Wednesday 23 March 2011

FMP - Ten (17/03/11 - 23/03/11)

First off, the letters are finished; they had their big night yesterday and I was working right up to the deadline. I had all the letters made by Friday afternoon so the start of this week was focused on finishing them. There was a bit of trouble with the finishing as I was originally going to spray them, but with their large size and there being seven of them I'd have used far too much thinners and paint to justify it when they're going to be drawn over anyway. As a substitute they were just going to be painted with white emulsion, but with time against me I didn't have all of them painted by yesterday afternoon when the workshop closed. So I had to take the letters to the event, on the way picking up some paint as well, and paint them in the back with a few of the organisers as well as several of the charity members. Needless to say they were done on time and put on the tables during the event and within seconds people were drawing all over them. I didn't take any photos last night but I made sure the event photographer (Jade Evans) took some. All I had on my phone was the finished letters un-painted:


With the letters done and just over two weeks remaining I jumped straight back into the carousel. I spent the better part of the day finishing the base off as well as trying out the bearings (which are three part ones). The bearing sits in the middle part, which will be cladded with mirror styrene, on top of the acrylic rod as seen in the photos:


It sits about 2mm above the middle section so the actual rotating parts have nothing to collide with. I was originally going to use felt between the acrylic layers, to lessen friction between them but after taking advice from a fellow course mate I tried out bearings. The bearing now takes all the weight of the rotating parts and is completely out of contact with any static piece. 

Tomorrow I plan on finishing the base, giving it its final coat as well as the front cladding. Along with that getting the rotating pieces fully assembled, so that I can start building the above structure. The biggest task, and no doubt the most important is the sculpting of the characters, with time ticking down I've been thinking about CNC machining them, but with there still being a large queue for it I may just have to stick with my hands.

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