Of Complications and Metals

Been in Northern California for awhile...been hectic, crazy, poor, and am pretty sure that my superpower is to make electronics die in my wake.

Here are a few glimpses at what I have been up to on my productive days.


I started doing lost-wax casting, which is way too much fun. This is a sampling, hopefully new pictures soon. Made a handful of larger pieces in bronze and lots in silver--some very very small pieces in silver that'll have images soon I hope. Above is a bronze handlebar mustache with a stand. About four inches long.
Mustache sans stand.
A rather large cicada pendant.
This piece is about one and a half inches long and some what heavy, I can make smaller, but the weight and size were somewhat important on this guy...he's a big bronze bug.
Currently worn on a string around the neck of a coat-rack friend of mine.
So...a smidge too much bronze in the crucible on this try...it was an experiement and frankly, still pretty happy with it.
Ummm...so half a frog you say...?
a Coqui, for a friend...hope he wasn't planning on a whole frog...I know I wasn't.
A large silver tardigrade, about an inch long--that's huge for silver so you know...
An assortment of Japanified sea critter charms. Anemone, tunicate, crinoid. All a little under a half inch tall...quite a lot of detail on these folks. And I made some much smaller silver blokes too.



I had been working on a gallery show for awhile, and here are the images of some of the pieces--they have not yet found a home...umm...interesting complications with that one...but anyway... So they are still searching for a home...and may get abandoned as I must now set off against...first stop North Carolina and then...ending up mid-August in Chicago...exciting but scared shitless...

the image above is the three finished islands as of when I last photographed them...there is just a little more work needed on the unfinished large island. They are made with salvaged wood, stained and sealed for a dark, slick, wet look and the forms are done with wire mesh, sculptamold and then sand while still wet. They then receive another coat of sealant so the islands are actually touchable...they have a really interesting texture because of how the sand was sucked and fell into the wet sculptamold. All the figures are done in ceramic, with oil stains, and articulated using wire to combine their moving parts. There are 80 completed, all different, with many different forms and moving parts. Sort of a trip to make...

All the islands sitting in a...clump. Two still show their skeletons underneath.

It is I...on the dome floor, busily building more fisheaters.
A close up, there is a plant, and then a figure with a moving periscope and one with a working chain.
More little fellows...if it looks like a piece can be removed or moved...it most assuredly can...the average is four moving parts, a few with less and a few with more.
A better view of a smaller island
The project also has many little fish done in the same process for the fisheaters to eat, there is also an mountain, a puddle, some rocks, and more plants. As this show may end up shown in a damn field somewhere and photographed unsure if it will get the remaining fisheaters (23 which are already kiln-ready greenware and about 60 more planned and mapped) and two large trees with individually attached leaves...

Karate Chop Action!

As promised, my four complete articulated works ( a lot more in the process but still not fired yet, look for more articulated works in a couple weeks). Each is done with a different technique...oddly not on purpose. These have full movement and limbs are attached using wire.





Horseshoe Crab Thing--The ancient fossil crab thingy. Hollow body (sort of formed like a cup), 7 legs (three on one side and four on the other), and a tail. All done with oil staining, a bit of a difference from the original bisque pictures I posted before. It's a really nice effect on this one.





Flying Helper Bucket--Had just been zooming through the atmosphere to find some poor soul in need of a helping bucket! Now calmly resting in some branches, being...less helpful...for a change. The handle is wire and attaches the free-moving wings to the bucket figure. Underglazes with no clear coat, but still slick because of the thickness of the coats. Very cute.





Mummy Doll--Well...he's seen better days... Arms, legs, and head move. Comes with assorted wrappings so you can wrap your own mummy. These photos may need to be redone...it was very bright when I first got outside...I had to check if the flash was on because the pictures looked weird... This guy is done in washes of underglaze rubbed away for slick creases but the outside is matte. Oh and the eye is glossy. Gee kids, doesn't that sound like fun?!



Little Flower Girl--A little blond girl with a flower body and dangling feet formed from the stamens of the flower, meaning, she's made out of a male flower. She's a little tranny flower girl. Made with underglazes and then a clear coat of glaze for her happy shiny look, much more colorful and shiny than the prior images.

Stains, My Baby Has me Locked Up with Stains

That would probably kill me, those being sort of harmful and most places you lock someone up in would not have great ventilation. This is why we don't have nice things.

I used a different technique on most of these, oil paints as stains. Very messy, will probably kill me someday, but looks really cool.

I did mostly more simplistic staining on these--I mixed the colors myself usually and could add hints all over it, but...specified areas of color were quite tricky--so i reserved that for eyes for the most part, the the last piece shows just how complex I can be--the eye is just careful staining, sort of like doing a lithograph, only in a really slow, stupid, careful, hand done way.

I have four articulated characters that are not posted yet--the flower girl and horseshoe crab I showed before coloring, and two others yet unseen. These should be posted tomorrow as I didn't have time to photograph today.

The first three pieces have both parts that are glazed and some using stains. The rest are only done using stains.





So...it's a little green squat body...and a cow skull that can be worn as a face. This...makes sense.






Little Ruskie: Tiny Russian, big fuzzy hat. Could you ask for anything more...? Well you can...but it is not advised.

Vacuum for Evil Brain Ghosts: One magic vacuum, three evil alien brain ghosts. This totally makes sense. Ask L. Ron Hubbard and his followers--they agree.Vacuum--specially designed for sucking up evil alien brain ghosts.
Evil Alien Brain Ghosts...yes this story does involve a volcano--thanks for asking.




Meat Buddies! Beef Brisket, Chicken leg, and Lamb Rib. All adorable and all meat!



Interchangeable Face Stone Character--body built sort of like a flower and there are three expressions--happy, sad, angry--the basics... That can be put in and viewed through the little face opening.Angry Face stone.



Little Bull...thing...it's a bull, little feet on the bottom, big horns, built like a muppet pear...there is really no excuse for him.



Not-So Helpful, yet All too Anxious, Helper Llama--He's happy, not terribly helpful, and not terribly...llama...ey... Sort of a tough one to decipher due to his shape. The head is back, tail against the top of the head and ears against the rump. The top is open and is the happy mouth. not too certain about the staining here...possibly going to try again with stronger colors and more mottling...not certain...comments...?




Uptown Fetus, a debonair man about town--well...fetus. But he has a top hat. A stylin' freaking top hat.




Probably my most surreal character to date, no name yet or even title. Just this little guy, whose body is a sack, that wears jeans fastened with a belt. And his head is...a smidge disembodied, and flies...or hovers and is made out of moon or whatever. And he can ride it. As you can probably guess from the many photos, this is one of my favorites.

This is how the fellow travels, sitting on his flying moon face. Most of these photos were done with flash due to the setting sun.

Body, an old sack...wearing jeans...kept on with a belt.
Flying Moon Face
Face and body united at last.
Dim light--the sun was going down as I was photographing--this was the last character I got to do.