Roses

[Big Mick]

I recently got asked by a sculptor friend of mine,to help make a rose sculpture for a show garden at the Tatton Park RHS Flower Show.

She supplied the pieces laser cut and I used hand tools and my English wheel to shape them. The pieces were then polished, welded together and anodised by a local engineering company.








This is a bit of a departure from her usual floral work, which features mainly brightly coloured flat profiles. http://www.ruthmoilliet.com/

Cheers, Mick.

 

[strada]

Hi mick, if im honest,they are a bit plain for me.
just had a nosey on her site and i like some of the other stuff,daisys and the suger stealer's,sunflowers.

 

[Big Mick]

I know what you mean about them being a bit plain. I would like to experiment with etching or blasting some details on the petals after polishing and before anodising, to see what difference it makes. But, as usual we were under a time constraint and had little time to experiment.
Also, the shape of the pre-cut petals was a bit restrictive and I ended up trimming some pieces to facilitate shaping. This is an area that needs more work!

Cheers, Mick.

 

[strada]

Blasting sounds an interesting way to add detail and texture
I think your idea would have made a world of difference to the flowers.

 

[dickie bell]

the work used to get ss parts sandblasted but had to stop as you could never keep them clean , i would suggest getting a trial piece done first just in case.

 

[ChrisJ]

get em on the gas cooker mick!, get a lovely blue color

 

[ford34/2]

Sorry Mick, I much prefer Pauls Roses-- awesome.

Stan

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=30696&highlight=stainless+rose

 

[BrokenBiker]

I like the petals, however for me the stalks are too straight. the pic of paul's rose looks more like a stalk to me.

 

[Big Mick]

I like the petals, however for me the stalks are too straight. the pic of paul's rose looks more like a stalk to me.

I agree with the comments people have made and if more time had been available I would've done things slightly differently. As far as it went, I was pretty pleased with how the larger ones turned out (bearing in mind that I didn't do the final assembly, so couldn't alter anything if I wasn't happy with it).
This was a first attempt at this sort of thing for me and Ruth and I look forward to collaborating with her in the future. We've had a chat about how it turned out and both agree that more leaves with more detail would look better on the stems. As for the anodised finish and the choice of aluminium, that was done on grounds of ease of working and corrosion resistance (and also cost). I would like to try some from stainless, but it's not the easiest stuff to form by hand!!

Cheers, Mick.

 

[pondman]

Hi Mick

I think the roses look great and think they look great in the beds. It's much easier to get detail onto small roses and stainless is a very different material to Ali so I think you've done a great job with a small amount of time and think they can only get better! I love all types of art and steel sculpture and think these have been made very neatly

 

[blacksmithstris]

They look great, the straightness and flatness I think works well, makes them appear otherworldly, however, like has been said, a bit sterile and flat for me, but then I like things kinda craggy!!

I would have had chosen to put them into groups, of three, (following the rules of flower arranging of course!) and i think if you put them together that straightness would actually be accentuated and make it appear more dynamic with the repetition of the petals. iykwim. If you could imagine three of differing heights at each point where there are one in the arrangement they would really make a feature. Of course then they would dominate the garden and the planting would be secondary!! Although I look at the photos again and I think if the height of the planting comes around the straight stalk it might blend them in more... or make them even taller to make a feature of the straightness of the stalks. Turn them into lights or a water feature... ok off i go

I would love one day to do a RHS flower show with my sculpture... good work,well done!!!

 

[strada]

They look great, the straightness and flatness I think works well, makes them appear otherworldly, however, like has been said, a bit sterile and flat for me, but then I like things kinda craggy!!

I would have had chosen to put them into groups, of three, (following the rules of flower arranging of course!) and i think if you put them together that straightness would actually be accentuated and make it appear more dynamic with the repetition of the petals. iykwim. If you could imagine three of differing heights at each point where there are one in the arrangement they would really make a feature. Of course then they would dominate the garden and the planting would be secondary!! Although I look at the photos again and I think if the height of the planting comes around the straight stalk it might blend them in more... or make them even taller to make a feature of the straightness of the stalks. Turn them into lights or a water feature... ok off i go

I would love one day to do a RHS flower show with my sculpture... good

phew ,you been on that there cider ?
you lost me halfway through.i will read it again tomorrow,i haven't slept for 2 days. Lol

 

[BrokenBiker]

They look great, the straightness and flatness I think works well, makes them appear otherworldly, however, like has been said, a bit sterile and flat for me, but then I like things kinda craggy!!

I would have had chosen to put them into groups, of three, (following the rules of flower arranging of course!) and i think if you put them together that straightness would actually be accentuated and make it appear more dynamic with the repetition of the petals. iykwim. If you could imagine three of differing heights at each point where there are one in the arrangement they would really make a feature. Of course then they would dominate the garden and the planting would be secondary!! Although I look at the photos again and I think if the height of the planting comes around the straight stalk it might blend them in more... or make them even taller to make a feature of the straightness of the stalks. Turn them into lights or a water feature... ok off i go

I would love one day to do a RHS flower show with my sculpture... good work,well done!!!

that started off quite mild then fell into overdrive quite quickly

 

[Big Mick]

Thanks for the positive comments guys, I would love to do something like that stainless rose sometime, but for this particular work all the pieces were given to me already laser cut and I had to do my best with that in the time I had.

Cheers, Mick.

 

[Chipper]

Don't get on here much hence late addition, but I think they're great; considering they're conceptual sort of things and not detailed models, and the display is about the flower bed/design thing and not the metal flowers, they do the job just right. More detail would be distracting.

I make small flowers in a more 'modelled' way, like this, but your ones do the job they were meant for better than that type, to these eyes. I'd love to have a reason to make some big 'uns..

 

[blacksmithstris]

only just read this now...

what can I say, I went to art school... I am fluent in arty ****** or I could have also been on the cider!

 

[chunkolini]

Dont like them.
Nicely made but too mass produced looking for me. There seems to be a lot of stuff in this kind of style lately.
They look almost imposed on the garden space instead of being part of it. or something like that. The rivets (screws?) also grate to me, I was brainwashed by the book Direct Metal Sculpture by Trevor Faulkner, an old book but he has a massive rant about fixings and fixtures.
This another interesting thread, people are expressing opinions on a subjective matter and nobody is getting all snotty about it. Typical of this forum.

 

[Big Mick]

Thanks for your comments Chunko, I agree with your observations about the fastenings, all I can say is that I didn't do that bit of the assembly and you're right about the use of fasteners there.
As for the arty ****** side of things, that's not really my department. Although a lot of the final form was left to my imagination (which is probably why it looks a bit too plain for your tastes).
In other news, I'm painting some MDF plinths to go with another of Ruth's works. I'll post some pics when I get them.

Cheers, Mick.

P.S. that Giraffe looks awesome!!