Look at your pile of assorted scrap iron. Move pieces around on the ground or on your work bench until you find what you need to bring your imagined creation to life. Decide how each piece will fit together.
Move pieces around as needed in order to draw the eye smoothly from one part of your sculpture to another by using fundamental design principles to create focal points and featured elements. These principles include balance, contrast, emphasis and subordination, directional force, proportion, scale, repetition and rhythm and unified variety, advises freelance designer/artist Chad Engle, editor of "Fuel Your Creativity." As the most important part of the process, make no mistakes here since you cannot correct them without wasting time, effort or materials.
Clean the areas of each item that will be welded together down to bare iron, using a wire wheel on a 4-inch right angle grinder, leaving the rusty finish everywhere else, if that is the effect you seek. Clean every surface of each piece of scrap down to bare metal if you intend to paint or add patina to your scrap pieces.
Use clamps and vise grips where needed to hold pieces together at the desired angles. Weld all contact points in your sculpture using a 110-volt gasless MIG or your preferred welder. Once the welds cool, wire wheel each weld joint to remove any slag, dust or discoloration.
Leave all weld joints clean if you intend to paint your sculpture. Spritz all weld joints with saltwater and leave your sculpture out in the rain if you desire a rusty finish.
Paint your entire sculpture with rust-inhibitive enamel and place your sculpture where it will display to its best advantage.