When I lent my services to a collegue who was working on a film about 12 years ago, I was introduced to the world of cnc. I remember watching this huge machining centre milling out a slab of mdf and turning it into a fantastic set of gears. I knew that it would have taken me hours to achieve the same thing with traditional power tools. I decided then that I would invest in a cnc router for my own business Oxenham Design. At that time I could turn on a computer, but even to check email seemed like a crazy set of operations. I persevered and learned every piece of relevant software I could get my hands on. I am now fortunate enough to be using Vectric's ASPIRE software, and Techno cnc routers, which has helped us to create some amazing projects, both in part, or in full. I thought that this blog would be a great place to share "behind the scenes" adventures with the software, materials and equipment we use, as well as the projects we build.

Monday, 20 January 2014

Bullets to Butterflies!

An artist friend of Jody's has a new art exhibit that we were able to lend a hand with.
The excerpt from the website says:

The Bullets to Butterflies exhibit is a show which can be featured at your school, museum or library.
The message of this exhibit is one of hope and to show the power of a single voice in the face of inequity and violence.  Malala Yousufzai is a 15 year old school girl, who with her writing and energy has brought much needed attention to the education emergency that exists in Pakistan.  Despite an attempt at her life, Malala’s message has not gone silent, in fact, the awareness of the education situation in Pakistan has become a global issue.  World leaders are making commitments to make changes in Pakistan, and the world, so children everywhere have access to education.
The exhibit consists of 15 art pieces, a video presentation and the installation of a 12 foot concrete wall with bullet holes.  The exhibit invites visitors to engage with the bullet wall by asking a question and placing their answers in the bullet holes.
If you are interested in having this exhibit come to your venue, or have any questions, please contact Huma Durrani at humadurrani@gmail.com or Saba Syed at siba_ali@yahoo.com.

The first part of the build was the 12 foot concrete wall. Of course, this would be a "movie wall", as a real one would suck eggs to move around!

The bones of the build are pretty basic. 3, four foot by 6 foot pieces of 3/4" plywood made the face of the wall. I built a frame of 2X3's around each panel that will allow them to bolt together. The jack stands in the back were built from 1x3's with cinder blocks as counter weights. Youd be pretty hard-pressed to topple this wall by yourself!


 The concrete texture was added by mixing Durabond 90 and white glue together, and parging it onto the plywood.
Then out came the texture roller. I do this step when the compound sets up a little. This gives a more believable texture, and doesn't get the 'whipped spikes' that happen when it's not ready.
Once the mixture is almost set, it gets buffed smooth-ish with the float.
I used an x-acto knife to drag different sized cracks in the wall. Not overly believable now, but when the wall gets painted, these will really sell it.
The 2 end sections got 6" returns on them. This will make the wall look thick and substantial when it's standing at the various shows.
8)
JWO





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