RE: My First Painted Wall Sundial

[Roger Bailey]

Hello John,   It is a beautiful dial. Congratulations!   This dial is illustrative of a number of interesting design issues. I now understand better the discussion on the cone gnomon. I assumed a polar rather than a perpendicular gnomon. With a polar gnomon, the angled line of the shadow tells time. With the perpendicular gnomon, only the tip of the shadow is important for telling time and date. The conical gnomon shadow brings the eye to the tip very well. Your southern latitude, approaching the tropical zone, is a problem for  vertical south facing sundials. The shadow lengths get very long, even with a short gnomon. In the tropics, the sun moves to light the north face towards noon. Shadows from overhanging eves are also problem. You have done well overcoming these design challenges and poor working conditions. Consider the toils and tribulations of earlier artists like Zarbula who left us with so many masterpieces.   Regards,   Roger Bailey        -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of John Carmichael Sent: June 30, 2006 6:43 AM To: Sundial List Cc: Christina McVie Subject: My First Painted Wall Sundial Hello All:   I always wanted to try to paint a sundial on a wall and have just finished my first one. I painted a large colored vertical decliner for a client's home here in Tucson and I think it turned out quite well considering the harsh working environment.    First let me say that painting a southern wall on a 10ft. scaffold on a rough textured stucco wall in Tucson in the summer is HARD!!!  Because of the heat, I could only paint from 5am-8am and 5pm-8pm.  Painting fine details by hand on textured stucco is a real pain and very difficult.   I could not use painters tape because of the bumps, so everything had to be painted free hand. I see now why the sundial artists in Europe often replaster a wall with a smooth texture before painting.  But the owners did not want a smooth surface.    The rough texture is artistically very pleasing, but it does affect the sharpness of the shadow a tiny bit, but it's not bad.    The sundial measures 44 x 92 inches (1.12m  x 2.33m), declines 4.53 degrees east of south, and has a gold-plated solid brass conical gnomon.  (Remember the discussion we had about cone gnomons?  Those experiments I did were for this dial).  We decided to employ Dave Gard of Aten Sundials to custom make the brass gnomon on his metal lathe since we wanted a cone gnomon that is wider than off-the-shelf plumbobs.  We wanted the shadow to be wider, like the hands of a clock.  The cone is 2 inches wide at the base and about 4" tall and is screwed to an anchor bolt on the wall on top of a gold-plated brass star.   I transferred the Delta Cad drawing to the wall like this: 1. I made a full size drawing of the sundial on Mylar plastic. 2. Then, using a leather awl (like a short icepick), I punched holes into the lines on the drawing. 3. Then I taped the drawing to the wall, and using Sharpee marker pens, I made dots on the wall through the hole in the drawing. 4. Then I removed the drawing and connected the dots on the wall.   I painted the colors first, then painted the lines and numeral on top in layers.   Click Here for photos: http://advanceassociates.com/WallDial   John L. Carmichael Sundial Sculptures 925 E. Foothills Dr. Tucson AZ 85718-4716 USA Tel: 520-6961709 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]   Websites: Sundial Sculptures: http://www.sundialsculptures.com Stained Glass Sundials: http://www.stainedglasssundials.com Sundial Cupolas, Towers & Turrets: http://StainedGlassSundials.com/CupolaSundial/index.html

---------------------------------------------------
https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial