Documentary - The Making Of "Puff of Wind Sculpture"

[Asher Kelman]

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 ?

Antonio,

The wind makes that choice, as the boat rotates in a brisk wind!

The sand by the beach belongs to the County of Los Angeles. I am mapping selected unused locations owned by the City and will place the sculpture in it pictures with the Pacific Ocean and surfers seen in the b.g. and the landscape developed with benches, a water fountain and picnic tables perhaps.

Then the Arts Commisioners have to decide. Or else it will be offered to other cities with beaches and recreation!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi, Asher,



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.

Best regards,

Doug

Read my answer to Antonio. It will be either in a City owned area adjacent to the sand of the beach, directly anchored to Mother Earth, or in some other City.

Asher

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher,

Read my answer to Antonio. It will be either in a City owned area adjacent to the sand of the beach, directly anchored to Mother Earth, or in some other City.

Well, everything has to be someplace.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[fahim mohammed]

Irrespective of where it eventually is anchored, as I have mentioned previously...simply awesome.
Way beyond my vision or capabilities.

Bravo!

 

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

very impressive piece Asher, also from an engineering standpoint!

 

[Asher Kelman]

What stunned me is that with just study, cerebration, (and the expert computer work of my smart Dutch Engineer to build my dreams in 3D), and no previous steel-forming experience, (beyond bending 1/8” steel rods by hand), I, (a sinner), could do this!

It required making a giant 80 year old (straight orthogonal curving only) steel rollers, 4 muscle-men pushers and a crane above, PRECISELY track my computer generated guide line as the rollers pulled in the flat steel plate.

Theoretically, this guideline, printed on paper and aligned on the flat steel plate, should guide the orientation of the steel plate to the rollers.

These roller machines expect incoming flat steel plate to enter between the massive rollers, orientated exactly 90 degrees to the length of the rollers.

But we wanted to advantage of the fact that steel entering at an angle, gets a twisted spiral curve to the steel late. That is always avoided!

Well we prepared a theoretical and totally unproven idea, that we could use this effect to accurately deform the steel plate exactly to our computer plan.

Our engineer advised me to have the line always enter the rollers at exactly 90 degrees. This way, by a miracle, all the panels gained progressively varying radii, (different on each side), to deliver perfectly smooth sinuous curves. These were checked with templates and found to be within a mm of the plans! I was astonished that “thinking” can trump “experience” to give apparent “skill” so that the steel workers thought I was a master, when I am actually totally learning!

Nothing was done twice to correct an error, but just to allow the old “workhorse” rolling machine to deliver the final force needed to meet the specified complex curves.

The various panels fitted together as perfectly as the bodywork on a luxury car!

The management of the steel fabrication house asked if I wanted to set up permanently in an area in their factory!

But then I would risk being exposed as a fraud!

Asher

 

[Steven Dillon]

Wow, very cool.

 

[Asher Kelman]

I am waiting for the final full City Council approval for this to move to a permanent installation by the Pacific Ocean.

At least the City Engineering engineer’s are planning the supporting base, so that is a positive sign.

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

I have to fix broken links!

But for now, the update:

Asher Kelman: Location for Concrete Column​

The sculpture will then be the first thing one sees coming down the steps from the bluff, above.

It will be seen from Junipero Road and the beach!


Here is the new concrete pad poured yesterday

“12 ft deep concrete pad!”
Poured April 27 2020​

 

[Asher Kelman]

Now things are happening. I will start fabricating a new sleek single supporting 8” in diameter, 1.5” wall thickness column made of annealed 17-4 stainless steel to take on the massive tortion forces of wings and hurricanes from the Pacific Ocean.

There are no reinforcing cables on this design which we simulated with Finite Element Analysis to be safe at over 110 mph winds and likely to over 200 mph.


Asher

 

[Antonio Correia]

Great success indeed !
Excellent ! Congratulation !
Take care. Use mask and all the precautions !v
Stay safe !
Cheers !

 

[Asher Kelman]

Thanks, Antonio!


Then we have to transport the sculpture! It’s huge!

Asher Kelman: “Puff of Wind”
​

 

[nicolas claris]

Bravo mon ami ! Je suis fier de toi !

 

[James Lemon]

Now things are happening. I will start fabricating a new sleek single supporting 8” in diameter, 1.5” wall thickness column made of annealed 17-4 stainless steel to take on the massive tortion forces of wings and hurricanes from the Pacific Ocean.

View attachment 4559​

There are no reinforcing cables on this design which we simulated with Finite Element Analysis to be safe at over 110 mph winds and likely to over 200 mph.


Asher

Fill that column with sand or concrete it will be even stronger! But probably not required.

Excellent improvement on the design and eliminating the guy lines! Be careful I could show up with my own construction crew and steal it in the middle of the night.

Great work... good for you Asher!

 

[Asher Kelman]

James,

No room for concrete, just for cables for lighting!

As to thievery, We are having video surveillance and sensors! We have also an entire platoon of blind pit bulls trained to catch balls even in the dark just by scent!

 

[Asher Kelman]

Bravo mon ami ! Je suis fier de toi !

Nicolas,

Thanks for the visit!

Without you, I wouldn’t have made it so large and certainly wouldn’t have gone to the considerable engineering challenge of having it protect itself in a storm turning into the wind!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Great success indeed !
Excellent ! Congratulation !
Take care. Use mask and all the precautions !v
Stay safe !
Cheers !

Thanks, Antonio,

Imagine I built it with only a first home for a year guaranteed!

This location required a year of gradually recruiting the City Councilors and the legal and other departments and then the U.S. and finally the State of California Coastal Commissions, as its on their Land.

That concrete in 12 ft deep in a 36” wide column!

Two City inspectors supervised and one contract manager organized a contract engineering company and certified foundation pouring contractor to build it to specifications.

The City is responsible for the concrete and everything below ground. My engineer did the math for everything above ground and then it was certified by a second engineer and then it went out for outside engineering review for final engineering approval with its own book of calculations!

When that entire work was finally stamped as approved, I was so relieved and celebrated with Bordeaux and steak!.

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Here is the poem I wrote to go with it.

Daughter and son of man,
Find your mission,
The oceans beckon,
Your boat will carry out dreams!
Asher Kelman

 

[James Lemon]

Fill that column with sand or concrete it will be even stronger! But probably not required.

Excellent improvement but be careful I could show up with my own construction crew and steal it in the middle of the night.

James,

No room for concrete, just for cables for lighting!

As to thievery, We are having video surveillance and sensors! We have also an entire platoon of blind pit bulls trained to catch balls even in the dark just by scent!

Please explain how there could be no room for sand or concrete inside of a pipe column?

 

[Asher Kelman]

Please explain how there could be no room for sand or concrete inside of a pipe column?

That contains cables!

The steel is ordered as a solid cylinder. I then trepan the 5” center out and get a 3” column as a freebie for another project!

You suggest pouring concrete inside the steel. But it has less than 1/3 of the mass of steel.

Anyway, why use concrete to add mass and stiffness, when I have the choice of all solid steel from the outset? That internal diameter could be reduced to 1” if I wished, but would provide no increases in safety in our models, as the surface area involved in gussets is what is more useful in transferring critical lateral twisting moment stresses from the sails to the pole and thence to the base!

In addition, the steel column is recessed 10” down into the concrete, (below the lower steel plate), so that the pole, (and not the bolts), take on much of the lateral sheer forces.

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

I have added to post #39, above, more shots of the process of building the concrete footing and platform. That concrete needs to cure for 28 days now while I build the new support column.

I am so impressed with how clean a job they did!

Asher

 

[James Lemon]

That contains cables!

The steel is ordered as a solid cylinder. I then trepan the 5” center out and get a 3” column as a freebie for another project!

You suggest pouring concrete inside the steel. But it has less than 1/3 of the mass of steel.

Anyway, why use concrete to add mass and stiffness, when I have the choice of all solid steel from the outset? That internal diameter could be reduced to 1” if I wished, but would provide no increases in safety in our models, as the surface area involved in gussets is what is more useful in transferring critical lateral twisting moment stresses from the sails to the pole and thence to the base!

In addition, the steel column is recessed 10” down into the concrete, (below the lower steel plate), so that the pole, (and not the bolts), take on much of the lateral sheer forces.

Asher

You could use a thinner pipe wall and sand or concrete is cheaper than steel.But anyway lots of ways to skin a cat, some ways just cost more than others. I think its called added value engineering.

 

[Asher Kelman]

You could use a thinner pipe wall and sand or concrete is cheaper than steel.But anyway lots of ways to skin a cat, some ways just cost more than others. I think its called added value engineering.

The 8” 17-4 steel annealed, as I need, is not provided here as a tube.

We can only buy a giant solid round bar! We make the cavity!

So we pay for all the steel anyway. If I wanted the wall to be thinner, I would increase the internal diameter, but for our engineering needs, exchanging a mass of steel for concrete gives us no engineering advantage or safety gain.

 

[Peter Dexter]

The manner in which a sculpture, large scale or small contacts the ground is an important aesthetic consideration. Mounting it on a pole is of course one solution.

 

[James Lemon]

The 8” 17-4 steel annealed, as I need, is not provided here as a tube.

We can only buy a giant solid round bar! We make the cavity!

So we pay for all the steel anyway. If I wanted the wall to be thinner, I would increase the internal diameter, but for our engineering needs, exchanging a mass of steel for concrete gives us no engineering advantage or safety gain.

Yeah but there are other ways to achieve the same thing with less cost and also,change appearance. And appearance is the number one thing folks spend money on! How tall is this and how much does it weigh?

 

[Asher Kelman]

Yeah but there are other ways to achieve the same thing with less cost and also,change appearance. And appearance is the number one thing folks spend money on! How tall is this and how much does it weigh?

30 ft high and about 2.5 tons!

Of course there are other ways to do things. There always are!

It is designed to look good to me the artist, LOL and to have the least maintenance in the next 100 years!

I have achieved that!

But i have in the past used cheap concrete as ballast. Here I already have all the mass I need with the right tensile strength all in one piece!

There always are choices and trade offs. I can move the entire sculpture by one crane helicopter, float it on a barge down the coast, but it’s simpler to go by 4 separate trucks after taking it to a number of disassembled units.

One just needs a choice that one can follow through and control at every stage.

Weddings are shot with anything from an Olympus, a Canon 7D or a Phase One! The end result is always the same: a mother who can show off her daughter’s album and a marriage that either lasts a few years or many decades. The actual choice of camera tends to be irrelevant in the long run!

Same with the engineering of my support column. Either folk will treasure the sculpture and identify with it, or they won’t!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

The manner in which a sculpture, large scale or small contacts the ground is an important aesthetic consideration. Mounting it on a pole is of course one solution.

Exactly, Peter!

I have decided to make the support column slender and simple.

By going up on the grade of steel and using a thicker wall, I don’t need tethering cables and that simplified the look to be more elegant.

You can see the original form of the concrete support pot required for its surface non-anchored installation at The Sculpture Garden of the City of Manhattan Each, California. That concrete pot, loaded with 4 tons of steel plate, has to rest on a 9ft square steel plate with safety railings around it. The size is needed to safely distribute the weight over the ground. The latter also happens to be the roof of the City Parking Structure. One single bolt penetrating it would have voided the builders warranty, LOL!

Not a single bolt was allowed into the ground to anchor it. Hence the engineering with cables I designed for stability in the winds we get.

Now, at last, we can dispense with all that complexity!

I like the cleaner simpler look!

Asher

 

[Robert Watcher]

Very impressive work Asher. Congratulations on the progress being made.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Very impressive work Asher. Congratulations on the progress being made.

Thanks for the visit and encouragement!

One needs a huge amount of patience and perseverance for this kind of project. I had no right to have the self confidence to do it, but my training in medicine makes me seek expert advice and recognize when my limited knowledge is dangerous!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

An invitation:

Those in Southern California have about 4 weeks to visit “The Puff of Wind” sculpture in Manhattan Beach Sculpture Garden between the Library at the City Hall, (on Highland Avenue) and the Police and Fire-station Fire Station, (on 15th Street).

Below is the original recording of the site visit by the Project Officer of the City of Long Beach, inspecting my sculpture and entertaining promoting to the beach front representatives and then for The Long Beach City Council. This one visit clinched his decision to recommend this sculpture to anchors their dreams for the beach development.

The sculpture is to be moved. We need a new column!

Right now we are solution-heating and then aging the new high tech engineered and far simpler steel support column. That is the first step in transferring the sculpture to its final site in the City of Long Beach California.

Asher