Ronald E. Gammill, sculptor / design architect for Hirschen, Gammill, Trumbo.
Fr. Richard Mangini, St. Leander Church, San Leandro, CA.
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Design and Precision Installation
Ronald E. Gammill designed this sculpture for St. Leander Church in San Leandro, Ca. To help him actualize his concept he assembled a team, Brian Shea, Bill Malpas, and me to help him design and build a structural template and the procedures for hanging 1,100 Swarovski cut-glass crystals over the altar. Before the sculpture was installed, my painting crew and I painted substantial parts of the nave, the organ loft, and the chapel. This photo shows me painting the arch in front of the organ loft.
My assistants and I pulled 1,100 wires down from the 40′ ceiling, fastening one crystal at a time to each wire, guided by the wooden forms and a moveable registration bar to the exact height to define a gothic arch, making a canopy 8’ deep, 20’ across, and soaring to 24’ above the floor.
Above. On the scaffold during installation I am stabilizing the cluster of wire spools while my assistant, Karen, watches to warn me if anything should swing into the finished work above her left shoulder. Our halos are not visible because of the intense and direct incandescent light.
A closer view of the same sections of the window and finished sculpture. 
Looking through the finished canopy toward the ceiling. 
The canopy after dark.
Maintenance: this photo shows cleaning and untangling nearly completed, after damage from the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.
Marshall untangling after an errant bird flew into the wires: 2013
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