Here's his body ready for final assembly. I assembled the arms and legs as I dressed him - sometimes it's like solving a puzzle, I have to do it in the right order.
Half dressed. I sewed the sleeves on last. BTW - The fabric for his jacket came from an old pair of my favorite shorts - yes, really.
I wanted to something different for the floor this time. In the past I've done nice finished wood floors - this time I wanted it to be darker with more texture, like in an old dive somewhere.
I nailed all the planks down and took my propane torch and burnt it down about a 1/16" to 1/8". Here it is after I burned it.
After it cooled I "sanded" it down with a Scotchbrite pad. This brought out a lot of texture, with high and low spots. Also because I burned away some of the wood, the nail heads were a little raised. This was exactly the look I was going for.
After a coat of sanding sealer it got a lot darker - very rich!
I picked out of my stash, potential pieces to be used for the embellishment of the piano. You will see, some of the pieces made the cut and some didn't.
The 3 horns that go on top of the case.
I painted the case red but left some parts black and added the "nameplate".
The case after painting, aging and finishing. I also glued the keyboard in and decoupaged the inside.
The "inner workings" of the "piano".
At this point I'm trying to get away from the idea that this is just a piano. Now I'm thinking it's some sort of fantastical, musical piece of wonderment. And who really knows how it works?
I like how these workings could be their own little sculpture. One sad thing is you don't see a lot of this because of the front window.
The workings assembled.
This shows how I had to place the piano and the"chair" in their exact place according to my drawing. I actually put the drawing on the base to locate the feet of the piano, etc. I had to be dead-on because of where the mechanism were located below. No guessing here.
Detail of the area below the keys. I put pipes in behind the board.
The mechanisms finished and ready for assembly.
The 3 cams, one for the head and 2 for the arms.
Everything is assembled and wired underneath.
A sneak peek of the finished product. I will post better images when my show opens on November 13th. (I can't give away the surprise now, can I?)
It's coming along wonderfully Tom. I can't wait to see the video of how it all works. I also love the fact that the piano has all these weird parts inside that don't really operate together but look cool...I think it's steamfunky :)
ReplyDeleteok, I'm in love with this one... no, all of them. great work... and thanks for showing all the details..
ReplyDelete