Andy White Anthropology
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My Dragonfly Sculpture

6/12/2016

3 Comments

 
Dragonflies are my favorite insects: I watch them, read about them, and attempt to photograph them when opportunities present themselves (you can see some of my Michigan dragonfly photos here; some from South Carolina are here). I started my dragonfly sculpture in Ann Arbor right after I finished the triceratops. I actually made this one with the goal of selling it. I thought I had sold it when we moved, but the money didn't materialize until after I had already taken it apart, moved it, and put it back together. The price went up after that, and I ended up keeping it. And now I'm glad I did.
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I inherited some motorcycle parts from a friend who was relocating to Kazakhstan (June 2011). I'm not really a fan of creating things from large,ready-shaped "building blocks," but I liked the idea of making an insect out of the gas tank because I liked the sleekness and the muscular shape. The chrome on the exhaust was nice, also. This photo shows the gas tank lying upside down. I used a piece of auto exhaust pipe to join the motorcyle exhaust to a heavy piece of auto something-or-other that I would use to attach the head.

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I started building the head by trying to get the profile shape I wanted. The green piece is another motorcycle part (tail light assembly?). The gray is a piece of a satellite dish (parts of which I also used in Eileen). The angle at the bottom is formed by a piece of garage door hardware. 

There were several unsuccessful attempts at making the eyes. I tried pieces of hubcap, then builing them up from pieces of wire and bicycle chain. Those both looked terrible. Eventually I ended up forming them from odd pieces, focusing on the overall shape instead of being clever. I like the way they turned out.

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Head attached to body (July 2011). I have also added the centers of three bicycle wheels to serve as attachment points for the legs.

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Frames for wings attached to body (July 2011). I didn't want to attach the wings directly to the gas tank because I didn't know if the steel would be strong enough to support them rigidly in place.  So I used a piece of steel bar that I scavenged from a bulletin board discarded outside my daughter's elementary school to build a foundation for attaching them.  I arched it over the back and welded it to the head and the base of the "tail."  All four wings are welded to a plate that bolts on.  I had to buy the steel rod for making the frames for the wings.

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​This photo shows the dragonfly after it tipped over the crane and fell on me (August 2011). I had to have the boom fully extended to position the dragonfly over the stand, and I neglected to put the pins in the legs of the crane, thinking it wouldn't matter because "it's not that heavy." The alert observer will notice a motorcycle parked in the foreground and a brachiosaurus being built in the background. This is a fertile, cluttered environment that makes it difficult to find space to extend the legs of one's shop crane.

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I made a stand from a bunch of old pipe (found on the curb), pieces of steel signpost, and some kind of wheel hub from a truck.  It had to be heavy and stable to support all the weight and not tip over in a wind.  This photo shows the dragonfly being safely hoisted into place above the stand so that I could start to figure out the legs and feet.  I've added a few of the internal pieces to the wings - made from pieces of a steel rack/shelf (also a curb find) and parts of a wire patio planter (a gift from my brother-in-law) (August 2011).

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The results of a stroller walk of several miles to the hardware store:  U-bolts for the dragonfly's feet and Twizzlers for my feet (August 2011).

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I used pieces of wood from an old drying rack to figure out the length and position of the leg segments (August 2011).

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Main pieces of legs attached (September 2011).  The legs are pieces of steel from various things: curtain rods, outboard motor drive shaft, etc.

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The first time I moved the stand, it broke. So I had to heave it back into the garage to add more supports.  This photo shows the whole thing assembled in the garden, finally (October 2011).

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Underside of the dragonfly (October 2011).

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The artist poses with the dragonfly (October 2011).

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Detail of the head (October 2011).

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A few months outside have added some patina (January 2012).

3 Comments
Patricia White
6/12/2016 12:06:01 pm

It's true metal love, you with the Dragon... You're both pretty cute.
Patricia White

Reply
Gina Torresso
6/12/2016 12:09:37 pm

Beautiful work Andy, your Dagonfly doesnt have a name yet?

Reply
Andy White
6/12/2016 01:09:56 pm

Thanks. And nope -- it's always just been "the dragonfly."

Reply



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