Fellow Shadow Watchers,
Anyone who attended the NASS Conference in Chicago
but missed seeing the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park can regain
a lttle of that amazing experience at:
http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/ShowBuilding/233.php
When we first approached it my guess was that it had to be an inflated
metallised vinyl balloon to achieve optical perfection in such a HUGE
structure. Touching was believing however that it is made from 10mm thick
stainless steel.
In some of the pictures of the unfinished sculpture the welds between the
plates can still be seen but these will be polished out in due course.
What really intrigues me is just HOW it was made. On a smaller scale
things like saxophone 'bells' and motorcycle exhausts can be
soldered/welded from flat plates and 'inflated' to shape with pressurised
water but this seems unlikely.
Tony Moss
-