My sculptor friend Steve Piper insists that there is more money to be made producing yard art than in proper sculpture. He may be right. Last year he made quite a number of decorative birds and sold quite a few. So he convinced me to give it a try. Steve’s pieces were man sized birds. Sort of stork like in appearance. He used car hoods for the wings, cutting them out so they looked like feathers. <\/p>\n
![\"Butch](\"http:\/\/www.butchieboy.info\/ButchAndHareWeb.jpg\")
So for the last five or six weeks I have been busy making yard art. I didn’t want to do the type of thing Steve did so I used my Prairie Moon sculptures as a guide for the type of thing I would build. Since the idea is to make the things inexpensively, I used simple materials and designs. I left the welds rough because grinding can account for lots of time. I did grind a few areas that absolutely had to have it.<\/p>\n
I started with the idea of having several different designs with about a half dozen pieces each. But as the deadline approached I ended up with 7 of one and 6 of another. The third design proved to be more difficult to fabricate than I had anticipated and I only got one of them done. I incorporated it into one of the pieces of the second design. That one was the Celtic Hare.
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The last week before the show it rained every day so the ground was nice and soft and easy to press the pieces in.<\/p>\n
The first ones I called Yard Art One and they were about 6 feet tall and made of rerod and flat bar stock rolled into a ring. At first I was going to incorporate hooks to hand bird feeders on, but that wouldn’t look right if you just wanted to use it as art. So I decided that instead of hooks welded onto the rerod, I would suggest the customer use “S” hooks. Then they could have the piece either with bird feeders or without.<\/p>\n
![\"Yard](\"http:\/\/www.butchieboy.info\/YardArt1Web.jpg\")
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![\"YardArt2Web.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.butchieboy.info\/YardArt2Web.jpg\")
The second design I called Yard Art Two surprisingly enough. The were made with nicer materials. Square tubing and solid rod with rerod for the ground stakes. My original intent was to put a ring on the top, similar to the first ones. But I just acquired a new plasma cutter so I decided to make decorative disks instead. this proved to be a lot bigger problem than I thought it would be so I made 3 of the disks and used rings for two others.
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My third design was going to be the Celtic Hares. They were going to have a springy base so it would look animated when the wind blew. I used the steel I got for the disks to make it but it turned out to be way too heavy for the springy base, so I used the last frame from the second design to support it. I may still try to build some of the hares with lighter metal and a bit smaller in size. Also shown below is a detail of one of the cutout disks<\/p>\n
![\"Celtic](\"http:\/\/www.butchieboy.info\/YardArtDetailsWeb.jpg\")
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The entry fee for the show was right, $15, and you got a table and chair besides the space to show your work. My spot was perfect. Shady with a breeze blowing all day. We had lots of traffic, being right next to the outdoor cafeteria tables. Karen went around the show and had a look at everyone else’s booths. When she got back she spelled me while I had a look around. When I was away she made the first sale. <\/p>\n
The customers were really complimentary. By the end of the day, I had sold 5 of the sculptures all told. I also had three requests from retail stores to provide them with stock wholesale. That could be nice.<\/p>\n
All in all, this turned out to be a pretty good deal for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My sculptor friend Steve Piper insists that there is more money to be made producing yard art than in proper sculpture. He may be right. Last year he made quite a number of decorative birds and sold quite a few. … Continue reading