Ruthin Art Trail - Bespoke Laser Cut Tree Guards

CLIENT: Lucy Strachan - Artist Fred Baier - Artist INFO: The Ruthin Art Trail is a partnership between Cadwyn Clwyd, Denbighshire County Council, Ruthin Town Council, with support from Bro Rhuthun Funded by Arts & Business Cymru, Arts Council of Wales Lottery and Cadwyn Clwyd The Ruthin Art Trail was designed to encourage visitiors to the centre of Ruthin and develop community links with the craft centre. Part of this programme was the restoration of an avenue of trees along Market Street. Artists Lucy Strachan and Fred Baier approached ASF with conceptual drawings of bespoke tree guards for this part of the project, with a view to using them in conjunction with the ASF 303 tree grille - with a brief to not only produce the guard, but find a method to invisible fix the guards and grilles together. PRODUCTS: The guards were manufactured in 275 carbon steel from recycled sources (a structural grade of steel). These were laser cut and rolled in two halves, to the correct diameter. The halves were then put together as bare metal and hand blended so that each section flowed perfectly, and the pattern was continuous through the full 360 degrees. At the same point a bespoke frame was manufactured to house the ASF 303 tree grille and offer a shoe type guard fixing with all bolts hidden - so the attachment between grille and guard was not visible once the unit was installed. The frames were finished galvanised and powder coated, and the grilles finished in metal primer and metal-shield top coat. The guards were hot dip galvanised, then acid etched and hand finished in a grey matt undercoat and pearlescent top coat as specified by artists Fred and Lucy. ASF 5006 Steel bollards were manufactured form the same 275 carbon steel as the guards, and finished powder coated in a semi metallic grey.