Art and Art History Presents: Carl Taçon and Kara Firth
Hi. Everybody. Really. Nice to see you're here I just wanted to take a little bit of time to like a few minutes to introduce Karl and Kara. Welcome. To the two of you it's really great to have you here. Just. To give you a bit of background. Karl. Tasting completed, his MFA at York University the, focus, of his art practice is sculpture, primarily, in carved stone which is a pretty unusual thing, these days it's. Practices split between gallery, based work and public art commissions, from, 2002. To 2012, his work was represented, by peak gallery in Toronto and since, 2003. Has won a series of public art commissions that. Include, a, hundred. And thirty six foot curved marble, wall at one st. Thomas near blur and Bay in, Toronto, a carved. 12 by 22, foot marble, wall for, the Edmonton, Police, Service, Southwest, Division in, Edmonton, Alberta, a group. Of three interior works in limestone and slate for the blue Norview. Holland. Kids rehabilitation, hospital. In Toronto made in collaboration, with artist, and Jeanne, sip and. Most recently, a 280. Foot limestone, freeze and nineteen cast bronze sconces. Made for int, X condominium. In the Queen Bay area of Toronto that's actually on temperance. Street if you know that little Street a project. That he'll be talking about today with Kara and, now. Kara, Kara. Firth graduated, from the art art history program, in 2013. Where. She specialized, in sculpture, since. Graduating, Kara has held a number of art and art related positions, including. Head woodshop, technician, at the Queen Elizabeth Park Community, and Cultural Center, in Oakville, art. Teacher for school visits at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto and, galleries. Assistant at the Hudson Art. Gallery in Georgetown, in. 2014. She was hired by four point chisel to work for Carleton on a public art Commission for. IND acts in downtown Toronto, and, Kara is currently, working for, touchstone. Masonry, on a private commission. Of six carved, limestone, Corinthian. Corinthian. Capitals, Kara's. Artistic, practice focuses, on sculpture, and drawing and her, drawings are currently on exhibition, in a group show at the healthsome gali in Georgetown, so. I'll, hand it over to you guys, looking forward to hearing about this. So. It's gonna be a little bit of a whirlwind, we've got a lot, of slides to go through, I'll, give a little bit of introduction into, the project itself. It's, a project that both, Lynne and I were invited to compete for and, we. Obviously won the competition. It's. A two-part. Competition. Which, I. Involved. Lighting, sconces. Which. Are a pedestrian level, now, there's 19 light sconces, there's, also a frieze, of wraps around the top of the building which is, 277. Lineal, feet and.
When. We first were actually, Kara was brought on board right at the very beginning she was initially doing. Some work for Lynne in the studio then she did a little bit of work for me in the studio and in, between, bouncing, back and forth we won, the commission so. She's been involved in, the, initial. Conception of the commission right to the very, end of the completion, so. It's it's basically, and three, years that we're trying to compress into an. Hour right now. So. The the, the, initial approach. That we took for. The Commission was. Dealing. With the the massive freeze at the top and, start looking at historical. Freezes. On. Other buildings in Toronto and elsewhere also. Looking at the architecture within, various the building is right in the downtown core, which. Is, so. The bay in Adelaide area the. Financial, district area and there's still some. Buildings. Left there that have, more. Traditional. Architectural. Features decorative, features on them we, want to play with that the competition, was quite specific to dealing, with the frieze as. Well, as the light sconces, so we had no. Latitude. There but, it was open in terms of how to approach, dealing with those, so. It was an exciting project to take on because it had a lot of flexibility, within the parameters of the locations. So. With the the, frieze we started with thinking, about a line a line traveling, around the building as dealing. With the linear nature of that space so. We took quite. Literally dealing, with a line that, we. Evolved, little ball into something, that was, more. Fabric. Like being, a ribbon. And the ribbon allowed for a little more definition a, little more. Interest. In terms of the way it folds and undulates and turns over itself, and. Then, the lighting, component. Where we dealt with a, lighting, engineer and, a lighting designer. To. To try, and calculate how we're going to illuminate, these these objects. We. It. Was an extension of that ribbon form. So, I'm gonna talk, first just about the the fries and then we'll move into the sconces. So. We quite we dealt with it quite, literally, in.
Terms Of how to, represent. Ribbon. On the the. Frieze by, photographing, pieces. Of ribbon and within. The proposal, we wanted to develop a process that, allowed us to work through it fairly quickly and bring another technology, that would, allow. Us, to. Best. Rough up the stone and move us forward with it this. Is the the frieze and it's entirely which you can barely see on there. One. Of the the other aspects, is we had to work with the grid of the building so where all the columns went, up. To. The fifth, floor and, all, the windows ran so, it was all broken, into sections so. We took it upon ourselves to. Work, with measurements. To. Design the project according, to measurements we, worked in collaboration with a precast, company, where we installed, on the precast the, limestone carved panels and, then they installed in the building so we then provided, all the measurements for the precast company to work with with. The condition, that the architects, take on the responsibility. Of. Verifying. That all those measurements are correct but, that was the best way we could try and coordinate with that company so that our panels, would fit obviously. With the precast you, can recast, a section. To. Meet. Measurement. Changes with a stone you can't. So. We started by laying. Out ribbon on strips, of paper dividing, that up into sections photographing. It and. Then. Chopping that up digitally. And squeezing. It into the parameters that, we had to work with the dimensions, of the frieze and. Then, start. Taking. That more into. Removing. Through. Filters trying to make it look a little more ribbon, like these. Ended up actually being working templates, for. Reference. For curvy you. Can't. Actually see that seem to light in here over. In this section is, the line drawing, of the ribbon. What. We had to do is. Separate. The ribbon and treat. That as line then, create a background and then superimpose, the ribbon back onto, the surface. We. We, wanted, to work with a background. Surface. That wasn't just flat and we. Thought of working with ribs and lines which is often used as a background, in, traditional. Carved. Architectural. Ornamentation, and, what. Was interesting is, we, had thought of it being continuous, lines running through the frieze and, Kara. Was, asked. By us to to, represent, those ribs at. Particular, measurements, and shade from. Light to dark so it showed a gradation of light and dark as a feather shadow below, that each of the ribs and. We'd. Asked her to do that we came back and had a look and she had misunderstood, how. We wanted to do that and. We, looked at and said okay well wow this is what we want when you do that so, she she, then represented, it the way we wanted it. And then we looked at it and, thought well, if we combine the two so the ribs don't actually line up it, becomes more interesting so we ended up with a more dynamic. Background. Surface, that, highlights, the fact that they're separate panels but, then you have the continuation of the rib or the ribbon that. Flows. Through the entirety, of the frieze. So. You can barely see the line drawings, there these were used for. Files. That were then created in layers that, were doing CNC, routing on the stone. These, were and. 3d. Representations. Of how the stone would be shaped initially, by, the CNC, machine and, we. Were hoping that we could get it to this stage with the equipment bring, it to the studio and then do all the hand carving from there so it removes a lot, of mapping a lot of the initial, handwork. And. Allows. Us to proceed a lot faster. So. We, had to calculate well things we had to calculate is. To. Make sure that there, weren't any delicate, areas where there were seams where panels joined each other so the ribbon digitally. Would be shifted, and morphed we, had to make sure that it, wasn't too thin in areas, we're. Dealing with basically. A. 1/2. Relief. Carving. So it's not. Full, depth. Of the reality, of the ribbon at that scale it's. The. Depth is half that so. It's in between the, ribbon and. Flat. Surface. So. We had to make sure that the. Material, is up 55, feet in the air so we had to make sure that it, wasn't so delicate that things would start to break and fall down from. That onto the street, so. Areas, at the corners we left raw, so that we, would do all the hand carving and the ribs and so forth on those so we got the alignment from side to side of the building so, these.
Are The panels as they, were being, manufactured, at. The factory, and they. Came out exactly. As they were supposed to. The, company that we have dealt with the. Number of projects, they. They've. Utilized, CNC, equipment they're, moving they have been over the last number of years moving more and more towards, CNC operated, equipment, and. This was a project that allowed them to. Learn. Some of the settings for being able to do this kind of shaping, with the stone particularly. Indiana, limestone, they. Had some problems at the beginning with. Terra and chipping on the edges and they were able to find that so it became a big, learning project, for them so they were actually. Pleased. To take on the project, so. Actually. This is a little video. They. Buried, from. The. Longest ones where it was. -. Thereabouts. Roughly, eight feet. Yeah, about 8 feet. Yeah. And their equipment, is actually, quite amazing. It's. They. Had the ability that got rich. Saws with, CNC, heads and and, blades. That they could move in any direction so. I've got five, and so on axes machines. That. Have a. Working, area, of 30 feet 570, people so, it's. This. Is obviously, a much more much smaller machine much more contained. After. The point. Well. They were, you. Know their. Company that I, threw. Another project number of years ago got involved with was. A large project, there. Their. Basic line of work they built the reputation on slobbing stone and. I. Think the second-largest slabber. In North America one. Of the, things. That they started, to see is that they had to start to move in, directions of. Ornamental. Shaping, because. The market was changing and. If they could cut, into that then there. Was a big advantage. They've actually got the. Ability. Now to up beat China. On, jobs. Because. Of the ability for speed, and accuracy. The. Canadian yeah. So. These are the panels as they arrived to the studio so. Karen, I spent a fair bit of time moving these back and forth it was never-ending moving. One. Of the aspects of the project I would say about, 50%, of they at the time yeah, and I first went into material handling have to be insanely, careful. Like I'd have to watch him as he's picking, every stone up that the forks. Don't press into another stone because you're trying to also make use of space as well because, we were limited on the space as well when we were dealing with the scale, the. Property was was maxed out there's, a dream inside studio. To outside so, it was and, there, are expensive piece of stone more work you put into them the more and I. Critical. It. Is to make sure that there's no damage. When. They're finished they're about 1,500. Pounds the. The stone part itself the. Assembled sections on pre-cast's, were about. Twelve. Thousand pounds. A forklift, and cranny yeah, and. Karen. So. I'll just briefly go over the the sconces, before. We get to the overall. The. Sconces were initially supposed to be rolled, stainless steel we, ran into problems in terms of consistency with the stainless steel and. Changed. Your plan of action to cast, bronze and. As. Soon as we change that it. Allowed the, ability to deal. With very. Functional, aspects, of the lighting so the wire we could run inside we could cast a channel inside. The. Line-drawing, Sun show so well we, could then. Cast. A channel inside it could be welded I can, be cast in parts. We. Could change the wall thickness rather, than dealing with a consistent. Wall thickness, so. There were big advantages, to that this is actually the, hub. That holds the LED light unit itself, that. Was designed in parts and this is what, we call the thumbnail, which. Is what casts the shadow of the light below. The sconce. And this. Is the initial prototype. Of that hub that held the LED. Very. Crude aluminium. Prototype. But. Then we digitally. Printed. So. This is another little movie of the digital printer, and. This, is a, company. That no longer exists, it was part of digital Kristy, digital and. This. Was the largest print, brain had done, and. It was very difficult to find a company that could do, prints. Of the scale and it's, very very expensive. But, this is it coming out of the printer, right now after. It's been fused. With the new resident. So, are. All the lights the same they, are yeah, and what, was critical is the consistency, from one to the next so the light would be cast the same way. This. Is video. Of the. Piece. After it's been all, the the, print has been fused within the liquid.
And, Now it's just coming up to three so. These are all. And. So these are all parts. That then would be attached. Together so. Allowing us to make the pieces and parts for. Welding and. Maybe. It's worth saying at the very start we made a model in, just that we've been pendant, in aluminum. And that was then scanned, and, then we hired a digital, renderer. To, convert, that to, a. Writer, plot. That. Could be then used on this issue. So. The. This. Was a new process for us and, what. It allowed for was. Ceramic. Shell but, rubber molds to be made from. These directly, and, then wax. Castings, made and in ceramic shell, around. The wax for, casting the bronze. So. There was actually a coating, on the sconces, after, they were printed, so, we had to take all of the coating off so, there's, a lot of sanding, and finishing, up. Having, to do on the actual little pieces even after it was cast. The. Cat is there for quality control. So. This is those. Parts loosely. Fitted together. And you might recognize this person. So. Then at that point we did a lighting test with the lighting. Engineer and, lighting designer and. What. Was interesting is that little thumbnail. For. The fit around the hub of that held the LED light. That. Developed, through this initial, test because. We couldn't get the light to cast the way it had on the original mock-up. With the metal. Model. We had made and. Then we realized that it, was not the. The. The. Lighting. Designer couldn't figure out why the, cat-lair light foot cast in, the way it was that he'd, used a flashlight with an LED flashlight and held, it up there and, it was the arc of a flashlight itself. That was creating, this, curved, shadow. Underneath. So. The reason that piece is called a thumbnails not just because it looks like a thumbnail is I held my thumbnail up and, we're able to duplicate, that so. It. Was sort of an interesting exercise with. The play of light so here it's cast in bronze. Very. Rough cast. Here. Again. Comes. Back to the studio for another light test. And before. We're able to proceed with. With. That. So. Then we're back to the, fries and all, the material. Handling, so. The first. Step was actually, flipping, them. Because. We. Had to clean out the hole to allow for the bolt to go in for. Attaching onto the wall so before we could even start carving that had to be dealt with so, it meant picking all them up and flipping them over that's. Right and we discovered, that some of the stones were coming in correct so. This is a cracked, stone, those. Alliance to illustrate, to the manufacturer, that's correct and. So at, that point we realized we had to inspect every, stone prior to so there were 54, limestone. Panels, I think only four. Five. Five six, so, it's fun. So, you can see the holes on the back for. Where, the anchors were, going in and. Each one would have to be leveled first so you spend the time flipping it and leveling it and then, these jigs had to go on so that way when you're gluing in the. Little. Bolts you have to be able o and the drilling so initially, we would have to clean it out and we go along and we drill so that way when you're gluing in this anchor it actually sticks into. The hole as well. Okay. We devised, this. Little. Jig for being able to hold the, suspend. The anchor, within the glue until. It set so, it was one of the initial, things as. It. Was prepping the stones for carving. So. Initially. We. Have to come up with something to protect the lines so, as the ribbon was being carved all the, background. Wouldn't, be destroyed because at first it's a lot of grinder work so, potentially, there's lots, of big chunks of stone coming off and lots, of room for error so, what had to be done is. This. Board would after you put on and then I would trace the shape of the actual, carving. The. Ribbon and then, I cut it out with a jigsaw and then attach it back on to, the sides so, I cut that little. Piece out and then the sides would be the protection and I also made the side pieces so as you're working there's, no chance of it coming off, it'll all be pinned on to the side so the sides are protected and the tops.
So. We also had. To. Create a reference for the, carving itself so. We would, print. Out full, scale prints. To. The size that we're working from but we could only use these as a reference, because since, these images were made we. Digitally. Modified. All. Of the ribbon on the computer so. We had, a sense, some of them were fairly accurate in terms of measurement other ones I had modified. So, I thickened. Areas thinned areas out we also had to account, for a wash that we put on the top of each panel, and, a wash is where. You. Have a slope on, any surface, where. Water might collect so that water always drains so, those are factors that had to be calculated. Within the digital stage so that we had enough material to work with but. Also then had to be checked, and measured as, we proceeded through so. Initially I would start, drawing. Out the shape, and, kind. Of the curves and then Carl would go back into it so I try and figure it out myself by measurement, and just looking, at the shape and then he go over it again and make. Sure that the curves are correct and everything looks okay and he put the washes on as. Well and. At. That point then. Here's. Father who I've worked with on a number of projects. He. And I first started roughing and then it got to the point where I was doing. Too many things and he did follow, through with the majority of the rough, out of the material, so. It. Was a process, of every morning I would be marking up a stone he would then be following those marks we would consult and, it, actually was, quite a beautiful. Sort. Of exchange. Back, and forth on a daily basis, to try and figure out how each panel, which was different one from the next was. Going to align and, so at, the, three of us sort, of developed a language, skill, through. Templates, and, in, line, that, allowed us to understand, the wonder the. Did. You go methodically, from like left and right or just whatever that was the intent and, so, we were going from from. Right. To left and. Then, they developer, changed their mind and decided no they wanted to install another side of the building first so. We started to set up for going another direction and, then they decided they want to work in the middle of the building and. Put the ends, on afterwards. So. I got to the point where we had so much moving around we've, got only so much space within, the studio, that. We. Ended up going. All over the place but each panel had to be laid next to the other and, so. There's a lot of time just setting, up leveling up so, that we had the consistency, from one to the next it wasn't just a roughing stage that had to be put together at, the finishing stage we had to make sure everything was perfectly. Lined up so you're not only lining, out points or lining up a couple timings which, kind of added to. We. Ran out of room. For storage through, the, and we. Knew we're going to be working through the winter so. We put up a temporary. Building to, be able to house a lot of material. Through. The winter so. We had a rotation, this building, actually was completely, filled and we. Had a rotation, and it's really different, when you buy. Them. Most. Of the building to get the head. So. This is inside the studio as we're. Working through these have already been roughed and. Some. Of the finished works been done and then Kara. Basically. Took the lead on the finished. Work through, the lobbies so, there's a lot of filing. And, smoothing. Areas and there's. Lots of undercut, areas as well so I wanted to make sure that they were, clean and I, had it was kind of the challenge because I'm learning, on the fly at the same time because I'd never been exposed, to stonework so you're, kind of learning as you go as well so there, is the error of mistakes, sometimes because you're learning how to deal with materials.
So It, was a real learning curve for me but it was a great way to learn and in, this case you had to be so accurate with the lines because everything had to just look and flow perfectly, you can you should if there was a line that was off you could tell right away so it was a really great experience for me to, learn it learn, properly, how to do things so it. Freezes. Up 55, feet in the air so it's quite quite, high as you're not ceiling seeing as much detail, as we were putting into those panels from the ground but. We wanted to have the, consistency, of edge. The. Thickness of edge but ran, continuously. Through because, that is an element that you can start to see and it can look somewhat sloppy from. The ground if you see that variation, I'm. Going to make a series of templates, as well so everything was the, same throughout, all the panels and throw. It I think I lost my fingertips, too. And the ribs. While. We had to CNC work done to reveal the ribs the, top we had to put a wash on all the ribs so that would be ground first, with a grinder. And then, Kara would go in and file all, of those so. The. Amount of handwork was. Immense. So. That's the one of the other corners the corners we had to set up in the studio so that. We. Could get the alignment. To. Set them up vertically. We. Had a half inch gap which, is about half what is typically used and. Because. A larger, gap when, you're dealing with a an. Organic, form, that travels through and becomes. Very noticeable. And, that, created, a little bit of resistance with a creek dance company because it meant their tolerances, had to be, very. Accurate I. Insisted. That the precast, was, to be accurate and they said Oh we'll make it within a quarter of an inch and said no he'll make it exactly and, they laughed at me and they made it by and large exactly, so they were they, were pretty good there. Occasionally there were a few panels we had difficulty. Attaching, to because the angle was off but by and large the measurements were spot-on. Which. Is a precast. Precast. Concrete so. It's. Basically. In place of stone.
Cladding On the building they, cast it and then. It's hung in the building so. I'll show you examples, will show you examples, of that in, a minute, okay, here's a better illustration of Cara's hands. So. One of the things with limestone is, it dries out your skin, your. Hands become very braided. Limestone. Is extremely, abrasive and. You. Tend to your fingers, crack and they bleed and you also, wear the skin off the tips of your fingers as you're working so. Kind, of a few times because he, said there's more blood up there on the free. So. This is a lot of what Kerry worked with and. As I gain. More confidence to I was able to use more power tools to kind of clean up areas, but a lot was just starting, with the basics it's. Hard to get into these tight, little areas, too so had to come up with different solutions, for what I was doing. Consistency. You need to be relying on jigs and. Constantly, going, to Carl and saying what are we gonna do about this. So. This is the the type of effect we wanted in finish, panels and, what that has on the surface is a diamond. Process which is done with a five-point. Chisel, which, is only 3/4. Of an inch is wide. I think, where's an inch wide and. You. Trace back and, forth and so falling, from one set of lines to another set of lines to another set of lines it's extremely time-consuming. But. You have to use a narrow chisel to be able to deal with furniture he, has a wide shovel it's very difficult to get it around the. Twist. Of the, ribbon. Pneumatic. Pneumatic. Near hammer yeah. So. We had four different sizes of air hammers depending on the delicacy, so for rough up some very large ones. Kara. Was using what's, called a Bantam air hammer which, is it's like a thick pencil and, you. Can get into really tight small. Areas to clear the, material. So, these are panels they've just been washed so this is the precast, concrete, that, we were attaching on to so. They would arrive at a studio at about. Excess. Of ten thousand pounds each and then by the time we put the material on, it. Was about, just. I don't. Actually some of them were a little more than that we, were somewhere in the neighborhood, of twelve thousand pounds. So, it's, a lot of weight to be manipulating. As. Your your staging. To install. One. Of the this piece, of equipment here I got. For being able to flip. The corners, in the air and. Because. They're. Top-heavy, they arrived upside down we had to flip them on there their. Backs, and then tip them up to, install the stone on and tip them up the other way to install the stone and then, flip them right, up so. For. Safety for ourselves as, well as the stone. And the precast, I, purchased. This piece. Of equipment in the States and it. Went beautifully but. Not of time we saved was incredible. Everything. Had to be. So. This actually I built it had this trailer, built for bringing the stones in another studio I miscalculated. The, height so he couldn't it was too high for hoist. Inside, the studio, so. We ended up abandoning that and, bringing. Them in with the forklift, and installing another equipment. So. Now these, remote we called the donuts. Before. The stones would get put in the precast we, would glue these rubber, little. Donuts and just, so as the stone was coming down it wasn't just being put right on to the precast piece it had that little buffer of rubber so, therefore if there is any like fluctuation, it's. Not going to crack and, there's less of a chance of that as well yes all the securing, had, to be. Cushioned. With a, custom-made rubber, spacers. And washers and.
Fast-setting, Rubber compound, that we would use behind steel washers, to. Fill gaps so, that there was never any stress on her Hardware within, the. Union. Of the stone to the precast so, this is setting a piece down. Into. One of the precast sections. Yeah. You pretty. Much have to I, mean, little, likely you have to yeah so. The, anchors that we originally glued at the beginning we done screwing. The bolts and, then we lower that bolts to line it up onto the precast piece, so. This actually, and then there's. Really first thing we had to put lying. On our backs on the top and bottom because. Of course the things. Change as buildings filling up and originally, we were relying on everything being secured with caulking, in, between all the panels it's gonna be a recessed caulking, edge and. Then it was decided that it was best to have everything breathed and all those joints to stay open so we. Wanted to make sure that we had some safeguard while, caulking, doesn't sound like a very, strong adhesive for, holding. Edges. It. Actually is is, very strong when it's a continuous, bead we. Wanted that as some other mechanism, to be able to. Safeguard. Against a corner breaking, on the stone and then falling down on the street so, we had it's. A fiberglass, mesh that goes on which doesn't look like much but it's. A huge amount of strength to the stone. This. Is a way to get employees to work really fast. So. You're being rushed because of the setting same time. Of the glue and you've got a hanging stone above your heads well, not above your head but just close. To yeah yeah. So. Everything, was glued into place there's, adhesive, that goes, on top of these rubbers that isn't. Necessary, but. It acts as. Basically. Allows the stone to glide into. Position so we can set it down and we've got we're able to adjust, it in place if, we didn't have that there and it sat directly on the rubber there'd be no way we could move it without chipping edges. So, these are rubber shims. That go in top and bottom so, that all the load is just. On two of these rubber. Shims and. With. The thermal expansion, and contraction it, means that that, can it can expand and contract within, the casing. Of the precast, concrete and. Not, over stress anything. So, this part wasn't quite as nice, we. Had to work underneath the stones after we set the stones inside the precast because underneath there was just a hole so we had to secure, that. In place with, plates. So. The. So. The we. Had to the. Washers, went underneath we had initially. Deforming. In its insider holes so, we had a compression, and stainless steel compression, caller, in there and, then. We, would form that into place take the bolt out, put. A piece of at least an eighth of an inch of adhesive in loosely. Tighten the bolt so. That the adhesive the rubber adhesive would, basically. Be a cushion, and. Let. Everything set this is Karen. Because. You had glue falling on your face. I. Where we're, covered yeah. It's. Hard to get off of your skin once it's on there so. These are panels that have already been set. Because.
We're Also then prepping them for transportation. We've, got bumpers top and bottom that are bolted on and the precast we, had them design we designed, it for the precast company so that they, had thread inserts in the precast. For. Us to be able to bolt our and, wooden. Bumpers on and then it got skinned over with plywood. And foam. Carl. Let me place their stones. In it, the big cups but did you remove. The belts. That. Was a little tricky we kind of had to adapt. A certain percentage. And sometimes we'd have to use thinner. Belts, or use cardboard usually, you put carpet and then the belt but we'd actually have to use the thin cardboard which, was a little bit more risky but yeah. We also had a little bit of flexibility. Because we. Would when. You have. When. You're you but, you're setting panel, down you've got a belt here here though and one just slides off right, it's, when you got it through the half page space there and some paper to turn around but. We had we could shut, the panel over sometimes. Up to a half an inch, slide. It on top of the adhesive on the rubber get. Her belts up and then push it back and. That was a tricky part to you because you have to watch at the belts didn't touch the glue and then. We, had that from Pepperdine. So. Let me bring them out and transfer. Them. Transport. Them with the crane for storage. For when the, truck arrives for, for, picking him up. The. Corners were the. Biggest. Challenge, to deal with we, had to take them into the studio on, a trailer, set. Them up already. For working, and. Because. It's two pieces on, one of each face we had to. So. We did that one week apart so that the adhesives, had time to fully set before. Stressing. It on the. Vertical. So, you can see the seam line there where the two panels joined, at the corner. And, then let's bring, it outside and, flipping, and we have a little video here. We. Didn't it I'll, bring it up so you can see which. Okay. So, normally this would have taken. Several. Hours to flip. Each. That's about 10,000, pounds. This. Is probably the most terrifying part, of the project was flipping these large, pieces. Also. Because at. This point we're, getting ready to send the panels, down if we break something and it holds everybody down. So. I think at this point. Eric. Tries to pull it down. And, what's important is you know which button to push. Here, comes the boss. So. That's the other corner, after was moved outside and. Then we started loading in the trailers so as, with all projects, the developers pushing and pushing and pushing you throughout the entire project you've, got this deadline to meet, and they're always bumping. That ahead a little bit so that they, say what we wanted in six. Months but actually now would relight in three months and, we. Finally got everything done this, trailer loaded and. Then that trailer sat in the drive for six, weeks. But. Then we eventually made it down to the site and, things, started going up on the building. So. What was interesting. The. Location, the two buildings. Are. Actually quick close to each other so we had this 90/10 crane that. Is, just. Had enough for him to be able to pivot within, the two buildings. And, it was an excellent installation, crew we didn't do the installation, ourselves, as.
The Precast company that orchestrated, that. So, each of these panels the panel that they're hanging there right now is 12,000, pounds it's, held by two, three-quarter, inch threaded, rods mild. Steel and then. There's two push up bolts into pulling, bolts, to level it and that's all that's holding up. So. I even. Talked to our engineer, about that and he was surprised at how light. It was but it passed. You're. Still there for now. If I get to the point where you said I don't want to do this again, or. Many times. Whether. It's very exciting working on a project that, scale. I mean perfect. As there's so many different people you're working with, both. Inside the studio as well as, the. Architects engineers the, developer, the client. The. Precast company, it's. The. Lighting engineers. So. There's an element. That takes sick moves away from the solitude. Of working, by. Yourself in the studio. In fact use it anytime you want. The. We're, gaining a, basis, basically my. Job for, the, majority of project was just coordinating I mean there's the initial. Development. Stage which is just a tiny tiny portion. And, that was in the. First month and then it's three years of. Following. It out so it's doing. A little bit of work on the project, like I said Cara doing a little bit of work alongside Eric, checking. Back and caretaking Bank and Eric so that we've got consistency, dealing with suppliers. And and the precast company and the architects, and, we'd. Get started we give you a problem and then you don't figure going find the solution well that's yes back with, solutions. All of that. So. This is I'm welding, the. Their plates on the top for holding it in, place. And, these guys were fearless working, up there they had two of these machines, these cherry, picker machines moving back and forth there's the crane moving up and down we're. Down on the ground unpacking. Panels, there's a rigger down there he's, staging, for lifting up and, it. Was an amazing, orchestrations. I mean that part I find very exciting, to see, so. This is up on the cherry picker is seeing it and, fairly. Close-up. The imagery illness has a typographic, quality to that. Well. It it. Was. We. Wanted it to look like script. But not any specific script, so, it wasn't we were trying, to mimic, any. Type. Of written, language but. Because, and. I didn't explain that the beginning when we're playing with line is. Because, we were dealing with line and dealing, with a freeze that freezes, often have script. We. Wanted to play. Off fast. Yeah. No you got it yeah you got exactly yeah. So. That sort of gives you a sense of, scale of each unit. So during this whole installation, comes that you guys were just on the ground that's. Right. We're. Unpacking, and, prepping for the rigger to put his hardware on. From. The, winning. The competition, the, first six months are I, was, was.
Mostly Digital work as well as revamping. The studio to, deal with the material coming in. There's. Something nice about, putting, the two together and, I think with the technology and I very much like, handwork but and. I. Also like utilizing, the technology not, to replace the, handwork but, to use as a tool to, get to that end result. Having. A very crisp quality. To it as well yeah. Yeah. Now. Most people think it's precast. Concrete. People. Don't. So. You get a sense of the overall in the one face of the building they're. Extremely. Difficult because of the undercuts. You. Could. Cast it about, the time you would spend making your molds I think. You'd probably be, in a similar amount of labour. There'd be a similar amount of labour. Continuous. Line that doesn't never, repeat, yeah if it was a repeat thing yeah you definitely got to pay. The. Anything that was interesting, in the project, was at the very start Carl. Was organizing. It to install, it as a like, speedy installer. But. In the process of, the developer. Contracting. The, precast. Company there. Some point was that, they would have to come in with them top, the bottom layer of the precast. And then Karl's crew. Would come in install and then they would have to come in with that had the, cornice. And, their fear with, damage. And, so, we were brought into the, sort of tender process. To. Talk it, through with, our. There, was actually the art consultant, they came up with the other day said well why. Didn't you cast it as a unit and then, you guys. And, the pre-cast company installed. The whole item, so. It took us off the roster, for an install. Was. Great I mean Hera was really disappointed, because she wanted to go up there. Was. Bread Bolton. So. Then this is we're. Getting ready for, setting. Up the the lights the sconces, all. Of those had to be transported back and forth to. The the lighting company they all had to be CSA approved and, stamped and sticker. And, then we had. To drill, into the building for installing, those and, which wasn't so easy because we couldn't hang on the base. Pounces on the cladding in the building we had to go through the cladding, through. The four inch space behind and. Then. Into, the structure of the building and. We had to make sure that our end points were exactly, in position for. Our three mounts for. Mounting the sconces, so. We, had this this template. That. We would hook onto the building and strap onto the building and, then. Drill. Through with a water drill in, 14, inches and then. Glue. Our Hardware in so you can see there the the rod, is passing through into the wall I. Think. I can sell this photo to the manufacturer, of the drill. And. This is where the electrical, would. Pass into the building from the back of the sconce and that was for that post held the majority the weight the way about a hundred pounds the, sconces and. We. Had a clamping, mechanism, but. We we would screw. To the building itself for, holding her top plate that, would then cover the, electrical box we had to have this accessible. So. If ever they had to change the driver for the LED or. Replace. The wiring for the sconces, they. Didn't have to remove the horse grunts. So. That's one of the sconces in place with temporary, plants, holding the top in place the. Cover plate and. From. The side and then we had to do one more light test to, make sure that they. Were working and casting the lights properly. On the building, so. You can see that the cover, plates not on. Over. Top of the electrical box at this point. And, it was also dealing with the grid of the buildings so that each, one of those sconces had, the same angle, would, cast the light exactly the same way and. The. Elevation man. Is a straight, line down the building. Primus. Causes more delay up the building or are they actually, provide, it's, just to be decorative the, specifications. Were that, it was to be decorative lighting and then. After they're produced the, developer. And the site super saying no we need them up because it's got to illuminate the sidewalk and we're saying well it's not going to eliminate your sidewalk it, turns out they emit more light than, we had anticipated so.
It Does actually eliminate the sidewalk somewhat so. We're. All happening in. And, I think that's the last image there. Questions. Anyone. Not. Tryna, work for the faint of heart. It's. Called int, X. Conduits. That's. A condominium building, it's. 54. Floors, yeah that's. A very tall building what, was amazing when we were working on the the, repair. Work Kara and I were down doing repair work which. Was mayhem because. I mean, there's problems you deal with along the way you've got all, these different trades and you're. Dealing with time constraints, and, there's a huge amount of room for error so the, electrical, boxes, were, not put in the correct locations, and the, cutouts for, where we had to cover. Over with the sconces, we're. Not in the right place, so. We had to go. Back in we were hired to go back and cut the stonework, and glue, in sections. So that we could adjust for where our placement, was going to be. And. We're, working down there one day and a crew from the other building, across, the street comes, up to us and they're saying do, you realize there's guys in your building and it's for working on a Sunday and we said yeah, so maybe guys in the building they said no really there aren't we said yeah so they're probably working if they said no they're kids we. Said they're kids they said yeah they're hanging out the sides of the building this is 54 floors I'm photographing. Themselves. That. It. Was amazing it was unreal and. Then they snuck out. Some. Cara. Moving. Forward what, do, you. See yourself doing at with this experience, and, how do you know. In terms of speaking. Oh. It. Was an amazing, experience for me to. Say, no. But I mean like I was I was in a wood shop before that and it, was a different type of wood shop and what you'd see here like it was more furniture based and I just felt like I, was kind of losing the art aspect for me so, working. With them kind of it was it was all art it was it. Was great and there was a skill that I really wanted to learn so, for. Me I can see myself down the line I'd like to do my own public, commission sound like way down the line but for and there's a good learning curve to see what exactly that, involved, and how much work it was cuz there's a lot, of work so. Now as, I continue I'm actually working with my dad now and we're carving Corinthian, capitals, so I'm kind of furthering my skills learning, more about stone, carving, and. Evolving. More as I can say. And. For, students. That are just graduating, like you really just have to take a chance it's like do things you're uncomfortable with because I wasn't, necessarily comfortable, just. Jumping, into it but you kind of have to do that in this environment like you can't just say, oh that's nice I'd like to do that but then not. Really put the effort into it so for. Me it was just kind of getting out of the comfort zone and, trying something that I wanted to try and. And they were nice nice enough to actually take. Me on and teach me so, you. Know you you, went through your trajectory a little bit with our fourth year students maybe you could just do it here for the students that are here just talk about when you graduated, and what what happened in that just like that line of work that you took money okay, so um, when, I graduated, I didn't, really have anything, on, the go so, I just, I, decided, that I was just gonna see what came because I wasn't sure if I wanted to do my Master's that wasn't really something I wanted to do right off the bat so. I. Started. Volunteering I, volunteered. At, Harbourfront. Centre and, I, was actually taking the, art in the education, here the program so I started volunteering there, and then I, continued. To volunteer after. I was done in school as well and they ended up getting employed, there so I was teaching school visit art programs there, and. Then when, decided, to hire me on after, that to, kind of help here and there with some of her studio work so, I was doing that but it was still only like kind of part-time work and.
Opportunity. Came up with, the town of Oakville to work in the woodshop there so. I thought well I can apply I don't, think I'm gonna get it and, I. Ended up getting it. Which. Was great because I worked there for about a year and a half, but. In that that, was still only part-time so again it's, you're, not getting all the work that you, want so. In, the meantime I was also decided. To volunteer at the. Health and gallery which is an art gallery in Georgetown, so. I started volunteering there. And it, turns it again and when you volunteer, and you try, even put your best, effort forward they, decided to give me a job there as well so I was also working part-time, in there. And. About I guess, it was 2014. End. Of 2014, I. Asked. Carl and then if they, would let. Me help with this project and, I, left my job at the wood shop and I, started working with them there, as well and then I, still kept my job with, the health and gallery as well and I still have that today so I'm still pursuing that as well but. After. The project was done I decided. That my, dad got this really big job of, carving. The Corinthian capitals, and because he. Prefers, more of the roughing work like you kind of saw in the last thing he. Wanted me to start, really carving. More of the ornate. Parts. Of the Capitals so I continued. My carving with him and that's what I'm doing right now. Hey part of the reason we. One. Of the reasons why we, hired, you was because. Of your ability, to learn, on the fly and. That's what this whole project was about is learning on the fly. As. In. Problem solving. Carla. You seem to put a lot of capital investment into this project on your own property and studio everything in the end do you they, equity. All of that and gotta get your money back, some. People. I. Mean. So. Much of the efforts. Through. Any project, I've been involved with is to build up the infrastructure through, the projects, that. Are. Operating, within there and. Some. Of the machines. That have, been built for some projects, then get transformed, in other machines. Yeah. As I sort of see it as slowly. Evolving, the. Studio operation. Little bit talk. About how we can page with, the publicans, or. Like how it works how does that work how do you I could get her to yourself. Okay. It's easy for Kara cuz she just hits a paycheck. I. Mean. I've got a lot of experience with with, budgeting and. Some. Projects, it come close, to the end and son some. Of you make some some you don't make so much on. And. I. Think what has to be factored into that as per your profit, goes into the infrastructure within the studio so. So. That capital investment is, perfect. Profit. Thought. It it, doesn't bring in a big income definitely. Not. So. There's. Very little at the end of the project in. Terms of that ROI income especially without that labor well. It's a huge amount of time yeah enormous. Amount of time I mean I hesitate. To even think of what I make per hour. With. The ornamentation, people. Do that on site. Some. Work was done on site and some was done in, shops, I, think. The majority of the. Initial, carved, work was done in shops but they had dull so it's a very crude and. Lifting. Mechanisms, for, putting those in place, Derrick's. That would attach, to basically. Like a pivoting, and crane, that attaches to the top or side of a building from. Picking up stone and putting it into position. More. Labor-intensive and, time-consuming. Well. I mean you also had, your. Your, stone, cladding. Wasn't, so much a veneer, on the outside as it is today and so. Today it's everything is veneer so, for instance the old post office building in Toronto which, is now the Air Canada center, the. Stone work on that the columns that. Was actually a veneer, on the building but. And I went up in. What's. At the mid 30s late thirties. That. Material. Then was 16 inches thick so, even as a cladding. At that point it, had structural, integrity, and. Now you're looking at generally. A maximum, of two inches for cladding on buildings these. Panels were four inches backing. Material. Base, there in terms of the the flat plane on the back was consistently. Four inches but. Feel for spread. The, stone no we. Quickly, constant. Pull the pre-casters, yeah yeah. The pre-casters, are in court enforced, but. The the. Stone work on the building below, the precast all. Of that is to just say and, it's. Just held together with pins.
So. You rely on the structure of the building then to support, the stonework. So. Air is old job. They reproduce II would like to work on is, really like great. For it but. This point I'm not hungry for anything. I'm. Hoping that hunger appears, loaded yeah. Okay. That's. Great thanks again.
2018-02-24 19:53
