Lawn Mower Blade “Sculpture” #1

Dimensions: Height 21 inches, Width of base 6 inches, Weight 6 pounds. I call this piece “Quadruple Helix.” If you’re looking for a one-of-a-kind industrial art piece, maybe this is it. It is what it is. You either go for this sort of thing (like me), or you don’t. Was $150, now $125. Click here to purchase.

The Story

I found a somewhat rusty old lawnmower set out curbside in front of a house in the Burleith neighborhood of D.C. Someone was getting rid of it; don’t worry, it’s not like they were in the middle of doing yard work and I walked away with their mower; the house had no lawn. I immediately saw the potential for a piece of industrial art. I disassembled the mower to extract just the rotary blade structure. I used a wire brush to clean off any rust and general gunk. I wiped it down, then sprayed it with a couple of coats of clear satin polyurethane. I made a 6-tiered pyramidal base mostly out of red oak reclaimed pallet wood; only the bottom piece was actual dimensional lumber, leftover from another project. The base includes one piece that matches the dimension of the square sides of the four blades (3.75 inches) and one that matches the diagonal dimension of the blades (5.25 inches). (Yes, I put that level of detailed design thought into my work.) The squares of each tier are angled to echo the curves of the blades. The bottom two tiers are stained Ebony, the middle two Red Mahogany, and the top two Sedona Red. The black grounds it and the red tones complement the color of the blades.

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