OnlineMetals.com - Made With Metals Ep. 5 | Fascinating Fractal Art

- Three, Two, One. Here it goes. (nail drilling) - [Rob Leonard] What draws me to these kinds of mathematical forms (dramatic music) is that infinitesimally small. (dramatic music) My mind really likes that. It's more concrete. It's more tangible because you can fit in infinity in the palm of your hand. (machine grinding) - [Joe Clark] You know, I can't say if this is the first time that a fractal has ever been machined into metal. I certainly haven't seen it. (dramatic music) I like the idea of doing things that haven't been done before. (dramatic music) (machine whirring) (upbeat music) I saw Rob's work on his social media pages. They call it a Mathscaper. (dramatic music) - [Rob Leonard] We make pieces of fine art that are derived from mathematics. Fractals are some of what we do. (machine groaning) (machine cutting) We've worked initially with wood partially because it's inexpensive. And also because at machine's really easy and fast. But wood has serious limitations. It won't hold a lot of detail. - [Joe Clark] Of course, you know, being a metal fabricator, I think "Okay, that would be cool if it was made from metal." You know, in my mind, anything that's made from metal is cooler, but you know, I may be biased. (dramatic music) - [Rob Leonard] Moving into harder materials like metal allow us to really go crazy with detail. (machine clanking) - [Joe Clark] In this case here, we used a block of 6061 aluminum. (machine grinding) It has some really interesting qualities in terms of it's reflective nature and what have ya. (machine grinding) Sort of that monochromatic look that you can get. (machine grinding) - [Rob Leonard] I think my primary concern going into it was that whoever was going to partner ala Joe would require a lot of patience. (machine grinding) - [Joe Clark] There's reasons why people don't necessarily do this type of thing. (machine grinding) It takes a hell of a lot of machine time. (machine grinding) - [Rob Leonard] The complexity of these parts is immense. - You know, it can be many tens of hours, even north of a hundred hours for some of these pieces. (machine grinding) - [Joe Clark] Yeah, the rough out pass went pretty fast and it was only 45 minutes. (dramatic music) The second pass took about four hours (machine grinding) and the final pass on it, I think that took 16 hours. Although I don't know, it could have been more, I wasn't paying attention. (machine grinding) All's I know when I came in the next afternoon, it was still running, (machine whirring) You know, with these things that I've never done before, you have an idea and you think it's gonna be cool, but you're not quite sure, you know. As soon as you see the piece on the mill there, like, oh yeah, that's a win. (dramatic music) - [Rob Leonard] I'm blown away. When we first walked in today to see the results, my heart just lapped. The way that the reflections come off of a metal after it's been cut with the tool marks and everything included really has added dimension to what is already a three-dimensional art form. (dramatic music) - [Joe Clark] The base for the fractal art piece intentionally held off on that 'cause I wanted to work with Rob to make sure that he agreed with the form and the shape and how it was presented. The thought is that put some sort of fabricated base underneath there. - [Rob Leonard] I could see us doing some sleeves and standoffs, so this thing floats in space. - [Joe Clark] We're very much on the same page that we wanted to lift this thing off the surface a little bit, so we can get, get that read all the way around of that broken edge. - [Rob Leonard] I like it, there, that's an inch and three quarters roughly. - [Joe Clark] Okay. In terms of what we used below there, we just used a piece of cold rolled steel. (machine clanking) And some pipe standoffs and some three-eighths bolts that were tapped into the underside of block. (dramatic music) (inspiring music) Overall, the project was a success for sure. It's great when the part turns out, and, it turns out to be as interesting as you were hoping it would be. (instrumental music) - [Rob Leonard] You know, we started this in a pandemic. (instrumental music) You know, virtually, nobody has seen these pieces in real life. So we're really looking forward to opportunities to show in galleries and to get more pieces of public art out there so that we can make beautiful mathematical pieces for all. (instrumental music) (dramatic music) (machine whirring)