A Painted Wall Sundial by John Carmichael

Photos:

• Painted Wall Sundial (313 KB)
• Painted Wall Sundial on Fall Equinox: 9am, 9:30am, 4:30pm
• Painted Wall Sundial Delta Cad Drawing Pattern (60 KB PDF)
• Painted Wall Sundial Above Door (101 KB)
• Painted Wall Sundial Cone Gnomon (200 KB)
• Painted Wall Sundial Construction (159 KB)
• Rejected Earlier Design Mockup (276 KB)
• Nodi Shadow experiment (672 KB)
• Cone Gnomon Shadow Experiment (290 KB)

Description:

This is my first painted wall sundial-finished in June, 2006. It is above a porch door at a private home in Tucson Arizona USA. It features a solid brass gold-plated conical gnomon on a gold-plated star. I designed it using Zonwvlak2000, Delta Cad, and Photoshop Elements. The wall surface is rough textured stucco and the paint I used is elastomeric acrylic house paint.

Painting fine details by hand on textured stucco is a real pain and very difficult. I could not use painters tape because of the bumps, so everything had to be painted free hand. I see now why the sundial artists in Europe often replaster a wall with a smooth texture before painting! But the owners did not want a smooth surface because rough texture is artistically pleasing. This does affect the sharpness of the shadow a tiny bit, but it's not too bad.

The sundial measures 44 x 92 inches (1.12m x 2.33m), declines 4.53 degrees east of south. We decided to custom-make a wide brass cone so that the shadow is wide, like the hands of a clock. The cone is 2 inches wide at the base and about 4" tall and is screwed to an anchor bolt on the wall on top of a gold-plated brass star.

I transferred the Delta Cad drawing to the wall like this:

1. I made a full size drawing of the sundial on Mylar plastic.
2. Then, using a leather awl (like a short ice pick), I punched holes into the lines on the drawing.
3. Then I taped the drawing to the wall, and using Sharpee marker pens, I made dots on the wall through the holes in the drawing.
4. Then I removed the drawing and connected the dots on the wall.

I painted the colors first, then painted the lines and numerals on top in layers.

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Created on ... June 29, 2006

Modified on ... March 31, 2007