How to Make 50Kg Float?

So I made a promise about blogging at least once a week and I’m going to try and keep it; I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to write very much this week. It’s been a very busy week and I haven’t done very much making but, I have been doing a lot of prep for projects that are coming up. I have also had formative assessments and production plan to hand in.

How do you make 50 kg float? This has been the big question of my week and as a result I have been crunching a lot of numbers. I have also been collecting quotes for stock, contracted work and commissions as a result have spoken to a lot of people. This has all been part of my Fresh Air project and I have been working on how I’m going to construct my Piece and there is so much to take into account. The finish Object is becoming quite the beast and is going to weigh somewhere in the region of 200 kg. Some of the stock sizes that I will be using is 50 square and as a result both cost wise and environmentally I have been looking for alternative suppliers (Scrap Metal and Reclamation). Other alternatives are very hit and miss as a result might not provide me with the best results.

One of the main qualities of my piece is the form and this will affect the overall feel of the work. Although there are only four major components in the sculpture each component must accurately and efficiently reflect certain ideas. Therefore the way I choose to construct components directly influences the overall feel of the finished object. Clean, crisp and accurate forms will allow me to create structure that looks elegant and strong but without compromise. So for the main body of the sculpture I have been looking at a third party creating this component. SWS (special welding services) has a 350 ton press brake, which I’m hoping that they will be able to fold an accurate and sleek arc out of 20 mm thick plates.
I have also been talking to some glassblowers about creating a vessel to float one end of the arm on my sculpture. Mathematically and visually this is proving very difficult; I want my work to look elegant and give a certain feel but at the same time I don’t want it to look like a toilet cistern. If the arm is able to float then it will interact with the water much more intuitively and give me the desired qualities that I’m looking for.

We also had to produce a small statement, visual representation and name for our work for the fresh air catalogue. This is all new to me and will be my first public display of my work. It’s quite exciting and interesting to be going through this process I must admit for the most part I’m not enjoying it but the overall experience from start to finish should be good. All educational side also working a lot larger than the normally would and I think this feels quite daunting. There is also a cultural exercise within this project to see how people take to my work. What they think as visually and conceptually.