African Garden + welding

Adventures in Welding

I finished my garden welding class, and I wish it had been longer. I have so many ideas I'd like to try, but I had to concentrate on my project, which is an abstract free-standing sculpture. It's simple, but it wasn't easy to do, and I do not recommend anything with circles for a first welding project. I knew it would be tricky, but I had a vision, and I felt compelled to bring it to life.
Today I placed it in its permanent position in the garden. While the welding and painting parts are finished, the piece is not complete.

I'll have to wait until midsummer, when the yet-to-be-planted ornamental grass, which is an essential element of the sculpture, reaches its peak.
Welding is a lot like tree pruning: it can be dangerous if you don't use proper tools and safety equipment and don't know what you're doing, you have to be able to visualize the end result before and during the process, it's easy to lose track of time while doing it, and what you end up with might surprise you. When I started the class, I was envisioning a single silver hoop. It morphed into a cluster of smaller hoops, then it became blue, before ending up blue and silver. I can't wait to see how it looks with the grass growing through it.