Decorative metal products using welding. The art of artistic welding

One of the most interesting areas of metalworking is artistic welding - a method of manufacturing original steel products, which are distinguished not only by high strength, but also by a unique appearance.

With the help of artistic welding, you can create both decorative items and things that perform a practical function. The production process is carried out using an argon burner.

The most popular products that are created by welding are practical household structures, furniture and decorative items.

Household products include elements of fences, gates, as well as small items like caskets, food containers and other things. The method of artistic welding allows not only to give the desired shape to the product, but also to create an original pattern or texture on the surface.

Metal specialists can make decorative and coffee tables, chairs, hangers, shoe racks and other things that perform a practical function and are used in the house or on the street.

Such artistic furniture has an original look, with proper processing it is not afraid of moisture, withstands high mechanical loads, and has a long service life.

The cost of artistic welding cannot be called low due to the material used in the work. It is mainly titanium and stainless steel. Zirconium is used to obtain shades of colors.

Artistic welding allows you to create a variety of items that serve as decoration. These can be animal figures, ornamental details for decorating walls, ceilings, columns or arches, details in the form of flowers, plants.

The number of options to choose from depends solely on the wishes of the client and his budget, as well as the style features of the interior. Most often, decorative objects created by welding are ordered by people living in luxurious cottages and wishing to demonstrate a sense of taste and originality of design. But everyone can afford a small craft made of stainless steel.

Advantages of welded products

One of the main advantages of things created using artistic welding is a beautiful and original appearance.

This method allows you to make hundreds and thousands of finished products and parts that can perform a practical function or serve exclusively as decoration. Welding allows you to get elegant and attractive objects that cannot be repeated exactly.

Although this is a relatively new art form, unlike forging, it is gaining more and more attention. One of the centers of artistic welding is the Paton Institute.

Another advantage of iron products made using artistic welding is high strength and reliability. Such items, whether they are ornaments for decorating a fence or outdoor furniture, are not afraid of increased mechanical stress, have a long service life, do not require specific or complex care, while maintaining not only physical qualities, but also appearance. For additional protection of art products, you can use special compounds to repel dust, dirt and moisture.

Metal crafts work great with other objects and materials, including brick, block, stone, and wood.

If, for example, welded decorative elements are intended to decorate a fence or gate, they look great in combination with corrugated board, red and facing bricks, concrete and other materials.

Furniture created by artistic welding looks beautiful in a classic interior, Baroque, Romanesque, Greek style, and small items can decorate a room decorated in the High-Tech direction.

Tools and drawings

To engage in artistic welding using rolled metal, the following fixtures and equipment are required:

• apparatus for manual argon-arc welding (non-ferrous metals and stainless steel are welded with it), a burner for it, filler wire and an argon cylinder;
• paper. Without it, it is impossible to draw drawings with the definition of dimensions and small nuances that are difficult to take into account when visualizing without a plan. However, in the modern world, computer programs can also be used;
• stationery for marking (pencil, ruler, protractor);
• work surface, which must be made of materials resistant to high temperatures and flames.

Before starting work on artistic welding, it is necessary to make a drawing and think about what size the product will be, what it is intended for, what style it should be combined with.

The finished image is only a part of such a drawing. In addition to the sketch, it is necessary to draw individual details, indicate the connection points and their number, consider the object in several planes.

Main job

At this stage, the master selects the material. So, for small and elegant figurines or sculptures, pure titanium or with small additions of zirconium can be used, which gives the products a special shine.

If artistic welding is used to create a fence, gate, furniture or other large items, steel is usually used as the base material. The stainless steel construction is not subject to the negative effects of moisture, resistant to accidental and directed impacts.

After determining the materials, shape and dimensions, the master, using a welding machine, manufactures the desired item.

Depending on the complexity and size, artistic welding can take from 1 day to several weeks.

The surface can be polished, engraved, in some cases, individual fragments are decorated with tint flowers. This is an effect in which the steel surface becomes iridescent shades with overflows, and it is achieved through exposure to high temperatures. After the product is ready, it must cool.

Safety precautions and processing nuances

Like any other welding work, artistic welding requires strict adherence to safety rules.

Improper use of the equipment can result in electric shock, partial or complete blindness from exposure to ultraviolet light or scale, poisoning from metal working fumes, burns from material melting, or accidental explosion of a cylinder.

Such consequences are dangerous to health and life, therefore wear a mask and protective clothing. It is best to choose a product with chameleon glass, which changes the degree of dimming depending on the amount of ultraviolet that hits the surface.

Before you start welding steel, you need to free the place of work from foreign objects. It is better to start experiments in artistic welding with products of a simple form.

It is also necessary to study the welding technique well in order to firmly connect the structural parts and spend a minimum of time on this.

The fastest and most reliable way to fasten metal parts is electric welding. Anyone can learn how to handle it. Having bought either an inverter, as well as having spent half a pack of electrodes to gain practical skills, you can safely try to create metal crafts with your own hands. Installation of structures, repairs in the country, the manufacture of garden tools and much more from this moment becomes available.

The first metal crafts

Lots of people have welding. Often the device is purchased in case of construction or repair. It doesn't even have to be for yourself. If there is a need for it, you can call a self-taught neighbor or a familiar specialist welder. After the completion of the work, the unit simply stands idle.

But sooner or later the moment comes when you should decide and try to cook something yourself. There is nothing wrong with that, it would be a desire. The main thing at this stage is not to get burned and not to catch "bunnies", and experience comes with practice. If there is or a country house, there will always be a use for welding. With its help, you can solve the problems of developing the territory much faster.

Not always and not everything can be bought in the store. Welding a gate, building a base for a bench or table, “grabbing” a hook for attaching a rope or an additional support for weaving grapes to a metal pole is kind of a trifle, but calling a welder over and over again for such an occasion seems inconvenient. So you need to learn the basics and solve everyday problems with your own hands.

Welding basics

Of course, you should not immediately take up serious work with responsible connections. You can practice on a piece of unnecessary metal. At the first stage, one should learn how to strike the arc and hold it, maintaining a constant working gap between the workpiece and the electrode as it burns.

After that, you need to work out the technique of forming a weld, fusing a layer of metal on a flat surface. Then you can proceed to adjust the current for different thicknesses of the workpieces to be welded. Welding is a technique for joining two metal parts, based on the melting of their surfaces at the junction. They are connected into one whole by adding a layer of electrode binder material.

The current is chosen in such a way as to ensure the melting of only the surface layer without the formation of holes. It is better to master the technique on electrodes with a diameter of 2.5-3 mm. They must not be old and must be dry, otherwise the first experience will most likely be ineffective, which may discourage learning to create metal crafts.

Welding makes it possible to correct minor and sometimes serious flaws in work or installation errors. It is enough to cut off the seam of the “tack”, and the parts are separated. After cleaning the place of unsuccessful welding, the process can be repeated.

Material

Any owner of a country house or the owner of a summer residence will surely have metal waste on the farm. This may be the remains of pipes after the installation of a gas pipeline, water supply or heating systems. The real owner usually does not throw away the remnants of the channel or pieces of reinforcement. You can also find used nails, bolts and nuts.

Such scrap metal very often becomes the material for a new repair or improvement of the old one. Surely there will be outdated garden tools, chains, old dishes, as well as spare parts from a car, motorcycle or bicycle that have not yet been handed over to collection points in the garage or shed.

From all this you can make useful and practical metal crafts. With your own hands, with the help of welding and the available helpers, you can repair old garden tools or make a new one from waste, taking into account personal experience, your preferences and business conditions.

It is possible to equip comfort in the backyard territory without buying new equipment. From used, but still strong metal, you can build a base for a country table or bench. Finding the right particle board sheet for the countertop and bench board is no problem. Racks can be made even from substandard inch pipe.

If there is a supply of material, you can also swing on a swing. It is better to make the structure capital, with concreting the base. We need two sidewalls of pipes welded at an angle, with jumpers for rigidity. The more massive the swing seat, the larger this angle should be. Jumpers can be welded at ground level or even lower so that they are not visible.

Hangers are best made from chains, but you can also take a reliable rope. The beam for fastening should be massive. A thick-walled pipe, a piece of rail or channel will do. It is best to fix frame parts and suspension brackets by welding.

At any cottage, with rare exceptions, there is a barbecue or other similar device. A couple of logs for seating, an old stump as a table and burnt bricks to limit the fire and lay skewers - for some, this may be relaxation, but it is better and more convenient to use a more advanced design.

The brazier can be disassembled. You can bring it with you to your country house, it can also have a permanent place of registration with the possibility of transporting it to the place of storage. For such a solution, a brazier from an old steel barrel is quite suitable. You can make it on your own and get by with just a grinder and a drill. However, it will be better and easier if you use a welding machine.

An empty and washed barrel is cut along the vertical center line into two halves. Legs made of rod, fittings or pipe sections are welded to one part. The top part serves as a hinged lid and can be conveniently mounted on welded-on old door curtains.

Sheet metal crafts can be fixed by welding only after gaining some experience. In order to reliably weld parts and not burn a hole with the electrode, you should accurately select the welding current and work with short tacks with constant control of the quality of the seam.

metal sculpture

The garden around a country house is not only a plot where trees and shrubs are grown to collect fruits and berries. It's also a place to relax! Garden sculpture will serve as an excellent addition to well-groomed plantings.

It may not necessarily be made of concrete or gypsum. For a person with creativity, there are no limits for its expression. If at the moment only a welding machine, half a pack of electrodes, scrap and a desire to create are at hand, then from all this you can build an original and unique composition. Moreover, the complexity of execution can be different.

It depends on the material available and on the idea. Such metal crafts for the garden in one case can consist of a dozen different, at first glance, incompatible parts of different origin and purpose. In another case, it can be made up of hundreds of the same type of repeating elements, connected by welding into a three-dimensional model.

Where to get ideas?

This question cannot be answered unambiguously. Someone, having seen random details in one place, imagines how they will fit together if they are combined into a common composition. Another purposefully goes to a scrap metal collection point and wanders around the mountains of this trash in search of a suitable part for the selected sculpture.

You can get ideas or just take as a basis someone's already implemented idea from specialized book publications that are dedicated to metal crafts. There is nothing shameful in creating a thing you like from improvised materials available on the farm.

In any case, do-it-yourself metal crafts created according to an existing drawing or sketch will be original. Welding is not copying, but a kind of creativity. Any that is made with a decorative design and repeats a pattern or composition is perceived as a kind of masterpiece.

Safety

Care must be taken to ensure that do-it-yourself metal crafts do not serve as a constant reminder of a bad welding experience associated with a burn or injury. It is strictly forbidden to work without a mask or shield, otherwise you can get ultraviolet radiation.

A protective suit will protect clothing and body skin from flying sparks and splashes of molten metal, and thick mittens or gloves made of dense material will protect your hands. It is not recommended to knock down the scale from the seam without goggles, sharp fragments flying in all directions can get into the eyes.

When working near wooden objects and surfaces prone to fire, you should have a bucket of water and a wet rag on hand. Accidental sparks or electrode residue bouncing off and falling on such materials can cause smoldering and subsequent ignition. When working indoors, you need to pay attention to proper ventilation.

Photographs of Alan Williams' wonderful sculptures made from scrap metal by welding. But we decided that it would be much more interesting to translate an interview with this person.

Everyone who wants to admire metal art and read about the sculptor is welcome!

Welding Showcase - Alan Williams shares his story

A very talented person, Alan Williams, joined us at our last exhibition-presentation.

Alan's predominantly animal-themed sculptures are made from highly interesting and unusual "found" and reclaimed metal, breathing life into what some might consider scrap metal.

From a rhino made from old cart shields to an eagle made from cutlery, Alan's unique sculptures exude life and character of their own! Come on, get started, Alan!

Tell us a little about yourself!

I graduated from the University of Brighton in 2001 and have been living in Brighton ever since. I write and perform music, enjoy walking, traveling and taking pictures.

How did you get started in welding? What attracted you to this profession?

When I was about 8, I remember seeing a man on TV making a horse from pieces of scrap metal. It was the first time I saw someone weld. I remember everything - his protective clothing and welding mask, all blazing with the blue light of a semi-automatic. I thought it looked unusual and just like science fiction. When I was 16, I first went into forging and welding, and I almost knew that this was what I wanted to do. I have always loved to make noise, but combining it with fire and sparks really caught my attention.

Tell us a little about how your business started - what did you do before you started it?

As soon as I graduated from university, I wanted a workshop. I have had several in different parts of Sussex, ranging from garages to warehouses. The one I'm currently in is an old milking parlor on a former dairy farm, and by far the best place I've had to date. There were times when I did more mundane work on short-term contracts to pay the bills and give me more creative freedom in my work.

I have always been fascinated by the natural world since childhood. I was a typical boy who loved bugs, insects, was interested in the strange and the beautiful. I think what most kids did, I just kept an interest that carried over completely into my adult life. With a tube of superglue, I would salvage pieces from old toys and reshape them into new creations.

Your sculptures are often made from strange and wonderful found materials, what is the source of inspiration? What's the strangest thing you've made a sculpture out of in the past?

I love working with junk and scrap metal. In the form you will find absolute inspiration for whatever you want to do or the project you are working on.

The weirdest material I've worked with is by far the old minecart that I used to make the life size Rhino. It was hard work.

Do you have a favorite project that you have created?

The project I'm working on is always my favorite piece. Especially when you really enter the creative zone. This "zone" does not depend on when or where you. Inspiration comes in and out, but with some projects, it can really guide you all the time.

The projects you have worked on are very varied, from small ones to your huge dragon sculpture, gates and furniture as well - do you have a preference for certain types of project or do you prefer variety?

I like to make things that I can transport easily enough, but logistics aside, I really enjoy making smaller decorative pieces these days. After a while, I'll probably turn around and say, "So! Time to do something massive."

Do you have cherished orders or projects that you would like to create?

I would like to do more public art and more commissions with some heavy lifting gear, ie. Dinosaurs (I'm a big kid, huh?)

My biggest inspirations for the project are styles and genres and mostly illustrative images of modern, art deco, steampunk and fantasy.

For those who want to get into welding, I would say that there are many hobbies and career opportunities to choose from. It all depends on what you want it to come out of. It took me a long time to develop my work and earn income from the art world, and at times it was a financial hardship, but I do it because I love it.

Because interesting stories keep happening, I think all I have to say is that the path that led me to where I am today is because of all the people who told me that I couldn't do it, from my art teacher at school. to a teacher at the institute. I have heard of many creative people who have had an influential teacher or educator who helped them develop, but to me it was all anti-establishment.

Thanks again for joining us, Alan! If you want to see more of Alan's sculptures, visit his website.

Welder is different for welder, and if for some it is a hard work with which they earn a living, then for David Madero welding is an endless field of creativity. However, in order not to die of hunger, creativity must still be able to sell, so David tries his best not to repeat himself, to maintain his originality and work without sparing himself.

It's hard to describe how impressive the work really is. David Madero(David Madero) - not a single photograph can convey the grandeur or elegance of his statues. But, talking about himself, David says that he does not consider himself someone outstanding. "I don't consider myself a good welder technically. Actually, I never learned this trade, I just grew up surrounded by all these tools - my father was a welder. So it came out somehow by itself, intuitively. But I I'm trying to fill in my gaps."

"Until today, I have never met a more talented metal sculptor than my father. He started working in this field in the 1950s, he was a real talent." On his website, David often posts the process of creating his sculptures. "I do it intentionally. Clients rarely think about how much effort and work has been invested in creating a sculpture. They can't see all this noise, metal scraps, heat from a welding machine, burns, it's hard for them to imagine all this atmosphere in which works are created. It seems to clients that the sculptures are immediately created shining, with perfect shapes and on a pedestal, which is why I add a video on the site about the creation process."

"V1.ru" - information portal of Volgograd

[ December 15, 2019 ]

Quite unexpectedly, I stumbled on Facebook on the page of a Japanese artist-sculptor - Noriyuki Saito (Noriyuki Saitoh). Link to his profile - www.facebook.com/noriyuki.saitoh. Looking at this page, I realized that Noriyuki is engaged in sculpture and in 2018-2019 he created miniature insect sculptures from bamboo. He also passes on his skill to his students.

[ December 11, 2019 ]

The working title of this sculptural composition is "Chukotka". I received an urgent order from Chukotka friends in October 2019. The composition was supposed to represent Chukotka at the Days of the Far East in Moscow in early December. I had to speed up the work process and make a rather large (height - 3 meters) sculpture of a walrus and a couple of seagulls in a short time.

[ December 10, 2019 ]

Fair on Novy Arbat: 12/04/2019 - 12/08/2019.

Festival at the Expocentre: 12/10/2019 - 12/14/2019.

"Days of the Far East in Moscow" is a large-scale event in which all 11 Far Eastern regions are represented. In 2019, this event is being held for the third time, and this time the trade pavilions of the Far East Fair are located in the very center of the capital - on the territory of Novy Arbat. I brought there the sculptural composition "Walrus and Seagulls" created especially for this event and one of the Chukchi dogs.

It was not possible to take successful photos from the scene, so I suggest you look at the photos of the sculptural composition