"Sinds 2000 werk ik aan de ontwikkeling van sculpturen met expressieve beweging als uitgangspunt."
Deze blog geeft je een blik op de ontwikkeling van mijn sculpturen in mijn atelier met productiefoto's en uitleg.
Drie Vliegende Kraaien
Today an exhibition of the Brussels artist Hans op de Beeck was opened at the Templon Gallery in New York, showcasing the sculpture 'Crows' that I developed on his request. The little crows were designed by his studio and scaled to about a quarter of the size of a real crow and had to fly unequally behind each other, each at a different height.
I wanted the crows to fly as realistically as possible and designed a mechanism in which five vertical rods moving up and down both hold the crows in place and generate the flying motion of the wings. For that I studied how real crows fly, how their wings precisely move and how fast. With an extensive kinematic/geometric model I investigated all the lengths and distances between the joints for generating the best motion.
After the design phase I produced all the parts which required a high precision since deviations as small as 0.1 mm in distances would result in crows not flying at all. The first challenge was to make the crank mechanism for each crow. I made bronze rings as slider bearings with fixture for the vertical rods on top.
The cranks I made of stainless steel discs and axles that I glued and welded together. They are driven by belt drives which connect the three cranks together and have them move with a single motor.
As you can see from the crank, the central rod moves up and down while the outer rods move up and down as well but at a later moment, while the other two rods are fixed and steady.
The crows I divided in five segments that were 3D-printed with the joints for the axles of the wings integrated. Although the 3D print quality was excellent, still quite some handwork was needed to make the wings move smoothly and almost frictionless.
Back in the studio of Hans the birds were painted in his characteristic 'Op de Beeck-gray' color and placed in a stylish pedestal. Ready for transport to New York, its first exhibition.
Tentoonstelling Delftse Kunstkring
This weekend some sculptures are exposed at the exposition Changes of the Delftse Kunstkring in Delft (NL). This is the presentation of Freedom:
Also Plumage I Flamingo is on display:
Wall sculpture No Time is shown inside:
The sculpture I developed together with 5 artists of the Delftse Kunstkring, which we named 'Changes', is moving all around:
Kunstschouw 2024 tentoonstelling
The Kunstschouw 2024 exhibition has started today, displaying some of my sculptures until June 23 in Burgh and Renesse. The Anemone Magnifica is located aside the small church of Burgh and will automatically move every 5 minutes from 9:45am until 21:45pm every day. The Anemone Magnifica will also be visible after the exhibition until the end of November.
My newest sculpture Timeless is exposed for the first time in the beautiful private park at the Hoogenboomlaan 19 in Renesse:
Also Plumage I Flamingo is shown in the same park:
And inside a building at the park Between Heaven and Earth is exposed:
Portret carrousel
For the exhibition Changes of the Delftsche Kunstkring, which will be on June 29-30 in Delft with a couple of my sculptures on display, I have been asked to contribute to a collaborative sculpture with five other artists. The wish was to have a carousel mechanism with portraits which can be turned around.
Here some photos of one of the rotors I made of steel with six sides as a hexagon.
Three such rotors I placed at different heights along a vertical tube.
Then the other five artists started painting: six different heads for the upper rotor, six different bodies for the central rotor, and six different legs for the lower rotor. By turning the rotors one by one, various interesting and funny combinations of a person are obtained.
Loodgieten van contramassa's
Some years ago I was working on a nice large balanced sculpture with floating pyramids of stainless steel (see blogs here, here and here), but due to the covid-cancellation of the exhibition the sculpture remained unfinished. On Friday I made another step with the sculpture by lead casting of the two counter-masses of 32 kg each, for which I asked the help of Emile Luijben alias Mastermilo.
The counter-masses are 20 mm thick trapezium shaped plates for which I made a mold of steel. I placed two copper tubes along the middle of the plate to create holes in the plate such that it can be placed on rods. Then the plate can slide along the rods for fine-tuning of the balance of the sculpture, for which in the center of the mold I included a screw-nut.
I collected 100 kg of old lead and wood from pallets for the fire. Then I went to Emile and his friends and in his workshop we made the setup for the casting and melting of the lead. First we made a crucible from an old gas tank. Of course everything was filmed for his youtube channel.
In the meantime the fire was prepared outside, using oil barrels for the wood fire. It was impressive to see how quickly 50 kg of lead was molten, the heat of the wood fire made the lead easily reach its melting point of 327 °C.
After a first failure, the two plates of lead turned out quite nicely. We had some difficulties with the steel mold which deformed much more than expected due to the heat of the lead. That was interesting to learn.
You can watch the complete lead casting process in this video of Emile:
Tijdloos sculptuur
During the last month I have created a new large balanced sculpture, which I named 'Timeless'. The sculpture is based on my earlier sculpture No Time, however 20 times larger - almost 8 meters high - with some minor modifications.
These are the materials that I used: wood, threaded steel rods with nuts and washers, and grey paint.
This is one of the two parallelograms assembled. Of a parallelogram the links of each pair of opposite links have equal lenght.
I made a steel frame to support the sculpture and added the two pillars of which the tallest is 4 meter high.
This is the assembly of the sculpture, placing the parallelograms on the long central links...
... and when placed upright, this is the final quite impressive result. At first I didn't realize how large it would become (the materials in the first photo do not suggest something so large) - my atelier is not even that high - however I love the monumental appearance. And because it is balanced, it can be easily moved by hand into any position.
With respect to my earlier sculpture No Time, here the central rotational points are located above one another instead of next to one another and with one pillar in the front and one pillar in the back, the sculpture can move freely all around, which for this sculpture is more fascinating. The next step now is to make the sculpture of stainless steel.
Kunstroute Leiden
For the Kunstroute Leiden 2023 I was invited by Charlotte Icke-Lemmens to create an exhibition at the Alien Art Gallery in Leiden, shared with Vincent Icke. I was immediately very enthusiastic about their illuminated home and very pretty garden. I selected 8 sculptures, among which 6 that were for the first time publicly on display.
This photo shows an overview of the exhibition inside, with in the back the always successful sculpture Two Men Late at Night of 2005.
The sculpture Between Heaven and Earth of 2021 was placed centrally and the sculpture Hug of 2022 on the side.
I was especially pleased to notice how well the Hug sculpture was praised: "Het is indrukwekkend dat een koud en zwaar materiaal zoals brons in staat is om zoveel gevoelig en warmte uit te stralen."
The new sculpture No Time of 2023 was placed on the wall near the entrance where many visitors could gather and move the balanced mechanism by hand.
Outside, the freshly finished Plumage I Flamingo of 2023 was placed in a colourful flowerbed with visitors moving it into a variety of poses ...
... while nearby the sculpture Freedom of 2023 was placed in a cosy open space in the grass.
To attract attention, the sculpture Between Heaven and Earth of 2011 I had placed in the front of the garden near the road, welcoming all visitors.
The last sculpture on display was 'The Three Cheerers', which was still work in progress and unfinished. The exhibition was an opportunity to test the sculpture and to try out the interactive actuation by the visitor.
Vernieuwing van de Pluimage I sculptuur
The Plumage I sculpture from 2012 came back from a museum in the UK many years ago, completely destroyed unfortunately as they had roughly disassembled the sculpture by using a hand grinder. Terrible! I still had the old parts in my storage and suddenly I got excited to see if I could bring the sculpture back to life and if it still would be balanced.
Fortunately all the important parts where still there and after making some new axles, the sculpture could be reassembled and...... to my utmost surprise: still works perfectly, moving very smoothly and still very well balanced!
Here some images of the grinder damage, and I suspect also some hammering as I had to make the steel straight again
I filled the damaged parts by welding
and then restored the shape by grinding
This is the fully restored sculpture. I had to make a new pillar and decided to make the sculpture a little higher than the version of 2012, since that makes it even more impressive.
Also the rust I do no longer like for this sculpture and I decided to paint it.... pink! The sculpture will now continue as the 'Plumage I Flamingo'.
'Geen Tijd' is af
The sculpture with the composition of two parallelograms has been finished. Here you see the final assembly of the polished stainless steel links with the rotational pins.
For the background I made a disc of 40 cm diameter with a black color for a nice contrast with the shiny stainless steel. This photo shows 9 of the beautiful possible poses into which you can move the sculpture by hand.
Tensegrity sculptuur Vrijheid
Tensegrity designs are very fascinating: structures with rods and wires where rods do not touch other rods. They show a delicate equilibrium, if you would cut just 1 of the wires the complete structure will collapse. I did some tests with a simple tensegrity structure, a beam supported by just 3 wires which are perfectly vertical, to investigate how the balance and the stability can be influenced.
After the experiments I made a new design of the floating beam: a nicely curved steel bar ending with a straight diagonal line. The floating beam is attached with 2 vertical wires below and 1 vertical wire on top.
Welding of the rod for attachment of the 2 wires below.
This is the complete first prototype of the new sculpture which I named 'Freedom'. Also the stand I designed with nicely curved shapes. The sculpture stands stable since the center of mass is exactly in the middle of the stand. The next step is to make the sculpture of polished stainless steel, its final state.
Compositie met twee parallellogrammen
I have designed a small balanced sculpture and made a first prototype of stainless steel. First I made a paper model of the mechanism, which consists of two floating parallellogram linkages with two fixed rotational points in the center.
This is a close up of two links connected with a pin...
... and this is the firs assembly of the prototype.
The finished prototype moves very smoothly and turned out very well balanced for which it stands still in each possible pose.
The next step is the design of the background. That will be a circular disc with which the sculpture can hang on the wall.
Knuffel sculptuur
I showed the assembly of the Hug-linkage earlier, here some photos of the assembly of the two pyramid shapes to complete the Hug sculpture.
Inside the pyramid shapes the axles have been mounted with screws.
In this photo the attachment of the pyramid shape to the base and the linkage is shown. The thin bar will make the second pyramid shape on the other side move synchronously in opposite direction.
Here the first pyramid shape has been placed and after having mounted also the second pyramid shape similarly, the sculpture is complete.
The two pyramid shapes express in the open pose the feelings of lonely distance and strong desire and attraction to one another.
In the closed pose they show the warm intimacy of a hug.
Autoschommel 5G
We hebben de autoschommel ook getest voor 5G krachten op de bestuurder. Zoals je kunt zien in de 1e video doet de autoschommel het prima, maar breken op een gegeven moment de motorsteunen:
Na de reparaties was het dan eindelijk wel zo ver en werden de 5G krachten door Emile ervaren met vele slingers over de kop:
Anemone Magnifica at Delft Highlight Festival
Last weekend the balanced flower sculpture Anemone Magnifica shined at the Delft Highlight Festival 2023 (Delft, NL).
During the three nights of the festival the sculpture was beautifully highlighted with alternating colours.
The sculpture received wonderful responses from the visitors, addressing the aesthetics and the motions of the flower, interactively driven by themselves.
Autoschommel in actie!
De Autoschommel doet het fantastisch!
Hier kun je een samenvatting zien van hoe we het hebben gebouwd:
Autoschommel bijna af
The Car Swing is almost finished! At Emile's (MasterMilo) workshop we keep on working on it daily with lots of welding and welding... Slowly all pieces are getting together. Here a photo of the main axle with two pieces of large H-beam attached for connecting the swing and on the side the part for mounting the axle onto the base frame.
This photo shows the assembly of the countermass - laying horizontally to the back - with one of the side arms straight up and connected with a diagonal bar. Inside this countermass fit 6 legio blocks of 450kg concrete each, resulting in total countermass of 2700kg, which should be more than sufficient for balance of the swing.
Here Emile is welding the swing structure to the H-beam pieces to mount the swing to the axle...
...and here the complete assembly of the swing around the axle has been finished. We had to weld plates of 20 mm thick steel with 32 mm holes to the axle for connecting the countermass and side-arms with M30 bolts. For being strong to withstand the large forces, the welds have been built up in multiple layers.
We have now finished the complete swing assembly...
...and have moved all the parts outside for assembly on the base frame. The next step is to mount the car to swing. The videos of the complete production of the Car Swing can be seen at Emile's Werkplaatsvlog.
Autoschommel onderweg
The manufacturing of the Car Swing is taking speed: Emile (MasterMilo) is working daily on the production since the beginning of December. We hoped to have it ready and make the first looping before Christmas, however that turned out not feasible. Now we aim at finishing it during the first weeks of January.
The first photo shows the assembly of one of the small side arms of the swing from H-beams of steel and diagonal bars for strength. The front side will be connected to the central axle while to the far end the cables will be attached.
This is the first set-up of half of the ramp onto which the car will drive when passing by the ground such that it can gain speed. The distance between the two tracks can be adapted and tuned to perfectly fit with the tires of the car.
In the back the large framework is visible onto which the car swing will be mounted. This was already build during the summer and was 'tested' by Emile as a 'normal' swing in which you can swing to go overhead.
At the right of me you can see the large construction onto which the car will be mounted, made of round steel tubes. Below a team photo. The videos of Emile of the complete production of the Car Swing can be seen at his Werkplaatsvlog.
Juigend sculptuur
Hierbij presenteer ik: De Juicher! Een nieuw kinetisch sculptuur die ik gedurende 2022 in stappen heb ontwikkeld. Rondom Pasen heb ik de eerste schetsen gemaakt, de geometrie en kinematica onderzocht en de bewegingen bestudeerd. Tijdens de zomer heb ik vervolgens enkele modellen gemaakt en nu heb ik net een grote versie van staal afgerond.
The Cheerer expresses the extreme delight after anxiously waiting for something of great desire to happen. For instance at a match, watching in tension and then.....goal! The model in the first photo shows the spectator sitting down watching in suspense, while the second photo shows the spectator in its ultimate cheering position.
The model I made of plastic electricity tube, which is strong, lightweight and easy to process.
A two and a half times larger version of steel I made of 40x40mm steel tubes which are shown here with the holes for the axles.
This photo shows the central axle where multiple parts are connected together.
After assembly of the sculpture also a strong base was made. As a special feature of this sculpture, I want it to actually jump up from its base to be briefly free in the air, like a person jumping up and losing contact with the floor.
The sculpture is driven by a rope to pull the sculpture up. I would like to make some improvements such as installing a handle to actuate the sculpture for a better interaction with a spectator and also the jumping up of the sculpture needs to be optimized by experimental testing. A next step is also to make the sculpture of bronze, as large as the model in the first photos.
[A video of the sculpture cheering will be shown here soon.]
Nieuwe supersnelle robot manipulator
The second secret project I have been busy with during the last months is the development of a new robot manipulator which can move at very high speeds without causing vibrations of its base. The manipulator has been named Super-B, referring to the superb performance due to its Super (inherent) Balance, and has been filed for a patent.
The first photo explains the main elements of the manipulator, which has 2 direct drive motors to control the end-effector for translational pick&place motions within the plane. The key innovation has been the constant inertia mechanism which allows the end-effector to be inherently balanced with two balanced manipulator arms as shown here. The design of the robot has been made by my graduate student Dennis Boere, who investigated a variety of design possibilities for which this one turned out the most advantageous.
The production took quite some time. Here you can see the milling machine for the production of the aluminium end-effector...
... which was glued into carbon-tubes to keep the distal links/parts as light as possible.
The other moving links/parts of the manipulator were made of stainless steel, by tig-welding of lasercutted pieces which fit as a puzzle.
Here the complete linkage is shown during assembly. On all axles bearing tensioners were installed to eliminate the clearance. By carefully designing the masses of all elements, including some additional masses at specific positions, the dynamic balance of the complete linkage was obtained.
The production of the base frame of the manipulator was a challenge on its own, since the distances among the three rotational points need to be very accurate for dynamic balance. Above you can see Dennis fixing the parts before welding and underneath the base is shown during welding.
In this video you can see the mobility of the manipulator after it was fully assembled.
After the assembly we did some experiments for motions with 3 G and 8 G accelerations to verify the dynamic balance and to compare them to an unbalanced situation where the 'no-vibrations indicator' in the first figure was not much silent. The results and the video's of the Super-B are included in a scientific article that will be published soon.
Autoschommel-met-looping project
De afgelopen maanden ben ik druk bezig geweest met twee tot dusver geheime projecten (samen met de geboorte van mijn prachtige dochter Sofia enkele weken geleden). Hierbij het eerste project: een gigantische installatie genaamd de "Autoschommel" welke ik ontwikkel samen met Emile Luijben (Mastermilo) voor de 'Op de proef gesteld' campagne van de Universiteit van Nederland.
Deze computer illustratie toont hoe de installatie er uit gaat zien: Een Volkswagen Golf zal heen en weer gaan slingeren als een 6 meter lange pendulum en uiteindelijk zelfs over de kop gaan op 12 meter hoogte(!). Iedere keer als de auto langs de grond komt wordt de beweging versneld door de 'bestuurder' die gas geeft zodat de auto steeds hoger en hoger komt.
Samen met Emile hebben we het conceptuele ontwerp gemaakt. Terwijl ik druk ben met de dynamische simulaties, berekeningen van de dynamische krachten en het maken van een ontwerp dat voldoende sterk is, houdt Emile zich bezig met de productie. Het ontwerp heeft grote uitdagingen omdat de dynamische krachten nogal groot zullen worden: bij een looping zal de auto 5G versnellingskrachten uitoefenen op de bestuurder wanneer het de grond passeert, wat 5 maal zo zwaar is als de zwaartekracht. Daarmee wordt een 1000 kg wegende auto effectief maar liefst 5000 kg zwaar en een persoon van 80 kg zo zwaar als 400 kg. 5G krachten zijn ongeveer de maximale krachten die zijn toegestaan in achtbanen en zijn op de grens met wat een menselijk lichaam aan kan zonder speciale uitrusting. Met een contramassa aan de andere kant van de slinger (van blokken beton) kan de auto worden gebalanceerd waarmee deze enorme G krachten worden gereduceerd. In het uiterste geval, bij volledige balans, wordt het mogelijk om langzaam en comfortabel in verticale cirkels over de kop te autorijden. Echter, deze contramassa intruduceert ook weer andere grote krachten in de constructie waar in het ontwerp rekening mee moet worden gehouden.
Dit project werd geïnitieerd door de Universiteit van Nederland met het doel om wetenschap te promoten. Als universitair docent aan de TU Delft zal ik in de video's uitleggen hoe zulke grote bewegende constructies worden ontworpen, hoe je moet denken over de (dynamische) krachten die in het materiaal werken en hoe deze moeten worden 'weggeleid' door de constructie. En natuurlijk over hoe je het kunt balanceren.
Als je meer wilt zien van de productie in de werkplaats (het basis frame is al gemaakt en ook al gebruikt door Emile om hemzelf over de kop te schommelen), kijk dan de onderstaande video's van Emile of bezoek zijn youtube kanaal. Hij maakt fantastische en erg inzichtelijke opnamen.
Naar een nieuw atelier!
In de afgelopen paar maanden ben ik verhuisd naar mijn nieuwe atelier in de oude kabelfabriek aan de Schieweg 15 in Delft. Het is een wonderschone ruimte: 150 vierkante meters met veel licht uit het noorden en veel hoogte zodat mijn grote scuplturen erin passen. De eerste foto toont de kern van het atelier: de metaalwerkhoek. De tweede foto laat de installatie van het scuptuur Anemone Magnifica zien.
Knuffel-mechaniek
Voor mijn nieuwe sculptuur 'Knuffel' ben ik begonnen met het afwerken van de bronzen delen en met het in elkaar zetten van het stangenmechaniek zoals hieronder te zien. De gaten van de draaipunten zijn precies gemaakt zodat de bewegende stangen er voor zorgen dat de bovenkant aan de rechterkant synchroon meebeweegt met de linker bovenkant waardoor beide delen gelijktijdig naar binnen of naar buiten toe bewegen.
De beweging is te zien in de onderstaande video waarin het rechterdeel van het mechaniek een algemeen vierstangenmechanisme is en het linkerdeel een parallellogrammechaniek. De volgende stap is het plaatsen van de pyramidevormen er bovenop.
'Tussen Hemel en Aarde' af!
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.
'Pluimage in Brons' af!
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 schittert!
Omdat het Delft Highlight Festival was afgelast - door Covid maatregelen - heb ik het Anemone Magnifica sculptuur maar opgebouwd bij mijn atelier waarvan ik hier enkele afbeeldingen laat zien.
Het sculptuur wordt in beweging gezet door interactie van de toeschouwer. Om de beste manier voor deze interactie te vinden zodat de bewegingen mooi, vloeiend en langzaam zijn door een intuïtive handmatige bediening, heb ik enkele experimenten gedaan. Deze video geeft daar een mooie indruk van. Op dit moment werk ik nog aan de verbeteringen van het besturingsmechanisme van kabels en heft voor deze bewegingen.
Roestvaststaal puzzel...
Much work has been done on the Floating Pyramids Sculpture this week. The first picture shows the assembly of the main bearing house which is mounted inside the large '7' pillar. The pillar has been constructed, bending sheets of stainless steel in wonderful curves....
Also the balance arms have been constructed and the next step is to cast two 35 kg heavy plates of lead to be placed as counterweights in the triangular part of the balance arms.
Hermontage van Anemone Magnifica
For the Delft Highlight Festival I have completely reassembled the Anemone Magnifica. The bearings have been cleaned and minor improvements have been made for perfecting the sculpture. The sculpture is almost ready for exhibition, and ready to be interactively moved by everyone who visits the festival.
Bronsgietingen van wasmodellen
This week I received the bronze casts of the wax models of the sculpture I showed on 16 january. At first sight they look well casted, yet they still need significant postprocessing now in order to assemble all parts together and to finish the sculpture with a beautiful bronze appearance.
Onderhoud van Taaie Tiller
For the Taaie Tiller at the University of Twente to work daily without problems, regular maintenance is needed. Once a month I clean the algaes, which can grow very quickly and then block the sensors and waterpumps. Also inspection is needed for components that wear out, to replace them in time. Maintenance is an essential part of moving systems, for kinetic art works as well.
The impact of the mass of 300 kg falling from 3 meters high onto the structure that 'catches' the mass underwater is enormous. This week I replaced all the rubber dampers on one side that were completely worn out...not so bad actually after more than 4 years since the opening of the sculpture and more than 3000 (!) splashes or cycles since. I also installed two bracket clamps that have to prevent the catching structure to jump up too much. Because of the large impact, despite its 280 kg of mass it could jump up more than 15 cm, risking to come out of the pantoon.
Model van groot nieuw balans sculptuur
Dit is een proefmodel op werkelijke grote van een nieuw 4,2 meter hoog balans sculptuur welke ik momenteel aan het ontwikkelen ben. Het bestaat uit een bewegende compositie van vier piramide vormen die ondersteund wordt door twee elementen met driehoekig gevormde contramassa voor balans. Het sculptuur wordt van roestvaststaal en zal door de hand van de toeschouwer naar een variëteit van mooie standen kunnen worden bewogen. Ik hoop dat het mogelijk is om het sculptuur op tijd af te hebben om het te tentoonstellen op het Delft Highlight Festival in November.
Wasmodellen zijn af
De wasmodellen van het sculptuur dat ik liet zien op 16 januari zijn af en zijn nu bij de gieterij om in brons te worden gegoten. De techniek voor het gieten van dunne vlakke platen van was met superglad oppervlak heb ik geperfectioneerd door het gebruik van een spiegelgladde siliconen mat. Door de onderdelen uit deze platen van was te snijden, zijn de piramidevormen en andere elementen van het sculptuur opgebouwd.
Ook het voetstuk van het sculptuur is van was gemaakt. Op de plek van de twee grote circels komen de assen waar de piramide vormen omheen zullen draaien.
Traan profiel
Ik ben begonnen met een nieuwe bronzen versie van Tussen Hemel en Aarde waarin de elementen een profiel hebben in de vorm van een traan. De bovenste foto toont de zandgietvorm uit hout gefreesd en geschuurd en hieronder kun je de resultaten zien van de eerste zandgietproef, welke erg goed is gelukt. Binnenkort zal ik 10 van deze staven gieten wat bijelkaar voldoende is voor het volledige sculptuur.
Eén zijde af
De voorzijde van het nieuwe sculptuur Pluimage in Brons is nu af: de 4 bewegende stangen zijn gebalanceerd en kunnen heel licht alle kanten op worden bewogen en blijven stilstaan in alle mogelijke posities. Het werkt wonderderlijk! Om de lange bewegende stangen op de juiste lengte te krijgen voor perfecte balans was een hele uitdaging doordat de massa verdeling van de stangen niet gelijk verdeeld is over de lengte van de stangen. Daar waren uitgebreide berekeningen voor nodig.
Op dit moment ben ik bezig met het maken van de andere zijde, welke hetzelfde is als deze voorzijde.
Lagers en Massamiddelpunt
Het nieuwe sculptuur Pluimage in Brons vordert gestaag. Van de aangietrestanten van het bronsgieten van de profielen heb ik bronzen lagerbusjes gedraaid, met asjes uit RVS.
Het sculptuur bouwt zich nu stapje voor stapje op, dit is de basis met het centrale draaipunt. Omdat het bewegende sculptuur in alle verschillende standen perfect in balans moet zijn, is het belangrijk om van ieder onderdeel precies te weten hoeveel massa het heeft en waar het centrum van de massa precies ligt. Voor dat laatste heb ik een meetsysteem bedacht, te zien in de laatste foto. Het profiel wordt ingeklemd in een blokje met een dun asje. Door het blokje heen en weer en op een neer te verschuiven kan het punt worden gevonden waarin het profiel in balans wordt gehouden en niet gaat ronddraaien. Het asje zit dan in het centrum van de massa. De uitkomsten van de meting hebben invloed op de afmetingen van de andere onderdelen, welke vervolgens berekend kunnen worden.
Bronsgieten van profielen
De profielen die ik eerder uit hout had gemaakt heb ik in brons gegoten, samen met een ronde voet voor het nieuwe sculptuur Pluimage in Brons. Daarvoor heb ik speciale vormkasten gebouwd om de zandmallen van Delftse gietaarde in te maken. Nadat de mallen waren gesloten konden de profielen er eenvoudig uit worden getrokken, waarna de open ruimte die daardoor ontstond kon worden volgegoten met vloeibaar brons. Daarvoor heb ik het brons verwarmd tot zo'n 1050 °C in mijn oven van keramische wol. De resultaten zijn erg mooi geworden. De profielen kwamen er perfect recht uit en hebben veel detail. Ook de ronde voet is mooi geworden. Het afwerken van de oppervlakken met richtingloos schuren bleek het mooiste te passen bij de natuurlijke uitstraling van gegoten brons.
Platen van was
Houten profiel gietmodel
Ik werk aan een 65 cm hoge bronzen versie van Pluimage I waarvoor ik deze profielen van hout heb gemaakt:
De profielen bestaan uit een convex oppervlak aan de bovenkant, concave oppervlakken aan de zijkanten en een vlakke onderkant. Ze zullen worden gebruikt als zandgietvormen voor het bronsgieten om de profielen in brons te krijgen. De bronzen profielen zullen vervolgens als elementen worden samengesteld tot het Pluimage I gebalanceerde bewegende sculptuur.
Glanzende pyramides van roestvaststaal
De pyramidevormen uit het vorige bericht hebben me inspiratie gegeven voor een balans-sculptuur met meerdere kleine pyramidevormen van glanzend roestvaststaal:
De eerste foto laat de productiestappen zien van het samenstellen van de vlakken, het aflassen van de randen en het afwerken tot gepolijste vlakken van de pyramidevorm. De tweede foto toont de samenstelling van vier pyramidevormen als een beweegbaar parallelogram. Op dit moment werk ik aan het resterende deel van het sculptuur die deze samenstelling zal vasthouden en laten zweven in de lucht.
Nieuw sculptuur in ontwikkeling
Vlak voor kerst heb ik een nieuw sculptuur ontworpen die een persoon's extreme behoefte aan een intieme knuffel uitdrukt. Dit is geïnspireerd door de huidige tijd waarin intimiteit door de Covid-19 pandemie zeer beperkt is, een nogal onmenselijke situatie.
Ik wil nog niet teveel verklappen, maar hier alvast de eerste foto's. De twee vormen zullen van een open 'afstandelijke' stand naar elkaar toevallen in de getoonde stand. Op dit moment werk ik het sculptuur uit in staal om het daarna helemaal in brons te (zand-)gieten. Uiteindelijk wordt het dus een volledig bronzen bewegend sculptuur.