Fellow Shadow Watchers, Anyone who attended the NASS Conference in Chicago but missed seeing the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park can regain a lttle of that amazing experience at:
http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/ShowBuilding/233.php When we first approached it my guess was that it had to be an inflated metallised vinyl balloon to achieve optical perfection in such a HUGE structure. Touching was believing however that it is made from 10mm thick stainless steel. In some of the pictures of the unfinished sculpture the welds between the plates can still be seen but these will be polished out in due course. What really intrigues me is just HOW it was made. On a smaller scale things like saxophone 'bells' and motorcycle exhausts can be soldered/welded from flat plates and 'inflated' to shape with pressurised water but this seems unlikely. Tony Moss -