28 Days to the Moon
How do you use your spiral pipe? Well one customer used it as the main structural support for a rocket ship! Yes, Mr. David Gelfman of Ridgefield, CT is a sculptor and he used a piece of 42 inch spiral pipe 10 foot long to build a rocket ship. A friend who is a woodworker had an Air Handling Systems catalog and showed it to Dave who thought spiral pipe would be the answer he was looking for as the main body of the rocket ship. It all began as a sketch on a piece of paper and 28 days later it was 15 feet high and twenty feet long.
Who’s the ship for? It was commissioned for a private residence in Katonah, NY. The ship is a birthday present for a 5-year old astronaut. It was commissioned by his mother who wanted a sculpture her son could play on! Dave had two ideas the one the first was of a top of a submarine which would be protruding out of the ground ie the water. The other idea was the rocket ship which became the commissioned piece.
Mr. Gelfman’s specialty is transforming industrial parts into works of art. With a master degree in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Mr. Gelfman is truly a master in working with metal! He has also created two large sculptures for the Connecticut Medical Center in Hartford, CT. One piece is a butterfly on a flower and the second piece in a Mad Hatter on a fork. He worked with a children’s book editor to create the ideas for the two sculptures.
Mr. Gelfman’s main clients are galleries, interior designers and architects and most sculptures are used in corporate settings.
Mr. Gelfman said, “Any rockets from here on out will be spiral pipe.” Look out NASA, you now have some serious competition. Mr. Gelfman was very pleased with the constuction of the spiral pipe. It was much heavier than he expected making it easier to work with. He traditional works with much heavier steel. He found the spiral pipe “good useful material.” Although the price is confidentional there is over $3000 worth of material in the sculpture, including hundreds of rivets which alone cost 25 cents a piece.
Any other ideas for spiral pipe? Well, Mr. Gelfman is thinking of building a Zeppelin using spiral pipe as the main body, although he is waiting for a client to sponsor the project.