February's work
This month, I thought I would try my hand at making a triangular or tetrahedron composition, this simple enough idea proved to be challenging in ways I had not expected. I must admit I didn't even consider this at first, but triangles are a very loaded shape. They are used in more symbols and icons than is possible to count, so when I started doing drawings for this piece I quickly realized how difficult it was going to be to make something that did not unintentionally allude to or reference some other easily recognizable symbol or design.




Once, I settled on a design, and began working, I ran into further trouble when I was doing some secondary operations and the work slipped out of the chuck and tore a chunk out of one of the points on the main body. Above you can see where I had machined off the damage on the top point, which was not part of the original design. I was not quite sure how to approach a repair or redesign, so, discouraged I decided to set the piece aside and work on other things while I thought over how to proceed.
To clear my head a bit, I decided to pick up on a shape I had made as a test part, and see where I could go with that, that led to this 6 piece hexaptych. These are quit small, the smallest being just 1" diameter and the largest approximately 2" tall by 3 1/2" across. 

The spherical shape that is incorporated into this series was one I used as a test program when setting up my new CNC lathe. It appealed to me as something more than a test shape so I wondered about how I could do a progression of works, that would be a sort of literal evolution of that shape, each more complex than the next. I followed it to what I thought was a logical conclusion and ended up with this six piece set. I designed all of these on the fly with no preplanning so it was a good distraction to clear my head from my problem piece still sitting on my desk.

But with that now finished, I returned to the task of fixing what I had started earlier in the month. I decided it was best to just bore out the damages area and start over.
I faced off the point and drilled a hole I could insert a piece of repair stock. then machined a matching plug
I press fit it into place using a little bit of metal epoxy to make sure it never moved again
and then I set about re machining it to shape.
Machining two of the three sides
once I had finished the repair a few other modifications occurred to me that really brought the work together, the time I had taken to think had payed off a bit it seems. I added the slotted aluminum rings you see beneath the blue green disks and made the base to help fill out the design a bit. Anyway, I think I pulled it out at the end but it was a challenging piece for sure.

First work of 2012. 1 of only 3 wall mounted works I have ever made. I had the idea for the center structure of this a while back, the rest of it didn't show up inside my head until a few weeks ago.
It is assembled with a similar structure as SH633. each section is joined by a turn buckle style fastener, here you can see it is a piece of aluminum square stock with a right hand and a left hand thread machined on each end. The Bronze wheel with the square hole drives it and I tightened it all down with this hastily fashioned spanner wrench.
a partially assembled shot for scale (sharpie for reference) Enjoy.

Well, the year is coming to a close and my shop is a mess, time for a good cleaning and then a break, but first things first. I just put the finishing touches on this beauty and I couldn't be more pleased with my final effort this year. I always try to be ambitious towards years end and this year was no exception.


This work went through more variations and re-workings than any that I can remember. It was on and off the drawing board for well over a year before I started any actual work.



 And when I settled on a final design, I realized I didn't even have the proper tooling to build it. I had been planning to build a new CNC lathe for some time, but this design was the motivation I needed to actually get that piece of equipment built. If anyone is interested in seeing that entire process during the build, there is a slide show here.


So to make a long story short, I took the entire month of October off from making Sculpture in order to build my new Lathe, just so I could begin work on this piece.


Well worth the effort and now I have greatly expanded my capabilities for future work.




In other news, I was chosen to receive a "B grant" from the Baker Memorial fund, which is a Baltimore based fund that recognizes achievement in the arts for local artists. It is alway's nice to be recognized in your own home town and it is very flattering to be chosen. See you next year.

Thought I would post my newest work. I made three of these little gems and they are directly related to some of the geometry I am using in my current large project (to be completed by the end of the year).


I shot a short video
Me and a friend were playing around with video documenting some of my processes and took some footage while turning the tops of this edition. And seeing as it was from this piece, I thought I would post a link to it in case some of you were interested in seeing it. . Its not the most exciting thing you will ever see, but it is gratifying to watch the chips peel off.  Process Video Link

A commission leads to an interesting pair of works.

These are my latest creations ( There are three here). The pair you see above are a variant on the one here just below. The one below was a commission for a collector who liked my TI 524422363 so much he wanted me to dream up something with a similar organic, yet vortex-ish flavor.

 

I always welcome a challenge and rarely get to revisit an idea so soon after completion so I jumped right on the opportunity and dreamed up the work you see here above. The other two are a variation on this one, born out of my dislike of wasting good metal.

 

You see, the copper center ring for the commissioned piece (seen here above) was a bit tricky to cut, as copper always is. So I decided it would be prudent to do some test cutting in Aluminum, which is much more forgiving. It helped work out the bugs in the program and avoid any potential copper wasting mistakes. But, it left me with two aluminum blanks that were the same shape as the copper. Rather than waste them, or save them until the distant future when one day I designed something I could use them in, I thought it would be interesting to play with the idea of variants. Essentially keeping the composition and the center piece the same as the original, but redesigning and tweaking the lines on each of the other components. Rather than a conical center shape to hold all the splines, I went with a rounded shape, I revisited my treatment of the center opening and tweaked the design of the splines themselves.



Lastly, I decided I could also make the spin off pair different from each other using color. The pair are geometrically the same, But I employed different materials and anodizing to produce two very different looks. Brass verses copper on the insides, and the Blue and Orange Anodizing. I had often wondered how material selection effected the outcome of my works and this was a great chance to have a real world example. I normally run various combinations through my head as I design, It is great to be able to realize a few of them rather than just picking a single winner.



One of the benefits of anodizing over just using a colored metal is that it provides the opportunity to machine the color back off to accentuate certain geometries. In this case I was able to highlight a beautiful little detail produced by the pattern cut into the ring. A bit hard to see in the photos but if you click through to the full size image on my web page you can get a better look. Comments as usual are always welcome.

The Pollack Krasner Foundation

One other bit of good news. I was notified just a week or so ago that I have been chosen to receive a grant from the Prestigious Pollack-Krasner Foundation. The Grant is designed to give financial assistance based on both merit and financial need. This is the second time I have been awarded one of these most sought after grants, a rare honor indeed. If you are an artist struggling to make a go at establishing yourself, visit the website and see if this is a grant that might work for you. www.pkf.org