It was a steel kiwi taking flight with helium balloons last year that caught the attention of new followers and customers of metalwork artist Nicolas Lupacchino.<\/p>\n
At the time, he was working for Metalworks W\u0101naka in Ballantyne Rd, but he has recently taken flight himself and gone alone in the growing world of sculpture art.<\/p>\n
“I just had the opportunity\u00a0to do this and found the workshop was for lease. I knew my work was selling so I was waiting to find my own space.”<\/p>\n
Lupacchino\u2019s pieces sell for tens of thousands of dollars, and can take between one and six months to make .<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s been flat out. It wasn\u2019t easy at the start, now [it is] quite busy and I have commissions.”<\/p>\n
The market had become competitive with other local metalwork artists but there was room for all, he said.<\/p>\n
“There are a lot of metal artists, and everyone has a different style.”<\/p>\n
Lupacchino specialises in wildlife sculptures, and said they seemed to be popular among W\u0101naka and Central Otago art collectors.<\/p>\n
“I think it\u2019s because it is good outdoors, they last a long time and look nice in the elements. The pieces I make, they last for generations.”<\/p>\n
He was inspired by New Zealand\u2019s outdoors, having hailed from a more flat country, Belgium.<\/p>\n
“I think New Zealand … with the wildlife, all the landscape \u2014 it is a country that is well preserved,” Lupacchino said.<\/p>\n
Lupacchino moved to New Zealand seven years ago and, while he missed his family, he found the opportunity for his line of work was endless in the Upper Clutha.<\/p>\n
He had been working in welding and fabrication since he was 20, and began making sculptures about five years ago.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old began his New Zealand experience travelling around as a welder, living in Whangarei, Nelson, Raglan and eventually W\u0101naka.<\/p>\n
His latest sculpture, a tui made of steel with a 5m wingspan, is called\u00a0Rise\u00a0and is perched at his Luggate workshop beside the old flour mill.<\/p>\n
“This piece has been a six-month project and is now almost complete. It\u2019s due to leave my workshop soon to be installed on a cycle trail near Hamilton.”<\/p>\n
While he did not want to reveal the price, he said the bird weighed about half a tonne, and would be transported north in a special truck that could take the weight.<\/p>\n
The steel was built to rust only on the outside and because the bird was special, the tiny tufts under the chin were made to keep on shining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a steel kiwi taking flight with helium balloons last year that caught the attention of new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-126580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}