Documentary - The Making Of "Puff of Wind Sculpture"

[Asher Kelman]

It fascinates me how artwork can start with a single uncomplicated gem of an idea and gradually evolve to assume a unique and even complex self identity.

I started with the concept of a a "Puff of Wind", just a free favor from mother nature, can fill the sail of the poorest person who can go on his or her personal Odyssey of discovery and fulfillment. I felt that just the slightest adjustments to the angle of the sail could allow any person to stand up to the winds of life and reach their goals, despite the odds.

So for me the boat sail boat I was to build was going to represent something heroic. The fails would be of steel with holes through which we could see the sky and hull would be modelled after single mast sail boats that young folk learn to sail in. In Massachussetts and Maine, they have such boats with a sail with an extra angled mast at the top of the sail that is called a Gaff Rig. The gaff mast, when hoisted raises the sail. In a storm, that rope can be relased and the younf person is no longer at the mercy of wind. So I fell in love wioth this design. I planned to have a wooden hull.

In starting to layout the plans for the wooden hull, I relized that this boat, as a symbol of sailing and more like a drawing in hierolglyphic ancient Egyptian writing, only need to have the idea of a hull. It occured to me that we only are able to see the upper exposed edges of the boats hull. So that is what I decided to go for.

Then there's the design of waves. That consumed a lot of thought and study. I searched for all the artwork I could find with waves. I looked for photographs and sculptures with sail boats. How did the water rise on the sides of the boat and how did it fall.

I found that there were general ideas of waves, but if they were totally solid, then they would outweight the boat. So I needed skeletal references to wave forms.

I happenned to have the opportunity to vsit an Island in Maine and took the opportunity to photograph Gaff-Rigged sailboat with teenagers at the help and studies the waves around the bow and stern.

When I came home to analyse the wave patterns, I had an experience, early in the morning, while my eyes were half asleep, that the locks of Venus in boticellis's hair matched all the waves I hade studied and there was the solution. So the form was based on that.

The sails was =designed cwith 20 ft steel panels. To curve them, I had a wonderful woman engineer from Bucharies make the pattern, which when in steel, could be rolled to the shape I wanted and thge eliptical holes cut in the steel, would become circular! She actually designs steel rolling equipment and this was a fun project for her.

Thne I worked with a Dutch engineer to create a curved guideline, that could be kept perpendicular top the giant rollers pulling in the steel to be curved, and 4 men could push or pull the steel, (one end held up in a giant overhead crane), so that we created to exactle planned curves, one for the smaller side of the panel and one for the large side of the panel, each with an every increasing radius of curve.

I used steel templates to check the curvature achieved. I admit a few times neededing to rerun a panel to complete the required curve or else jumping on the convex curve, until the panel was exactle the shape in the plan drawings.

Then the panels were either mirror polished or sand blasted and powederc coated with a UV resistant salt resistant polymer I obtained from Switzerland ans the mist durable money could buy.

Then we were diverted by sourcing massive bearings to hold the boat so it could rotate in the wind and not be destroyed in a West Coast Storm from the Pacific Ocean.

By the time the boat was complete, I had to catch up on a representation of the actual "Wind". However, by now the boat itself was magnificent and there was controversy as to whether it even wanted a wind element!

Well, I persisted, against all advice, and made beautiful linear design for "Wind". Wehn we cam to rig it, the crew from the City was already quite fed up with me and we were not allowed to control the forklift. I should have given up the forklift and rented a crane. That was my mistake. Once the beautiful "Wind was mounted" and the fork lift moved, its supports collapsed as they had not been tightened. Had we held it by a safety harness with a crane, everything would have been fine. Like this we had the embarassment of a hanging beautiful Wind element on a bend support.

So I had to rent more equipment to retrieve the added Wind and there were clouds of disapproval from City Workers and I was told it could not be installed!

So I realized that I have to control everything myself in future and I had myself to blame.

Happily, everyone was delighted in the boat, even without the added Wind element.

Well, I sill had an ace up my sleeve. In cutting steel for the Wind element, I also cut, for fun, a 1/4 size copy. now I quitelt worked on assembling this and it is now complete, as an option, weighing some mere 40 lb as compared to 1,000 lb of the original!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

This is being written at this moment so visit and revisit! Comments wlecome all the time!




Quick facts.


Sculpture:"Puff of wind"


Purpose: To uplift and inspire passer's by, especially the young. For this I composed a poem. This refers to the Odyssey that each young person has to take in starting on his/her journey in life. The boat is intended to be inspirational to those with the future, yet to be mapped, all ahead of them. The base of the boat , its support with the divers cables, is the strnegth of the USA. America is great. It does not need to be made great, just not ruined!


Daughter and son of man
Find your mission
The Oceans Beckon,
Your boat will carry our dreams!


Name of Boat: Odyssey

Asher Kelman: Puff of Wind: View of the Stern and Name Odyssey​

Sections of Sculpture:


Base Concrete Pot: Sits on a 9ft x 9ft 3/4" steel plate. This has a railing attached to it that can take at least a 200 lb load and has an ADA compliant tapping rail for localization by the seeing-imapired with canes.

The concrete pot is provided by the City of Manhattan Beach as a requirement to use. I increased its mass by adding 36" squares of steel plate, 1" thick.

That supported a top plate of 2" thick steel plate supported by 8 leveling bolts to correct for the slope of the sculpture garden surface. No bolts or attachemnts gor from the steel sculpture to the underlying concrete.

Massive "Warship Design" steel column: to support the huge bearing assembly of the steel boat hull.

Steel Boat:

Keel: This is made of two rectangular steel beams along the length of the hull, with the end at the bow curving inwards, to the center to be welded to a cube of steel with a drilled cavity to hold the mast.

Hull: Around the sides of the I curved some 40 feet of steel and this was welded and gound smooth, tapped for fittings, parts welded on for holding the cables, then ground to perfect smopothness, sand blasted to white metal, coated with zinc containing polymer and then a UV resistant final color coat baked at 400 degress F.

Masts: There are three masts.

The main mast: 3: steel tube

The horizontal l(ower part of sai), boom

The angular Gaff at thevtop of the sail.


Sail:

The sail is a smoothly finsihed giant sail with one shape of being filled with a strong breeze. It is made of 6 panels, each with an outside, larger edge and an inner smaller edge. The sail curves from above and below as well as from outside to the edge of the main mast. This curve is the biggest challenge, since it it does not appear to be filled by the wind, then the sculpture fails in its job of transmitting that idea.



Dimensions


Size: approx 9 meters high


7 meters long and 1.4 meters wide.

Weight: 13,000 lb

Material: Carbon steel, stainless steel, plastic polymers for washers, gaskets etc to separate all metal surfaces. Pigmented acrylic Powder coating surfaces.

 

[Tom Robbins]

Now that's quite a sailor's yarn, Asher! I hope you intend to include some photos of both the large and small versions.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Now that's quite a sailor's yarn, Asher! I hope you intend to include some photos of both the large and small versions.

So yes, I am forcing myself to get the appropriate fabrication pictures in some order. The smaller "Puff" awaiting my getting permission to add it!

I will start with pictures of the finished sculpture and then work provide the pieces as they were made.

I will also link to a movie. Just a window. Will get helop for something more finished!

Asher

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher,

Wondrous!

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Tom Robbins]

Oh yeah! Love the sail, the waves, and the boat's wake is perfect. It is easy to see this is a labor of love and should be a joy for many viewers for many years. Congratulations Asher!

 

[Asher Kelman]

View from South

Asher Kelman: "Puff of Wind": From the South

City of Manhattann Beach Fire Station to the Right​

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

View from North, Pacific Ocean 0.5 miles to right.

Asher Kelman: "Puff of Wind": From the North at Dusk

City of Manhattann Beach Fire Station to the Left​

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher,

Oh, that is just thrilling. I am so proud of you for this extraordinary accomplishment.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Asher Kelman]

Why the Steel Structure Can Withstand a 214.7 mph Storm!

Hi, Asher,

Oh, that is just thrilling. I am so proud of you for this extraordinary accomplishment.

Doug,

You as an engineer with a fascination for steel in giant machines, would appreciate our task in building a safe strcuture for pedestrians to be nearby.

First I wanted it to be able to withstand kids climbing on it without it being damaged. Next I assumed that two 300 lb footballers might hoist themselves up on the back waves of the wake from the stern. So I added cables to support that load. Of course, it is unsafe for people to climb such a structure without safety harnesses, so we built a steel barrier to seriosuly warn that it would be unwise, hazardous and unwanted.

We have a serious challenge of yearly winds 30 to 50 mph and historical winds in the last 100 years of 100 mph from the Ocean and along the entire Southern Californai coastline. Also everyone is forbidden to drill even a single retention hole in the underlying Sculpture Garden concrete. The latter is also the roof of the underlying City Parking Structure, and a condition of the warranty!

So at, Nicholas Claris' suggestion, I had the boat and sail rotate in the wind to allow it to protect itself and minimize the moment on the mast and tortion on the underlying 8" asteel column. Two sets of bearings were designed in a housing to deal with the off-axis forces.

The concrete pot is stabilized by sheets of carbon steel bolted into it.

Steel cables stabilize the masts and the supporting column and preven the structure tipping. The entire load is distributed by a large 3/4" steel plate with a welded retention area to prevent the pot from slipping. The steel plate is carefully located at the city Engineers guidance over a concrete pillar in the parking garage below.

Asher

 

[Antonio Correia]

Love it !

 

[Peter Dexter]

Hello Asher congratulations on the commission. My impression is that the "sculpture" begins at the boat and goes up from there. All the "structure " below may be practical but is aesthetically extraneous. In future designs you might think about designing the work so that the necessary structural support is aesthetically and visually integral with the work. A well known sculptor who comes to mind who achieves this and who has also employed bearings to achieve movement is Mark Di Suvero.

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher,

Doug,

You as an engineer with a fascination for steel in giant machines, would appreciate our task in building a safe strcuture for pedestrians to be nearby.

First I wanted it to be able to withstand kids climbing on it without it being damaged. Next I assumed that two 300 lb footballers might hoist themselves up on the back waves of the wake from the stern. So I added cables to support that load. Of course, it is unsafe for people to climb such a structure without safety harnesses, so we built a steel barrier to seriosuly warn that it would be unwise, hazardous and unwanted.

We have a serious challenge of yearly winds 30 to 50 mph and historical winds in the last 100 years of 100 mph from the Ocean and along the entire Southern Californai coastline. Also everyone is forbidden to drill even a single retention hole in the underlying Sculpture Garden concrete. The latter is also the roof of the underlying City Parking Structure, and a condition of the warranty!

So at, Nicholas Claris' suggestion, I had the boat and sail rotate in the wind to allow it to protect itself and minimize the moment on the mast and tortion on the underlying 8" asteel column. Two sets of bearings were designed in a housing to deal with the off-axis forces.

The concrete pot is stabilized by sheets of carbon steel bolted into it.

Steel cables stabilize the masts and the supporting column and preven the structure tipping. The entire load is distributed by a large 3/4" steel plate with a welded retention area to prevent the pot from slipping. The steel plate is carefully located at the city Engineers guidance over a concrete pillar in the parking garage below.

All well done, with a wonderful result.

Given that there is no anchoring to the surface below, I gather it is the weight of the concrete pot plus the steel base plate, working with the substantial width of the base plate, that resists the tipping of the whole thing under the design assumed wind loading.

And then the base plate serve as a handy "excuse" for a guard rail (perhaps required by code anyway), and in any case very desirable (as you mention above).

Very nice.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hello Asher congratulations on the commission. My impression is that the "sculpture" begins at the boat and goes up from there. All the "structure " below may be practical but is aesthetically extraneous. In future designs you might think about designing the work so that the necessary structural support is aesthetically and visually integral with the work. A well known sculptor who comes to mind who achieves this and who has also employed bearings to achieve movement is Mark Di Suvero.

Well, Peter,

Your artistic intuition and tastes serve you well. The original design was a simple hidden anchor in the ground, but the City required the sculpture to be housed in a concrete pot with a hole for a 6" steel pole.

Asher Kelman: "Puff of Wind": Original concept

Asher Kelman: "Puff of Wind": 3 Stripe Sail

Asher Kelman: "Puff of Wind": Design in Required City Pot
​

Nothing could be anchored. The engineering challenge is the potential wind load on the sail. That was reduced sufficently, for local conditions with the deisigned holes for wind to "escape". So we easilly covered the requirement of winds of 80 pph. Still my own obsession for safety was isolated. Although in submitting the sculpture for competition included the input of the City Engineer, I asked and was told it was not required as there was confidence in our own care and due diligence. During the months of installation of the 32 ft high structure, there was awe and excitement but no requirement for a deputy inspector to hound me at every step as in building a building. So I became my own bad-arse site supervisor. I brought over our stuctural engineer to confirm the torque force used to tighten main supporting bolts were at the exactle the required force, using a calibrated torque wrench that "breaks at the prescribed torque. I also set up a cable tension testing laboratory calibrating our cable tension instruments, to be certain we measured the tension of the cables in the sculpture accurately. So we had that covered too.

At that time, there was, not yet any formal requirement from anywhere in the City to confirm our calculations. It meant I had the personal responsibility to be far, far cautious and safer than expected. Such extraordinary caution led to time delay as I wondered about all possilbe, even rare or preposterous risks of nature of vandalism.

I discovered rare historic winds of 100 mph, in the 100 years ago, elsewhere on the California coast! For me, we needed to go far above that very rare event that had never occurred on our region of the Coast. My decision, meant further stringent checks on our engineering. I set myself very high standards. I would not do the welding. All welds were done by certified industry workers with years experience in heavy steel fabrication. I desired to be assured of safety, even when neighborhood roofs were torn by the wind. State equirements are for 80 mph. We aimed for 160 mph and ended iup at 214.7 mph. We assumed a worse possible case, of maximimum load, when the rotating sail was 90 degrees to the wind, but both safety mechanisms of the bearing assembly were imagined to be frozen. The latter is vanishingly unlikely, as there is no freason for them to get stuck anyway.

After the sculpture was essentially complete, The City hired a wonderful new head of engineering and eventually, the City required of itself to get a permit! So I assembled 3 books of plans and engineering calculations and waited for approval. Meanwhile the area of the sculpture was roped off with police tape for months.

The plans went out for outside engineering evaluation and came back approved. But we asked to add a safety railing and a bar, 6' above the ground to comply with the cane locating-requirement for sight challenged individuals. So we had to go back to the drawing board, and figure out how to add the requested rails without damaging underlying concrete by a single hole. That delayed us further and then months more as we had to fabricate, sand blast and powder coat and install the required safety system.

Asher Kelman: Puff of Wind Sculpture Installed

City of Manhattan Beach, California 2017​

In a final setting the sculpture will not have any such pot and railings below but a tall column fixed in the ground. So it will return to the original imagined vision!


Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi, Asher,



All well done, with a wonderful result.

Given that there is no anchoring to the surface below, I gather it is the weight of the concrete pot plus the steel base plate, working with the substantial width of the base plate, that resists the tipping of the whole thing under the design assumed wind loading.

And then the base plate serve as a handy "excuse" for a guard rail (perhaps required by code anyway), and in any case very desirable (as you mention above).

Very nice.

Best regards,

Doug

Here's the design of the double bearing assembly will deals with the tortion loads on the supporting column.

Asher Kelman: Double Bearing Assembly to Address Radial Torque​

The orignal hull was planned to be wood, before I realized that only the rim was visible above the waves! If we wanted "action" there had to be still instead as wood in a rim alone would not easilly be designed to have the wanted strength to resist deformation.

Asher Kelman: Double Bearing Assembly in Early Wooden Hull​

The large size base, as you realized is to create a moment that will work against tipping of the structure. There are steel stops to prevent sliding on the steel plate base. Another issue was the load per square unit area on the concrete below. Our large plate distributescthat load.

The sculpture garden position where we were exactly assigned by the City Engineer is on a slope. First we worked out we would be fine as far as the stresses, but then I had built 8 leveling bolts to accurately make the supporting column level.

Asher

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher,

Thank you for those lovely drawings,

The tapered roller bearing (I must point out that one time the preeminent manufacturer of those was headquartered in my home state of Ohio) is a wondrous tool for mechanism design. It is unique in that it can deal well with both with radial and thrust loads.

The design of those bearings is a complicated thing. For example, a critical ingredient is the radius of the curvature of the ends of the rollers (those ends are portions of a sphere of quite large radius). That affects, among other things, the good behavior of the bearing under a thrust load.

Almost 50 years ago I was involved a bit in the development of an instrument to measure that curvature as part of the quality control process. Direct measurement, even optically, to the precision required was not practical since, over the scope of the surface, the allowable deviations from the theoretical surface were less than the wavelength of visible light.

The solution (par moi) was to use the surface under test (the end surface of the roller) as a reflector in an optical system (like a reflecting telescope or a catadioptric photographic lens). (It was highly polished, a necessity for that approach.)

We could determine the focal length of that reflector to a high degree of precision, and from that determine (to that same precision) the radius of the surface.

Odd work for a telephone engineer!

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi, Asher,

Thank you for those lovely drawings,

The tapered roller bearing (I must point out that one time the preeminent manufacturer of those was headquartered in my home state of Ohio) is a wondrous tool for mechanism design. It is unique in that it can deal well with both with radial and thrust loads.

The design of those bearings is a complicated thing. For example, a critical ingredient is the radius of the curvature of the ends of the rollers (those ends are portions of a sphere of quite large radius). That affects, among other things, the good behavior of the bearing under a thrust load.

Almost 50 years ago I was involved a bit in the development of an instrument to measure that curvature as part of the quality control process. Direct measurement, even optically, to the precision required was not practical since, over the scope of the surface, the allowable deviations from the theoretical surface were less than the wavelength of visible light.

The solution (par moi) was to use the surface under test (the end surface of the roller) as a reflector in an optical system (like a reflecting telescope or a catadioptric photographic lens). (It was highly polished, a necessity for that approach.)

We could determine the focal length of that reflector to a high degree of precision, and from that determine (to that same precision) the radius of the surface.

Odd work for a telephone engineer!

Doug,

I am thrilled that someone identified the rollers correctly. How did you do that? Yes, the precision of the rollers is a big deal. These are massive and hugely expensive.

There is a racket in that by law, Timken bearings with inch designations cant be imported into the USA from 3rd part locations, (akin to price fixing in the Pharmaceutical businesses). It turns out that I ccould import the mm equivalent assemblies "made by the same MFR", directly from China at 1/6th the cost. The problem I discovered is that there is a huge black market of fake bearing assemblies. For a static machine it might be acceptable. But one does not know what is fake. Is this an extra "nighttime run" by the Chinese factory manager and these are perfect bearings, just essentially "stolen" from the supply chain with fake numbers. Or are these made of different steel, perhaps batches that failed quality assurance tests? Or these are made in a small independant garage family operation where, from the outset, they just copy existing parts as best as feasible with their limited resources.

So I ended up getting my bearings built to our sturctural engineer's exact specification, directly by the Austrian Manufacturor SKF, as I couldnt risk any failing in the bearing assembly, no matter the cost.

Asher

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher,

So I ended up getting my bearings built to our sturctural engineer's exact specification, directly by the Austrian Manufacturor SKF, as I couldnt risk any failing in the bearing assembly, no matter the cost.

Yes, a well-respected manufacturer in the bearing field (founded and I believe still headquartered in Sweden).

It was largely their preeminence in the ball bearing field (coming to the fore with the ramping up of American defense production during World War II) that lead to ball bearings around the World (even for most US production) for many years almost always being dimensioned in SI ("metric") units.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Antonio Correia]

The final work is gorgeous.

I had the privilege to share some moments with Asher while he was contacting the technical staff somewhere in Europe and who knows where more... it has been a long shot. ( I mean and correct me if I am wrong, that Asher's work took much of his time)

I am absolutely sure that the persistence, stubbornness, resilience and Art sense of Asher were essential "ingredients" for the success of this work !

I am proud to be among his friends !

 

[Tom Robbins]

Hi, Asher,

Thank you for those lovely drawings,

The tapered roller bearing (I must point out that one time the preeminent manufacturer of those was headquartered in my home state of Ohio) is a wondrous tool for mechanism design. It is unique in that it can deal well with both with radial and thrust loads.

The design of those bearings is a complicated thing. For example, a critical ingredient is the radius of the curvature of the ends of the rollers (those ends are portions of a sphere of quite large radius). That affects, among other things, the good behavior of the bearing under a thrust load.

Almost 50 years ago I was involved a bit in the development of an instrument to measure that curvature as part of the quality control process. Direct measurement, even optically, to the precision required was not practical since, over the scope of the surface, the allowable deviations from the theoretical surface were less than the wavelength of visible light.

The solution (par moi) was to use the surface under test (the end surface of the roller) as a reflector in an optical system (like a reflecting telescope or a catadioptric photographic lens). (It was highly polished, a necessity for that approach.)

We could determine the focal length of that reflector to a high degree of precision, and from that determine (to that same precision) the radius of the surface.

Odd work for a telephone engineer!

Best regards,

Doug

Hey Doug, Timken?

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Tom,

Hey Doug, Timken?

Indeed. Canton.

Thanks.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Asher Kelman]

Small Puff


I have built a more delicate wind component weight some 1/20th of the 1000 lb orignal version, to complete the sculpture with the this motif.

Asher Kelman: "Gentle Puff"​

After repolishing and powder coating skyblow to the underside of the wind veins, this will be ready for installation opposite the concave side of the sail!


Asher

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher,

Small Puff

I have built a more delicate wind component weight some 1/20th of the 1000 lb orignal version, to complete the sculpture with the this motif. . . .

A really nice addition.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[fahim mohammed]

One word...

Astounding!!

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi, Asher,



A really nice addition.

Best regards,

Doug

Doug,

I so appreciate your attention and kind comment! I know you will be making force diagrams to figure out how we solved problems! That's the fun of art and engineering: preposterous but doable!

Asher

One word...

Astounding!!

Fahim,

I never imagined I would be able to stand before the steel that I was shaping for the first time in my life! Each step required help from so many good folk, overhead crane operators and for example the 4 men who pushed the panel of steel to the right, with me, as we fed the steel sail panels by hand into the mouth of the giant rolling machine!

But I always knew you would be astounded!

Thanks for the visit!

Asher

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Asher

I love how the sculpture moves. You have brought life into it! I use ribbons on my back patio for "wind breathing " as I call it. This would be great for many patio accessories! You should sell this art as such. I just know it would work beautifully -

Charlotte-

 

[Antonio Correia]

Without cables, wouldn't it had been enough to support the sculpture ?
Also the protection couldn't it be in blue ? Or it must be in this "crying" yellow ?
Perhaps even in black. Yes. Matte black. Something more discrete ...
The cables you can't paint, I assume. But you could/can wrap them with black plastic rectracted with heat.

versus

 

[Asher Kelman]

Antonio,

I find your option agreeable!

In the final installation, there is no concrete "pot" and no railings. Instead the grey round column rests on a new, (4.5 meter high, by 1 meter square), tall block of granite. Very simple!

Actually, inside the granite facing will be, 4 steel columns welded together and bolted to a deep concrete base hidden in the ground. I will add a rendered picture to show this.

The four outside cables, (to the base), will no longer be needed.

Asher

 

[Antonio Correia]

Asher, I am sorry but I thought this was the final work in location.

And how do you choose the final position of the sculpture ? I mean, the orientation of the boat ... to the sea ?

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher,

Antonio,

I find your option agreeable!

In the final installation, there is no concrete "pot" and no railings. Instead the grey round column rests on a new, (4.5 meter high, by 1 meter square), tall block of granite. Very simple!

Actually, inside the granite facing will be, 4 steel columns welded together and bolted to a deep concrete base hidden in the ground. I will add a rendered picture to show this.

The four outside cables, (to the base), will no longer be needed.

Sounds like a rather nicer arrangement.

So is the "ground", in which the concrete foundation will be, the roof of the parking structure? Or are we talking about a different site?

Oh, I see from your earlier discussion that the actual site has not yet been "frozen".

Your "virtual reality" is so good it is hard to be sure just what we are seeing!

Best regards,

Doug