Sunday, June 11, 2017

Big timbers

©2017 Barry Smith - Spotted Gum - cracks filled
The installation of the large Buttress Root sculpture is scheduled, weather permitting, for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week. A lot of planning and coordinating has gone into it given there are many organisations and workers doing different technical tasks.

In addition to sculpture we will also be installing a large timber PoetryPost - the four faces of which will be used to carry the full versions of poems on the Buttress Root and also a story and acknowledgement sign. Each of the poems and sign will be on A4 sized stainless steel sheets. The post will be capped with a stainless steel cover.

I had three large (25cm square and just over 2m long) timber hard wood (Spotted Gum) posts cut from salvaged wood and delivered quite some time ago. Over the weekend I sanded and coated one of the posts in readiness for pick up on Tuesday morning. The timber is a beautiful reddish-brown colour.

©2017 Barry Smith - Top post before sanding and coating 
©2017 Barry Smith - Top post sanded and coated - doesn't look to be a lot of difference - the coating brings out the colour a bit more
One of the challenges with such big pieces of timber is that unless they have been kiln dried they do tend to split after milling.As the fist photo and the one below show I had to fill some cracks with timber epoxy filler.

©2017 Barry Smith - Spotted Gum - cracks filled
I could not resist taking a photo of the rusty cast-iron wheel sitting on the eroded end of the post below. The cast-iron wheel is used to secure the covering for timber.

©2017 Barry Smith - Timber and rust


Blogs latter next week might reveal the installed sculpture.

2 comments:

  1. Really like your different photos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, that's big pieces of wood, how long have you seasoned it?

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcomed - it is good to connect with fellow travellers.