This project is a window well cover and I am looking at it as a piece of functional iron art within a frame. It will be seen both from the vantage point of looking down on it while standing or sitting on the deck and also from the inside basement office window looking out. It will also create some beautiful shadows in the basement office space when the sun shines through the design.
The window well was framed in when the deck was built with a ledge for the cover to sit on. For emergency exit out of the window it can easily be pushed straight out by an adult or child.
Beginning to lay out the pieces I start with the larger scale pieces and place them where they will first look the best and secondly give the piece the greatest strength. Since it is a functional cover it will need to support enough weight to keep adults and kids from falling into the window well.
As I cold bend more steel in different random ways, I then lay in the smaller pieces to add depth to the art piece. As you can see some of them begin to intersect with others giving the art strength to serve it’s functional purpose.
Once I am happy with the layout then I weld the pieces to each other and the frame. Then comes the grinding, blending, more welds and repeat until I am happy with the finished piece of functional art.
The final test is to lay the window well functional art piece in the frame of the deck to ensure fit and to see how it will look after powder coating is done. This piece can hold up to 200 lbs of weight.
