Going metal

I've been scrap-yarding. A friend of a friend has a whole bunch of rusty, old metal ripe for the picking. It's a treasure trove of tractor parts, ancient, dis-used agricultural equipment and other bits n bobs. I was like a kid in the sweet shop. It's amazing to see the quality and weight of how things used to be, and the shapes and details of some of the cast pieces are beautiful.

My imagination was going nuts, I wanted to leave with EVERYTHING. Thankfully, my friend reined me in. I settled for an early 20th Century cast window frame and began plotting an experimental piece that'll be my first welding project.

The lovely fellas at the steel engineering place sorted me out with the lengths for the framework. Ideally I wanted old stuff so it had the rusty, aged texture, but we couldn't find enough. Not a problem, we came up with an idea that may, or may not give the desired look.

So, after a few practice runs I pounced on squaring up the right pieces and welding them all together.

After the last bit of finishing touches, the frame was finished. By next week, it should be back at the workshop for the next phase...