Outdoor Sculptural Piece Needs Strong Assembly

[cwarzecha]

 

This piece (pictured below) I made is going to be an outdoor sculpture on display for a year. It's made with a clay that will withstand the outdoors. It is made from stacking sections of 7 or 8 attached donut-shaped flat rings. I'm wondering if anyone knows a good way for me to make sure it won't fall over or get damaged by people touching it. I'm sort of at a loss, as I wasn't expecting to be chosen, and now have to come up with a solution to make it extremely sturdy. I'm thinking of something that can run up the center, or maybe some sort of grout that I can use to attach the pieces (even though that will make transporting it afterwards extremely difficult). Any suggestions? I'm open to anything, because I only have a couple of weeks to figure this out, and as a grad student, I already have a lot on my plate. Thanks in advance.

 

[Mark C.]

How about a rod stuck into the ground up the middle.

Mark

[bciskepottery]

Nice looking forms.  How large is the "donut" hole -- large enough that you could fill the interior with sand or pea gravel?  That would give it some resistance.  I also thought of a base with a dowel or piece of rebar going from bottom to top.  You might want to think about caps for the top . . . to keep water/snow/other precipitation from collecting inside the forms. 

[Pres]

If this is to be a permanent installation, I go along with rustproofed rebar or metal rods anchored in the ground. Closing the top as the above post says will also provide more durability, especially in Winter.

[azjoe]

Normally the yard art I make has a rebar pole in the middle which is driven into the ground as far as needed for the ground characteristics at the site.  You picture leads me to believe that the center holes don't necessarily line up, so rebar might not work in your case.  I sometimes use JB-Weld (a 2-part epoxy) to "glue" pieces together... if attaching glazed pieces I rough up the glaze area where the JB-Weld touches to ensure better adhesion.  You can get JB-Weld in most hardware stores and auto parts stores.  There are several varieties of JB-Weld... I use the "original cold weld formula", usually the black color (which is really dark gray, not black).  Like most good adhesives, the ceramic will break before theepoxy.