March 6, 2020

Join us at the gallery on Friday, March 6 at 6pm for the opening reception of the Andrei Kazantsev “Real Steel” Exhibition.

After seeing a faceted sculpture design made from folded paper one day, welder Andrei Kazantsev decided to try his hand at making his own sculptures using the material he works best with: folded steel.

His most recent project lifesized faceted Pitbull, and he was generous enough to share the entire build process that goes into making his insane four-legged sculptures.

Using a press brake and a CybTouch 12 controller, Andrei takes his precut sheets of metal and folds them to spec. The press brake allows him to set the angle for each fold based on his CAD data, which leaves him with less guesswork.

Once all the pieces are adequately folded and numbered, he gets to welding. While fusing the pieces, Andrei bends the metal sheets to make them slightly more rounded, so they appear more natural and dog-like.

Since no one other than himself knows the design of the sculpture, he meticulously does this all by hand until the pitbull takes its final shape. Finally, he smooths out the edges and gives it a good polish.

Due to the public’s response and sales success of his sculptures, Andrei was able to quit his day job to focus on making more metallic mammals.