New Work on Great Swan Peace Cathedral
2016 Metal Art Intensive for Great Swan
The gardens were minimized, our diet simplified further. The plant research for sustainability was cut way back. We tried to simplify our extensive farm management.
The lights in “Valcan’s Daughter”, the open air welding shop on Dandelion Farm, ran late into the nights all year whenever the weather would permit. The relentless sound of grinding metal pouring out of the shop day and night, was softened by earplugs, always ready for use in a pocket somewhere. The plasma cutter was coaxed along with Loren’s “Wizard Fixer” talents, to shoot it’s spray of sparks cutting endless lines in steal. Likewise the mig welding machine ran uncountable hours, even with a couple young hands getting a tantalizing taste of welding along the way. It was long hard work, but hard to call “work”, for the love it expressed and brought to heart. 
It was quite a push to get as far as we could on the metal art for Great Swan Peace Cathedral before the expected El Nino rains and biting winter cold, working almost until Christmas. Piles of metal art grew as we hurried toward the final cut off of production and FINALLY a trip to the galvanizer, to protect it all from rust.
Loren, with a little help, pre-installed the metal work to be sure it would all fit and to make adjustments before the galvanizing process. What you see in the pix on this page is this pre-installation of a years worth of hard labor, by mostly Candace (nearing 70yrs) with Loren (nearing 80).
The last big day of metal work in 2015, was one Candace and Chante (25yrs) shared in Valcan’s Daughter. Chante had been helping one day a week on Dandelion Farm for some time, getting foundation welding skills. An impressive artist already at her age, she had offered to help with farm maintenance needs in exchange for learning to weld and other art techniques. But that last day, that last big push to finish, Chante proved herself a fast moving, skilled help, worthy of recognition as a WELDER! It was shear joy for long hours as we “danced” together around the shop until the plasma cutter went silent, and the last cut part was welded and ground smooth. THANK YOU Chante!
2016 Welding season is about to begin. There is at least as much left to do on Great Swan as we did last year. What will we accomplish this year?
A little taste: While waiting out the cold wet months indoors, Chante helped Candace choose colors and layout style for mosaic on a welded swan, part of the front entrance approach to Great Swan Peace Cathedral….Pix coming soon!