THE LORELEI SIMS DEMO
Feb. 28th & 29th, 2004
Report by Sue Murray w/ photos by Stan Timmerman & Jerry Achterberg
Leap year turned out to be another good (not too cold) year for the 2004 Balcones Forge winter demo at Larry Crawford's Hammerfest Forge in Marble Falls, Texas. The very funny and talented Lorelei Sims, from Charleston, Illinois, came down & put on a great show using a combination of blacksmithing, plasma cutting and welding techniques.
We opened the weekend by ringing the anvil for our good friend Jeff "Stretch" Panak, who passed away in October, 2003. Although Stretch was not with us physically on this occasion, he certainly was with us in all of the great memories members shared over the weekend.
Lorelei began her demo by making a single rose in a pipe vase, held in a grapevine stand with a small candle holder. She also came prepared with her individual flower pieces & leaves already cut out so she could focus on how they were put together.
To prep them for layering, the petal groups were sunken into a depression, each layer going deeper so that the layers would fit nicely together. The stem was placed in a clamp about 1/2" down from the top for layering on the sepals and petals. Each layer was tacked on. Each petal was turned slightly, then over several heats, they were compressed a little at a time until they were positioned like she wanted. A couple of inside petals were curled in to hide the central weld. When it looked like a rosebud, she used round-nosed scrolling pliers to tweak the tops & corners of each petal, starting with the outside group and working to the middle.
The sepals, underneath the petals, were given a natural shape, leaves were added and...Voila! Tip...on things, like roses, that are hard to clean with a wire wheel, Lorelei uses an oxidizing flame on her torch to pop off the scale.
Next came the vase for the rose, starting with a 1 1/4" diameter pipe. Lorelei said, "the thicker, the better." She begins to prep the pipe by looking for the seam.
Sections of pipe had to be removed for tapering the vase. Masking tape was used to mark a "V" on either side of the pipe, wider at the top & coming to a point on the seam where the taper was to begin. The seam runs down the center of the "V".
White primer was used to mark each "V" so that they could be easily seen through the welding hood while cutting them out with the plasma cutter.
A piece of square stock was clamped to the table horizontally and the pipe was hung on it for cutting. Lorelei said that the tip of the plasma cutter must be rotated as you cut to prevent the edge from being beveled.
The cut sides of the pipe were slowly worked together. One side ("v-notch") is worked at a time, rolling and tapering it until the pieces meet.
That side is welded before working the other side. Lorelei used O2/acetylene to weld one side and the MIG welder to weld the other side, so that she could demonstrate how well each one worked. The O2/acetylene weld was slower to make, but was cleaner. The MIG weld was fast, but there was more pitting and more cleanup to do.
Then the top of the vase was made.
The lip was refined on the bick.
Note from the Pro: She uses a concrete mixer without the fins and stainless steel shot to do final cleanup of vases and other items. When the shot is dirty, she puts it in a colander and takes it to the car wash to clean it out.
The stand for the vase was a grapevine, complete with leaves and grapes!
The "art of grape-making"! A bed of sand was sprayed with anti-spatter so that the sand wouldn't stick to the grapes and so that it could be indented for holding the grapes. Various sizes of carbon steel bearings were laid out in a 1/2 cluster shape and each one was tacked using the MIG.
Several 1/2 clusters were made (ahead of time) and then tried with the others to find the two that fit in the most natural cluster form. When they were joined and added to the grapevine, a torch was used to give them a nice "grape colored" patina.
The finished vase & grapevine stand held the rose and a candle. Nice combo!
Sunday, Lorelei seemed to have as much energy as Saturday, although I'm sure she was a little pooped. Demoing an entire day for almost 70 Texans can be a rough assignment, but I think our laughter calmed her nerves. Now, she had another 1/2 day to go. This time, she showed us how to make a clamshell as well as a huge flower with lots of personality!
When using pipe to make a flower, Lorelei makes a handle to hold the work by stepping down a piece of 1" square stock on the power hammer. She then welds on a slightly domed round, flat piece, which is easily tacked to the pipe after the petal sections are cut. The petal sections are cut using a band saw or, as in this case, the OSHA eyebrow-raising method with the chop saw (not pictured here to protect the innocent).
The petals and a tendril were formed.
Next came the ball under the petals, to which the stem was attached.
It was dressed up with a little migging.
The layers were welded together, the tendril was twisted, three large, lobed plasma-cut leaves were added to the stem and...da-daaaaa!
The Saturday night auction was a great success and the clamshell and flower made on Sunday were auctioned, too, adding a little more to the kitty for library books, the scholarship fund and bringing in next year's demonstrator. Lorelei showed slides Sunday before she left and the whole weekend was a great time. A few extra tidbits to share:
* Although Lorelie does create beautiful commissioned pieces that she purchases stock for, she has a favorite scrap yard that she loves to browse through. What she finds often determines the size and shape of what she creates. She also relishes the fact that her husband is a bona fide "garbage man" (or would that be...Salvage Engineer??), as he sometimes finds really good stuff that she can use as well.
* The best laugh we all had was when we realized that it was "Ramen Noodle" and NOT "Raw Menudo" that she lived off of during lean times. That made us menudo-eating Texans (or at least those of us familiar with the main ingredient) wipe a relieved brow.
* And finally, she meshed right in like she'd been part of Balcones Forge all along. She even left with a perfected "Y'all".