Daffodil: No-weld armature

Picture taken Tues. May 29, 2012: I noticed that my water is acidic...Mercury, city water...When I coated the sculpture with a magnesium silicate cement, the acid water weakened the sculpture...Then I dropped it & the thumb cracked...Later, I noticed the thumb was self-healing...The glue in the thumb, combined with the marble calcium carbonate, started to heal up the thumb cracks...Lesson learned: calcium carbonate plus cobalt B12 (glue) can heal itself if shattered...So for a broken bone add Cobalt plus Eggshells(CaCo) to your diet...& watch out for acid mercury in your city water supply...Magnesium (Baby Powder talc) will alkalinize your body if it is too acidic...Sprinkle into socks...

Here is "Swanee" over 75 lbs of concrete installed on a rock near a pond 45 minutes NW of Toronto...Swanee is made over an earlier no-weld armature design, 25 feet of galvanized chicken wire scrunched up with coated coat hangers inside the neck as well for support...All tied together with Sisal rope then covered in concrete! 

Rods: size 10-24 Material:Galvanized steel (which doesn't rust in cement) Specifications:Rods are threaded to accept hexagonal nuts which are also threaded

Nuts: size & why: 12-24, these are one size bigger than the rod because the same size nuts get stuck as you try to thread them high up along the rods, the larger size nut still holds true but is easier to wind onto the rods, especially important for complex structures...

Copper Strapping: The holes in the copper strapping fit the 10-24 rod size diameter perfectly, which allows you to join several rods together by pushing them through different holes in the strapping, then bolting them...This makes for tremendous possibilities...I invented this idea because Joseph wouldn't let me weld....(too dangerous)...

3/4 inch flange

3/4 inch black steel nipple to thread into flange

3/4 inch TEE to stick into black steel nipple

The flange, nipple & Tee are all to hold the rod in place...Upright...I have two bolts on the rod & two pieces of copper strapping in a cross shape, to hold the rod steady in the TEE in the nipple in the flange...This keeps the Daffodil upright...

Aluminum mesh screen: I started to wrap the stem of the daffodil with this...Eventually all the petals & any exposed parts will be wrapped in this mesh & that will be tied on with simple copper wire pieces, with the twist tightened with pliers (of each little tie)...Cement needs the mesh to stick to...

Painting: I used the free Painting program for Mac to see how yellow colour will look on the petals...

Preview: I used Preview to cut out the image from its background, which makes shapes easier to discern when planning a piece...(Hit "Select" in Preview, then hit "Lasso Selection", then lasso the entire subject you want to keep, then hit "Invert Selection" from the "File" menu at the very top of your screen, then hit "CUT" in the same top of your screen "File" menu...The Preview function will cut away your background...Fotoflexer.com has a function that does this more subtly, but it takes a little longer than the Preview way...)

"Friend" cultured marble, the size of 2 hands, front, side & back views...

  So I made my own cultured marble from Aragonite sand mixed with Weldbond glue...Yes, that is just crushed marble & glue...I made putty to attach the two pieces together using baby powder (just the all talc kind) mixed with powdered glue...I also discovered that the pure liquid Weldbond glue leaves a shiny coating on the marble if you use it full strength...I also learned that the glass fiber reinforced marble bits were way stronger than the thinner no glass fiber marble mix...So if you are going to make your own marble, use glass fibers to reinforce the mix...The baby Powder to powder glue proportion should be about 1 part to 1 part...That makes a strong putty...Also know that powdered glue gives off way less of a stink than liquid glue- my recommendation is to skip the liquid glue & search for a powdered glue before you start...I had to learn the hard way- via the headache you get from using liquid glue, even with my respirator mask...