Brown.

The wood star is now Linseed oil-treated. I's a treatment called Bitus Linax™ developed by Bergs Timber. In the process some of the parts was slightly deformed so Gunnar has to do some adjustments before delivery. He will also fill the gaps with pitch, a resin used by boatbuilders.

Good news!

I will be able to pick up star nr.2 at the foundry this monday.

Sanding

I have shaped the fourth star from foam and now I'm sanding the filler for a smooth surface. This one will be placed on the ground for the kids to use as a bench.

Next week NR&M will start to work on the mounts for the aluminium stars.

Aluminium.

Today I drove up to the foundry to get the first finished aluminium star. The second one is still there waiting to get the finishing touch. That is grinding the weld and surface. Here Bengt from Nybro Rör & Mek is unloading the star from my trailer.

Outside, Juniper Hill

The fourth star is taking shape. This one will be cast in concrete. Next thing to do is sanding. When the surface is smooth I will start to build the mould.

Almost there.

A happy star.

Gunnar is almost done. Here is a photo of how the mounting, fabricated of stainless steel by Nybro Rör och Mekaniska, is cut in to the wood. You can also see three of the five threaded rods holding the construction together.

Wood news

The two aluminiun stars are now welded together. I hope to be able to get them from the foundry next week.

Meanwhile Gunnar is making progress with the wood star.

Gunnar is using a pointing machine to transfer measurements from my 1:1 model to the wood.

Photos: Gunnar Englund.

Woodwork

I received these photos from Gunnar at Fantasilaboratoriet who is working on the wood star. I think his solution of the construction looks great. I'm excited to see his progress with the work.

Hanåsa Sågverk delivered the wood for the star.

Lumber.

The construction.

This will be the profile.

Photos: Gunnar Englund.

History

So what's been going on exept for working on the stars? I have spent a lot of time at Ölands Folkhögskola working with my students the two last weeks of their year at Basår Design. I have also been teaching at Linnaeus University. This week I had the privilege to be one of the teacher opponents for the bachelor students final examination at the Design Programme. They all presented really intreseting projects. Good luck to all of you!

There was an opportunity to see some great art at Wanås skulptural park two weeks ago. Here I am climbing one of Yoko Onos ladders in her ladder piece at the opening May 15. Photo: Elin Stenberg

And here's ms Ono. Photo: Wanås Konst, Sweden

News

About three weeks ago I was able to deliver the two models to the foundry. This after I got the stainless steel inserts for the fountation ready. The will be cast in to the aluminium. The inserts were fabricated by Nybro Rör och Mekaniska. A small mechanical workshop located in Nybro, about 20 km from my studio. Many thanks to Bengt Selander and the other guys at the shop.

These are the people making it happen at the foundry, Mönsterås Metall. We decided to cast the smaller star in a slghtly harder quality of aluminium. I plan to polish it and the harder surface will make it easyer to polish. The thickness of the goods will be roughly 20 mm.

I got a call from Jan this week telling me they have casted both stars. They are now delivered to another shop were the halves will be welded together.