Fork Sculpture-Part 2

eligius1427 - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - 9:56am

Hi all, been a while since I've posted any work. We just installed the first half of the fork and spaghetti sculpture Monday and I got a couple of picts. Still need to put the finish on the bottom part of the fork and there is a decorative piece that goes on the front face of the fork handle. I used 14ga SS on this sculpture,as opposed to 12ga on the last one, over a structural framework and skeleton and kind of regretted it on the handle. For some reason the middle portion of the fork handle on the front side caved in between the skeleton, but just that 4' stretch and only on the front. The decorative piece will cover most of it up, but it's still annoying and I have absolutely know idea why it did it. I'm aware of stresses and all, but it should have done it on the back as well I would have thought.

On a side note, i ended up buying a CS Unitec drum finishing/graining sander and it rocks. With a little practice you can easily make but joint seams disappear with no "dip" in the material at the joint line and can put a grained finish on very quickly. Not very cheap, but definitely worth the money if you can use it.

Now to finish the spaghetti

Jake

Mettle Design
Lincoln, NE

Fork You 2a

Fork You 2b

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Thats some spicey meatball!

KevinW - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - 10:56am

Thats some spicey meatball! I remember the shot of it from in your shop and how it made me grin. Looks like your fork that tree might be mingling in a few years.

Keep up the good work,
KevinW

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Fork it...

Stephen Fitz-Gerald - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - 11:59am

Stephen Fitz-Gerald
Lookin really good Jake...

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More Help

warren - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 11:37am

Jake, how many guys does it take to stick a fork in the ground? (grin). Looking pretty damn good, close to the street, hope nobody trys to take the fork in the road.

www Metalrecipes -- heat and beat to the desired shape, repeat as necessary.
warren

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Thanks Warren, that's too

eligius1427 - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 9:16pm

Thanks Warren, that's too funny, I was actually considering "A Fork in the Road" as it's name.

Jake

Jake Balcom
Mettle Design
Lincoln, NE

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More Help

warren - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 11:37am

dup

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Thanks Stephen Jake

eligius1427 - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 9:14pm

Thanks Stephen

Jake Balcom
Mettle Design
Lincoln, NE

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Thanks Kevin, we took some

eligius1427 - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 9:14pm

Thanks Kevin, we took some fun photos holding the fork and I plan on photoshopping a meatball in, lol. As for the tree, the neighbor hood is going to cut it down and landscape around the sculpture. I'll post final picts once that's all done.

Jake

Jake Balcom
Mettle Design
Lincoln, NE

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HI jake, Very

Chuck Girard - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 8:03pm

HI jake,
Very Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can't belive more people haven't commented on how well this piece was done!
Great Job!
The scale of the Fork is really cool!
Looks like the installation was a pain?

Peace,

Chuck

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Thanks Chuck, install wasn't

eligius1427 - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 9:18pm

Thanks Chuck, install wasn't too bad, I wish I would have had one more day before hand, but I always say that. I'm a good procrastinator. The real trick will be threading the ball of spaghetti down the handle without damaging it. I'll post picts when she's all finished.

Jake

Jake Balcom
Mettle Design
Lincoln, NE

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Jake- Amazing! As always,

Rob Sigafoos - Friday, April 16, 2010 - 8:24am

Jake-
Amazing! As always, you continue to wow me with your creativity and work.
What is the context of this piece? It's not everyday that one gets asked to make a fork...
Congratulations!
Rob

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Thanks Rob, this sculpture

eligius1427 - Friday, April 16, 2010 - 2:58pm

Thanks Rob, this sculpture is being installed in a new town home development in the Little Italy district of Omaha, Ne. The property that the development was built on used to be a famous local Italian restaurant. The developer and home owners wanted a sculpture that reflected the area's Italian heritage and the friendly,family like atmosphere of the neighborhood. My first concepts were too abstract and focused on the area's other main characteristic which was the Railroad, but they shortlisted me and another artist and asked us to come up with some concepts that were much more Italian.

I kept thinking of the family like atmosphere of the development, everybody knew everyone and imagined a big italian family all sitting down together to have a pasta dinner. I actually went to an italian resaurant right after they shortlisted me to get some inspiration and caught myself spinning my pasta on my fork and that was pretty much that.

plus the actual areas available to place the sculpture were very very small and most were also over a mess of buried utility lines. The 9'x9' area that it's on now was one of the biggest, so we needed a concept that would be more vertical and that would fit in that small of a space. They actually wanted something bigger, but it just wasn't feasible logistically or financially.

It should be really cool when it's done.

Jake

Jake Balcom
Mettle Design
Lincoln, NE

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sculpture commissions...

Stephen Fitz-Gerald - Friday, April 16, 2010 - 8:08pm

Stephen Fitz-Gerald
They ALWAYS want something bigger don't they ?LOL

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Jake- Very clever-

Rob Sigafoos - Sunday, April 18, 2010 - 6:20am

Jake-
Very clever- congratulations on getting the commission. Don't forget to deduct the cost of the Italian dinner for tax purposes!
Rob

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Hi Jake! Awesome work! Nice

Jamie Santellano - Friday, April 16, 2010 - 9:58am

Hi Jake!

Awesome work! Nice to see the installation part of it...often times when I see a piece of Art on that's been installed I wonder how it was done (me not ever doing anything like this before) it's great to see the process.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us!

~Jamie Santellano

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Thanks Jamie, I just got

eligius1427 - Friday, April 16, 2010 - 2:59pm

Thanks Jamie, I just got sent more picts of the install, i might try to post a few more when i get some time.

Jake

Jake Balcom
Mettle Design
Lincoln, NE

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Pics of phase II?

Daedalus - Saturday, April 17, 2010 - 8:42am

Jake,I would love to see more pics of the construction phase and of the second part of the build(the pasta) as well as the final installation.
Funny how the initial concepts just sort of pounce on you from nowhere isn`t it?One minute you`re having a nice peaceful dinner and the next you`re looking for pen and paper before the thought slips away.

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice there is.

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