Concrete Bird Feeder Part 2 – Concept and Design

Hermes2020

Well-known member
Messages
1,631
In Part 1 I showed the mobile table I made in preparation for the construction of the bird feeder sculpture. Today I will show the design steps and reveal what Windows software I used.

The very first stage was the idea for the piece. Since I love birds so much, I wanted to express my adoration and respect for birds with a kneeling figure offering food to the birds on a a tray. Since it will be installed in a large garden, I thought it should be life size or slightly bigger. It is intended for the same garden where my reclining poolside sculpture is located (https://creativespark.art/threads/reclining-nude-concrete-sculpture.1300/), so part of my concept was to echo the idea of slices in the bird feeder. I also wanted to give it an ancient Greek sculpture flavour, so decided on a 50% mixture of sliced abstract elements with realistic, Greek sculpture inspired parts. I first achieved a pose I liked by manipulating the model of a young man (called Michael) in a software package called Poser until I was happy with the pose. Here is a rendering of the final pose I made.

Bird Feeder Pose 1.jpg

Bird Feeder Pose 2.jpg

Bird Feeder Pose 3.jpg


From Poser the model was exported as an .OBJ 3D model, and then imported into Rhino 3D, my favourite Windows program I use to design my pieces. Rhino is a parametric program, so I can work out scaling and dimensions to a precision of 0.001 mm if needed. For my concrete work, a 1mm tolerance is quite good enough. I will not go into the details here of slicing certain elements into 20mm thick layers, but will explain the steps if anyone wants to attempt something similar. Suffice it to say that Rhino is a powerful package that allows me to do anything I need, like adjusting proportions and designing the technical elements such as the connectors. To keep this part reasonably short, I will describe how I am going to connect the elements together in Part 3.


Render 1.jpg

Render 4.jpg

Render 5.jpg


Well, that is the concept. Let's see whether I have the necessary skill and perseverance to execute it. It is going to be a bit bigger than life size, so I estimate that the mass will be in the region of 90 to 100kg.

The technical details like connections and materials will be discussed in Part 3.
 

Attachments

  • Render 2.jpg
    Render 2.jpg
    40.6 KB · Views: 14
Last edited:
Oooh, I like it! What a beautiful idea! I look forward to seeing how it progresses.
Thank you so much. I will be honest and confess that I sometimes think I am being too ambitious. I have spent the last few days agonizing over some formidable (to me) technical challenges. Concrete is not forgiving of mistakes, so I am spending a lot of time working out the details before I start. But, also being honest, I am having a wonderful time in spite of the difficulties.
 
Last edited:
Despite the construction agonies, your idea is gobsmacking, and from what you have posted on your steps, it looks like it will be an amazing sculpture.

How will this be moved from studio to garden? I may have missed that explanation, but, while concrete may be unforgving, it is also very, very heavy and doesn't like travel over rough terrain.
 
Despite the construction agonies, your idea is gobsmacking, and from what you have posted on your steps, it looks like it will be an amazing sculpture.

How will this be moved from studio to garden? I may have missed that explanation, but, while concrete may be unforgving, it is also very, very heavy and doesn't like travel over rough terrain.
Thank you as well for your words of encouragement. What you say about concrete being heavy is so true. For example, the poolside concrete sculpture weighs almost 90 kg, but that was in two main parts that were brought together on site. I made wooden frameworks with handles for the front and back parts, so the team of four helpers I had carried them easily. The bird feeder will weigh about the same, but I will assemble it completely in my studio on a pallet, so the guys will again be able to carry it quite comfortably. The site is only 10km from the studio, so the truck taking it to the site will have an easy time of it. One learns every time!
 
Last edited:
Back
Top