Lace metal welding sculptures
February 2, 2008 9:43 PM   Subscribe

From her isolated rural New York property, Cal Lane produces amazing filigree lace patterned sculptures by welding everyday and found objects. My favourites are the shovels and wheelbarrows. Background at New York Times and NSCAD University. [via gardenhistorygirl]
posted by peacay (8 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
The shovels and wheelbarrows are awesome! Very interesting work.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 10:09 PM on February 2, 2008


More like "cutting with a torch" than welding, but whatever you call it she sure does a lot of it.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:01 PM on February 2, 2008


Cool stuff, though perhaps it should be mentioned that the pieces shown in these links have been cut, not welded.

Seattle has some similar public art on display which I find really outstanding (self link).
posted by Tube at 11:07 PM on February 2, 2008


Wow. I just stared at the one called "Fabricate" for a long time. He did that with an oxy-acetelyne torch? By hand?
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:34 AM on February 3, 2008


That last link, gardenhistorygirl, is very cool.

So is the filigree cut into steel, obviously.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:40 AM on February 3, 2008


He did that with an oxy-acetelyne torch? By hand?

art degree + welding degree = lots of fancy plasma cutting

And he is a she. A Canadian woman, born in Nova Scotia, who has also worked as an art professor, welder, veterinary nurse, and hairdresser.
posted by pracowity at 1:20 AM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite]


As usual peacay, you find treasure. I'd seen Cal Lane's lace shovels a while back but not this visual feast of her work. It's lovely. Reminds me a bit of the laciness of henna patterns. The delicacy defies the rigidity of the metal. Such a sensual contrast. She's truly innovated something wonderful and quite humorous too in its clash/mesh of mucho macho and utterly delicate.

Thanks for that info about the plasma cutting pracowity.

Another metal cutting artist: Tom Wesselmann's original idea, that began the cut-out works, was to preserve the process and immediacy of his drawings from life, complete with the false lines and errors, and realize them in steel. At the same time, he pursued another idea - to make tiny, very fast doodles, which he would then enlarge in cut-out metal, preserving the feel and spontaneity of the tiny sketch.

After these cut-out drawings are painted by Wesselmann and nailed tight to a white wall, they have a very intense presence, impossible to anticipate without actually seeing them. In black or shades of gray they look like they have been drawn directly on the wall, but at the same time the thickness of the metal makes a vital contribution to the force and presence of the image. Wesselmann described his elation with the first examples, saying it was as if he could pick up a drawing by the lines, remove it from a piece of paper and hang it, unchanged, on the wall. He referred to these cut-outs as steel drawings.

posted by nickyskye at 2:36 AM on February 3, 2008


Plasma cutters are one of the most ubermensch-y tools out there. You hang on to this poker thng, press a button and steel just vaporizes underneat it in a shower of sparks. I was never able to get sophisticated enough with it to do anything incredibly useful but I've always held a special regard for people who could. Thanks for this peacay and the via link to the garden history blog where many other lovely things hide.
posted by jessamyn at 1:07 PM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite]


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