This was an assignment for a sculptures class where I got to play with a welder, and it was super fun. The rule was that it could only be made of steel.

I made the base raked to emphasize the movement and give the illusion that they were being thrown off a cliff. The rules never specified that you couldn’t paint on top of the steel, so I used that to suggest the armor types that the enemies are wearing: silver for plate on the fighter and brown and green is for leather on the rogue archer. Hugo is half stone giant and fights in a loin cloth (unarmored barbarian). He used to have a loin cloth but it was made of leather (specifically so I could break the rule because “art”) so it would be flow-ey… it got lost. Should have just welded a leather loin cloth cause then he wouldn’t be naked.

I tried to tell a story through the dents in the base, the arrows in Hugo, and the dropped arrows, bow, and blood from the first smash that happened seconds before this smash moment. In hind sight I think I should have dished out a crater into the base, the dent doesn’t read very well. Even in person it’s pretty subtle. The ground was also where I got to play with welding by purposely welding badly to get that gravel texture.

Making the sword and shield for the second fighter was also really fun. For the sword I heated up a nail and used a hammer and anvil to forge it into a blade. I think it would be a good idea to do that to make mini swords and sell them as letter openers. Plus I know a lot of nerds that would totally want to have those to play with at a D&D game. It wouldn’t hold an edge well, but it would be good enough to tear open a letter. And having a duller edge is actually better for a gaming toy.

A part of me wants to just start making a bunch of steel structures and listing them on etsy just train my welding skill and maybe make some money to buy more steel.

*There is a flaw in this piece that irks me to this day. I welded the silver fighter to the brown archer first… then when I welded them both to Hugo’s hand I attached them 180 degrees ‘out of phase’ so they are facing the wrong direction. The silver should be on the outside, not the brown and green. A part of me wants to slice and weld and fix it, but as “Art” I feel it should stay as it was.