Un Paio di Cose Sconnesse

First, I have so many images to dumb that I'm STILL putting off the description of the fork spoon project.  You'll live.  Here's the wax for the fork bit.

Hurrah!  Cast and completely gross.

Had to fill some holes in it and a crack I hadn't seen in the wax, but now it's pretty and shiny, and yes,  I lined that altoid tin in fur.

Finally cast my Han Solo.  He's pretty pocky, I'm really not sure what happened, since he was cast in almost all new metal.  Also I'm half convinced his legs got thicker, even though that's impossible.

Took some lovely images of my finished dust mask so I could enter it into a book on protection and ornament.  If it gets in, I'll be published!

Finally, here be the finished eye cup tops for the arctic eyewear.  (Did I talk about that?  Probably not...)  They've gone to the silver platers today, so I get to build the rest of it blind.  

Scolpire il Legno per la Prima Volta

Carved the first wooden handle for my fork-spoon.  The silver bits are getting cast tonight, so in the next post the whole project will be explained, I swear.

I really had no idea what I was doing, so the form is all kinds of wonky and non-representative, but now I know how much depth I can achieve.

I'm going to polish this to a high finish.

evoluzione di un po 'd'argento

There's nothing so fun as melting down scrap metal into something useful!

Rolled out

Cut from sheet

and formed.  Now I've got the spoon bowl for my casting project I haven't talked about yet!

in Soggezione

  [via APOD]

Maschera Antipolvere

Completed!  Will post decent photos when I've got them.

Il Giorno Peggiore da Ieri

This is the image I've just sent to NASA's art contest.  Everything for that was due today, so this week has been absolute death for me.  The LEDs at the end of the tubes simply refuse to happen, it's driving me crazy.  My brother came to studio last night to help me with these until we gave up 'round 1am.  Today I called in two other favors- a writer for my statement, and a graphic designer to take and edit the photos.  The list of people I owe cookies/metalwork is growing quickly.

Here's how not to do SMT soldering, despite what Make, Instructables, and the rest of the internets may tell you.  These are now black and dead.  Had to rebuild them with the iron anyway.

The Metals! 10 show opened tonight, which my parents came to.  I showed them my studio and my recent projects so of course my dad wanted to see these on and take photos.  I like that everything for this piece is behind me- moon image and initial sketches.

Also, Frankie was told about this blog, which I wasn't planning on telling him about until I graduated, so here's hoping he doesn't come find it or I'll have to start all over again.

Le Cose Sono Migliorate

This was alllll parts this morning :)  Of course, my home was also being invaded by perspective renters this morning, so there's not much to say about the morning, is there?

These are for NASA.  My secret wish is that I will win the contest, get an internship, and then I will spend many years doing artistic design for NASA.  Mmmmmm, wouldn't that be fantastic?  I'd go to my highschool reunion and just rub it in everyone's face.  "Oh, you still think I'm a convicted felon and a lesbian?  NASA, bitch!"  There's a reason this is a wish....

Fallimento

This pretty much sums up my week, so here's something more interesting:

This crazy/awesome artist paints people so they look like paintings.  Awesome, finally some contemporary art that doesn't make me want to throw things and scream like a bus crazy.

[via Geekologie]

Progetto di Fusione: in Corso

Waxes, spruing, and cast parts for my dust mask project for casting.  Bottom image isn't of a finished project, just things taped together and laid out.  I'm in love with it.

Piccole Cose di Interesse

A few random shots from studio.  Honestly, I haven't done much of anything this week.  Working ridiculous overtime last week completely burned me out.

I dipped the LEDs for my second eyewear project in resin to give them a more domed shape, but unfortunately I dipped them when the resin was still too runny, so I'll have to do them again later.

I decked my eye cup shapes (which I fortunately formed weeks ago when I was bored with the deep sea ones) on Thursday, which took the entire day and ended with a melted edge.  This accidental heat patina was so beautiful/interesting I had to take a photo before pickling it away.

Decking took me so long I didn't get the insides cut out until 11.30pm, and only one of them is filed 'round the outside edge.  At least my plexi lenses fit!  One is quite snug, as you can see.

And this actually happened before all that metal whats-its, but side projects should always be of lesser importance to the main ones, even though they do keep one sane.  This is the first in a pair of fingerless gloves that will match a hat my mom knitted for me for xmas.  I'll probably have to take it all out and modify the pattern though, since these are a good deal larger than my wrist.