W A Y F I N D E R

Prelim ideas sketches.

I really envisioned this project to be a true RELIEF CARVING.

Actually doing it, though, was going to prove a lot harder than just making up some sketches on bits of paper.

I spent a couple of weeks carving test glass.

Then I spent a couple more weeks carving test glass- before I was even half comfortable enough to attempt the actual work.

Firstly though, to ensure all the components lined up, I built my material templates and metal-cut files in the modelling program.

Once I had the glass design mapped out, I made a paper template of it for use on the reverse side later (so that the secondary carving on the back of the glass would line up).

First attempt – carving finally complete and ready for kiln firing… This is usually where I breathe a sigh of relief and send it to the kiln.

Pretty cool after months of planning, years of experience, weeks of practice, and days of nerve-wracking material removal, to see the envisioned shape actually come to life…(can you guess where this is going?).

YUP.

SN-E-E-A-A-A-C-K-K-Krkrk (or something like that)…!!

F#%$!!!

Sadly, even after years at this, there is still no “How-To” manual to follow.. several weeks straight down the potty…!

Thermal-shock.

Even with careful attention to the process, the extreme difference in thickness between the carved and uncarved areas required even slower temperature ramps, it seems.

Anyhow,

I got stuck in once more, got a new chunk of glass, and about a month after that had another version completed and ready to try firing again… this time a lot more slowly.

With a glacially slow ramp up, anneal, and fire down – taking a full FIVE DAYS, we had success (Props to the ever-patient Brian – Gilchrist Glass Bending).

PHEW….!

…oooh…shiny…!

(!!*** pinkle ***!!)

Design for Aluminum hanger to be cut on the waterjet and welded up.

The cut aluminum is rough and dull when it arrives. With a day and lots of sanding and polishing pads, I ended up with a nice semi-reflective background for the glass to mount to.

Here is a studio shot taken in a mirror that’ll sit 1″ behind the polished aluminum, to make the “pool” appear deeper than the surround.

Completed and assembled in shop (test lighting off & on).

Due to the reflective nature of this medium, light play becomes dynamic, demanding a viewer’s physical engagement to ‘read’ the work completely.

W A Y F I N D E R in situ.

BOOM & BATTEN Restaurant

Designer, Sandy Nygaard brought me into the new build of Boom & Batten restaurant, for Paul Simpson (creator of Glo Pub). The walls consisted mainly of view windows to the water and city, but on the one large flat side of their forno oven, they’d like a focal piece. The guidance was for it to be circular and about 5′ in diameter…

W A Y F I N D E R

The stainless component at the forefront of the artwork references a navigational tool, or a ‘way-finder’ .

Historically, the type of mechanism that would have aided the explorer in a distant discovery.

In this case, the Way-finder’s circular viewport is directed closer to home, towards the life in a tidal pool. Through the viewport’s center, organic shapes change to display metaphorically as ‘interlocking machine gears’. The irony being that sometimes it takes a measuring device to actually appreciate the mechanics of our natural surroundings.

With everything learned, shouldn’t there be a greater focus towards understanding that upon which we depend?

As Boom & Batten is located directly above the shoreline, I designed W A Y F I N D E R specifically for the restaurant using a tidal pool motif. Creatures here exist between land and sea, continually counting on the tide to return and provide for them another day. Partially exposed, they live in a precarious balance, without even knowing it.

We, conversely, do know it. And the tide is definitely changing…

Above the pool, in the upper right, are two circles. The smaller represents us, symbolically as a life ring. The larger and more angular one represents the fantastic reach of technology. These circles together encroach upon the tidal pool like an eclipse…

As I question the disconnect between cumulative knowledge and certain courses of inaction, this design aesthetic uses a suggestively mechanical language to speak for the interconnectedness of things, natural and otherwise.

In an optimistic way, its an attempt to suggest the possibility of a more symbiotic union between nature and technology – reworking visual elements from both into a singular harmonious aesthetic.

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( I also remixed the W A Y F I N D E R  component design for use as an entry graphic to the Boom & Batten restaurant –

– “way-finding” the door… 😉 )