21-28-09 - New blog entry - see below!

This week, I built a 7' x 9' frame for ad agency Gauger & Associates. They supplied me with a conceptual drawing, which called for an unsupported rectangle of square profile tubes mounted on a base. The original concept was to be 9' high and 11' wide! This frame was to be strung with 27 vertical strings (fishline or piano wire), on which would be strung, like beads, 763 ice-cream pint boxes. These would form a mosaic of the client company's logo, which resembles an asterisk. So basically, they were asking me to build a harp: an open frame with strings under tension. Oh yeah: it alll had to be able to be disassembled, with no piece longer than 4 feet!

As any musician knows, the strings on a harp (or for that matter, a guitar) generate several hundred pounds of pull and torque on their framework. That's why, in a piano, the framework on which the piano wire is strung is made of cast steel! A frame such as the conceptual design called for would need to be constructed of steel, a medium I don't work in. Wood would also have worked, but I would have needed to invent some method of joining shorter pieces together into longer lengths that would still retain a longer piece's rigidity.

I compromised by using 1 1/2" black ABS plumbing pipe, which would have the advantages of being elegantly black, relatively cheap, and light. I still faced the problem of the string tension warping and deforming the rectangular shape.

My friend Brad suggested doubling the rectangle for strength, which turned out to be a Great Idea. Then I added a shallow triangular easel shape in the rear to maintain an upright posture. T-junctions provided a great deal of structural strength. I connected these with short pieces of pipe as couplers, and glued as many joints as possible while still allowing the whole structure to be disassembled. For temporary joints, I used nails as removable pins.

All in all, it was well-received by the client, LaLoo's Goat's Milk Ice Cream. If you'd like to see the display, simply attend the Natural Products Expo West, Thu Mar 5 – Sun Mar 8 at the Anaheim Convention Center. If that's too far to go, you can go to LaLoo's site at http://www.goatmilkicecream.com/ to find out where you can try their ice cream. So far, I've tried the Black Mission Fig and Strawberry Darling varieties, both of which I really liked but Deirdre did not...goat's milk is not for everyone, shall we say.