This week in the studio, I finally had all of the elements necessary to construct my final lighting fixtures. I began the process by attaching the stencils to the vellum print out design. In doing this, I sprayed the black stencils with spray adhesive, and placed them upon the vellum. This resulted in a less than perfect application, but I was happy to see there are areas in which the stencil is not sticking. This allows the viewer to acknowledge that this is not a print out, but an actual hand-cut stencil. After applied, the stencils upon vellum appeared as follows:
Upon my construction of the lighting fixtures, I began by forcing the polycarbonate into the metal structure and holding it together using shrink wrap. After this was done, I drilled through the polycarbonate at a ratio of every 1.5 inches. After drilling, I used a rivet to attach the two layers of polycarbonate together. Following that, I applied the stencil beneath and drilled through the metal, polycarbonate, and stencil to place a rivet there for security. I finally then placed the clouded polycarbonate on top and drilled through it with the metal, finally attaching the rivet, and lighting fixture 1 and 2 were complete.
The after almost completing the third lighting structure and testing the light distribution, I decided that a change needed to be made to my design. Rather than having only one lighting fixture at the top, I decided that two would make the lamp glow more evenly. Now, rather than having the clouded polycarbonate at the bottom of the hanging structure, I would have to develop a structurally sound design that would support a light at each end. This is my challenge in the following week as I begin my installation.
This image is what my studios look like side-by-side just days before the conclusion of IP. My studio space has been extremely influential upon my creation this year, and I love my personal artistic space!
In-studio hours:
· Monday- constructed polycarbonate barrel for lighting fixture 1 (5 hours)
· Tuesday- constructed polycarbonate for lighting fixture 2 and 3 (8 hours)
· Wednesday- applied stencils to 3 lighting fixtures (6 hours)
· Thursday- apply clouded polycarbonate and clean up rivet space (7 hours)
· Friday- finish construction of lamps (12 hours)
· Saturday- begin to research way to attach hanging lighting fixture 3 (4 hours)
· Total: 42 hours
Studio Progress Update for Week of March 26th- April 1st
This week in the studio, I spent the majority of my time creating the lighting fixture structure by altering the shape of the metal. In the cold shop, I first took 6 foot aluminum poling and morphed it into the shape of a circle, varying the curve to match the diameter of the different stencil lengths.
After I had altered the metal to the proper circumferences, I sawed off the excess poling and prepared to weld the aluminum together.
After welding, I needed to make the metal appear as if there were no weld. To do this, I ground down the joint and proceeded to sand the area down to level. In order to make the metal appear uniform throughout, I then also sanded down the remaining surface area of the metal to match the welded area. When I had finished, the metal appeared as such:
I also spent time cutting down the polycarbonate to its proper size and sanding the piece of polycarbonate the would serve as the top for the first two lighting fixtures. This began to be problematic as I hoped to connect them to the metal using rivets. During the bending process of the metal, the gap for which the polycarbonate would be placed had been smashed. This required me to use a hand drill and increase the size of the gap by removing excess aluminum.
In-studio hours:
· Monday- Bent 6 foot aluminum poling for lighting fixture 1 and 2 12AM-4PM (4 hours)
· Tuesday- bent aluminum for lighting fixture 3 and began to cut polycarbonate to fit stencil requirements8:30AM- 4:30PM (8 hours)
· Wednesday- Sanded the polycarbonate and cut to fit exact size, hand-sawed all excess aluminum and prepare to weld 4PM- 10PM (6 hours)
· Thursday- Welded aluminum and began to increase size of gap in aluminum by drilling 1PM- 7 PM (6 hours)
· Friday- Begin to grind down and sand metal for aluminum structure 1 PM- 1 AM (12 hours)
· Saturday- Finish treatement of material and begin to execute full construction of final pieces (3 hours)
· Total: 39 hours
This week in the studio, I spent the majority of my time developing the design and cutting the stencil for my third and final lighting fixture. This last stencil will display the skyline of downtown Detroit. The area is clean and beautiful so I cut it with extremely fine lined details. This first image is the stencil prior to being cut. I will cut the lighter area of the stencil and the darker part will serve as the vellum beneath the stencil cut.
The second image is of me, cutting the stencil in my studio. In addition, the dress I’m wearing is also of my own creation; the material was hand-printed and sewn using a personally customized pattern.
The next image is of the third stencil mid-cut. The stencil is cut entirely by hand using the print out on top of the black paper as a guide.
The final images are of the stencil once it has been completely cut. After many, many hours of work, the stencil is complete and ready to be applied to the vellum layer. This is the completion of my final stencil cut for my IP.
In-studio hours, week 7:
· Monday- Cut stencil 3 10AM-4PM (6 hours)
· Tuesday- Cut stencil 3 8:30AM- 4:30PM (8 hours)
· Wednesday- Cut stencil 3 4PM- 10PM (6 hours)
· Thursday- Cut stencil 3 1PM- 7 PM (6 hours)
· Friday- Finish cutting stencil 3 1 PM- 3 PM (2 hours)
· Total: 28 hours
