Liz m338
Fifty-four bicycle parts, socket head, copper pipe, cap, four screws, ten washers, four nuts, ten machine screws, four wingnuts, bolt, ten rivets, copper, bronze.
7 lbs., 8 oz.
21 x 9 x 4″
“Spare Parts Liz” is a tribute portrait for Liz Jackson, a.k.a. ‘The Girl With the Purple Cane‘.
While I normally don’t do portraits, I was excited to give it a try with after watching Liz speak: she has a strong personality and I was excited to see what pieces of metal I could find that would fit together to give the impression and spirit of her. Finding the blue bicycle fork blades that became her jeans was a rare stroke of luck – I felt that was a great sign. The bracelet was inspired by her sweatband, and I smiled pretty hard when I welded the head at the right tilt – that’s when I think she really came to life. Spare Parts Liz was also the first Astrobot to have glasses, and it took some iterations and even some bench grinding before I felt they were right. Probably the most challenging part was the hand holding the purple cane: to get metal to act as if it’s holding a handle, resting some weight. I’m very happy how she seems to be slightly leaning on the cane, but not too heavily. It was also very gratifying to use a small sledgehammer to get her rivet-fingers to curl around.
I learned a lot from listening to the Girl with the Purple cane and it was an honor to make Spare Parts Liz.
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