This was originally a prototype for a lamp,but in my current one-man-show at Risk Press Gallery in Sebastopol,Ca. I showed the spiral steel forging with a stainless steel bowl in it and I received a commission for three.I had built the jigs to reproduce the piece in both left and right spirals in case someone wanted mirror image sconces on both side of an entryway.Fortunately the client intends to spread the three pieces throughout his house so I could make them all spin in the same direction.It is a difficult forging in that the full dimensional 3'4"stock is tapered at both ends from the center.I started with 56" and stretched the material to 6'.To do three of these pieces it took me and my partner (running two trip hammers simultaneously) 6 hours overall.The center section of each had to be shaped by hand with the torch and rosebud because we couldn't fit it back into the forge once the circular spiral on the top was formed.
The bowls are 10 ga,stainless steel that I shaped cold with dies on an 85 ton hydraulic frame press.
The client plans to have water in the bowls with a spiked plate (called a frog)that can display cuttings and blooms...Art Nouveau Wall Vase: Wall vase intended to hole cuttings and other plant material in water...