What did you do this semester?  Clone fruit flies?  Learn about logarithms?

Gary Blazek spent it welding a 500 lb. sculpture of Thor, his school’s mascot.  Now, that’s a project you don’t often hear about!

College mascot recreated in metal

Monday, Dec 07, 2009
By Lynne Lynch
Herald staff writer

MOSES LAKE — His horned helmet reaches the height of the highest bookshelf in Shawn McDaniel’s welding classroom at Big Bend Community College.

The helmet wearer is Thor, a metal statue of the college’s Viking mascot, created by student Gary Blazek. Thor weighs between 450 to 500 pounds and is made of a variety of parts.

Thor was quietly standing in the corner of the classroom last week, just a few days before fall quarter’s end.

His creator, Blazek, 55, was laid off from Genie Industries in February. At the company’s Moses Lake plant, he welded swing units and also worked on a new production line.

He started taking welding classes at the college to improve his pipe welding skills and to make himself more marketable to potential employers.

In October, he responded to instructor McDaniel’s request for students to make items benefiting a student scholarship fund.

Using donated scrap metal from his past employer and a plow disc, he started working on Thor.

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The critters in my garden aren’t made of metal, don’t stand perfectly still, and they certainly don’t have a four-foot wing spans.

Jerry Brooks’ critters do.

In his garden, flowers don’t grow; they rust.  Birds don’t cheep — if anything, they squeak as the wind brushes past.  His garden is frozen in time, and all because of a welding torch.

A Metal Menagerie

Blossoms, birds and bugs for the ages

by Pamela Kleibrink Thompson

On a bluff overlooking a tree-studded golf course in Wilder, Idaho, is a rough corrugated work shed where scrap iron and outdated tools are reshaped, welded and transformed into timeless works of art. The artist whose imagination resuscitates the rusty, beautifies the broken and distinguishes the discarded is sculptor Jerry Brooks.

In Brooks’ world, a sunflower blooms eternally with metal petals and leaves welded on wiry stems. A quartet of birds reveals personalities reminiscent of animated cartoons and looks ready to take flight or do the chicken dance. A shovel blade forms the body of a rara avis. Teeth from two rakes become outstretched wings. A giant dragonfly with wings of burnished copper-colored metal soars into the sky.

Dragonflies are not an uncommon sight at Boise’s Parkcenter Pond, but Brooks’ 40-pound metal behemoth that welcomes patrons to the restaurant Barbacoa always draws attention.

“When I see a piece of rusted metal or parts of machinery that have been bent and worn by time and the elements, I sometimes see a picture in my mind of what they could become—how they could become pieces of art,” Brooks says.

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This just goes to show you that fabricators are a smart, savvy and creative bunch! Check out this story on the  Marlin Days at Carolina Custom Towers.  Great way to keep up your chops and diversify your income stream.

Fishing for business

September 23, 2009 5:30 AM
By Drew C. Wilson

Havelock News

Successful companies can adapt to a changing market.

Change is exactly what Carolina Custom Towers of Havelock is doing.

The company makes aluminum tuna towers and other products for custom sports fishing and luxury yachts.

“I really enjoy doing the towers, but the way the economy’s been the last couple of years, there just isn’t the work,” owner Tim Daly said from the company’s shop in Havelock’s industrial park.

So five weeks ago Daly and his employees got together and decided to diversify. Fridays have now become marlin days.

That’s when anodized aluminum that would otherwise be made into tuna towers and T-tops is instead fashioned into marlin, tuna and mahi mahi sculptures and wall mounts.

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Are YOU doing anything to diversify? Let us know!

Check out this  welder/sculptor Kevin Caron.  He works primarily in stainless steel to create free-standing kinetic sculptures, like the ones below.  The following video shows how he creates one of his railroad tie sculptures (like this one), from beginning to end.  Enjoy!

The following are two of my favorites:  an unfinished staircase reaching up into the heavens, and a hand tree– literally, a tree with hands for leaves.
For videos of Kevin making these and other sculptures, you can go to his YouTube account here –>

Hands On -- commission, City of Avondale Avondale, Arizona -- steel, powder-coated steel 168" x 145" x 146" -- created 2009

Aspire -- steel 102" x 21" x 21" -- created 2004

“Home, home on the range… where the deer and iron triceratops play…”

Wait, that’s not how you heard that song growing up?  Hmm…  Well, perhaps John Lopez heard a different version, and you’ll see what I mean, once you view this video:

Ok, so I lied, it’s not all about dinosaurs (althought that was my favorite part).  For more information about John Lopez and his work, you can visit his website here.

Bellingham Technical College hosts an elaborate metal sculpture competition annually. Ten amatuer highschool and college teams must capture their artistic visions in scrap metal sculptures in just eight hours. This exciting event exemplifies altruism in action as artworks are subject public auction, with the proceeds benefiting the BTC Welding Student Scholarship Fund, the Welding Rodeo, and participating artists. Visit their website for more pictures and information.

What have YOU built lately? What do you do with your scrap metal?

“You dream it and I weld it“.  That’s the motto of Jesse Hornberger, welder-and-sculptor-at-large.  He welds mainly in steel, and many of the ideas for his sculptures have come from things that friends and family have suggested to him over the years.  Examples can be seen HERE ->

Artist turns dreams into steel sculptures (with photo gallery and video)

BY LISA ROOSE-CHURCH • DAILY PRESS & ARGUS • SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

You dream it and Jesse Hornberger can weld it.

That’s the motto of the 22-year-old Oceola Township man as he combines his welding degree and artistic talent to create steel sculptures that are the centerpiece of any room. His talent has led him to the Grove Gallery Co-op in East Lansing, where he is the gallery’s featured artist for September.  (photo gallery)

There is a reception to recognize Hornberger from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at the co-op, 325 Grove St., Suite A, East Lansing. Wine, cheese and desserts will be served.

“It was kind of a hobby,” Hornberger said about his art. “I started doing sculpting in high school.  My first major piece was an eagle, and that’s on display at the gallery.  My senior year I made a big sculpture that’s at the courtyard at the (Howell High School) Freshman Campus.”

The inspiration behind that sculpture, which is about 8 feet tall, was a doodle drawing Hornberger made one day.

“A lot of my inspiration comes from my family and things they want to see,” he said.  ”My motto is, ‘You dream it and I weld it.’  I’m trying to test out my motto.”

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