Stainless Steel Snowflake

Does anyone know how long it takes to make a snowflake? Maybe less than 70 hours?

My welding instructor, Fred, suggested a state VICA Competition, Welding Art Sculpture. If I win, I'll go to the National Competition in St. Louis in July.  If I don't, there will be lots of people to meet, job offerings and the hard earned knowledge of just how long it really takes to make a snowflake.  I was excited (still am) & drew out the idea the same nite.

A stainless steel snowflake, 1/4" SS hex rod w/ ball bearings on the tips, hard to convey w/ only words. The idea was for each of the six 'icicles' to have
4 'stems'  along the sides & each of their points to have small a ball bearing welded onto the tip. They look kinda like stick people.

Competition specifications for the sculpture: Max. 18' tall X 18" long X 12"
wide and can weigh up to 250 pounds!  I wanted the center to be hollow.  My intention was to blow glass into the center, if the contest rules would allow. A Steel ring brazed to something brass brazed to something copper which would be friends w/ glass & bond so that the glass would actually still be there after cooling & not just crack/shatter.

To me the whole concept seemed fairly simple. Of course I am just learning to weld, so what do I know?  Fred asked how long I expected it to take once we had materials? Four maybe 5 classes was my response. Ha! 14 classes plus time at home, the project is pushing 80 hours!! Yes it is only 2 weeks total, still I had no idea.

Glass happens so fast. As a matter of fact, u r more likely to lose a piece due to running out of heat/time. Metal, the more u touch it w/ heat the more work u get. It doesn't get prettier & shinier when heat is applied (glass does). So there is grinding & polishing. And grinding then polishing. And just when u have 10 hours of solid grinding & polishing for one step, it gets fire again and gets undone. So this evening I will be grinding the defaced brass only to subject it to heat again for more brazing, then polishing.

I see well in the dark, when I see the light at the end of the tunnel, I am always surprised at how long it takes to get there. Maybe the light is much bigger & brighter to be seen from such a distance.

We now know that glass will not be an accepted material, only ferrous &/or non-ferrous metals. Which I am glad for. That would have added another week.
Which I do not have. So we left out the copper too. What a relief! Less work! And the way the Snowflake was to be mounted has been redesigned, also lessening the workload.

Finished, it will measure 14" X 14" x 7" and weigh about 50 pounds. Short of assembling a glass hot shop, this may be the largest project I have ever completed. The competition is this (THIS) Saturday in Martinsburg, WV. There are 8 or 10 competitors and I cannot wait to see what they came up with, how simple or complex will their projects be? How long did it take them to complete?

Tune in next week for photos of the completed project, processes along the way and the highly anticipated results of the competition.
Maybe I will be a freakin' welder when I grow up!

Amber Carman is an artist living in Beverly, WV. Her glass hot shop is currently cold.