Gypsy Wagon Progress Report 11-22-09

This week I was able to build the floor frame and the frame for the back wall of the Cosmic Caravan. I started by doing a detailed drawing. I then figured out the materials list and ordered up the steel, which was delivered on Tuesday. The first thing I built was the framing for the floor. I plan to be able to remove the structure from the trailer so as to be able to use the flatbed trailer separately if I need it. This necessitates building a floor that is strong enough to hold weight when separated from the trailer. I used 1 1/2" square tubing for the floor frame. I built the frame to be 3/4 inch narrower than the trailer so it will not be too tight a fit when I slide the camper from the trailer.

Then, on Friday, I started building the back wall of the wagon. This is the wall with the door in it. It is at the very back of the trailer. The ceiling height should be 86 1/2 inches when furred out with wood on the inside. That's plenty tall. I made the door frame with an opening 24 inches wide by 77 inches tall. I framed two quarter-circle windows on each side of the door. There is also, framed into the back wall, an opening for removal of the compost from the composting toilet that will be installed later.

The back wall frame is made mostly out of 1" x 1 1/2" rectangular steel tubing. It allows for flooring that will total 1 1/2" in thickness. That's room for a layer of 3/4" plywood topped by 3/4" of whatever flooring material I use - probably a laminate wood-looking flooring of some kind.

On Saturday I finished the back wall frame and clamped it onto the trailer so I could see what it felt like to walk in the door. I think its going to work just fine. I spent an hour drawing up the plans for the front wall - the one that goes at the tongue end of the trailer. This wall will have window in it, a mounting beam for the bed platform, and two access doors to the space under the bed. I made sure there was room between these doors for two propane tanks to mount on the tongue of the trailer.

Today, I went out to a preview of what will be a huge yard sale once it's all organized. I found a couple of solar panels totaling about 100 watts and bought them. I can mount these on the roof and use them to charge the trailer's batteries. There is also a large, dead motor home that I think I can scrounge the kitchen stove and sink out of. There may also be a furnace in the motorhome I can snag. I will have to pay something for thes items but not near what they would cost new.

This is an exciting project for me. When I go to my shop it's hard to get on with my real work. I just want to work on the gypsy wagon all day!

Announcing the Cosmic Caravan

The European Gypsies (Roma) often traveled in colorful horse-drawn wagons. Brightly painted and ornate, these wagons, known as caravans or vardos, could be seen traveling the rural roads of England and Europe from the 1850’s onward. There were several styles of wagons but two styles stand out - the Bowtop and the Ledge.

I plan to build a gypsy caravan in the Bowtop style but, instead of being a horse-drawn wagon, it will be built on a flatbed trailer so we can haul it at highway speeds with a pickup truck. The Cosmic Caravan will be larger than the traditional ones and will include some modern RV conveniences inside. The old-style caravans were built of wood. Since steel is my medium, I plan to build the frame out of steel. Inside, however, will be trimmed in wood. Wood siding will be on the outside and wood paneling on the inside. We plan to decorate it profusely with paint and found objects, inside and out. It will be a sight to behold (we hope)

I bought the trailer last week. It's a tandem-axle made by Diamond T Trailers. The bed is a little over 16 feet long and a little over 6 feet wide. That ought to be big enough. With any luck I hope to have it marginally functional by March of 2010. Here are a few pictures of traditional style vardos.

The Tower of Barbarella

There is soon to be a tower of found-object art in East Jesus. We got started on it last weekend. Blaze and I drove out with a truckload of lumber and some tools. Charlie, the Mayor of East Jesus, procured concrete blocks and concrete mix for the foundation. We set the foundation on Friday afternoon, eight concrete blocks, eight bags of mix, re-bar, and three-foot screw anchors were used. This may not be enough but it was enough to start. We began framing the base of the tower on Saturday. By Sunday noon we had used up all the wood and headed back to Arizona.

The Tower of Barbarella (our working name for it) has a 12' x 12' base and, when done, should stand over 24 feet high. Our intention is to cover the whole thing in found and trash objects like can lids, bottle caps, and whatever other durable, not too valuable, and interesting shapes we can come up with.

I, personally, have already accumulated lots of stuff to decorate the tower. I have a box of beer bottle caps, a box of CD's, a big box of shotgun shells, four brass and glass lamps, and, just yesterday, picked up a pile of used and weathered lumber.

The weekend after Thanksgiving a bunch of us will be going out to the site to build the upper part of the tower and begin decorating it. Of course, I will post the results of this next trip right here at Adventures in the Zone.

At right is my concept drawing for the tower. I'm sure it will look different but this is the basic idea.

Burning Man 2009 and AZ Decompression 2009

I went to the Burning Man Festival for the 10th time this year. We brought the Amphibia structure and had a camp of about 45 people. Lots of fun, as usual. Nevertheless, I am planning to take a break in 2010 and do something else for my big vacation. Burning Man is always fun, and there are always cool things to see, people to meet, and experiences to have. For a change, I would like to have a different experience. I am not sure what, yet. It could be travel to a foreign land, or attendance at one or more other interesting edgy events here in the U.S. We'll see.

Anyway, here is a link to some photos I took at Burning Man this year:
http://picasaweb.google.com/zebulonspleen/BurningMan2009#

In October, I attended the Arizona Burning Man Decompression party at Gateway Ranch near Flagstaff, AZ. It's a much smaller event than Burning Man - only about 100 people. Compare that to the 50,000 that go to Burning Man. I love this event. Great time and great friends! Here are some photos' of the Decompression:
http://picasaweb.google.com/zebulonspleen/AZDecompression2009#

Almost Famous

A little over a year ago, my sculpture, Cosmos, was rented to be in a movie. The movie, Surrogates, just came out last weekend and the sculpture does show up, but just barely. If you happen to see the movie, Cosmos is at the human reservation in a green area where The Prophet hangs out. This scene is about a third of the way through the movie. Cosmos can be seen spinning away at the left side of the screen for maybe two seconds. If you aren't looking for the sculpture, you will probably miss it. Cosmos is almost famous!

Over the last year I have told people that Disney rented my sculpture and I have gotten many questions about how this all happened. Here is a brief description of what happened and maybe it will give you a little bit of information on how this small part of the movie industry works, at least in my case.

In May of 2008 I got an email from someone claiming to represent a major motion picture who said she wanted to maybe rent one of my sculptures. At first I thought it was just another scam to try to get me to divulge personal bank account info or something like that. The one thing that made me think it might be legitimate was there were a lot of phone numbers at the bottom of the email. I thought it was worth replying to.

It turned out the offer was legitimate. I was in communication with the Buyer for the Surrogates Production. She told me that the Set Decorator (an official title) wanted the "rebel camp" to look kind of Burning-Man- like. The Buyer had not heard of Burning Man so she went on the web, found the Burning Man website, and found a picture or two of my sculpture, Cosmos. This was how she found me.

I had no idea what to charge as a rental fee. Fortunately I have two friends who have worked in and around the movie business. Jeff used to run a company that rented cameras and such to film production. He was the perfect guy to ask about rental pricing. My friend, Don, has done work for Disney for years so he was helpful with information about dealing with Disney.

I came up with a weekly price and they agreed. They paid me two weeks rental fee and a crating fee in advance, which was pretty cool. Disney sent a truck to take it to Massachusetts where the movie was being filmed. I wrote a manual for assembling the sculpture and also shot a video of it being assembled. Cosmos is a bit complicated to assemble so I wanted to give the set building crew good instructions so that they could put it together easily and not damage it.

I shipped Cosmos to Taunton, MA in June, 2008 and it was set up on the grounds of an abandoned mental hospital/school called the Dever State School. If you look up Dever State School you can see pictures of the site, without the movie set, of course.

They rented the sculpture for three weeks and then shipped it back to my shop in Prescott. Unfortunately, one of the parts was damaged in shipping. The Lead Man (another "official" title) was great. He filed a claim with the shipper and I got a check to cover repairs in just a few weeks.

All in all, renting out my sculpture was a great experience. The people I dealt with were very professional and were excellent communicators. I would definitely do it again.

I tried not to have expectations about the sculpture appearing in the movie. I know that the movie industry spends millions of dollars on things that never actually show up on the screen. I hoped that Cosmos would not get edited out. I entertained the idea that it might even appear prominently. I couldn't help being a bit disappointed that it was so easy to miss while watching the film. But it IS there! So that's a good thing.

Cosmos is available for sale. I am asking $26,000 for it. It is a little over 20 feet tall and it's base is 12 feet in diameter. It has several spinning elements that are wind driven. I just shot a 1-minute video of Cosmos spinning in high winds. Check it out.

Pyroklectic from Zebulon on Vimeo.

I am a member of the fire performance troupe, Pyroklectic. We performed on the Fourth of July in the Courthouse Square in Prescott, AZ. My wife, Nita, filmed us and I used the footage to create this two-minute video of the highlights of our show. I think I can accurately say that Prescott has not ever seen a performance like this before!

A Snapshot of Cosmic Steel

I shot a five minute video today at my steel fab shop/studio. On Friday I finished, with some help, putting together COSMOS, a large wind sculpture I made in 2004. It has been lying around my shop yard disassembled since it came back from being rented for a movie. I finally cleared a space and put it together. It was breezy today and it moved beautifully in the wind. I just had to shoot some photos and video. There are some other in-progress and completed worksin the video, too. I apologize for the clutter in my shop. I guess I work in creative chaos.
To see the video, go to my Cosmic Steel website