In 1992 I was commissioned to make a set of metal Statues for a customer. I didn’t have the correct welding equipment to do the 
job, so, he asked me to come to work for him on his ranch about 4 miles from where I live. He built me a real nice shop & gave me 
enough money to buy all of the best welding equipment & shop supplies. I had a 250 Miller Tig welder, a 150 Miller Mig welder, a 250 Lincoln Plasma Cutter, brakes, shears, beverly shear, cut-off saw, torches, steel rack, large shop fans & about 5000 dollars worth of other equipment. All I had to do was make Art pieces to sit all over his ranch. the 1st year I made all kinds of animals & people that I wanted to make. Did about 50 metal sculptures in steel only. The 1st part of the 2nd year I started making what he wanted. I did a lot of Copper & Stainless Steel sculptures of diff. variaties. then I was allowed to take on an Apprentice to work w/me to make the ultimate set of statues that most artist’s can only dream about.
I started a 2 year project making the Stations of the Cross. We used the Mig & Tig welder for all of the welding part. used the torch for bending, the Plasma for cutting, beverly for intricate cuts. this whole project was a learning experience for both of us. No drawings were ever made ahead of time. We used the Catholic Bible for reference & placement of all statues later on. there were 35 statues & 14 Crosses. I took hundreds of pictures while we were making all of these. the Crosses were made out of 4by6 Treated wood Beams notched & bolted together at the notch. Each vertical beam was 20ft long. We roughed them up w/a chainsaw, scorched the wood w/a torch & then clear coated everything. Every statue was built w/both of our idea’s. My apprentice was Terry L. We worked as a team the whole 2 years. We averaged about 4 days per statue & less for some of the more intricate one’s.
The next part of the discription will be of what went into the landscaping & placing of all the statues & crosses on the ranch property.
tlc2011 