Wall Sculpture Aquabord Painted

A visitor stopped by my studio yesterday while I was acrylic-sealing my sculpture pieces. She enjoyed seeing the “organic forms and surfaces”. Now I’m on to assembling it. These close up shots show some of the great variations Aquabord is capable of. It’s been so fun to experiment and enjoy the results within each sculpture piece. I was a bit surprised at how durable the board is as well. Most of the pieces came out great on the first or second painting pass, but due to the redesign, I ended up repainting one piece 12 times. I’m not proud of needing to do that, but it’s nice to know the board will hold up under such use.

Wall Sculpture Ampersand Aquabord Cut!

The intricate shapes and lengths required for this sculpture have definitely hit the limits of my scroll saw. I am now a saw blade connoisseur; it’s all about the teeth per inch. Whew, I’m glad the cutting is done and looks good! When I work larger than this on future sculptures, I will need to hire laser cutting. It’s exciting to see things moving along.

Wall Sculpture New Improved Ampersand Aquabord

The 1/4 inch thick Ampersand Aquabord that I special ordered for this larger sculpture is thicker by 1/8 inch than the original, smaller version. You can see how beautifully the sample cut. I think I like it even better than the 1/8”. It’ll make a visually stronger edge and give added strength for the longer spans. The test sample of Aquabord’s newly formulated surface took the paint similar to the product I used on the first sculpture. Today I transferred shapes onto the boards for cutting and I hope to get the cutting done this week. This sculpture will be 51” x 36”.

Wall Sculpture Coming Together

I cut out the intricate, large, and flexible support piece for the wall sculpture. What a relief that it can be made at my studio. With patience, Aquabord cut with a scroll saw makes a beautiful edge

The greatest metal fasteners exist to attach the pieces, but there’s too much play in them. I want the composition fixed. Every little movement between each piece would change the hard won composition. Wood cut to exactly the length needed will create the desired depths for the individual pieces. Oh, yeah, you may have guessed by now… this baby isn’t flat.

Enjoy the holidays!

Wall Sculpture & Scroll Saw

I’m moving forward with the Aquabord experiment and decided to invest in a new scroll saw to get cleaner, more intricate cuts. Of course, following the

directions written by a non-native English speaker made the supposedly 20 minute setup time take an hour and a half. It was worth it. The scroll saw makes a beautiful edge when cutting with patience and I love it. My dog, Emma, thought it wasn't as much fun as being outside.

There’s a couple pieces I have been concerned about being able to cut with my scroll saw because it has a stationary arm that can get in the way, and large pieces of board can become flexible arms dangling about while cutting and moving in all different directions. With practice, my technique is improving even though it is very challenging to maneuver and stay true to the design. I cut out one of the two trickiest pieces: the intricate, large, bottom piece of the 12 piece design. Still to be cut is the large backing piece and it is very long with many cuts requiring a lot of rotating. I really don't want to go with a rectangle, frame-like, board behind the pieces for this sculpture. I hope I can get it to work.