Grambling Tiger

It is Tuesday. I’m writing this post from the warehouse. I am ever so thankful  that a welder is coming this afternoon after 3:00. Our job- to complete stripes on the back of the head and then take the head and front paw off. To lift the tiger up onto part of the rock and have it ready for the welder to secure it. Then we can put the head and paw back on. Head and paws are heavy and it is hot up at the top of the warehouse . We are all praying for the safety of the tiger and the workers in this part of the process.

The head can not stay on the body for long. It is so hot in the warehouse we are afraid it will melt way up there. Sometimes I wish everyone had an artistic eye and could picture it together even though it is in pieces. Still , I’m excited about seeing all the pieces
Together, or at least most of them. We will not see the entire thing together until the foundry . You must visualize 3′ of height. the tiger climbs higher than we can see in the warehouse. Our goal- l today to take pictures and receive an approval within 24 hours. The problem is… The clay acts differently at 3:00 then at 6 a.m . So moving things must be coordinated with the coolness of the clay.

Onward! 

 We have only been in the warehouse for less than a week and we are really making some progress. Here is an update on what is happening.

I’m paying close attention to the weather report these days. In Houston it is always hotter than it appears in the weather report. Some say that is because of our humidity. I must tell you, being in a metal warehouse with no AC it is even hotter.  Yesterday, as we worked on the clay, we did not even need a torch to make it malleable   That makes me a bit worried. I’m glad the tiger is swinging from the winch instead of up in the hottest part of the warehouse. This will soon change. We need to put the tiger back up for approval. We are working diligently to get an approval of the sculpture as soon as possible. Once it is up in the air it is best if it does not have to stay there long.  We hope to have approval this week. Then we can take apart the pieces and bring some of them back to my air conditioned studio to get them ready for the foundry. 

See the photographs for a recap of what we have done this last week.

Our goal this week:
1. To finish the stripes- Monday
2. To put the sculpted tiger back on the rocks- Tuesday
3. To secure the lower armature – Tuesday
4. Check over all details-Monday- Tuesday
5. Take pictures and receive approval for the next step. Wed- Friday.

The winch is in place and takes little effort to raise such a massive structure.  There is, however, a balancing act. We have decided for both the safety of myself and the interns not to put the tiger on all of the rocks while working on it.  You can see by the digital sketch there is a good 3 feet of rock that we have from the bottom of the lowest foot to the bottom of the sculpture. This has already been sculpted and the sections come apart so that we don’t have to raise the tiger on the entire rock to sculpt it.  Instead, the lowest foot will rest on a rolling base while we sculpt. The other two paws will be put on the individual rocks they go with.  The lower portion of rock will be added at the foundry.

We are doing this for a couple of reasons.  One is the safety of being so high when we are working on a piece.  The other is that is much hotter at the top of the warehouse than it is on the ground.  This clay will melt at a higher temperature and so we are opting for this solution.  Actually, I have to commend my vendor who milled my design in foam.  It was a good solution to a problem I had not anticipated.

Well we have moved the entire studio.  The cat was muzzled and all of the sculpted pieces wrapped.  Remember we have to move, not only the pieces, but an entire studio to another location. Our reason for this is to be able to lift the tiger on a wench and put it together.  We still have not sculpted the torso and we need to see how all of the pieces go together.  If all goes well we will only be in the new space a short amount of time. Grambling has been notified that we expect that the final approval will take place in the next 3 weeks.  Then the tiger must go through the bronze process.  

Here we are at the first of May and we have the following sculpted:

1. A very large rock
2. 4 incredibly large paws and legs, with tiger stripes
3. 1 large tail- with tiger stripes
4. 1 large head growling- with tiger stripes

The only thing left is for us to put the pieces together and carve and sculpt the torso of the tiger. This means we need 13 1/2+ foot clearance,  which we do not have in my studio. So, we are moving.  Yes, Sunday morning we will be hauling sculpted paws, rocks, tail and heading to another location and assembling them in the warehouse.

This is a little unnerving as I don’t want to harm any of the work that we have already done, but it is also a part of the process.

We will miss the atmosphere of my studio. We love to have lunch at the pond with the turtles, instead we will be in the belly of a large, non air conditioned warehouse space, with no windows.

We are motivated to finish this last part quickly as there is no air conditioning in the warehouse, and we are in Texas, and it does get hot, and my clay melts! So the clock is ticking.  The final countdown begins.

The hoist  has been installed in the new/old warehouse space.  I am happy to report no one was injured hanging this hoist 20 feet in the air.  I have had nightmares about this part.  I must say, when looking up at how high this sculpture is going to stand I say the same thing over and over, “That is a really big cat!”

Moving
One of my interns and I tried moving the back end of the tiger foam, and well… it is very heavy and we are waiting for ( male ) assistance as we now have it wedged between a tree and a waterfall. This  rear end is headed to a welder to modify the armature.  Then it will be brought to the new location with the rest of the pieces on Sunday.

Our goal is to get the sculpting done and the sculpture approved in 3-4 weeks, or less. Remember we are motivated by working in the heat. Then we will take the sculpture apart and send it through the foundry process.

This is the tiger mascot created for Grambling State University. This entire process can be found on this blog by searching the category Grambling Tiger. You may also visit the process blog created for this project at http://gramblingtiger.blogspot.com/

While visiting the Houston Alumni group  I was able to hear their song and some of their cheers.  Boy, when we are working late nights in the studio, being able to listen to a cheer would be just the thing to get us into that tiger mode. So here is your challenge. Shoot a creative video of yourself or a group doing a cheer and send it to us so we can listen and post it on the blog. Be creative.  Show us something that depicts your school spirit and help to make this tiger roar.

We have lots of paws and legs around the studio. I’m alternating from head to paws.  Here is the progress from the last few days.

I’m not always sculpting.  It is true that I have a life beyond the Grambling tiger, though I have to say, the tiger holds a great deal of my attention, even in my dreams.  My biggest distraction is the birth of my new granddaughter Issabella, but you could say that we sacrificed her to the Grambling Tiger as well. Now don’t get upset with me, I didn’t come up with this idea on my own. It was my daughter who thought of it as we were wandering around the studio looking at the progress. Christina is a very creative person, and by the way, my photographer from Diliberto Photo and Design. We both kind of made up with the idea of putting Issa in the mouth of the tiger. 

This past Saturday I went to the Houston Grambling Alumni group to present how the sculpture is coming along. The best part was to hear the school cheer.  I think everyone enjoyed the presentation.  I volunteered to come back and to show more slides when it was further along.

“How can we get involved,”someone from the group asked. Well if you are following the blog you know that we have been looking for warehouse space to put the sculpted tiger together.  That means I have to move my entire studio. So we may need helping moving the tiger pieces and the studio to the “temporary” location. Moving within the next week or so.

Sorry I don’t have pictures, I thought I saw someone taking pictures, if they want to send them to me I’d be happy to post them on this post.