Fabrication of the Spar has begun on Matt’s piece for the City of OP.  The stainless steel pipe must now be ordered so he can prep it, weld on the flanges, grind the right texture into the surface, etc.  We want to make it appear light-weight, but in reality each pipe will have a .25″ skin, making some lengths weigh in excess of 250 lbs.  That’s overkill, but only in that way will we know that it can withstand any windload below tornadic levels, or any bunch of drunk college students trying to hang from the end.

So I went around to the yards and priced the stuff, negotiating with several Missouri rednecks, as I love doing. Heck of it is, I learned that if I buy the pipe new, it’ll cost  $6000.  Holy *&#@!.  But if we get it used, it’ll work just as well, since pipe is pipe when it comes to sculpture.  What matters is the finish, and it takes a lot of work to grind out the right finish, because as you can see, stainless ain’t pretty when you first get it.

May get it through American Compressed Steel, who are looking into used it for me.  Good bunch of folks; their CEO has been buying sculpture from us for years.  He was one of the first to believe in regional artists, way back in 1995; now everyone does.  I’d to believe we had a hand in that.