Fabrication Begins

Although minor tweaking is still occuring on some text and image sizing/placement, Team BFRP has reached a new phase in this project: fabrication. Three large (c. 90 x 166 inches) have been successfully stained, and one panel is 95% complete.  This first panel is one of the easiest to paint, as it consist of oversize text that will be facing the Tennessee River viewscape. The process used at the Mark Making Studio involves several steps. First the panels were attached to the wall. Then the panels were stained using sponges.  Finally, Illustrator images were projected onto the panel at the correct scale, the letters were traced with eraseable markers, and then they were filled in with black paint.

Zack, Frances, Tanya, and Lindsay prepare to trace the projected text.

Painting the text.

This first panel in essence constitutes our shakedown cruise for establishing painting techniques and procedures. What we have realized in starting this part of the journey is just how much more work needs to be done. It is a sobering realization.

Design nearing completion, and a minor setback

Team BFRP welcomes the addition of Lindsay Roden, who joined us last week!

The team has nearly completed its design phase, thanks largely to the concerted Illustrator efforts of Tanya. A couple of images are being finessed, and we will decide on a font (or fonts) this week. The Mark Making studio has been prepped (walls covered in plastic prior to painting, scaffolding erected), and the substrate dimensions were finalized, resulting in an order to the supplier.

Unfortunately, when it arrived the substrate fabric was found to be an "alternate" material that did not meet our specs, so it was returned. The supplier is replacing the panels with the correct material, but this puts us back one week. However, this is crunch time for Mark Making (see their homepage link below), as they are bringing another project to fruition at CSAS this weekend, so the delay is actually ok. And it gives us a chance to complete our design. Starting next week (or at least after Thanksgiving!) we'll be in the fabrication phase of this project.

Mark Making's home page
 - friend them on Facebook at Mark Making

Gearing Up

The Team is getting close: today at the Mark Making studio we finished designing the blast furnace process pictograph (definitely a group effort), and the images were photoed and loaded into Illustrator. After editing and sizing (ongoing), we will be able to project them against the wall at full scale. Then we start painting.

Shea working on a locomotive image for the pictograph.

Meredith's rendition of a traditional charcoal-fueled blast furnace.

Frances demonstrates projection painting.

The team spent considerable time peering at the background fabric shading (think "parchment"), and tried out several different paint formulas and application methods (a large sponge seems to work best). We also looked at how well the black painted lettering and images will contrast with the background at distance.

Other tasks included finalizing panel sizes and grommet placement in each panel, which is a precursor for ordering the fabric. This lead to a discussion of procedures for mounting the fabric to the frame, and safety issues in doing so. We also grappled with the Luffing Problem: seasonal temperature differences will produce more (summer) or less (winter) tension in the fabric. Minimizing luff will be an important priority.

The end of the work session was devoted to viewing the images at full scale against the wall, composing captions, and charting out a work schedule once the fabric arrives (in about a week or ten days).

Taking Shape

After a one week hiatus occasioned by UTC's fall break, Team BFRP was back on task. Friday's studio session began with an overview of what has been accomplished to date in terms of display themes, content, scaling, colors, permits, materials, finances, etc., and what needs to be done prior to fabrication. Several hours were devoted to tweaking dimensions of various images and text, determining the ultimate size of all the panels that will be attached to the frame, finalizing (well, almost) the timeline wording, and especially to working on the iron process pictograph, which will ultimately be a central part of the display. The latter was designated as NYRFTB (Not Yet Ready For The Blog), but that will change in the next couple of weeks. The timeline will be posted separately and we invite readers of this blog to make suggestions about our first draft.

A highlight of the afternoon was a one hour meeting with several members of Public Art Chattanooga. We summarized our ideas and presented some of the mock-ups that we have developed. That was followed by a Q and A session and a productive discussion with the PAC members. We then continued to work on the pictograph and timeline.

Our immediate task is twofold: (1) finalize the pictograph, and (2) load our final images and text into Photoshop. Not only will that simplify the organization and editing of the separate panels, it will also allow us to project the images and text against the studio wall at full scale. That will be tremendously important for adjusting proportions and simply getting a sense of what works (and doesn't!).

Scaling In

Last week Team BFRP continued to work intensely on drawings of photographs, constructing the schematic of the iron-making process, and dealing with those pesky scaling issues. This week, under the direction of Frances and Zach, Tanya worked like a woman possessed in Photoshop, attempting  to scale out the visual elements that we've developed to date. Here is the result of her efforts:

 

Note that the oversize letters will be attached to the columns that face the Tennessee River. Note also that there will be additional text embedded in these images; this is still a work in progress. However, this scaled model represents a huge step in the development of the Furnace exhibit.

The incredibly detailed rendering of the 1886 Norris, Wellge and Company’s Bird's Eye View of Chattanooga was produced by Shea, while the intricate foundry representation was Meredith's contribution. Tanya drew the 1860 and 1864 photographs; we can't remember who drew the 1856 photo.

Measuring, Planning, and Vantage Points

Hello everybody! We're continuing to look at some pesky critical issues. The stack is huge; this fact alone creates problems re the practicality of different methods of painting and hanging the giant canvases, as well as the different points from which the stack itself will be viewed.

On October 8th, Zach, Francis, Tanya and Shea went to the furnace site to better establish how much of the stack can be seen from different vantage points and to determine how big the lettering on the finished product should be. 

Here's Zach on the stack's framework getting some feedback on letter sizes. This is higher than it seems and is crazy.

More of Zach climbing. There's nothing really vital in the shot, but it's a way cool picture. 

Tanya and Francis painting some sample canvas to see how the colours that we plan to use show up against the natural background of the site.

Here are Francis and Shea working on a scale mockup of what we're actually going to put on the furnace stack. See the blue lines? Those are those different viewscapes we referred to.

More Aesthetic/Historic/Interprative Decisions

The Bluff Furnace Posse spent an intense Friday afternoon at the Mark Making studio. The issues we wrestled with included viewscape depth-of-field parameters (angles and distances); text sizes; determining major color schemes at the site (low colors) and the complementary colors for the stack (high colors); placement of a time line in the exhibit; etc. We constructed our first scaled mock-up using acetate sketches of images.

The mock-up in all its (initial) glory.

Since the exhibit will be viewed from multiple locations, including the Hunter Museum overlook, the Walnut Street Bridge, the Pedestrian Bridge, the switchback portion of  the Riverwalk, the Tennessee River, and the Bluff Furnace interpretive "kiosk" directly adjacent to the stack, depth-of-field is a critically important (not to mention amazingly complex) factor in designing the exhibit. Before final fabrication, we plan on creating some full-scale panels to mount on the stack frame so that we have a sense of what does or does not work visually.

Zach points out one of the SIX potential viewscapes.

We also decided on an overall background color for the furnace substrate -- an appropriately archaeology-evoking earth tone (see below) -- and applied that color choice to the scale model. Then we taped on rough images and text. This allows us to evaluate how our messages/images fit in the context of the furnace stack.

Color possibilities.

The basal color sheet is applied.

Scaling out the lettering.

Acetate images are taped to the scale model.

We have now moved to a consensus about what will actually be on the Furnace, which is a huge step in this process. Check out this sneak preview:

Now it's a matter of refining some of the accompanying text and working up the smelting process schematic in more detail. Friday was a good day.