Vlad the impaled - a look within

With this blog I want to dive into the creative process in which "Vlad the Impaled" was created. I'm not going to put every thought, every step, and every construction execution, but I hope that I am able to share thought process behind the piece.

With this piece I decided to do something that I have been wanting to experiment with, steam bending. I knew that in order to achieve the board shape that I wanted, I would need to construct a form that I would clamp the steamed wood to. After cutting the form from a 2" x 6" I did not like the overall shape that the form would create, so I add two 1/4" x 2" strips to the form to create a fuller shape. I have learned through trial and error over the years to put painters tape under ANYTHING that I am going to glue up on the workbench. Even though I am very careful to use a very fine spread of glue on the slats, inevitably a little glue gets pressed out and it is so much easier to pull the glued piece off of painters tape than it is to chisel it from the workbench surface!

The next process was to build a "steam box" to stem the slats in. I used a 6" PVC pipe that was fitted with screw plug end caps that allowed access to the box. I also added a brass water spigot that I could release condescended water and pressure from the box. Inside i placed a wire grate to set the wood on to ensure it was receiving steam from 360 degrees.

Finally I cut an opening in the side of the PVC pipe to receive the clothes steamer that would provide to steam to tube. After a little experimenting, I found that steaming each strip of cedar for approx. 45 minutes provided the appropriate amount of flex in the wood to achieve the bend that I was looking for.

I steam bent two 1" x 2" strips of cedar per side and clamped each piece to the form to achieve the bend. After the wood adequately cooled and held the desired shape, I then glued and clamped the two piece around the form to ensure maximum strength and conformity.

Here you can see that I have glued the nose of the board, made the dado cuts that would receive the cross ribs, and mounted the board rails to the driftwood. The idea of this piece was to form and meld the processed wood of the surfboard with the natural beauty of the drift wood.

Rather than cutting the driftwood to fit the ribs, I cut each rib to snuggly fit around the driftwood as though the ribs were growing from it. Not only was this piece supposed to meld the two, I wanted to show what goes into building a hollow core surfboard.

This is the backside of the ribs, even though i knew I was going to completely skin the backside of the board, I wanted to build this piece as though I was building a rideable surfboard. It was important to me that even the interior sections of the board that would not be visible were still shaped and constructed in the proper manner.

Shop Supervisor Floke made sure to check in on me regularly to make sure I wasn't making mistakes.

Each strip of cedar that would form the back/bottom of the board was cut to conform to the shape of the driftwood. The 5 strips that formed the center of the board were glued together prior to cutting and attaching to the frame, the rest of the boards were individually cut to fit and attached.

I debated on splintering the cedar where it made contact with the driftwood to give it the appearance that the driftwood was actually busting through the board, but decided to go with a smooth transition instead.

{to be continued)