Fishbowl Metal Shop

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  Rear hoop is welded back in place, and two new stainless steel poles are fitted. The pole’s inside diameter are larger than the previous poles outside diameter.

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  They have bumped the Subaru out of her garage. Still some metal chase and patina needed, but the industrial welding is done.

Climate Weirding Spawn?

Just after dark on Wed the 27th an email came in from a fellow SLC artist, informing me that his neighbor had just recovered a pair of my trout that were lying in the street/median after an apparent hit and run by a car. This is the same group that was hit by a car previously, and I headed up to see how the triple group faired. The triple group was hit as well, but the ground was soft from our recent weeks of rain and they were just pushed to a 35 degree tilt- all the welds held and they weren’t dented this time. There was still a stream hoop from the missing pair topping one of two shoved-over poles, the hoop was in good shape save for the missing everything else. There was a lot of car debris: headlight, grill bits, trim, etc. It must have been a newer car with the updated pedestrian safety standards, saving the sculptures from the beating they had taken a few years ago. I headed over to the rescuer’s house, she met me at the door telling me a pair of young fellows had helped her lift the sculpture into her SUV. Her husband helped me move the pair of trout and their remaining hoop into the truck- and easy shift across.

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  After a night in the bed of the truck the trout are eager to swim free.

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  I use the hoist to fly them off of the tailgate.

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  The lead trout is tattooed with tire treads, rubber skids and mud- with a long scrape.

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  Healed.

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  The skid-marks culminated in a mess of white paint, transferred from the car to the sculpture.

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  The paint erases almost entirely.

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  Here and there are blips of yellow curb paint / scuffs.

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  The entire sculpture is washed, waxed, and polished.

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  This is their second time back home in the studio since they were originally installed back in 2008. The last time was 2019.

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  Their usual home is the busy intersection of 1300 E and 2100 S.

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  The stream hoop slid along the ground- some bright spots emerged from under a skein of mud and will need new patina.

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  This is the tail of the following fish, where the group tore away from the back hoop.

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  After getting things squared away with the Arts Council, and the police being notified that I would be removing the hoop, I cut it from the pole.

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  The fish tail fits to the golden scar.

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  The weld to the stainless steel pipe sheared clean on the hoop still connected to the group, as that took the full force of the car. That same force hit this rear weld, shearing it clean.

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  All of my welds connecting the tout to the shared hoop held. The past accident had been more severe tearing up all the original welds.

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  The center hoop is the main support for both fish, with many points of contact. The rear hoop has just the one (broken) welded tail of the follow fish.

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  This little guy was the lead fish of the entire group back in 2019, and took a harder hit then- knocked clean from the hoop with many torn fins. The lead fish of the triple group back then needed dents pounded out by drilling holes from the opposite side. The past triage can be seen by selecting “Cutthroat” from categories list under the title, at the top left of the post.

Xeriscape sculpture garden sprouts ancient MFA figure.

I sez to her, I sez, “What are yuh, 18 years old now? Time to get out from under my roof!”

I had some extra steel in the shop from building out the Rocket Mass Heater and decided to put it toward art’n. Yesterday I welded this cantilever base, bolted her back leg through the metal tube and welded a strap across the bronze between her feet to make sure she stayed put, then set her in the yard with a concrete footing.

She feels like she has always been here.

The aluminum figures around the ponds aren’t sure what to make of a bronze figure.

Trout Transport

Sunday morning re-installation of Bonneville Upstream.

My friend Jed arrives with his handy trailer. This will make 21 fish he has helped me install.

Jed backed his twisty little trailer all the way inside the shop, all in one smooth line from the street. Impressive! The upright 2×4 is his steering guide.

I levitate the triple group of trout while Jed backs the trailer underneath.

Trout settle down, making ready for the next group.

Safety Comes When Man says, “Attach the hoist before freeing the sculpture.”

My neighbor, Chris, drops in to lend a hand. The three of us removed the trout months ago after their auto/ichthyes incident, and we will also put them back in.

Lashing down frisky fish for a ride through Sugarhouse.

We’ll be moving upstream about a mile, and trout need to move upstream to breath. This should wake them up from their long dormancy in the studio.

The Bean Whole fish transport; fueled by Jed’s craft-roasted coffee.

The rest of the morning was up at the intersection of 2100 S 1300 E, with the long turn lane still closed for street construction. This gave us a nice safe space to park and work from. The City’s public art coordinator, Kat Nix, brought hardhats and safety jackets for the guys, and pitched in with the work. The director of Salt Lake City’s Arts Council, Felicia Baca, also stopped in, joking around at how I used to be her boss back when I ran Global Artways for the City. After Jed and I had dug out the holes and installed the paired group into concrete footings, Chris made a quick trip up to help us lift the triple group into position and slurry in the concrete. Everything went swimmingly, and the trout are happily in the current again.

On-site at the intersection in the closed left turn lane. The spot just in front of the oncoming car is where they will go.

We have loosed the fish from their tie-downs, and they are ready to leap into place.

Kat keeps on eye on them while I get the fish food.

Professional fish wranglers, like Lion Tamers of yesteryear, know the essential function of a bristling manly mustache when confronting The Wild.

The pair-group jumps right into place and gets their treats.

The triple group jumps next, sassing for treats.

Jed and I stand about while the concrete cures.

They are excited to be back out in public again, among the rushing cars.

Once the concrete sets, we spread the soil and ground cover so everything looks tidy.

Another good day of fishing.

Triple Fish Double Sticks

Yesterday the pair received stainless poles, today the triple got theirs.

Today I levitated the pole into position with my mind. Why didn’t I think of that sooner?

Triple with double poles. Welding took a bit more knowhow today; filling gaps between the sculpture and the pole by building up wide platforms with fat bead on the sculpture, then switching style for a strong connection to the stainless- all with the same too skinny rod, and always in an awkward crouch that makes running the foot pedal tricky.

Fish Sticks.

This morning’s email had a message from the City; the shattered poles have been removed from the sculpture site and re-installation is game-on. Time to get the Trout on their new poles!

The shop becomes a fishbowl again. Time for the fish to sprout legs- stainless steel poles.

The clamps and rulers and sticks are how I establish Level & Vertical when the trout are suspended upright. Here they are suspended on their sides, with the stainless steel pipe aligned to the base of the stream hoops. I thread the pipe through ladders to establish Horizontal & Parallel from the upright measure of Level & Vertical.

Then the poles are welded in place. A bit more than half way around.

I welded the new pole to the original pole, after getting them to seat together. The force of the accident is apparent here, as the the old pipe is crushed up into the steambed form.

Almost flipped over enough to weld the underside of the pipe. The hoist was blocking the rotation, so down it came and the webbing was refit, then it lifted clear.

The pair is finished up and tied off to the float beam and its support leg, making space for the bigger group.

This rowdy bunch.

Rolled onto the side after establishing Vertical & Horizontal.

The force of the accident really pushed the bronze around. This is as close as it could come back, as the positioning of the trout are what hold the group together. The portion of pipe to the left will be cut at an angle to butt up the adjoining pipe in alignment with Horizontal & Parallel. Tomorrow.

Patina Fix for Trout Pair

The pair is cleaned and waxed.

All welds, road rash & dings, car paint & rubber bumper transfer have been turned back to fish skin and stream stones with grasses.

After adding in new patina at welds and dings, the sculpture is left to warm in the sun. Once toasty, I paint on a layer of clear wax, let it cool, and buff it off. Then warm it in the sun again. This view shows the rear fin’s weld to the hoop, and the front fin’s weld to a stream stone.

Another view of the front fin connected to a stream stone. A tan stone behind the fin is making it a bit visually confusing.

The rear fin from the opposite side. This weld is the only connection to this stream hoop, so it is hefty all the way around.

This fin had been ripped nearly off, and was clapped against the fin on the other side.

The third main anchor weld is the fin connection to the front hoop. A section of the stainless pipe is visible under the rear hoop, it’s weird angle shows the force of the impact. It will be cut away and replaced.

Happy to be clean and waxed, the pair will return to the studio to wait next to their stainless steel poles.

Reuniting the Trout

The knocked apart pair finally were released for me to reassemble.

They had some boo-boos.

And they had some ouchies.

Magical salmon glow underlays all fish welds.

There were three broken welds that joined the two fish. One.

Two.

Three.

The fish are tied down to my new hand truck, awaiting patination fix.

Swimmingly is how they are doing.

This is a recurring nightmare for a dented bumper somewhere out there.

Bonneville Trout color match.

The trout are all finished out. When last we saw them, they were undergoing reconstructive surgery from their car attack. Since then I set a new cold patina to etch and seal the naked bronze, then went about color matching. They are all dolled up with patina renewed, and the entire form cleaned and waxed. When their sister pair is released from police evidence, I’ll finish out that set, then add new stainless steel mounting poles to both sets.

The fishies are ready for inspection: welded, chased, color matched.

Feeling swimmingly.

Reconstructive surgery was successful!

A view of the opposite side.

This was the side with the long dent that I pounded out from the inside.

There are two tiny perfect triangles stamped low in his brow, cool scars he wanted to keep, cuz he’s a tough guy who’s lived a rough and tumble life; fought a car and won.

This hoop belongs to the pair still in police holding. The near side had been bent toward us, ripping the metal open on the inside. I bent it back into place with a come-along, then welded, chased, and color matched it.

Feelin’ streamy. The bronze spot (with grasses covering it from above) is where the fish mounts via weld.

Trout Triple: Triage

Triple digit heat finally let off today, allowing triple trout triage. The double trout set is still held as evidence in the City’s court proceedings with the driver that smashed into them, but I thought I’d get started on the big triple group. The car had slid up and over the front fish of the group, gouging in many deep lines along both sides of the fish and worse, pushing a big running dent.

The long running dent

Backfilling the dent with weld is one solution, another is drilling a hole at the bottom and on the opposite side; for pounding it back in shape from the inside.

Hammer Hits: Pounding rod / 20 hits, then hit hand. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Slooowly the metal reshapes.

Looks about like the other side- nearly new!

Scrapes and dent removed, down to shiny fish skin.

Big scratches on the opposite side are blended out as well. Plus, the hammerin’ hole is backfilled and smoothed over.

The hammerin’ hole on the chest is welded closed and chased out as well.

A snapped weld joining the fish to the stream hoop gets fixed. The fish is amazed!

I clear the bronze and put on a chemical base layer. This etches the bronze and seals it.

Now I’ll have to match the patina, then clean and wax the group.

They will wait to get their new stainless steel poles until the City gives me the other group, and I’ll add poles to both groups at the same time.