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Hug-linkage
For my new sculpture 'Hug' I have started with finishing the surfaces of the bronze parts and also with assembling the linkage mechanism as shown below. The holes for the axles were precisely made and such that the moving bars will make the right side on top move synchronously with the left side on top with which they move either inwards or outwards simultanously.
The motion is shown in this video in which the right part of the mechanism consists of a general four-bar linkage while the left part of the mechanism is a parallelogram. Then next step is to place the pyramid shapes on top.
'Between Heaven and Earth' finished!
After many hours of experiments and work, the newest version of Between Heaven and Earth has been finished now too. Earlier I wrote about the teardrop profiles I'd casted. I wasn't 100% satisfied and decided to make an improved wooden model. With that model I casted a series of bronze bars with a nicer teardrop profile.
With the milling machine I gave the bars the correct lenght with a straight surface finish.
Also for drilling the holes for the rotational joints I used the milling machine such that the measures are accurate and the holes are well aligned.
Bronze casting of the base was another challenge. The model, also designed with the same teardrop shape, I had 3-D printed. It took two failures to learn how to cast it well by pooring the 4 kg of liquid bronze more rapidly into the sand mold.
After finishing all the bars and bearings with stainless steel axles, the sculpture was assembled. Below you can see the results with the highest pose of the sculpture of 100 cm and lowest pose of 50 cm.
The sculpture shows a person huddled in despair. You, as a friend, are trying to help by lifting the person up where the person begs heaven for help. However when you leave, the person collapses again in utter despair. The next step is to make a small series of this sculpture for sale.
'Plumage in Bronze' finished!
Just before Christmas I finished the Plumage in Bronze balanced kinetic sculpture. Earlier I already made one of the sides, see this blog, and now also the other side has been assembled after weighting the bronze casted profiles carefully, determining their precise location of the center of mass (i.e. center of gravity) and placing the bearings at the precise points such that the obtained mechanism is balanced/stable in each pose to which it is moved. Soon there will be more pictures on the website.
Anemone Magnifica shines!
Since the Delft Highlight Festival was cancelled - due to Covid regulations - I built up the Anemone Magnifica sculpture at my atelier of which I share some images.
The sculpture is moved by interaction of the spectator. For finding the best way for this interaction, to obtain lovely smooth and slow motions by intuitive handling of the viewers hands, I did some tests of which this video gives a nice impression. Currently I am still improving the mechanical interface of cables and handles for generating these motions.
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