Randall's Urban Architectural Sculptures

I read about this non-profit group and it sounds like it’s worth promoting for support of the arts. They help full-time artists who have a disaster type event that precludes continuing to work at their trade- fire, flood or other emergency;

CERF’s Mission

The mission of CERF is to strengthen and sustain the careers of craft artists across the United States. CERF is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization and is the only one of its kind in the United States.
CERF Programs

CERF accomplishes its mission through direct financial and educational assistance to craft artists, including emergency relief assistance, business development support, and resources and referrals on topics such as health, safety, and insurance. CERF also advocates, engages in research, and backs policy that supports craft artists’ careers.

Emergency Relief & Recovery

CERF’s emergency relief programs provide assistance to help sustain a craft artist’s career when an emergency occurs.

CERF is:

* A bridge before more significant assistance, such as insurance payments, are made available
* A connection and guide to other sources for support
* A charitable response by a community for its community
* A first responder for professional craft artists

CERF

I discovered by accident while thinking about possibilities for a display stand for this sculpture, that a little gothic table I built for myself is the perfect size!

I saw the antique original table on a church salvage outfit’s web site in the UK a few years back, but they wanted a lot for the little table and the shipping would have been horrendous, but they gave measurements and I just scaled off the photo and created two for myself, one for a nightstand and the other for a computer stand in the studio.

I built both out of solid oak, and like the antique the cross-member uses wood wedges to hold it in.
As it happens, the little table is just about an inch or so larger all around than the base of the sculpture- that’ll never happen again!

So I think I’ll at least offer tables as a custom order item for the sculpture, they didn’t take long to build but did take a few hours anyway.

Now that the cast has dried from it’s former weight of 88# to 75# I mounted this one on the wall in my bedroom;

A quick photo of the first cast of this from the newly completed mold, more photos later

it’s 88# wet 75# dry, was a bear of a task pulling the mold off it, but it was an easy enough cast to pour and no air bubbles.

Unfortunately I was unable to save the original unfired clay model, it had to be sacrificed due to the difficulty of getting the thick rubber mold out of all the deep keyhole and undercut areas, but since out of the 4 designs this was the the most complex undercut one, with a little adjustments in the mold making of the others I might be able to save the other models

I’m about halfway thru Vol 1 of Robert Peary’s Northward over the great ice having read Vol 2 first, just worked out that way from buying from 2 different people, anyway, Peary detailed exactly where his so called large “Red Cliff” house lodge he built for a shelter was located and the photos of the lodge and area were pretty interesting.
I decided to see if I could find where it was, geez, Google maps is pretty sparse on details about Greenland, in fact it was only with some difficulty that I found much at all. Peary’s hand drawn map included names of landmarks which are known now by different names, furthermore, Google’s maps and info mostly showed the DANISH place names while Peary used Eskimo sounding names as well as some that seemed Americanized.

I finally found Herbert Island (Sounds Americanized to me) which Peary had labelled on his map, but it’s not called Herbert Island any more but rather Qeqertarsuaq and then I found McCormick Fjord which Peary labelled McCormick BAY, and which an Italian chap’s web site with photos of the general route he took on a tour labelled that as Mac Cormick Fjord http://www.wideview.it/travel/greenland_2007/en_dogsled_3.htm

Google’s maps didn’t have a real good satellite view, and the terrain was confusing and shaddowed, but Google Earth did and allowed rotation and zoom.

So below is a screen shot of the area of the South shore of McCormick Fjord rotated about 180 degrees and a marker placed about where Peary’s map shows a large projection of land in about this location.
The 1898 map below that is in the normal North is up position however.

His map of course differes slightly as did his lat/long coordinates, and I’d bet rising ocean level and other changes over the last 110 years has also altered things a little as well. but it is interesting to be able to go and see the area he wrote about and wonder if there is even anything left of that huge structure at all.

I have the model all set up and ready to begin making the silicone rubber mold tomorrow.

Now that this new domain is active and I finally was able to transfer the databases to it, I can add new content.
Some things may still not be updated yet as to internal links etc but these will be corrected before long.