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HOUSE GUEST FOREVER |
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This black, granite, wedge sculpture was there when the Powell's bought the place. It was damaged by workmen (thank goodness not us) and the gouges bothered Sharon. She asked us about "fixing" them. I put fixing in quotes because it strikes me as a lose lose situation. Who knows if a professional granite guy can mix up some dust with glue and make it less noticeable or invisible but your house has an endless number of these imperfections and where does it end? In this and other situations I try to ask myself, "Is there a way to accentuate the damage, essentially avoiding a headache and/or expense with cleverness?"
 The best example of making lemonade I know of was what my friend Eddie Jones did when confronted with cracks in the rammed earth wall of his off the charts cool house on South Mountain. He collected beautiful pebbles and marbles and pressed them into the cavities. It was so simple and clever.
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I sent them a photo of these swirls I drew in chalk. I thought we could carve up the surface and you wouldn't notice the scratches. They liked the idea and gave us a thimbs up to go ahead while they spent the summer at their fancy ocean front property in Washington.
This was exactly when we were in the thick of doing sculptures for the Logan's.
 I sent them a photo of the rusted Gratias Man figure and said,"How about if I not only do the carving but do it forever in a sculpture of me doing the carving?" I thought there was a chance Sharon would do it but not without putting drugs in Lloyd's coffee which she apparently did because he now has his landscape architect, wearing a skirt, in the backyard 24-7.
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 To make a mold of my face we start with a plastic drape and a polyester cream on my goatee and
eyebrows. |
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 For faces we use alginate. It's quicker than silicone (less chance of feeling like you're
suffocating) but, unlike silicone, you can only cast one good piece from it.
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 A plaster mother mold holds the soft
alginate mold in place. The black tube is for
breathing.
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Off it comes. We us it right away to cold cast a face made of resins mixed with iron powder which is surprisingly difficult to find.
We mocked up the granite wedge in osb plywood to be sure his hands were in the right places.
The steel plate under my right heel has holes so we can drive steel stakes into the ground to secure the piece. The left palm will get a dollop of silicone to connect it to the granite.
The rust finish is not a painted affect. The iron powder reacts with the ferric nitrate we spray on the whole thing to make it rust quickly.
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STEEL POTS |
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Before
This gangley euphorbia was anemic and attenuated from never getting any sun. The surface mounted coaxial cable was bugging me but it would have been brain damage to move. A new steel shelf and fire wood now hide it for a lot less money and aggravation. |
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I've been wanting to come out with a line of pots forever and we were half successful with these. We made two others; kind of odd, silver-grey with hands (the subject of another newsletter). They were way too big and Sharon said, "Adios those." (Her Spanish is not good.) I like the way these turned out.
The big question for me is what do you plant in a pot under a patio roof with no sun? Indoor plants? What do they have to do with anything? They freeze and seem incongruous with the cactus everywhere else and who's going to take care of them? Plus the Powell's are at the beach all summer. Making sure the pots get watered is just another to-do list burden. |
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Better to simplify and not go with live plants at all. I found some dead ironwood tree branches I was going to use but they had the two tarnished mirrors that looked even better. Sharon did the torso and heads. The black rock on the right is copper slag, a bi-product of the copper mines. The steel balls on the left are also mine related. They're used to crush ore. One thing I think we should change is the firewood. If it sat a couple of inches above the patio on another steel plate it would be easier to keep clean.
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FURNITURE |
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Before
Chaise lounges with extruded aluminum frames and vinyl straps are lost in a sea of cool deck. |
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We took out the cool deck and went with the pavers to continue the same patio material by the house. The chaises are from Restoration Hardware. The paper lights (out just for the party) are from my favorite store on the planet, IKEA.
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PARTY |
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 The Powells had a super stylish unveiling party last Sunday. That's Bert Kempfert with the long sleeved white T-shirt and my friends, Bob Crawford and Ray Hucke. We're landscaping their new home in Scottsdale as I write this.
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 These are them. Lloyd and Sharon Powell. The most wonderful clients you could ever hope for. They are usually in Hawaii for Christmas but traded for a place in Wyoming and are outfitted with down jackets and beef jerky in the frozen north at this moment Tuesday 2:50 pm, November 23, 2010. |
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