friend Lars Gustavsson, designer and craftsman is helping me on this project. We started preparing for laminating taking measures for cutting out the fiberglass.

 The first layer is a 163g/m2 a material that follows the shape of the star very good.

We laminated a total of three layers. The second layer was 390 g/m2 and the third and last was a rowing, 580 g/m2. Now the mould will cure for seven days.

Preparing for laminating.

After a lot of sanding i covered the whole star with epoxy resin. Two coats. After curing sanding with coarse to finer grit ending at 400 wetsanding paper. I expect to get a silk smooth matte surface.

When I was satisfied with the surface I applied a film building release agent, Marbocote 227. Then I brushed on two coats of white gelcoat.

Filler and sanding.

Sanding the filler to smooth out the surface. It's a tricky job that requires a light touch because the foam material is so soft.

After sanding I covered the whole star with shellac to provide a harder surface for further filler and sanding. The process of filling and sanding takes time but I'm still waiting for the material for the mould so I'm not really in a hurry right now.

Adding material.

Finished sanding. I added one more sheet of foam at the bottom of the star using ordinary PVA wood glue. You might notice the proportions on the actual sculpture are now not consistent with those on the model. The reason for this is that the sculpture will be lowered about 70-100 mm into the ground. Resting on a layer of gravel and surrounded by soil covered with grass.

After sanding I added a layer of filler. It will probably take a couple of days for it to dry. After sanding I will add more filler until I get a smooth surface.

Knifework.

Using foam insulation, the same material I used for the Stars project, I have started to shape the star with a saw and our kitchen knife. The yellow parts is construction foam, polyurethane, I added where I removed too much material. Next step is sanding and filling gaps with wall putty. After sanding with fine grit the star will receive a couple of layers of acrylic paint to get a smooth surface before laminating the mould with fiber glass and epoxi resin.

New commission.

Last week I got a new commission, a sculpture group for a daycare center Myresjö daycare center in Vetlanda. I think it´s great to work on another project for kids. 

The sculpture will consist of four parts. Three stars cast in concrete coloured with three different pigments. On top of one of the stars I will place a little figure made of metal, painted silver. Inspiration comes once again from Japanese origami Lucky Stars and for the figure japanese pepekura figures.

The model shown is scaled 1:10. Each star will be about 90 cm in diameter and approximately 30 cm in height. Total hight of the black star and figure will be about 85 cm.

Working title is Stjärnungen, Star Kid in english.

Project for daycare center in Myresjö and Korsberga.

I have just spent a couple of weeks on a project for Vetlanda municipality. Two sculptures for two daycare centers. I continued to work on my star theme. This time in smaller scale combined with small sculptures/figures made out of sheet metal. Inspiration from Japanese origami and Pepakura. After intense work the nights before deadline I got these two models ready. The scale is 1:10.

Vabbit.

What's happening in the studio? Jump starting an unexpected new project. This is exciting. I'll post the outcome in a couple of weeks.

Done!

Stars look beautiful in the frost.

Yesterday I had a meeting with representatives from the daycare center and Kalmar municipality for a final inspection of my work. Everybody was pleased. One of the guys from the municipality has his daughter at the daycare center and he told me the kids are always playing with and around the stars. It's been over a year's work with the stars and it's nice to see it finished. I'm glad that my clients are satisfied with the result.

Almost there.

Only one more to fasten to the wall.

Mounting the small stars to the wall. Really cold outside so I have to work with gloves. Anyway it's almost done!

Casting

Adding pigment to the resin, here I'm using Viridian.

After mixing, I pour the resin in to the mould...

...and wait for 6 - 12 hours for the resin to cure.

Started to cast the small stars in epoxy. I want at least 21 stars for the wall.

Smallstars.

I'm sculpting small stars from foam and making forms of plaster and an inner form of silicon. Unfortunaly the silicone don't seem to cure as it should. I'll give it another day, if it hasn't cured by tomorrow morning I'll start all over again :).

I've made two stars out of wood.

These are the moulds I will use to cast the epoxy resin in.

Starman.

Another photo from the opening. Gunnar took this picture of Oscar balancing on the star.