Evaluation

For this project I took on something very ambitious and in a way I pulled it off but I never thought I would be as hard as it was. I took on a commission to build up a gate for a couple in Yorkshire. I have never made a gate in my life, I have helped out making one but never built one of my own so it was a little scary.

As far as research goes in the start of this project I was quite proud of how I went about it. I looked around through my images and then got a solid start point. I landed on blades of grass and I stuck with it, I did a few drawings. In hind sight maybe I should have done some more drawings of grass so I could understand the form better. Really would have made the making a lot easier. I think it has always been a point of mine that I don’t do enough exploration in drawing I find something then I stick to it and keep re drawing it. This isn’t a great thing when it comes down to the making, leaves me kind of open when I am making to make a lot of mistakes.

When it did come to 3D exploration in the forge I was under a heavy time constraint to get an idea and run with it. The trouble was as well as trying stuff out I also had to get on the forging techniques to build gate such a making heel tennons and working on latch ideas. This made for a really difficult time for me. I think I did nowhere near as much exploring with the material as I wanted to do and what I needed to do. I managed to get a decent idea out of it but that was purely luck more than anything else on my part. I think that is one thing about this project I have been very lucky with things working the first time.

The biggest section of this project was the making, it was a lot of making and it was pretty intense. I was really nervous going into the making because this is the biggest of everything I have ever made and if I mess up there is the potential for it to really hurt someone or destroy some property. Got to admit I was asking a lot of people questions I knew in mine own head just get a second opinion. It was a lot of self-doubt going into this project and I am still like that now and I think I will be until I get it put up in place. I was happy with the components but when it came down to initial assembling I think I started to rush as the deadline came up on me and I messed up a few crucial pieces that I am going to have to do again.

The evaluation of the piece itself as it is now to me it is a good start point but it needs a lot of work to get to where I want it to be. The few points that I really don’t like are the slot hole for the latch because I messed it up. I took some advice about a quick method because I was lagging behind and it didn’t pay off it turned out to put me 3 to 4 hours behind my time plan. As well as that the whole latch wasn’t very well thought out, I didn’t start designing a latch till I had almost finished the frame work of the gate. For some reason I got it into my head that I could slap a latch on after and never really thought about the ins and outs of making one work. I think that was my biggest fault through this entire project was just not thinking about the little details that make a gate come together.

Pricing

For this gate I had to come up with a rough price at the very start when I took on the commission so I came up with a price before building the gate. I spoke to Andrew a lot about this and the sort of gate I wanted to make so I gave the couple the figure of £2,500 as a ball park figure for the gate.

Speaking to Adrian and Ambrose about it they both agreed that this was a viable price for the work, taking into account my time and getting it professionally painted when I get it back to Yorkshire. 

My only worry about putting such a price on it was that it is student work but after speaking to the two tutors they agreed that if I sold it dirt cheap now it would put that kind of price to my future work. It was best to start at what you would sell it for later in life so that is what I did.

3rd of June

I wanted to put a post up about something that came up last week and i didnt take about it here but i think now i will. When the gate was first assembled by me and ben i got few opinions off some of the people who i respect the most. Ambrose, Adrian, Tony and Paul Allen.

The first opinion i got was Ambrose, ive always respected what he says because i have similar ideas to him. He said he needed to lose some and it was too crowded all over. So i took half the blades off and i was starting like it but it lost something at the bottom i wanted. It had the freedom at the top but it wasnt thick and blocky at the bottom like i wanted.

Then Adrian came round and said to me put them all back on him and come get when there all there. When it was laid out like above Adrian really liked it and said that was the way it should stay. To me it was good it was just that top bit that really put me off. So i fiddled around with it playing with ideas.

After a while Tony came across and i laid out the debate to him and he said why not get the best of both worlds and chop down the leaves at the top to make a more a layer like look to it. We spoke a bit more and this was what really turned me on with this peice. 

So i drew on where i needed to cut them then went to the grinding room and got to work.

This was the scene after the hair cut. I think i cut around 20 or so down. After they were put back on the gate it really did make a big differance to the look. I will talk more about the look in my Evaluation later.

Reviewing Proposal

Well i set out to make a gate for the commision and i did it but it was hard. I outlined stright away that i wanted to look at panel gates and really unique ways of going round the idea of a gate. I think in my design and the sorts gates i was looking at to start i was really looking at a certain kind of more traditional gate but there was turning point in my design which i was really proud of. Where i started to take a really unique run with this gate.

I have always said from the start of this project that it was really ambitous what i was attemping to do. I never really thought about everything that would go into this when i started it out but i think i did my best with the challenge. If i had a spare moment i was at the forge making this gate so i got to say that my effort towards finishing this project was good.

As far as looking into processes i went pretty deep with looking at joining techinques. I got pretty set with a heel tennon because i really like how the tennon looks. In other parts i made my first power hammer boot, i have used alot of power hammer tools but it is the first time i have ever welded one up myself. I think i really did broaden my skill set with this project.

When it comes to artist referances i dont think i went as far as i wanted to go. I looked at a few different blacksmiths but because time restraints i really didnt get into looking at a selection of different blacksmiths.

I think the biggest boundarie in this project was inexperince. I had alot of fear with this so i was constantly branching what i was doing with Ambrose or Adrian to see if it was right. Aswell as that it was just the time restraints and how quick i had to get into the making.

Overall it took a hell of a slog but i did it, i finished everything that needed to be done. There are some things i am not quite happy with on the gate that i might need to re do once back in sheffield.

2nd of June

Hey guys, finally got my sleeping pattern back round and even had enough energy to put up a post. Well friday was my last day in the forge and i can say that i finished the Gate. Or as far as i can do while i am here, there is a couple little bits that have niggled me but i will talk about those in my evaluation tommorow.

Here are a few pictures of what it is looking like.