Aluminum Playday

Kevin (and Arthur and I, but mostly Kevin) have taken to scrapping old trailers.  Recently we took one down not far from the house.  Aluminum and steel are the main items for the Reclamation Centers (Recycling).  Copper wire is also something to keep an eye out for.

This melting expedition included aluminum from that scrapping job as well as our own private collection of candy wrappers (from Christmas) and assorted aluminum pieces saved from the trashcan in the kitchen.   The more we can return to nature, recycle or reuse the better.  

Kevin has played at melting down aluminum for a while now and the experiments have been simple, mainly seeking out suitable molding mediums.  He and I had spent hours designing lovely patterns in plaster of Paris only to find that the hot aluminum cracked them. So this time we played with both sand/dirt and concrete. 

As you can see from the collage, with our makeshift furnace and crucible we are very much novices. Our process is refined bit-by-bit, experiment-by-experiment. And it doesn’t hurt that Kevin likes playing with fire, and concrete and wood and, well the list goes on an on….

For me, I’d like to create aluminum focal points for the jewelry like sun catcher creations I build.  Ever the master fabricator, Kevin will design as well as see the project into production.

From these humble beginnings we have high aspirations. Exploring where our creativity motivations take us has become a major component in our lives.  The impulse to create is strong and we are delighted to answer the call.

~ Cheryl

Sunburst Table - StickStoneSteel 1st Appearance!

Recently one of our previous clients asked told us about a non-profit charity auction she is holding to benefit for two women; one dealing with breast cancer and the other hodgkin’s lymphoma. She asked Kevin if he would donate some of what she calls his ‘rustic’ hand made furniture for the cause. He happily complied. 

She then asked if he could supply benches and tables for the food court seating of the Deep Roots Festival, Milledgeville, Georgia where her auction will take place.

With less than a month to go, Kevin plunged into his "StickStoneSteel" mode.  Between the Saw Mill fall off and the collection of items collected and obtained over time his palate was already full.

He’d already been playing with forge bending steel for benches for our own deck so Naturally while his mind clicked away at designs for benches made out of fall off wood he came into the house and asked me for whatever poster paint Arthur had left over in the craft cupboard.

Within in minutes, under the carport he had a concrete garden walk paver balancing on a couple bags of concrete and was joyfully painting away like a happy kid. 

With limited colors, he went freewheeling; digging at the bottom of the bottles where the thick colored gook had accumulated. He managed to scrape more than enough yellow for the center.  I watched him artfully dash out orange and red rays from that yellow core.  I am pretty sure he was fighting the urge to unleash a wild splattering of paint at it but refrained.

Hours later, after the paint had dried he brought the stand to the house.  Chain welded together for the tripod legs with a used saw blade to secure the balance. What you can’t see from this picture is an old grinding wheel holding the concert paper in place with a heavy nut and bolt.

Arthur has made a request that Kevin build one like this for his room.  I want one too!   Guess we’ll have to get more poster paint.  :)

~Cheryl