Holiday Survived, 2010 Approaching!

Well, with two weeks having passed and much change on the horizon I can finally get back to bringing this blog up to speed. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with their friends and family. We had a quiet one, being our first in Hood River. But now the excitement of the approaching New Year is starting to bubble. As you can imagine, 2010 will be big in my book.

Tripple Decker Man Sheeting Sandwich

So here we have Joel, originally from the Dalles, but flew in from Hawaii to help on this job (yellow pants). Then Worm and Mike in the middle. And Kenny and Josh at the base. Here they are laying the R19 insulation down over the girts, then fastening the sheeting over the insulation. A bit tricky if you ask me. cool to see the use of the lifts. I still need to work on learning how to run all that cool equipment. Only problem is most of the time they aren’t using it, its DARK.

So this was the 1st day of sheeting, tweaking the details. Since then a good deal has happened, but really a lot of the same so I will jump to a more exciting zoom through time to this…..

NW corner from the inside....sweet! Can you feel the warmth yet?

Here we have an interior view of the front of the building insulated and sheeted. Roofing starts tomorrow, but you can see where the gallery space will be in this image, as well as the 2nd floor office/mezzanine.

Speaking of mezzanine, while it would be nice if it were steel, I will be moving over to finalizing the storage and office area layout. Engineered prints will determine the framing and hopefully we will start this in the next few weeks. So much to do, so little time. Fortunately I did manage to finally get back to what I know better, which is fabricating. In this next picture you can see not only my crazy artist color design for the building shell (yeah), but also the sign I fabricated in my mom’s garage, along with the graphics I designed and had printed at “Print It Sign Media”. The logo I am so proud to unveil was designed by Christine Linder, a dear friend of mine who runs the Visual Communications Dept at Chemeketa Community College where I used to teach and be an administrator (all in the past now.)

Tell me, have you see such a colorful warehouse?

So about these colors. I actually spent a great deal of time looking at tiny swatches trying to determine what the heck to do, and obviously this funny little combo is what I came up with. While one color would be drab, and two would be…well too much of something, the antique bronze, burgundy, and silver just seemed complimentary. Across the front of the building as I’ve mentioned before, will be a large glass and galvanized steel awning that will bring more silver into the composition…I mean building appearance. We’ll see how it all works, but what is done is done. Hope you all like it. I think its crazy rad. Just remember, tell people to look for the purple building……Right?

So before I leave this short post, I want to give some props to my crew.  Kenny the foreman, Josh, Worm, Mike, Joel, now Jeremy back on site (from concrete days), and last but not least Bobbie.  While Bob knows I can be a bit of a handful at times…..I Like Communication.  The guys enduring the weather, materials, and labor have been great.  I know egos fly sometime but I can’t express how much I appreciate their effort, good attitudes, and determination.  I look foward to the day I can offer them a hot cup of joe in a hot toasty studio.  And how Kenny and Josh make it to the site by 6:30 or so, even on some of these crazy snowy days (commuting from the couve,…I don’t know).  Thanks guys for the early morning starts and great work.

Framework means Infrastructure!

Sorry I haven’t written in some time, to those checking in. Busy week. Fortunately while I’ve been running around much of Oregon working on other projects, researching hot shops, etc, the team continued to forge forward with erecting the steel and the concrete work. Here you can see Levi diggin’ away pulling concrete down the shoot to get it in the last sculpture pad. It was cold and things were setting up quickly.

Levi, in the concrete shoot. Pouring the last pad.

Jeremy spraying off the top layer to expose the rock. Brrrrrrr

The concrete has a calcium additive that helps it set up faster, also known as an accelerator. This is partially to deal with the cold temperatures. It was to freeze a day or so after this pour so we covered everything with plastic and straw. In this image above you can start to see the expansion joints Levi added. It almost looks like a ginkgo leaf, the slab that is.

Josh and Kenny set perlins. Nice Mt. Adams view!

Things progress on the side of the steel erecting. Here you can see the main trusses and columns set. Josh and Kenny are the tiny people in that green man lift setting the purlins. Purlins are the cross member supports that run from truss to truss. You can also get an idea of the Mt. Adams view we’ll be having from the front of the building.

Josh and Kenny setting the last end column. Sweet!

Its amazing to see how such big pieces of steel go up so quickly. Its all in the details, the bolts, etc that obviously take a great deal of time. As you can see even though this week was bitter cold at times, the sun still came out to warm things up a bit. I think the temperature ranges swayed from 8 degrees to 25.

Glad they know how to keep warm. I think just a few minutes after this picture, they’d been moving around so much they started taking off layers. Not Me!

So while they were busy at the site, Thursday I took a trip to Cannon Beach to visit Ice Fire Glassworks, owned and operated by Jim and Suzanne. Nicest people. If you are ever out that way, stop in an check out their work. They blow some beautiful glass. They were excessively generous with their time and thoughts on running a hot shop (also known as a glass blowing studio). While we reviewed equipment choices and layout, I also admired their beautiful work.

Window display at Ice Fire Glassworks in Cannon Beach

The drive to Cannon Beach was beyond lovely with it only getting warmer as I approached the ocean. Sunny and crisp, I gave myself a few minutes to enjoy the sand, sun, and crashing waves before I headed back toward Portland.

35 degrees never felt so good.

After this brief but beautiful visit to the beach I returned fortunately to then pay a visit to Effective Heat Glassworks and Brent Hickenbotham the owner. While I’m in the midst of designing the hotshop, this company (Brent) will be building the furnace. Seeing that I built the last large piece of equipment for the studio, it is a huge decision for me to select an individual and or company to provide something of this nature. Although after a myriad of questions, which many of you know I am good for, and many good words about Brent’s expertise and reliability, I have chosen this route.

A little glass furnace history. So within the art glass world, an ever evolving realm in itself, artists have most frequently built their own glass melters. Designs have come and gone, been modified and expended a tremendous amount of energy along the way. Obviously the cost of running a piece of equipment at roughly 2100 degrees continuously in order to have several hundred lbs of hot glass available on demand is no cheap feat. So in the last few years when the development of the moly-furnace (named after the type of elements used for heating (molybdium) came about huge strides were made. Now after several years of development, Brent being directly involved in building, testing, and research, the furnaces being made have an excessively high level of efficiency due to the combination of thermal refractories, form design, high level electronic controls, etc. Brent would have much fancier language to use describing all of this, but you get the point.

Sanding board.

So the next day, I headed to the studio to be joined by Scott (friend, Architect, and art enthusiast) and Lonnie (fellow sculptor and curious about glass). The task for the day was to sand the 14ft by 8ft brick bed of my large kiln, flat and level, then level all the individual bricks for very large shelves to sit on for firing. Thanks to their help we accomplished this task by attaching a huge piece of sand paper to a board and framework (which you can see in the front of the picture), the laser level checked areas across the bed, then proceeded to sand.

This worked out wonderfully. And while it was cold, we kept moving and managed to get the job done in 8 hours. Here they are and the beautiful shelves that now are ready to receive large amounts of melting glass. Thanks for tuning in. More to come next week.

Thanks to Lonnie and Scott for another leveling story

Big Glass on its way!

Steel meets Sky, and then some!

Well, a week of trusted steel erection is now underway with apx half the building framework up. Temperatures are dropping, yet this week the sun still shone. Many mornings greeted us with a mystical layer of frost, although I’m sure the guys were thinking of it in other terms. I set up a nice little spot in the shipping container, with warm beverages and such so they can have something to take the chill out.

Truss #1 on its way in place, day 1. Sweet!

Steve (looking), Kenny (on lift), Josh, and John

As the crew worked away to erect the steel, we were busy receiving a huge mountain of insulation. If you hadn’t figured out yet, I’m planning on staying warm in this building. For those of you don’t know, I haven’t had heat in my studio for over 6 years now. Last year I got pneumonia so, its the end of freezing my ….off. This building has radiant heat in the slab and an insulation package that exceeds code. Why make heat if you’re going to let it escape. I think I will have a lot of friends next winter looking to get warm. Come on by, but plan to sweat.

Massive progress happening. Levi rockin' the crete!

So here you can see the building being erected, a beautiful view of Mt. Adams, and Levi working to pour the concrete for one of the sculpture/picnic pads. This is actually a special project, I mentioned earlier, with the curved profile. Later that day we had good fun cutting in artistic expansion joints and placing glass in the concrete as it set up. After this pad, another truck came and proceeded to fill the rest of the 9 pads, all of which Levi filled, leveled, and finished. Hard worker that Levi. Excellent craft and couldn’t ask for a better attitude. Glad to have your help Levi. Hope we can do some more artsy crete in the future. You’re on for sidewalks right?

That’s all for now folks, I’ll write more tuesday. Have a great week.

Here's me, placing glass in the slab.

My mom and I on site, in front of the mt of insulation. No the building is not crooked, just the photographer.

A little art break, then back to the building!

So, this is my first blog, and to be frank, I’m still trying to figure out the way the posting works. Not sure if the dates of things are supposed to go backwards or what, but I guess if you’re a reader, you’ll find stuff by poking around archives to see where we came from since the most recent post obviously has some history behind it. So…where are we?

Beautiful sunny fall days in Hood River! Sun Dance in Action! The wind is starting to pick up, getting a bit blistery really. I’m just relieved all these guys are so tough. We’ll see how I hold up. I’m going to jump back in time, since I brought up history. What brought me and all of you here? Well…its my art. So I’m going to litter this post with some images of what I do, which in my mind…is really only the beginning since once this studio is up, fire will break loose. FUN!

"Sisters of Fire", 26" x 15" x 4" cast glass and stainless steel

Custom cast glass sink, counter, and vanity. Total creative freedom. Love it!

"Jamaica" 3ft by 1.5ft by 1ft, Cast glass

So, for those of you not familiar with any of the above. The top right shows a cast glass sculpture mounted in stainless steel. The process of casting glass requires a model to be made in clay. If one is only concerned in producing a piece just once, a high temperature mold is made around the clay. The clay is removed once the mold is cured, cleaned, and placed in a kiln filled with glass the color of one’s choice. Then the kiln is fired slowly to dry the mold and melt the glass into the mold. This happens at apx 1500 degrees. Then depending on the size and thickness of the piece it is brought down to room temperature over a number of days, ie. annealing. “Jamaica” took 1 month to fire and weighs over 120lbs.

Factoid: Glass weighs 156 lbs per cubic foot.

"Mariposa" 12ft by 4ft by 3ft, powder coated steel, cast and laminated glass

This is “Mariposa”, a piece I designed and fabricated in 2008. She is installed temporarily in Lake Oswego.

Sculpture is a form of visual communication. While I enjoy music a great deal, the silence that accompanies sculpture, gives room to the viewer’s own ideas, thoughts, feelings, and revelations.

I made this piece shortly after my father passed. While I had designed it several years prior, it seemed fitting to create a piece that revolves around the moment of rest, anticipation, beauty, freedom, and the many other images this work evokes. I have had viewers ask me if the base is a serpent or even a caccoon (its open on the reverse side). Well, its all of the above. The form yields the stem of a flower, an opening cacoon, as well as the serpent rising from the earth. Why only be one thing when it can be them all?

Well, that’s enough about the art thing. So, just scrapping the surface. The last few days have yielded an amazing point in our construction. The Arrival of the building. Now this was just stunning really. Let me share……I have dreamed of this for so long, yet just 5 months ago I finally designed the studio with markers, tape, misc…some computer work…I’m always caught between the two. The learning curve I’ve endured is insane to say the least. From selecting land, to diligence to selecting a building supplier, to engineering, to contractor selection to…its still going. Then there is the building, determining features…height, snow load (its over), future awnings, use of the space, flow, feng shui….you know all that. But the lingo. do you know what a C, Z, girt, purlin, mobile clip, standing seam, tri or quad lock is?….yikes. Now I know.

The Building Arrives!

Truck #1...The Red Iron Arrives! Thank you R & M Steel.

Truck#2 the Roof and Sheeting.

So here we have two very large trucks bringing my building.  Wow!

And thankfully John,  a very careful equipment operator behind the controls of the Gradall.  Now I know I’m probably spelling the name of that massive forklift wrong, but that’s how it sounds anyway.  I’m not clear as to just how many pieces came off those trucks.  Inventory is still in progress. But to see the steel in so many shapes and even colors and to know it will all go together to create the studio is beyond exciting.  Check out a few action and artsy shots here.

Standing Seam Roofing,...reminds me of wings.

The beauty to Standing Seam is that not one single screw penetrates the roof in its fastening to the frame.  It uses a mobile clip that bolts to the perlins (roof cross members).  Then the roofing gets seamed and clipped in, allowing for expansion and contraction with hot and cold exposure.  This type of roof will outlast any other standard metal roofing system.  We’ll need some snow breaks though if I’m to keep gutters on the building.

How to hug a building backwards!

Look at the size of those trusses!

Yeow.  I love it love it love it.  Hopefully I can make sculpture this big someday.  Hee Hee.

Next morning, columns go up.

One piece at a time, quickly it seems, this building is on its way up.  The new crew that is once again the Mission Men…or lets say men on a mission to get Laurel’s building up…before winter really sets in…include Bob, John, Ken, Josh, Gerry, and Steve.  I have only had the pleasure of meeting Bob thru Josh at this time, but they have all had at least something to laugh about on the site.   Not sure what though

Hopefully the positive attitudes will also yield warmth.

Extra Curricular Expansion

So on a side note, we (Tim, Daniel, and myself) have been working away at creating several sculpture pads around the site.  Most of which will be in the front and along the road where I plan to develop a sculpture garden.  Included in this next concrete pour, we have an artsy approach.  I’ve heard several gasps….mostly at the size and amount of the rebar I placed in this one area,  but as many of you are figuring out….I’m no shortage of ideas and if you are going to pour concrete and want it to hold something down…..might as well over do it so that something can be super big.  Right?  Here are a few pictures of my adventure clearing out the hole, designing and placing rebar.

My weekend rebar adventure.

Look at the beautiful perfect curve forms Tim and Daniel set up for the edge of this pad.  What outstanding work.  This is just a stellar example of how even though I designed this form, I don’t think I could have dialed this in nearly as well as this team.  Its like everyone doing their part, doing what they excel at makes for a beautiful creation.  I’ll just settle for being the Jacqueline of all Ideas, Master of Manifestation.  Jack can stay at home and master nothing.

Tomorrow we pour these pads, and this one has a little surprise coming.  Thanks for reading.