Chilliwack metal sculptor Kevin Stone is making an Elon Musk head out of aluminum that’s almost six feet tall.
Weird?
Indeed.
And it is going to be attached to the body of a goat sculpture.
But wait, there’s more.
The half-Elon, half-goat creation will sit atop a rocket surrounded by lightning on a mission to Mars.
And if that’s not strange enough, once complete, the 30-foot long sculpture will head from Arizona to Texas where it will be presented to Musk himself at his place of work, Tesla Inc.
This Elon Musk head is just one of many projects that Chilliwack metal sculptor Kevin Stone is working on. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress)
The piece is being built by the creators of Elon Goat Token ($EGT), an Elon Musk-themed cryptocurrency based in Arizona.
“Elon Goat Token is building a biblical sized monument on the back of a semi-trailer dedicated to the godfather of crypto, Elon Musk,” the cryptocurrency website reads. “When the Elon goat is complete, we’re towing it to Tesla and demanding that Elon claims his goat! The Elon goat monument will serve as an anchor to the token and as a tribute to the world’s crypto community.”
The sole purpose of the monument is to market the Elon Goat Token.
The project was designed by Danny Wang of California. When Wang called up Stone, he didn’t initially tell Stone who the client was.
“Who else would want a goat with Elon’s head on it? We thought it was so bizarre it would be Elon, but it wasn’t. It was the crypto company.”
It is definitely the strangest project Stone has ever done, but he took it on because he’s a “big fan” of Musk, he said.
“I think Nikola Tesla was never given enough credit back in the day and I think Elon Musk is the Nikola Tesla of today,” Stone said. “(Musk) is way ahead of everybody. He thinks outside the box… I really like that. That’s kind of what I do. And he’s got the money to back his ideas which is innovative and amazing.”
Unlike other metal sculptures Stone has made, the Musk head is foam on the inside.
First, Stone put out a call on social media looking for someone who could create a 3D computer rendering of Elon Musk’s head for him to use as a template. His buddy in Calgary, Cory Porterfield of Porterfield Studios, stepped up.
Stone bought a 3D image of Musk’s head that he found online and sent the file to Porterfield. Porterfield and his team used the image as a base model and then created a completely new 3D image, one that featured a younger, 20-year-old Musk.
“He doesn’t want to see himself at 50, he wants to see himself at 20,” Porterfield said, adding that a lot of work went into creating the head to make sure it was perfect.
“I wanted to make sure the head was exactly Elon Musk, not just kind of,” he said.
Porterfield contracted a company that has a special machine to carve out the giant head. They used a five-axis CNC milling machine which is a cutting tool that moves in five different directions.
The head was cut in three pieces – the face, the back left and back right – and then assembled together. It was then coated with the same material used to line truck beds, to make a hard shell.
Porterfield drove the 5’9” head from Calgary to Chilliwack on Jan. 10.
Chilliwack sculptor Kevin Stone fits pieces of aluminum to a gigantic Elon Musk head in his workshop on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress)
The next step was to stick high-heat aluminum tape over the entire head as a heat protector. Without the tape, the lining and foam would melt when he tacked metal to it, Stone said.
“It’s a really difficult challenge for me. This is going to push my skillset for sure because it’s so complicated. It’s not going to be easy,” Stone said.
They’ve already encountered tricky parts.
Stone and his wife Michelle used the handles of scissors to get the aluminum tape into all the little nooks and crannies, like in Musk’s ears and up his nose.
Now he’s in the process of shaping a bunch of small aluminum pieces which will be attached to the head “like a puzzle,” he said.
Next, he’ll tack them in place until it’s covered in aluminum. The pieces will be welded, then he’ll grind the welds down and give it a brushed finish.
“The Elon goat monument will feature real rocket fire, smoke, lasers, concert lighting and music. It will be a global spectacle that is sure to go viral beyond crypto and into mainstream media,” the cryptocurrency company wrote on its website.
Stone has four months to complete the Musk head but is hoping to get it done in about half that time. It currently weighs about 80-90 pounds and when all the aluminum is on, it’ll be about 200 pounds.
When it’s complete, the Elon goat monument will go on a two-week media event tour prior to being presented to Elon in the final reveal.
“They’re going to drive it around… then try to get Elon to claim his goat – whether he buys it, or claims it, or just shows his face might be all it takes,” Stone said.
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Chilliwack sculptor Kevin Stone (left) moves a gigantic Elon Musk head in his workshop on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress)
Kevin and Michelle Stone stand beside a giant Elon Musk head at their workshop on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress)
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