Chris Bathgate Sculpture Works

Chess by Bathgate

2013-05-03T07:34:00.000-07:00

It has been many months since the last time I completed a work or made a new post. This is all because I have been hard at work on a bit of a departure from my normal sculpture. I have been working on a project that has turned out to be one of the more complex and satisfying things I have ever had the luxury to attempt. It also just so happens to be a rather unique chess set.

I feel I should preface this post by saying that I very rarely if ever take on projects that produce works that have defined functions. I am approached fairly regularly by people that enjoy my work, who are curious if I am interested in making custom furniture or other functional objects for them that would have the same flavor as my sculptures.

This always flatters me, but I always decline. It is not that I don’t think some of the ideas would make for interesting projects, or that furniture or anything with function is somehow beneath me. It is simply because, as an artist, I am just much more interested in my own work, which involves exploring that blurry space where objects with no function begin to suggest that they might have one, without ever truly making that transformation. It is objects that defy categorization that most interest me, and I try to limit things that will distract me from that.

But the proposition of making a chess set, held a number of unique challenges and opportunities that I just could not resist.

For one, there is actually quite a long history of fine artists creating chess sets. Marcel Duchamp, Bauhaus, Calder, Damien Hirst, Yoko Ono and too many more to list, have all designed a chess set for one reason or another during their careers. So it would seem to me, that there must be some sort of universal appeal to this particular exercise for artist of all kinds.

Additionally, I personally have a short history of making two separate chess sets in my youth, which I had all but forgotten until this project surfaced. My first, I built when I was in middle school. I had stumbled across a large box of hardware and bolts in my basement. A find that I quickly and instinctively assembled into a crude chess set made of wing nuts and other fasteners. And then again years later, when in high school, I set about commissioning my classmates and artist friends to each create a unique set piece based on their particular art for a community board I was making.

I think chess provides a unique medium, because though each piece is symbolic of a function, it does not have a rigidly defined form, and so there is a lot of room to work with when designing, yet the frame work of the game provides an interesting context for the pieces one makes. So when a patron of mine asked me if I might consider designing a new set based solely off of the language of my current body of work, I jumped at the chance.

Little did I realize at the time what a monumental challenge it was going to be to make pieces that remained true to my aesthetic while performing their function in a playable chess set. During my research, I discovered that many fine art chess sets are purely conceptual works, they sacrifice their ability to be a playable set in order to make some sort of point or to subvert the purpose of a chess board entirely.

One thing my patron wanted, and indeed that I wanted as well, was that the set not only remain playable, but to do so exceedingly well.

This might well be a compromise to some artists, but I have always felt being subversive was sort of low hanging fruit, blowing things up and making them purely about you as an artist can often be the simple route. So for me in this case, maintaining playability represented a basic respect for ones medium and merely provided the constraints that I needed to work within. This is actually one of the core ideas I work with on a daily basis, I am endlessly fascinated how constraints themselves can be a powerful creative catalyst. So the constraints of a chess game seemed no different, so long as it did not inhibit what is most basic about my decision making process.

From the earliest sketches and conversations, on up through its lengthy construction phase, this project has taken well over a year to design and build. But in the end, I think I was able to thread the needle and make a set where each piece truly functions as its intended symbol in a playable chess set, while also being able to stand-alone and be recognizable as one of my sculptures and pare that with a chessboard that stands as a sculptural object in its own right.

So after this long process, I am happy to share the final images with you all. But now I am eager to start working on the many, purely sculptural ideas that have been piling up while I have been so busy working on this project. So keep an eye out, as I hope to have some works coming out in just a few short weeks.

CP 412252645235

2013-01-16T08:33:00.000-08:00

Happy New year. Those of you who have been following along will notice that I have been undertaking a series of smaller works lately. This one is my first fo the new year so I feel things are off to a good start.

I have always enjoyed coming up with interesting ways to pierce a particular shape, It is both visually interesting and a challenge to design a complex pattern to be drilled through a piece of metal, in this case Stainless steel, and then cut away and shape that material to reveal different layers of that pattern.

In this case I was able to make the pattern weave and intersect in such a way as to include a novel way of securing all of the inserted rods with mechanical fasteners. This is not always possible in all of my designs so it is a technical triumph to be able to do so.

Here is a simplified cut away to show how the hole pattern intersects with the center object laterally. As you can see there is very little room to work with. This drawing does not show the radial clearances however which were quit a bit closer than this even, but hard to display in a graphic.

This is my last new piece for a while, I am starting a rather unique and ambitious commission. The drawing above is a rather easy hint but I think I will leave the exact details until the project is completed. I suspect it will take me some time so It may be a little while before I post again, but it will be well worth the wait.

FX 633334453532254

2012-12-19T11:43:00.004-08:00

Final post of the year to introduce my latest series of small works.

I have been sporadical making these small editions over the last few years. This set is my sixth and rather than making them all the exactly same as I usually do, I decided to go with different colors for each as a sort of color experiment.

As I have alluded to in earlier posts, I have been grappling with the introduction of more and more color into my work outside of the range that my base metals provide, and even with the limited pallet that I do use, I have struggled to wrap my head around how different colors effect the perception of different geometries. This series was an opportunity to try out multiple colors on the same shape so I could really get a good look at things to see where to go from here.

I think they all turned out wonderful, but I think it was a worth while experiment.

They each measure approximately 3" tall, by 5" long, by 2.5" wide.

As with many of my works this scale, they are removable from the base for that tactile experience. The weight on these is quite nice.

And finally a shot for scale.

LS 322244414

2012-12-10T11:20:00.001-08:00

After a long summer of making some experimentally large and ambitious projects, I have been feeling like it is time to look back and reflect on what I have learned from those very time consuming and resource intensive pieces and make some smaller more subtle works.... at least for a little while anyway.

So in that spirit, here is my first attempt. I tried to keep the color more muted in this piece so I only let the colored parts soak in the die for a fraction of the time I usually do, the result is a color that is close to pastel (close, but not quite). I think it worked out well.

On the base the piece measures 3" in Diameter and is 11" tall.

As with all works around this size, I like to make them completely removable from their bases so that you can properly hold and appreciate the work from all angles. The two mounting pins have a slightly reduced taper to allow them to slip into the rods on the base.

One final shot of me holding it so you can get a feel for the scale. I am starting work on a new small edition of works next, I am hoping to complete them by the end of December so check back before the new year.

December exhibition and New work

2012-11-17T11:53:00.001-08:00

New Work, New Show..

Introducing my newest sculptural experiment. This piece, along with a number of my other more recent works, will be on display at the Ranter Museum this December in the D.C. Area. Details below.

The Dennis and Phillip Ratner Museum

Show Dates: November 29th-December 30

Reception is Sunday December 2nd from 1:30- 3:30

Gallery Location: 10001 Old Georgetown Road

Bethesda, MD 20814

301 897-1518

This work sort of follows what I learned from my last black and orange experiment. I had been thinking of using a number of different color combinations before starting work, but felt like none of them would be as effective as what I ended up with here.

This composition has sort of been floating around in my head for quite some time, but it was always a bit of a ghost in that I could never really see it well enough in my mind to put it down on paper. Then one evening when I was just doodling in bed (possibly with a glass of bourbon) half awake and not thinking quite so hard, it kind of finally just fell out onto the page. Only one drawing was made by hand and I pretty much nailed the whole thing down in one shot looking back on the sketch. Funny how that works some times.

This is what a bedtime doodle looks like, Its not much, but its enough to work with in the morning. (see the final CAD drawing below)

The geometry for this work was very challenging however. All of the elements are comprised of offset cylindrical shapes with multiple center axis's as well as lots of unusual angles and details. So the machine work and work holding in general, were exceptionally complicated and required some on the fly innovation. I learned a lot from constructing this piece for sure.

I think I counted two dozen operations to machine the larger leg elements alone. One of them involved fabricating this custom arbor to hold the blank at the proper center distance so I could turn the profile along its entire length. There is a video on my FaceBook Page Here

The other thing that made producing this particular work so time consuming was how elaborate the anodizing details have become. Nearly every part has been anodized and re-machined to create the two tone details in the work, which was also challenging and quite labor intensive.

The completed drawing. I am hoping to finish one more small work before the year is out in addition to starting a new commission that I am very excited about. I will keep the details to myself until I have something to show for it. But it is a an interesting tangent for my work, so stay tuned.

K442214313124 and SS 522216433313 (1 and 2)

2012-09-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

For this months entry, I want to start out by thanking everyone who came to the opening at the BMA earlier this month. The official head count from the Museum was 781 people, which for an art opening, is an incredible reception. I hope a good time was had by all who attended.

Above is my first attempt at incorporating black into my palette. It would seem easy enough, but this one little change forced me to approach the work quite a bit differently and led to a number of atypical design decisions. One of the more practical effects of this was to force me to shoot against a white background instead of my traditional black back drop. I am still mentally adjusting to this new look, so let me know if you think it is an improvement or not.

I've actually wanted to do a black sculpture for some time, but was waiting for the right composition to come along, and after working up multiple sketches, I finally hit upon this design. One interesting aspect to this piece is that I designed the main body to rotate freely along its axle after assembling. I thought it could would work well as both a wall mounted piece or a desk top piece. So I wanted to make sure it could be adjusted to just the right angle for each installation. The result is that it rotates freely by hand. However I made sure it does not roll like it was on a bearing, mostly because I am still averse to the kitsch that most kinetic art brings with it, but its still quite a tactile joy to rotate it in your hand.

One last table top shot for scale

Also while I was working out the detail for the center section, I decided it was an attractive enough element to experiment with some other color combinations. So I made a few extra and this led to the two works here.

Due to the Anodizing process I use to color the aluminum, and the small number of alternative colored metals in general, I am fairly limited on the number of colors I can use and the way I can apply them, but I think its those types of limitations that lead to creative solutions so I try to experiment where I can.

Milling the offset sockets to create the helical leg arrangement.

And finally.

This is the concept sketch for my next project, It is still evolving so I can't say for certain that the color scheme above will remain, but it is where the design currently stands. Comments are always welcome.

After 3 long months, ML622254434732323

2012-08-13T06:38:00.000-07:00

Another large work completed just in time to be unveiled at a major show I am participating in at the Baltimore Museum of Art next month, the details of which are below. The overall dimensions of this piece are 64.5"x67"x10.5"

The Show: Baker Artist Awards 2012 September 5, 2012 - October 7, 2012

@The Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, 443-573-1700

www.artbma.org

The reception is on Friday, September 7, 2012, from 6:30 to 10:00pm. Smooth Kentucky and Nathan Bell will perform in the auditorium at 7:00. The auditorium only holds 363 people, so if you want to see them, you should get there on time. After they perform, the galleries will be open.

As you can see I designed this work to be displayed in multiple configurations. I liked the idea, and since I was going to be using interlocking multiples, I thought maintaining some sort of flexibility in how I arrange the composition was sort of a nod to the utility of the pieces design. Naturally the top image would be what I consider the definitive arrangement. But I also had a lot of fun assembling and shooting the piece in its multiple Phases. All of which I find to be fascinating in different ways.

The completed drawing above was also quite an undertaking, I had to break format a little (never a bad thing for an artist to do) in order to get everything to fit in a reasonable space, I had to populate around the assembly drawing rather than giving it its own space, I think it turned out rather well. I am not sure how many prints I will make of this, but I will at least do a few, even one for myself this time.

Naturally this is a complicated piece so many details are to follow

This is sort of my first stab at doing multiples within a single composition and since my natural inclination is biased toward symmetry. I thought it would be a good twist to sort of set up this highly symmetrical system of parts, with repeating shapes and components, then arrange them in this predictable and logical sort of way that, in the end, yielded an asymmetric composition.

It gives the piece an interesting dissonance and creates a great negative space that keeps the eye looking and moving, like there is something there to be solved.

On a more technical note, I am experimenting with a new fastening system on this piece. Since I needed to be able to take the work apart in order to transport and install it. The center protrusions are attached using a pin and magnet system, which is just as it sounds, it is held together using strong magnets and alignment pins. It gives me some ideas for new works that might be completely disassembled and rearranged using only magnetic fasteners. (I'll keep thinking on that one but perhaps it will yield some novel new design)

each of the 3 finished assembly weighs approximately 90lbs. for a total combined weight of 270. I had to build an apparatus to help me hold these works precisely at the correct height in order to get these on the wall. As holding them in place freehand while messing with all of the fasteners would not have been practical nor safe.

One of the more nail biting parts of the construction process was making the 3 center bodies of the piece. They were each turned and milled out of solid pieces of 10" Diameter by 6" thick solid aluminum. They each weighed about 50lbs at the start and required dozens of operations over the course of many weeks. The money and time lost if I would have made a mistake on one of them was something that I was constantly aware of and I was quite relieved when they were finally complete polished and resting comfortably on the finished parts shelf.

Before and after a series of milling operations shows just how much work had to be performed on each part. Naturally there were many operations leading up to this point as well. (there is at least one video on my Facebook page of this)

The images can only show so much, so I hope many of you will come to see the work in person next month.

One more image for scale, (I am shy so I dont like to post many pictures of myself, but this serves a purpose) I HOPE TO SEE YOU AT THE SHOW!

FM655513312213

2012-05-04T14:11:00.000-07:00

Big News

I am Pleased to announce the Publishing of my first Official Art Book

It covers a good bit of my catalogue and incudes many of the drawings that up until now, have only appeared sporadically throughout this blog. It also has a number of process photo's and even some actual word's....written by me. I tried to make it very reasonably priced so as many people as possible could own one. So please buy a copy if you are so inclined, every little bit helps to keep the lights on and the metal chips flying in the studio. There is a link to it in the Nav bar of my website or just click the link below.

https://www.createspace.com/3709626

(also available on Amazon.com)

Also I Just completed another piece in what is becoming my Blue and Orange series.

This is kind of the culmination of my earlier experiment with the Hexaptych using these sort of ribbed spherical shapes. But using anodizing to much greater effect.

The top view gives a good sense of the twist I built into the design.

The work measures roughly 7" in diameter and is almost entirely aluminum.

The feet, seen here are made of Stainless,

And finally just an assembly shot.

This is my next big adventure. This wall mounted piece is going to be by far the largest thing I have ever attempted to construct. I expect it will take me a good 3 months to build and weigh in around 300 lbs.

And this is the pallet with the 600 lbs of Aluminum on it I will use to build it (gives you an idea of how much material is removed during machining).

I am also going to attempt a few smaller projects alongside this work to make sure I dont disappear from the world for the next 12 weeks so look for at least a few little things over the duration.

2012-04-22T14:43:00.000-07:00

DC35555

When I started this Sculpture, it was in the waning days of February, when it was still cold outside, Now that it is the middle of April and 80 degree days are already a regular occurrence, it sure feels like it has been a lot longer than the 8 or so weeks it took me to complete this very ambitious project. But it turned out better than my wildest expectations and I am relieved I finally get a chance to share the work that I have been eating, sleeping, and breathing for so long.

The drawing for this one turned out wonderful as well, although at over 3 feet tall and 6.5 feet wide when printed to scale, Its a little hard to view online. Most likely I will be printing them at 24"x 52" for now. But if anyone is interested in a full scale version, I might do a very limited full size printing run.

As you can see, the entire sculpture is cantilevered, which gives it a marvelous tension, and at over 100 pounds I was a little concerned that my assumptions about the balance on this thing were correct. Luckily they were and it is quite stable even when moving it around, but the effect and gravity the piece gives off is just fantastic.

(more images and a video after the Jump)

As you may be able to tell, This work is related to this one (WR 622). That piece was a very successful work, and I consider it to be one of my stronger pieces, but I felt like there was a lot more room in the design, and a lot more places I could go with it, so It just made sense to give it a second look and take the opportunity to explore where else I could go with it.

I still think it is possible that a third iteration of this design might be in the making sometime in the future, but I am already involved in a few other things at the moment, so it will have to wait for now.

The dimension for this work are 20"T x 37"L x 24.5" D. This work was done as a commission for a patron of mine and is slated to go on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art this fall, so if anyone would like to see it in person, and you plan to be in Baltimore this fall ( I will announce the dates at some point, but basically Sep-October-ish), do try and come by to see the show, I will be working on another quite ambitious project over the next few months for that same exhibition, but I will also be trying to make other works along side that project, as I think it will take me more than a few months to complete.

Also, just a few choice process images

and a shot of all of the parts before I set about assembling them.

Lastly I shot this video to show how I machine some of the anodized parts in my works for different effects. A link to a much better resolution version is here.

Hope you enjoy the new work.

FX422233553 and AV722223642555413

2012-02-27T05:35:00.005-08:00

February's work

This month, I thought I would try my hand at making a triangular or tetrahedron composition, this simple enough idea proved to be challenging in ways I had not expected. I must admit I didn't even consider this at first, but triangles are a very loaded shape. They are used in more symbols and icons than is possible to count, so when I started doing drawings for this piece I quickly realized how difficult it was going to be to make something that did not unintentionally allude to or reference some other easily recognizable symbol or design.

Once, I settled on a design, and began working, I ran into further trouble when I was doing some secondary operations and the work slipped out of the chuck and tore a chunk out of one of the points on the main body. Above you can see where I had machined off the damage on the top point, which was not part of the original design. I was not quite sure how to approach a repair or redesign, so, discouraged I decided to set the piece aside and work on other things while I thought over how to proceed.

To clear my head a bit, I decided to pick up on a shape I had made as a test part, and see where I could go with that, that led to this 6 piece hexaptych. These are quit small, the smallest being just 1" diameter and the largest approximately 2" tall by 3 1/2" across.

The spherical shape that is incorporated into this series was one I used as a test program when setting up my new CNC lathe. It appealed to me as something more than a test shape so I wondered about how I could do a progression of works, that would be a sort of literal evolution of that shape, each more complex than the next. I followed it to what I thought was a logical conclusion and ended up with this six piece set. I designed all of these on the fly with no preplanning so it was a good distraction to clear my head from my problem piece still sitting on my desk.

But with that now finished, I returned to the task of fixing what I had started earlier in the month. I decided it was best to just bore out the damages area and start over.
I faced off the point and drilled a hole I could insert a piece of repair stock. then machined a matching plug
I press fit it into place using a little bit of metal epoxy to make sure it never moved again
and then I set about re machining it to shape.

Machining two of the three sides

once I had finished the repair a few other modifications occurred to me that really brought the work together, the time I had taken to think had payed off a bit it seems. I added the slotted aluminum rings you see beneath the blue green disks and made the base to help fill out the design a bit. Anyway, I think I pulled it out at the end but it was a challenging piece for sure.

NT 554416312254

2012-01-27T12:24:00.000-08:00

First work of 2012. 1 of only 3 wall mounted works I have ever made. I had the idea for the center structure of this a while back, the rest of it didn't show up inside my head until a few weeks ago.

It is assembled with a similar structure as SH633. each section is joined by a turn buckle style fastener, here you can see it is a piece of aluminum square stock with a right hand and a left hand thread machined on each end. The Bronze wheel with the square hole drives it and I tightened it all down with this hastily fashioned spanner wrench.

a partially assembled shot for scale (sharpie for reference) Enjoy.

Final work and news of 2011

2011-12-13T13:36:00.000-08:00

Well, the year is coming to a close and my shop is a mess, time for a good cleaning and then a break, but first things first. I just put the finishing touches on this beauty and I couldn't be more pleased with my final effort this year. I always try to be ambitious towards years end and this year was no exception.

This work went through more variations and re-workings than any that I can remember. It was on and off the drawing board for well over a year before I started any actual work.

And when I settled on a final design, I realized I didn't even have the proper tooling to build it. I had been planning to build a new CNC lathe for some time, but this design was the motivation I needed to actually get that piece of equipment built. If anyone is interested in seeing that entire process during the build, there is a slide show here.

So to make a long story short, I took the entire month of October off from making Sculpture in order to build my new Lathe, just so I could begin work on this piece.

Well worth the effort and now I have greatly expanded my capabilities for future work.

Above is a good example of why I needed to build a new machine. the top photo is a before, and the bottom is an after of how I cut the inner radius for the main spokes of the piece, I needed the inside profiles of each spoke socket to curve away to match the inner circumference of the main body. This was the only way I could come up with to get the correct radius on the curve, and my little old CNC lathe was definitely not up to the task.

I also shot some more video as I am doing some testing for some better documentation. Rather than embed it, Here is a link the my FaceBook video page.

Here is a context shot. The finished work is 19"x22"x14".

In other news, I was chosen to receive a "B grant" from the Baker Memorial fund, which is a Baltimore based fund that recognizes achievement in the arts for local artists. It is alway's nice to be recognized in your own home town and it is very flattering to be chosen. See you next year.

A New Edition

2011-12-01T14:47:00.000-08:00

Thought I would post my newest work. I made three of these little gems and they are directly related to some of the geometry I am using in my current large project (to be completed by the end of the year).

When I work on larger projects I am always left with the feeling I am not accomplishing anything because of the long period of time it takes to complete. So I figured I would work a smaller project into the middle of the process so I would have something to show for myself at the half way point. Much of the geometry for this is derived from that project in some form or another.

As with most of my editions, I designed it to come off the base so that it can be appreciated as a compact object.

I shot a short video
Me and a friend were playing around with video documenting some of my processes and took some footage while turning the tops of this edition. And seeing as it was from this piece, I thought I would post a link to it in case some of you were interested in seeing it. . Its not the most exciting thing you will ever see, but it is gratifying to watch the chips peel off. Process Video Link

Here is a peek at the piece that Is well underway in my shop. I have been working on it for over a month already and have a big pile of parts, but there are a few weeks to go. So look for it by the end of the year.

Triplet

2011-10-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

A commission leads to an interesting pair of works.

These are my latest creations ( There are three here). The pair you see above are a variant on the one here just below. The one below was a commission for a collector who liked my TI 524422363 so much he wanted me to dream up something with a similar organic, yet vortex-ish flavor.

I always welcome a challenge and rarely get to revisit an idea so soon after completion so I jumped right on the opportunity and dreamed up the work you see here above. The other two are a variation on this one, born out of my dislike of wasting good metal.

You see, the copper center ring for the commissioned piece (seen here above) was a bit tricky to cut, as copper always is. So I decided it would be prudent to do some test cutting in Aluminum, which is much more forgiving. It helped work out the bugs in the program and avoid any potential copper wasting mistakes. But, it left me with two aluminum blanks that were the same shape as the copper. Rather than waste them, or save them until the distant future when one day I designed something I could use them in, I thought it would be interesting to play with the idea of variants. Essentially keeping the composition and the center piece the same as the original, but redesigning and tweaking the lines on each of the other components. Rather than a conical center shape to hold all the splines, I went with a rounded shape, I revisited my treatment of the center opening and tweaked the design of the splines themselves.

Lastly, I decided I could also make the spin off pair different from each other using color. The pair are geometrically the same, But I employed different materials and anodizing to produce two very different looks. Brass verses copper on the insides, and the Blue and Orange Anodizing. I had often wondered how material selection effected the outcome of my works and this was a great chance to have a real world example. I normally run various combinations through my head as I design, It is great to be able to realize a few of them rather than just picking a single winner.

One of the benefits of anodizing over just using a colored metal is that it provides the opportunity to machine the color back off to accentuate certain geometries. In this case I was able to highlight a beautiful little detail produced by the pattern cut into the ring. A bit hard to see in the photos but if you click through to the full size image on my web page you can get a better look. Comments as usual are always welcome.

The Pollack Krasner Foundation

One other bit of good news. I was notified just a week or so ago that I have been chosen to receive a grant from the Prestigious Pollack-Krasner Foundation. The Grant is designed to give financial assistance based on both merit and financial need. This is the second time I have been awarded one of these most sought after grants, a rare honor indeed. If you are an artist struggling to make a go at establishing yourself, visit the website and see if this is a grant that might work for you. www.pkf.org

TI 524422363

2011-07-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, I get myself into making something and it just seem sthat everything that can go wrong, will and is going wrong. But when I press on through it, the product at the other end is a wonderful mixture of good intentions and adjusting to the circumstances at hand. This piece in particular exemplifies the term, happy accidents.

I take everything in stride (or at least I try to), but I am always amazed at how strange accidents seem to clump up. Between having my house struck by lightning which damaged the CNC controller and speed sensors in my Lathe. Not to mention fried various other lights and electronics through out my house, cracking a bearing in my CNC Mill (completely unrelated), Which knocked out a second machine for over a week, Snapping a few expensive bits relearning the joys of working in copper, and a few other smaller things not worth mentioning, I still managed to make this sculpture while adjusting and adapting to the ever changing tooling and set ups at my disposal. I hope that does not sound like I am complaining, I am simply trying to relate the circumstances that influenced many of my design choices while making this work.

So to start out, I had been playing with the idea of doing a more free form piece for a while, meaning not planning so much, and instead, began by picking up pieces of metal, and started cutting to see where it lead. Naturally my eye drifted to this gorgeous piece of copper I had sitting around and I worked from there. As I alluded to above, Copper is as difficult a material as there is to machine due to it being very soft and very sticky (as far as metal is concerned) It requires lots and lots of cutting oil to keep the tool from binding and I was reminded of this rather quickly as I started this project.

So just when I would start to settle in on a final design, be it lightning or another break down, I would have to stop, rethink what I was doing, and adjust, which lead to a number of design changes that I think in retrospect worked out for the better. The process for this one was much more fluid and dynamic than usual and though a bit more uncertain and stressful, more rewarding in some ways. In the end, I had to bypass some of the fried circuits in my lathe so that I could operate the burned out parts manually, I did a few operations the old fashioned way, and design around the rest. It was lots of fun.

Chris Bathgate in Group show at New Art Center

2011-07-02T05:43:00.000-07:00

Tr 334425524622211

2011-07-02T05:31:00.000-07:00

My latest creation everyone. This one took some time, but it was well worth it.

It stands about 19 inches tall and is about 8 in diameter.

I utilized a lot of what I learned during my two previous studies to work out exactly the right way I wanted to plot the markings around the radius shape of the body and to be doubly sure there would be no mistakes. It turned out better than I expected.

This piece also afforded me a chance to try out a new way of cutting metal. After building a spindle lock and this custom tool holder, I used my mill as a slotting machine where as the bit takes long slow slices out of the metal with a stationary bit, rather than using a spinning tool. Only good for types of slotting, but then that is what I need.

Lastly for the what I will call the leg details on the piece. A custom arbor was employed to cut the radius shape around the circumference of the three brass dowels and do the slotting on them as well. As I have said in previous posts. sometimes you spend a good bit of time building custom tools, only to use them once. But if it is what you need there really is little choice. The arbor can be seen in the top left. It could almost be turned into a part of a sculpture on its own, Maybe I will come up with a use for it yet.

Coming Soon!

2011-06-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

Finished this drawing for my current project. The Machining is still under way, but this is a little teaser for everyone to look at. More in a week or so.

New small works

2011-06-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

These two are the second and third

installments before I move on to a bigger project. This first one is more a

technical achievement than anything.

The machining of the center piece on this one involved writing a program

that wrapped a helix around the sphere. rather than run the cut straight

through It took quite a while to figure out the tool path geometry because

it involved changing the helix as the cutter progressed deeper into the work

piece. Not an easy thing for me to solve. Also making the actual cuts in

Stainless steel called for some extra care as well.

This one was a little more straight forward and was practice for the one at the top.
I used it as a test piece to work out Trying to machine stainless using a
tool path that brought a ball mill in an arc vertically over the work
surface rather than around, which creates an ever changing cutting force on
the bit as it shifts from a vertical to horizontal cutting action. I am sure
that is an inadequate description, but I would have to show you.

a process shot of this one for the record.

and just one more two show them in the real word rather than the black void.
As always, I like to hear thoughts and comments.

CL863624433722235525, a new work and Some good news

2011-05-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

So I have been out of the shop for a number of weeks. My show in New York, combined with a number of other obligations and unexpected distractions has slowed me down and cost me a few weeks in the shop. But I finally managed to steel away some time and make this little fellow to get things moving again.

This is a smaller format, one of a kind piece measuring in at 4"x4"x4". I have a few smaller designs to work out over the weeks and this should be the first of three I intend to do. The body is solid Stainless steel and the details are Bronze and Brass.

In Other News
For those of you I have spoken to over the years, you know that in order to make my work, I have been juggling a full time day job, while maintaining a very demanding schedule in my work shop during my off time. Dedicating between 25-30 hours a week on my Sculpture, while still pulling a 40 hour week at my boring old day job. It has been the only way to pay for this financially demanding type of work and I have done it happily for the opportunity to make the work that I love.

Well thanks to all of your support and patronage, I am pleased to inform that I have finally achieved, how ever modest, a high enough level of financial success to quit my 9 to 5 and dedicate my time solely to making Sculpture, A personal goal of mine that I have carried for quite some time. I am very excited at the prospect of having 70 hours a week to work on my Sculpture, as apposed to the 40-30 split I have been doing for nearly a decade. So look forward to a more steady stream of works in the future and a happier Sculptor behind the work. Thank you to everyone who has purchased work, I know you do not do it out of charity, but out of a desire to collect the things that pop out of my mind, But I am grateful non the less. Things continue to happen all the time that are very positive and encouraging. More in the coming weeks as I have some machine building projects and new work in the pipeline.

SOFA NY 2011

2011-04-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

Here is an image from my booth at SOFA New York (ignore the chairs). It was a great show and I met a bunch of interesting people, but boy am I tired and glad to be back home. Its good to make an effort to get your work out there and most of the time, I have to force my self to. Otherwise my natural instinct would be to work in the shop all the time and never go out. So this accomplished that task nicely. But now the show is over and its time to start some new projects. So look for new work in a few short weeks.

Chris Bathgate Solo Show with Packer Schopf Gallery @ SOFA NY

2011-04-09T16:13:00.000-07:00

(Booth#311) @SOFA NYC, Park Ave Armory, Park Ave @67th St., NYC, Event Dates, April 13 - 17

www.sofaexpo.com

Show Dates

SOFA VIP Reception: Wednesday, 5 – 9 PM, April 13, 5PM – 9PM(tickets must be purchased)

SOFA General Show Hours
Thursday, April 14, 11AM – 7PM, Friday, April 15, 11AM – 6PM
Saturday, April 16, 11AM – 7PM, Sunday, April 17, Noon – 6PM

Completed Drawing SC 415522332

2011-04-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

An Experiment in Scaling

2011-03-30T16:02:00.000-07:00

Here are the images for what I am going to consider a trip-tic. I already posted about the last edition, but I was kind of taken with the proportions of that design and I wanted to explore them further with a more ambitious work. My first instinct was to make a larger version and expand on the concept and see where it lead me, But while I was at it, I figured I could go the opposite direction as well. So in short, I made a small set of 1/2 scale works along with a Larger "one of a kind" that is 2.3 times as large as the original. Both with design changes that I found appropriate for the different scales.

The Small Version

The 1/2 scale version is quite similar to the original with some simplification of the design to account for scale. But this one was a much more of a process oriented experiment. I took this redesign as an opportunity to play with some process elements that I rarely ever have the opportunity to think about.

When making one of a kind works and short run objects, you rarely get to play with optimizing your processes to make them more efficient and more elegant. Designing a program and its associated set ups and operations to cut a shape can be done many ways, But when you get a second chance to simplify an object, you get to indulge in taking the time to streamline the programs and improve on the different operations based on what you learned doing it the first time. So yeah it was kind of a chance to nerd out on my craft a bit, but I got a lot out of it and now I have a bunch of these little guys to offer. I was able to shorten the production time significantly.

The Large Version

So when you double the size of a particular shape, you actually increase its volume and its mass by 8 (twice as big, 8 times as heavy). Strangely enough, this ratio also seems to hold true for the amount of time it takes me to make the work itself, but I think that is less scientific. The design changes for the larger one were both practical, and aesthetic.One of the more practical changes when making this one was to replace the use of stainless steal in the end caps with Aluminum. It would have been impossibly heavy otherwise and prohibitively expensive to make, Aluminum was the lighter cheaper choice. On the other hand it allowed me to do a much more complex turning operation as Aluminum is much easier to machine.

On the aesthetic side, I did a number of things, I added a number of new details that expanded on the central theme. One of the main things was to add a third layer to the peeled back center details. This required a serious set up to drill the over 8'' deep holes straight enough to make the detail work. Here is a picture of me drilling the bores on the Center peace.

And another shot of the seriously large drills that I had to use. I was really pushing the limit of what would fit on my machines, Not to mention doing something I had never done before with an obscenely expensive peace of bronze, so I was very careful to limit the chances for mistakes by setting up an indexed plate with alignment pins that I could mount the work too. I drilled holes into the bronze that registered to the plate so I could remove it, flip it over, and reinstall it with little effort to align it properly.

So the biggest design change for the big one was its vertical orientation. I expanded on the details a lot and I thought that that might be the end of it, But once I got to looking at this big thing and started thinking about how I relate to it differently since it was no longer an object I could hold in my hand, It just made much more sense to me as a vertical object rather than a horizontal one that invited you to pick it up. So I decided to do another wall mount. This photo shows all three on my desk.( the large one is horizontal for the sake of the photo only)

Drawings For Most Recent Sculpture

2011-03-03T15:58:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the drawing that goes with my last work, so I wanted to post it here for people to see.

Also, I took the better part of a day to design and make this mounting Bracket for my new work. I did finally decide to make it a wall mounted piece.

The Cylindrical piece replaces the Cap Screw Bolt that held the Base onto the work. It has a flange that fits into the Hoarse shoe shaped Half, which bolts to the wall.

Like so.

For now this new piece will be living on my wall next to this giant Carnival hammer I restored (It's made of an entire tree trunk and still has the bark on it). Glad I took the extra time because It looks great on the wall, definitely the right decision.