This is a shot of the work on a table that I was about to fit some wheels on to. I went through two sets of these wheels because they collapsed under the sheer weight of the work.
In this image you can see the different colours and marks that the heat from the welding does to the bronze. Another very critical issue is that when the intense heat from welding is put into the piece, the bronze acts as a incredible heat sink (bronze is made up of a lot of copper and copper is a fantastic conductor, heat runs through it at speed), therefore the form of the work distorts and pulls causing cracks in the newly applied weld. Just after the weld is put in, one has to wait a moment or two to see if it's held. This is particularly difficult business and I became very familiar with the pinging sound that a cracking weld makes. I learnt how to weep internally during this part of the project.
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