Tulip poplar thorn earrings! These have been on my wishlist for a loooong while, and Iām glad to finally see them in copper. I think Iām gonna patina them closer to their 2-tone parent colors if I can though - they lose some dimensionality and character in fresh penny pink I think. Working on jewelry is making the free time I have here in Atlanta pass more easily, and Iām really grateful to have been able to cobble together a little temporary workspace here. Itās a real sanctuary.
Also yes this is an excuse to share the incredible work of @dosxa_ who I canāt wait to work with again. š Iāve been dreaming about this tattoo for years not knowing what shape it would take or who would do it, and I could not have asked for a more generous and compassionate partner in the processing of it.
I miss you already, New Orleans!! šš
Finally got around to potting the hens and chicks I cast at Carrie last year. I wanted to clean them up a bit more first, but I fell in love with the rust hue theyāre growing so Iāll hit them with the wire wheel when theyāre ready for up-potting.
Had a blast joining @unofficial_sculpture and co for Arkansas Stateās inaugural iron pour. Couldnāt have been a smoother or more chill time, and Felix Culpa might be my new favorite furnace to slag. š Really grateful to have met all you new wonderful people! Iām so glad I got to run into so many beautiful friends, and managed to cast some more skulls I abandoned at Sloss last summer! Thanks, Andy, for making it all happen - what a treasure it is to share community through making and building like this.
The absolutely hectic 3 minute electroforming walkthrough that EVERYONE has been BEGGING me for.
Haha no but wait, itās fun i promise! Ah well. Iāve recently treated myself to a number of upgrades to my plating/forming setup, and have worked the kinks out of a few trouble spots in my process, so I thought itād be worth documenting them - I hope itās useful or informative to someone?! For me at least now Iāll have something to reference when I forget how i was doing this after forgetting again that i like doing this for half a year. š¤·āāļøš¤¦āāļø
Afternoon pseudo-raga in open C while I wait for my replacement magnetic stirrer to arrive or the world to end. This rasa keeps returning to me the past couple months - guess it suits my headspace. Toward the end you can actually see the moment where I realize how much DNA it owes to Nick Drakeās Horn, and thatāsā¦deeply, embarrassingly, affirmingly appropriate. I dunno why Iām sharing this - every time I post music on main, I feel lonelier than when I started and wanna take it back (often do), which tbh is how posting *anything* feels, only more so. But! Itās where Iām at and what Iām doing while the electroformer does its patient work (only not now without the magnetic stirrer), and I dearly miss all you metal people I only hardly know and barely half as well as Iād like. The scale of my metalwork has shrunk back to jewelry to fit the spaces Iām living in right now. I sure miss having a home. š Anyway, Iām where Iāve gotta be rn I guess. OOF. š«Øšµāš«š¤Ŗ Music AND sads on main š what am I coming to? Hopefully Iāll have some more sarcoppergusses to get out to you soon. If you want some copper acorn cap, pinecone, tulip poplar thorn, or sweetgum ball earrings, get on my radar so I can set some aside for ya.
3 part resin mold + 2 part green sand mold for the mini bucket! I did a pretty bad job documenting this, but hopefully itāll communicate this process ok. š
Besides doing the combo sands, I also learned a bunch of tricks from @meltedpennies and @gary_perk (along with a lot of heckling from Charles Logan) for doing multiple resin parts simultaneously. You can see the blue tape fins allowed me to divide and slide out the two parts from the sides to form the bucket rimās undercuts, and then a generous doofing of powder on top of them let me form the 3rd bucket-core/mold-base part all in a single run of sand.
From there, I lucked out a bit that the height of the green sand flasks were almost exactly the height of the bucketās base, so I was able to cut the gates and sprue in almost exactly like a normal 2-part mold.
It was nerve-wracking getting the green sand keys locked with the resin ones, but they went together without too much error. Aside from a few gaps on the rim that Iāll get to practice my brazing on, I think it turned out pretty well! I would definitely consider doing this again - it saved me over half the volume of the moldās worth of resin sand, so the small amount of hassle added by the green sand was certainly time well spent from a financial position.
If you try this out, lmk - Iād be interested to hear how others are doing it!
Continuing the theme of learning overly complicated mold-making techniques on garden-variety objects, hereās a miniature 5-gallon bucket in bronze šŖ£āØ
This was cast in a combination resin/green sand mold, which Iāll post about later, but which was pretty fun to do. āŗļø
Thanks to @gary_perk and @meltedpennies especially for the advice and support on this one, and many many more besides who I spent the downtime during Repair Days at the @metalmuseum working on this with (lookinā at you, RAT crew š).
With 10##10 I hope this evolves into a series of unconventional singing bowls. šŖ£š§āāļøšŖ£
The 10# #10 has been cleaned up from casting and decorating my room for weeks now. Hereās a little stroll back in the timeline of its construction. It really feels handed into the world by so many people, and reflects my growing attraction to casting and the inspiration for the piece itself. My giant bronze cup runneth over with the affection I hold for all of you, you wild animals, you exquisite beasts. May all our pleasures be so well disguised and guarded from the rapacious eyes of kings. Stay safe out in the streets today, my loves. š #nokings #yasqueens
Bet you never met a coffee can that ever sang so sweet. šš§āāļø Iāve got a lot of cleanup left to go here, but wanted to share this unexpected bonus of the project I tackled for the mold making workshop I took at FIRE: that it doubles as a singing bowl. š
I havenāt had any shop space this year to put together patterns for the pieces I had in mind for the workshop, but with the handful of free hours I did have to put something together in the Metal Museum shops I think I did well!
The garden variety #10 can is a mainstay of your life, whether you know it or not. If youāve spent time back-of-house in any kind of professional kitchen, odds are youāve cracked a ten tin or two in your day - I know I have. Much of my personal development has happened in kitchens. Making food with and for others is one of the most important anchor activities in my life.
Choosing a subject for the workshop, I was looking for something that would be a challenge, but not so precious that I would be devastated to lose the pattern or the pour. The workshopās purpose was to make sand molds for objects that probably should have been done in ceramic shell, which is to say complex enough that finding part lines on them is impractical to attempt with sand molds given sandās many limitations. The humble #10 can has a surprising number of minor details that make it the masterclass of industrial design that it is, and those details are tricky to preserve as a casting tho it might not look it - itās way too thin for casting in most metals, it has ridges and lips that form undercuts that make simple parting lines impossible, and itās so texturally and geometrically clean that imperfections really glare if you have casting issues (as you can see that I did) or arenāt diligent in getting your mold spick and span (as you can see that I did not).
Anyway holy shit you read all this? š Maybe Iāll share more on this once itās finished, but the interior inscription is a fragment of old repurposed poetry - a toast I wrote to building Family. In both the context of its making and the vessel that now raises it, I feel that I have. Thanks for joining me. š Togetherness! š» *BINGGG* š
My criteria for this were:
1. Full coverage front and back
2. On and off in 30 seconds
3. Be obnoxiously cute and/or anachronistic but faultlessly functional
4. Use my first leather apron from when I started metalworking
Iām blown away by how well it came together - I was really worried about material bunching or binding, but it sits so comfortably and moves so easily, Iām thrilled with it.
This has been a great way to stay centered in the middle of a very hectic time going on here while Iām staying with my mom in Atlanta dealing with Big Family Stuff. Iām looking forward to field testing it at FIRE at the Metal Museum in Memphis next week!! HOPE TO SEE SO MANY OF YOU BOOGERS THERE. āØāØāØš„š„š„
