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  Metal Art Sculptures – Stainless, Bronze, Aluminum, Steel Landscape – Large – Ribbon – Solid – Mobius – Abstract Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. John Searles Sculptures Stainless, bronze, aluminum and steel sculptures: Large Landscape Sculptures, Bronze Sculptures to fit a Niche, Fountain Sculptures, Garden Sculptures – Custom Designs and Sizes.  also Metal Wall Art, Metal Wall Sculptures, Metal Tiles at SearlesArt.com more about Searles Sculptures >> Follow on Twitter | Friend on Facebook | Forward to Friend Copyright © 2013 Searles Sculptures, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have had […]

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Bronze for Sculptures – Silicon Bronze I only use C65500 high silicon “A” sculpture bronze for my bronze sculptures, such as Dancing Fire #1 (image at right). It has a beautiful gold color, slightly brownish. It can be patinated like copper from light tan to browns, blacks, all manner of greens, reds, blues: in fact, any color imaginable. But why? It is such a beautiful color. I like to celebrate its natural beauty. Coated with the proper outdoor-grade lacquer and the clear coat will last 10-20 years. In addition, high silicon bronze is easy to mig weld, easy to tig weld, easy […]

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Mig welding bronze sculptures is quick and easy, once you learn how. I recently shipped two bronze sculptures (see images on the right) to China, for installation in the new Sheraton South City Hotel in Shenyang (Opening August 18, 2013). Shipping was via a broker in Illinois, Concordia International, though Fed Ex International would also have handled the shipment. It's easier to use a broker because they keep the paperwork straight. Fed Ex International quoted me prices of about $300 per 80 lb crate, air shipment!

Mig welding bronze requires a delicate, confident touch. You need enough heat to get penetration, but the metal conducts heat so quickly that the heat starts melting the metal and blowing holes in your seams. In the past I have primarily tig welded my bronze sculptures: mig welding is much faster. You will find tiny holes and cracks under both the tig welds and the mig welds after you grind them flat. You might as well do the initial fabrication with the mig welding.

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Mig Welding Aluminum Problem – Black Powder Residue I had a struggle recently trying to solve a mig welding aluminum problem. I do a lot of aluminum mig welding, primarily with 4043 wire and always wonder, what is that black powdery residue on the edges of the weld? Was it soot? If so, where would the carbon be coming from? Was the argon sucking in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (venturi principle) and contaminating the weld? Then I bought a spool of .035″ diameter 5356 wire to butt weld 3/8″ 6063 aluminum strips with spray mode (24.5 volts, 700 ips, […]

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I am keeping a running list of all the public art opportunities that I am interested in applying for this year. I just copy and paste the opportunities into Wordpad from the available on-line lists. Please see a portion of the April-May deadline list below. I have applied for about a dozen public art opportunities this year, some just for the practice. The more applications you do, the better you will get. Maybe I will get 1-2% of what I apply for. Note: unlike Art Shows, many of these Public Art Opportunities do not require a fee with your application. […]

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Normally I recommend to clients that they bolt their outdoor sculpture to a 4-6″ thick concrete pad with four to eight bolts, depending on the size of the sculpture. The major concerns are high winds and theft. (During the period when the US was selling all its scrap steel to China, one local sculptor had three of his steel sculptures stolen from outside his studio. What a heart breaker. They probably went straight to the scrap yard and then to China.) Some times, however, I want a temporary installation for an outdoor sculpture, such as in front of our gallery. […]

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Here is a short video (1:10 minutes) showing me working on a sculpture I started last June, when I had a little time to play with new ideas. [youtube=http://youtu.be/tICwm63dtpw] Second video [youtube=http://youtu.be/CTEPyE8Hy3c] More images coming. I am planning to make this design into a mobile as well. Please Like and Share!

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This is a steel sculpture I finished in 2005, an early experiment with ribbon sculptures. I did about 20 ribbon sculptures at that time, with different metals,  but didn’t have the time to ponder on them and decide what to do next. I put them on the shelf and took care of the orders in the queue. And we didn’t really show them in the gallery, so this little metal sculpture didn’t actually sell until 2012. I shipped it to NYC in October 2012. Every sculpture has a story and this one has to do with Photoshop. This steel ribbon […]

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Custom sculpture is a large part of my metal sculpture business. Custom sculpture can be tricky. You have to watch your dimensions carefully, especially if you are trying to fit into a niche or an exact space on a shelf. This bronze mobius custom sculpture project was for a designer home in Orlando, FL and shipped in November. I was able to innovate some procedures that worked out well. And the customer was very happy. Please click on the first image to start the sequence of images with accompanying text. Custom Bronze Sculpture Specifics This custom bronze sculpture was mostly […]

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