Like we mentioned in the last post, we’ve got just a little bit of finishing details to wrap up upon our return in a couple of weeks.  But for the most part, our pieces are complete.

Video is on its way!

We’re heading back to our homes and office in Utah this evening, but we’ll be back here in a couple of weeks to finalize everything before the big, exciting lift.

Before we left, we fitted the finials to the lightning protections and finished the gilding on the collar at the base of the cross.  We have pictures, but as we will be traveling, it will be a few days before we can make our next post.  Also, we’ve got video in tow!  Stay tuned for those as well.

We apologize in advance for the quality of these images, but just wanted you to know we’ve been on task!  See you all in a couple of days!

Our gorgeous ornate, gilt copper cross was lifted by crane to be fastened to the top of the copper spire today.  The cross is a creation of the artisans at Copper Exclusive.  Just to remind our readers who might not have been following us in past posts, the spire is NOT our work.  The amazing, archway, visible in many of the pictures in the gallery below, however, is our creation as are the copper finials which you will see attached in future posts.

We had some technical issues with a couple of machines which took time we weren’t expecting and prevented us from assembling and attaching the copper collar as we had planned to do, but we intend to finalize the remaining details tomorrow.  We’ll also fit our finials to the top of the archway tomorrow.  They won’t be a permanent addition until after the tower is transported and the brownstone veneer pieces have been installed, but we’ll temporarily add these ornaments to finesse the fitting details, so on installation day, everything will be a snap.  And, hey, we just want to see it all put together!

We filmed the lift and install of the cross to the spire and need a few days to edit the footage, but you can expect to see some fun video posted in the next couple of days.  Until then, please enjoy these pictures showing the lift and assembly.

The gilding on the copper cross is finally complete!  You’ll notice a few areas around the copper collar that still have bare patches.  The reason for this is, the copper collar is the transition between the base of the cross and where it attaches to the spire underneath.  We still need to solder the pieces together.  Soldering a pre-gilded surface is not a workable practice, so we’ll gild those spots after assembly.

Tomorrow we assemble the cross and spire and solder the as of yet ungilded regions on the collar.  When that is accomplished, we’ll quickly gild those untreated areas and the whole spire will be complete.

We’re videoing the assembly, so watch out for some exciting footage.  In fact, as the project nears completion, you can expect to see far grander pictures than have ever been posted thus far!

If you recall, we have mentioned in previous posts that we elected to use a veneer on the tower to keep the structure as light as possible.  The gallery in this post shows pictures of Hightower Construction craftsmen and engineers creating some of these pieces.

The molds are for the decorative elements.  The large, fiberglass pieces, created by Hightower Boatworks, will be fit into the corners of the copper arch bow.  We have included a draft of the finished piece as the last photo in this gallery to better illustrate how these items relate to the rest of the tower.

This phase of the project has been quite messy, but all our hours creating this veneer and these fiberglass pieces will culminate into a well-designed and beautiful result.

Got some more gilding pictures for you.  Things are progressing well.  Right now, we’re working on the detailed areas which take longer, but we should be completely done with the gilding on our copper cross in a couple of days.  Finished pictures to follow soon!

Though the weather has been less than cooperative, we’ve been plugging away at the top of the copper archway.  We’ve compiled some photos of a few of the recent details we crafted to show you what we’ve been up to.

Now that the measurements have been calculated for the lightning protection and the tower lights, we needed to temporarily dismantle the spire to finish our work on the top of the archway.

We’ve said this in every post involving the spire so far, but just so there is no misunderstanding,  Copper Exclusive is NOT responsible for crafting the spire.   We built the archways, ornaments and the cross.

The following pictures show the different stages of dismantling.  We’ll show you the finished top of the archway, soon.

Our beautiful cross has undergone many a facelift on its way to the top of the spire.  Here is a walk down memory lane:

We scared the living daylights out of a lot of you with our last post when we showed pictures of our copper cross masterwork completely coated with a matte yellow primer, but hopefully we’re on our way to redeeming ourselves with this entry.  As you can see, we’ve finally started the gilding process!  We’re about a quarter of the way done at this point.

We worked late into the night to keep up with the drying times of the glue (size).  But finish our commitment, we did, and closed up shop to get a quick snack before turning in.  Coated from head to toe with gold flakes, we got some interesting looks from the clerks and patrons of a convenience store we stopped at on the way home!

We got a little carried away with the volume of pictures we posted for this entry, but they are fun and beautiful and we hope you enjoy all of them.  More pictures and posts about this gilding project are on their way!