Thanks Enrique, the top coat was actually the bane of the project and is a clear powder coat. I wish I could have used Icralac or Nicolas. The Crown piece that was already there had a clear powder coat finish and they wanted to match it. Any time I only get one shot with the power coat i get nervous, and usually with good reason. There were a few hic ups but the clear coat ended up ok.

Jake

Hi Jake,
Congratulations! Beautiful! What's on the ends of the side panels???Glass balls of some sort? Janet R.

Thanks Janet, they're actually acrylic balls. They're supposed to catch the light and add a little sparkle, but I think they're going to have to adjust the spot lights a little for it to stand out.

Jake

Thanks Gerald, the polishing was a learning experience, a money pit, and by far the most time consuming. I'm glad I muscled through it, now I know the Do's and Don'ts, but there were definitely times when I was ready throw the whole thing in the yard. I will tackle the next brass project differently.

This is the closest shot I could get of the cross. The altar was pretty high so it was hard to get a close level shot.

Jake

Brass Panels Installed

Polish eh???

I had the good fortune to set my first shop up next to a small plating shop; watching Mike go thru all those different grits and buffs to get a shine and remembering long hours of "forced labor" as a child lead me to understand that polish might come in a can, but it didn't work without too much elbow grease. (Hey, polishing silver seemed to take FOREVER, especially when the sun was shining)
I always subbed out the polishing to Mike when I could.

Gene Olson
Sculptor
Elk River, MN

Thanks Frank, this was a long project from first contact to install, so I'm pretty happy to be finished. I'm always so critical during an install, "this looks a little off", "I missed a spot here", etc. so i'm anxious to go see it in a couple of weeks when I'm a little more relaxed and clear headed. Jake

Jake,

The finished product looks top-notch! Congratulations.

Fred

Fred Zweig
Metalsmith

sometimes when I'm grinding, grinding, grinding...I have to remind myself that no-one sees half the stuff that I see.
We are overly critical of our work. Looks great to my naked eye. janet R.

Thanks Matt, I couldn't have started(let alone finish) this project without the help/advice you and everyone else gave me. You have all allowed me to take advantage of opportunities that would have been unthinkable otherwise. Cheers to you!

How is everything out west? Working on anything special?

Jake

Hi Jake,
Going pretty good just been busy, been meaning to post some pictures (will soon). For the ‘special’ I am just finishing the first phase of what is one of the strangest commissions I have had, Making railing out of old farm implements. A wonderful customer, and a joy to work for, asked for “farm industrial design” so I figured what a better media than old farm tools. Ha, ha, the materials cost about a 12 pack of beer and some roaming and collecting / tearing of ‘cool’ parts from some friend’s ranches. It is a good challenge of spatial placement with the found objects. Any way once again the grills look beautiful.
Keep up the good work
Matt
How’s the public works?

The implement railing sounds great, can't wait to see how it evolves. It's kind of fun when a project revolves around a very tangible concept or theme. Plus your probably going to meet a lot of new people. Once they here you need old parts and tools everyone will be "offering" you the opportunity to come over and clean out behind their shed. :)

As for the public works I should here back on one this Tuesday and I don't know when on the other. They keep meeting and pushing back the decision date. We'll see.

Be sure to post picts of the implement rail, I'm curious to see how you put it all together.

Jake

Thanks Guiseppe, it is Catholic, the church is called Adoration Convent of Christ the King and it is a convent for cloistered nuns. Very nice ladies and there is no mistaking what convent they're from, they wear pink habits. They are all very dedicated, devoted, and hardworking. Their church is spotless.

Jake

Yes, I think some of my best work has been for churches ...especially the ancient ones where there is already an amazing feeling of contributions through the ages ... I love that every one is so involved ...the loaves and fishes gate that you commented on is a continuation of my involvement with a village in Germany .... it is great that although I can only stumble on in German the locals immediately relate to my imagery ...anyway, I am glad that you enjoyed working on this one with the nuns ...

Thanks Rob, learned a lot, worked a lot, and met some really great people during this project. You can't beat that.

I enjoy working with churches because they're one of the few institutions that still believes in ornamentation. They haven't been struck by the Industrial Minimalist Plague.

At least not yet. ;)

Jake

Jake,

The panels turned out great. I like the color of the brass, it is not too yellow and matches the top section very well. I would of had nightmares of all of the fitting and grinding of joints on that project. Very well executed.
warren
http://www.metalrecipes.com

Thanks Warren, I think I lucked out on the color match, but I'll take it. Fit up was very problematic and next time I will probably fabricate individual elements/pieces and use hardware/cold connections to put it all together(as someone suggested i do in the first place...ah well). Trying to get into the cracks to clean up the welds, scale, or re-polish seemed impossible in some places, but we got them looking pretty good eventually.

Jake