It has been a while since I posted anything new, but I have been working away in the shop.  I have been working on several new tin projects that I hope to post soon.

But most of my time has been spent updating our back yard.  It had been several years since anything really new had been built and it was looking pretty sad and shabby.  the first project was a new fence.  It was supposed to be a two weekend job……..that ran into about 4 I think.  I should have given more thought to the 300+ individual fence posts that I cut out.

It took several days and evenings to get everything cut. Then there was getting the frames built, level lines pulled and the fence constructed.  At this point this is what the fence looks like.  We will be adding gates later.

After the fence was in we needed to add a new shelter for the blueberries, blackberries and raspberries that we are trying to grow.  The old shelter kept the birds out but was getting pretty shabby. We decided to go with a greenhouse style structure made from conduit and bird netting, and lots of zip ties.  I wanted something that could be taken down in the winter if we want to take it out.

We also tore out some trellis work and wood artwork that was along the garage.  I decided that I wanted to do a copper bird sculpture along part of the wall. It started out as a trellis for the clematis vines, but after Shelley and I worked over the design we decided to make it a stand alone sculpture instead.  The theme is flying birds in copper.  The inspiration was Shelley’s bird jewelery, and the image of birds taking flight.

The birds were cut from scrap copper and formed on a sinking block to give a more natural shape.  The birds were then soldered to copper wire and formed along the fence and wall. Here is Shelley taking a break from making jewelry to help me get the shape right.

And here is the finished sculpture. I think it adds a nice feature to the back yard.

So that is what I have been doing mostly. It is my plan to have these projects finished in the next couple of weeks so that I can get back to the coopering projects that I have been itching to work on now that the weather is good and I can work outside.

More to follow soon.