Finally installed and running

The finished piece in the emergency waiting room - the ducks have carbon fibre wings, driven by brass cams and rod ends. A negative mold was made for the wings with pottery clay and the feathers were indented with the blade of a table knife. Then a plaster positive followed by a plaster negative into which the fabric and resin was laid down. It would have taken too long for the clay to dry.
The crocodile runs up and down on a linear bearing of my own design. The large central sprocket is part of an idler that gears his cocking mechanism down, and a counterweight made of an old fire extinguisher was also added because the small DC motor only draws a couple amps and couldn't cope with the whole lift. The electronics were designed and built by my son Jim using two 555 timers. When the buttons are pushed it completes a cycle -first it wouldn't go at all because the reed switch position indicator didn't turn back off when the crocodile was at the bottom due to the high gearing so he invented a cheat with small capacitor in series with the logic circuit and a 1 meg resistor across that to bleed it slowly. After a cycle the thing is locked out for two minutes to prevent it being worn out by the younger set.
What I love about steel - it is so light and airy.

Mersey Commission

Here are the rough brass castings for the cams and other bits as they came out of the plaster molds

Mersey commission

Update on progress:
Crocodile mounted on a linear bearing at top of stroke peering above the glass water line. Cutting and fitting the holes in the glass was a real adventure, using a Dremel with a diamond bur and a hose trickling over the work. It only took a couple hours to do all the holes in the 10 mm. plate glass but I almost lost it twice. If you see a little radial crack start (I had gotten cocky and went right through too early) you have to either drill a hole in front of it or follow it to the bitter end and remove it entirely. The secret is several fold - great care not to allow the bit shank to touch the work , and to cut round and round to an even depth. At half way you turn it over and before you finish leaving a straight run for the bitter end you have tiny holes all the way through all around. There is still a slump ahead to give it some ripples and general character
The frame is pretty much finished and there are a few small bronze mechanical parts ready to cast to finish the mechanism. These are quite a pretty little abstract sculpture out of machined wax without any intent other than practical - it has to fit in the flask for investment with sprues adequate for metal feed, to support the parts while joined in such a way as to make cutting apart easy and air to escape

Commission- Automaton

The individual figures were produced as per older posts. But putting it together is a bigger challenge as it has to work together in 3 dimensions and have a compositional integrity. So molds have been made of these figures (without wings for future possibilities) and then they were welded to the floor of my workshop in an artistic configuration, as close as possible with room for supporting columns containing a push rod for the wings to flap, and the sweep of the intended wings carefully measured for clearance with the other figure and the glass panels. It was then photographed for two elevations and a plan view and these were resized so as to be correct for the scale of the drawings and printed. At that stage the headroom could be worked out , the height of the metal frame, and the figures traced straight on the drawing by placing the drawing over the print on my living room window.

New Commission

These are the main figures for an automaton. They have been made by welding up steel rods into armatures and then welding a cover of flat bar or whatever other parts are required. The duck's face is made out of two old stainless steel spoons and screws onto the body with a BSP pipe thread built inside. The modelling and mobile joints are worked through in this stage and then the driving machinery which is in machined and welded metal and forms a large part of the composition.

This little crocodile in mild steel will stalk two ducks which are just taking flight. His jaws snap as he rises up through an indicated waterline. The eyes are scrapped ball bearings and the sockets are a fragment of the original steel races. The teeth are short lengths of stainless steel which will not take the black stain that touches the rest of the body.

And here is my wife with the mostly finished figures to date. The body of the duck is made of mild steel like the crocodile and is yet to be stained and lacquered. The art deco tail is made of old table knives.

The Gadarene Swine

The following three items are older works.

The Gadarene Swine is oil on masonite with a carved huon pine frame, 950 x1000. The story is that Jesus came to the land of the Gadarenes and was told of a madman who dwelt by the Sea of Galilee possessed of a demon. He went to the man and said "Demon, what is thy name?"
And the answer came; "We are legion." (which is to say there were a lot of them)
"Oh Son of God, cast us not into the abyss, rather let us enter yonder herd of pigs on the hillside."
And at that the demons fled from the afflicted man, entered the herd of pigs, which fled down the hill and plunged into Galilee and were drowned all 2000 of them and the Gadarenes asked Jesus to please leave their country.
As if the well- being of one madman was more important to the economy than 2000 pigs. The Gadarenes cannot have been very good Jews, for it is the law that no pig should set foot in the land of Israel. So the kibbutzim raise them on platforms these days. Here I am emphasizing the Malthusian connotations.

The Life of the Artist

Tryptych in oil on masonite. The whole thing is about 1100x2100 mm, the frame is white sassafrass.
The artist is born to the discomfiture of parents and family. It is after all not the sort of profession they would choose however it is suitable to misfits. Later he practices his profession, chases girls and comes to the notice of the authorities, who naturally hate them for some reason known only to tyrants. Perhaps it is a sense of humour. Finally he is publicly hung, causing only minor controversy. And even in death he still has a roving eye.