New Commission Completed
by Nancy Lovendahl
Wanting to share how this last 6 months have gone finishing THE WELCOMING COMMITTEE commission. It has been an ease of process, really. Each of the 5 totems are stacked on stainless steel pins using simple cradles and lifting assists which make 1,000 pounds each totem feel very light!
This stands at the top of the stairs for this commission. We stack the layers on the 2 stainless steel pins you can see.
The next layer gets lifted with a simple system of wing nuts holding down double looped turn buckle, makes it easy to slide in a 2×4 and spread out the weight for 2 people to lift onto the next stainless steel pins.
For this 3rd layer to get lifted, we use the wing nuts to thread the stainless steel ingle pin over our same lifter 2×4.
To slide over that single stainless steel top pin is a pink marble collar and this large carved geode made of Spanish black marble. Its extremely heavy and a breeze to lift with 2 people on either side of this cradle.
Voila! 5 layers stacked without machines, very safely!
Here is a compressed view of all 5 sculptures, beginning at the top with the one I just illustrated installing, then moving down the stairs to greet the other 4 sculptures. Each are stacked using a similar system.
