JPHii Design: John Harris

New Content and New News!

2012-01-03T20:37:00.000-08:00

Several pictures of new pieces have been put up on the Previous Conceptual Metalwork page. So check those out!

Also, JPHii is happy to announce the release of the first JPHii Book!

The book is called The True Survivors, and is written by John Harris, owner of JPHii Design. The book is a fictional ethnography about the Lamellain culture, which was created based on John's previous metalwork and designs.

The book has an expected release of March, 2012 and will line up with an exhibition featuring the metalwork that has become part of the book.

The book will feature images and drawing of different pieces, and the amazing fashion/design company Lip Service is supplying a large selection of outfits, clothing, and accessories to be featured in the photographs! Be sure to keep an eye out for more information on the book, the exhibition, and new pieces related to them!

Also, be sure to check out Lip Service, and thank them for their support of the arts!

See you space cowboy...

Stock Up!

2011-12-01T23:52:00.001-08:00

With the upcoming Buffalo State College Student Sale, I am announcing that JPHii Design will be releasing a brand new line of designs! December 7 and 8 at the Czurles-Nelson Gallery in Upton Hall at Buffalo State College, the Define Refine line will see its first sale! I have updated my Previous Work: Production Page with pictures of some of the Define Refine designs. So check them out!

See you space cowboy...

JPHii Design Partners with the Horror Experts!

2011-10-12T20:52:00.000-07:00

For this Halloween season, JPHii Design is doing a contest along with the horror experts at Frightworld: America's Screampark in Buffalo, NY. All you have to do to win one of the 5 custom Frightworld Cymbal Pendants is post a review on Facebook of your favorite Frightworld house! Head over to facebook.com/Frightworld to enter the contest!

See you space cowboy...

Big Contest

2011-10-03T22:44:00.000-07:00

JPHii Design in conjunction with Frightworld: America's Screampark is doing a big contest this Halloween season!

I decided to give the avid JPHii fans a sneak-peak at the prizes!

There are five Frightworld JPHii Pendants that will be given out as contest prizes. Each is inspired by a different one of Frightworld's five 2011 haunted houses!

Contest details coming soon!

See you space cowboy...

Took Some Time...

2011-09-13T20:34:00.001-07:00

Well, as everyone can see I have not posted to the Blog in a bit. But with the return of Halloween comes the return of regular posts! So be ready for news, pictures, and more!

See you space cowboy...

Lip Service Magazine Article

2011-05-25T17:32:00.000-07:00

Lip Service did a feature article on my jewelry and metalwork.

Give it a look!

See you space cowboy...

Updated Blog Content

2011-05-22T13:38:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to updating the content on my blog. I post to it regularly, I just haven't changed the things like the links on the side for a while, so I did that. So feel free to check it out here.

Also, this would be a good time to tell everyone to go "like" JPHii Design on Facebook. It gives you a chance to get quick updates and coupon codes for the JPHii Etsy Store.

See you space cowboy...

In The Press

2011-05-22T01:04:00.000-07:00

Well there were a couple of great write-ups and mentions of the Slime City Double Feature benefit back on May 9 where JPHii design was mentioned by name, but I haven't had a chance until now to share them. So here's two of them:

This is a blog entry by Jen Heppel, the mother of Ben Heppel who is the 8 year old boy that the benefit was for.

"Back to Roswell this am for a spinal and chemo. Ben is in great spirits this morning and is having lots of fun goofing around with the nurses and docs. Such a goofball!

Went to the Slime City/Slime City Massacre double feature last night. Had a fantastic time. Can't thank Greg Lamberson enough for putting together the double feature. The entertainment valu for Tom and I last night was priceless. Enjoyed myself far beyond my expectations of watching the fim through my fingers! The people there were all amazing as well. Fantastic raffle of a variety of treats, bookd, movies, etc. Who knew that kind-hearted and "horror" go hand in hand!

Ben even got a special piece of jewelery designed and given to him by John Harris, a pharoah symbol, which funny enough Ben recognized right away from an epidsode of Scooby Doo! He loves his new charm!

The film Slime City was made in the late 80's and the follow up film Slime City massacre is being released today. We will be in line for our copy! Want to be able to show Ben...someday when he is a bit older :)"

This next write-up is a small portion of an online horror publication called The Bloodsprayer and can be found at Bloodsprayer.com:

"Following SLIME CITY Greg held the “Non-Horror Raffle,” giving away items such as a signed Buffalo Bills lithograph, gift baskets for massages and “chocolate facials,” (we all snickered too) etc. One of the high points of the night was during the Non-Horror Raffle, as Greg raffled a one of a kind piece of jewelry, a pendant made from a recycled drumkit cymbal by John Harris of JPHii Jewelry, bearing the SCM title. John also made a singular piece for Benjamin in the image of an Egyptian Ankh, which he presented to Benjamin’s parents for him. It was a really touching moment, and the whole audience was silent as the grave for it."

So there you have it, some great mentions there.

See you space cowboy...

Alloys and Ankhs

2011-05-18T23:48:00.000-07:00

So I have been playing with alloys lately. With my playing has been a load of research and math, but I decided to cast a single piece in every alloy. Here they are: The Alloyed Ankhs!

Because of what this symbol means to me, each alloy is an individual piece. The reason that I originally designed and created this piece was because I never felt as if I belonged in any group. Throughout my life, I struggled with social settings and situations. However, I found one place where I fit in and where I mattered: Frightworld. Frightworld became my home, and my co-workers my family. I designed this piece to give to people close to me at Frightworld. They were cast from brass and given to people that I greatly respected. I then cast multiples in Sterling Silver to share with the rest of the world, and make everyone my family. This piece is actually so important to me that I had it affixed to my body in a tattoo.

So the pieces are all given a name based on the alloy. These are the names from left to right of the picture above.

The Steampunk Pharaoh's Ankh (Sterling Silver), The Frightworld Pharaoh's Ankh (Jeweler's Brass), The True Pharaoh's Ankh (Custom Brass Alloy), The One Pharaoh's Ankh (Shibu-Ichi), The Divine Pharaoh's Ankh (Tumbaga). The reason that Jeweler's brass was used for the ones given out was purely because brass reflected the Egyptian gold the most. The custom brass alloy, the Shibu-Ichi, and the Tumbaga were all mixed and poured by me.

See you space cowboy...

Experiments of an Alchemist (Kind of)

2011-05-17T00:44:00.000-07:00

So I decided to play with some things that I haven't, and many people haven't, played with before: Alloys. There are many common alloys out there, but I came across one that peaked my interest. As many people know, I am not only a jeweler, but I am also an Anthropologist working on my BA in Anthropology with a focus on Cultural Anthropology. In some research that I was doing for my class on Mesoamerican Archaeology, I came across an alloy called Tumbaga. Tumbaga does not have many set standards for it, but is an interesting alloy because it essentially fire scales with gold coming to the surface. In fact, the gold is so strong in the alloy that the Spaniards confused it for solid gold upon its discovery in Central America.

In some journals written by early explorers, I came across the magic numbers of 5:15:80. That is, 5% gold, 15% silver, 80% copper. So I decided to figure this out for myself.

Here is an image of the math that I sat down and figured out to make the Tumbaga using scrap gold and sterling silver into the mix. This math accounts for the varying qualities of gold, as well as the dillusion of gold using silver and copper.

So those of you who don't care so much about this topic, I recommend that you turn away now. Because this will get long and drawn-out. But feel free to stick around as I explain why I used the math that I did.

First and foremost, I weighed out my gold in grains.

18k:10grn
14k:70grn
10k:8grn

From there, i figured out the perecentage of gold in each part of alloy. I did this by using the standard of 18/24, 14/25, and 10/24. This means that 18k is 75% gold, 14k is 58% gold, and 10k is 41% gold. These alloys are cut using silver and copper, meaning that in 18k, 12.5% is copper and 12.5% is silver. This division of remaining percentages was also used on the other alloys to figure out those contents.

So then I figured out just how much of each metal I actually had.

.75 x 10 = 7.5grn gold (1.25grn copper, 1.25grn silver)
.58 x 70 = 40.6grn gold (14.7grn copper, 14.7grn silver)
.41 x 8 = 3.3grn gold (2.333grn copper, 2.333grn silver)

7.5 + 40.6 + 3.3 = 51.4grn gold

The total amount of gold that I had was 51.4grn, meaning that 5% of the total alloy was 51.4grn. So to figure out the necissary amounts of the other metals, I used 5% (using a root 20, essentially, which is ironically the root of Maya calculations), to figure it all out.

51.4 x 1 = 51.4grn gold
51.4 x 3 = 154.2grn silver
51.4 x 16 = 822.4grn copper

Now, that's how much metal is needed. However, because of the varying qualities of gold, there is already a base amount of copper and silver. So add those base amounts up.

1.25 + 14.7 + 2.3 = 18.25grn silver, 18.25grn copper

Then subtract those base amounts from the total metal required.

154.2 - 18.25 = 136grn silver
822.4 - 18.25 = 804grn copper

So the total of metals necissary is:

51.4grn gold
136grn silver
804grn copper

Add those up to find out the total amount of alloy available.

991grn of Tumbaga.
991/24 = 41dwt 7grn = 2ozt 1dwt 7grn

The other major issue that I came across was the issue of specific gravity. There is no standard for the specific gravity of Tumbaga. So I worked for hours on trying to figure this number out. Here's how I did it. Now, I don't know for sure that this will work. But I will find out.

Specific gravities:

Gold: 19.3
Silver: 10.4
Copper: 8.9

I took these numbers, and applied them to the alloy in relative proportion of the metals. I did this again by using a base root of 20 (based off of the 5% gold).

19.3 x 1 = 19.3
10.4 x 3 = 31.2
8.9 x 16 = 142.4

Add them up
19.3 + 31.2 + 142.4 = 192.9

Divide that by the root of 20
192.9 / 20 = 9.65

It appears that 9.65 is the specific gravity of Tumbaga, if this math is even remotely applicable. I guess we'll find out!

See you space cowboy...

Blue October

2011-05-14T04:49:00.000-07:00

So this past Wednesday, we went and saw one of my all-time favorite bands in a small venue in Rochester called the Water Street Music Hall. It was an amazing show. Nice and intimate.

Here's some pictures:

It really was an amazing set, and they played songs that I did not expect. They opened with Ugly Side, which is an awesome song. But they also played Come In Closer, X Amount of Words, and The End, which are songs that I did not expect to hear but was super happy to hear them. Especially X Amount of Words.

Definately check this band out if you get a chance. Look them up online, go to a show, whatever it takes. Their newest album, Approaching Normal, is an amazing album but I first heard them with their album Foiled, so I really highly-recommend that one.

See you space cowboy...

Charity Time!

2011-05-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

Wow. Well the world has needed some help lately! Yesterday was the Bijutsu sale at Buffalo State College. I'll tell you, I went to help set up the sale and was astonished and awed by the amount of artwork that was donated. The sale lasted several hours, and resulted in a total of about $7000 for the Japan Relief Fund. 100% of that is going straight to the fund, so Buffalo made a difference this week! I'd like to thank Sumiyo Roland and Megan Cosgrove for their tireless work on the event, and I'd like to thank all of the artists and patrons that made the sale a huge success.

The next charity that I am involved with is the Slime City Double Feature benefit this coming Monday (May 9) at the Dipson Theatres Market Arcade Film & Art Center (639 Main St. Buffalo Corners, NY). I really encourage everyone to come and support this cause which will help Benjamin Heppel, a local 8 year old boy with lukemia. There will be give-aways, raffles, and a back-to-back viewing of Slime City and Slime City Massacre. These are two amazing horror movies, both filmed right here in Buffalo.

One of the prizes that you can win at this event is a custom, one-of-a-kind Slime City pendant from my A Cymbal as a Symbol series. I enjoyed making this piece, and I can't wait to see who gets it! Here's two pictures of it.

It will be on a genuine leather cord.

So come support some great causes and get some great artwork!

See you space cowboy...

100th Blog Post!

2011-05-05T20:40:00.001-07:00

Well, this is the 100th blog post that I've done on this blog. So for this one, I will cover some up coming information!

On May 4, (Yesterday), a large collection of my work (which includes the Myconocle: The Eye of Psilocyborg, The Amazing Extending Body Poker, The Lost Archaeologist's Amazing Digging Device, the Mechanical Eye of Aman-Ra, and the Frightworld Pharaoh's Ankh) are being photographed in LA and in Death Valley, CA for a spread in Lip Service Magazine. The article is on the top Steampunk designers in the world. I feel privelaged to be among that category.

On May 6, a charity event called Bijutsu is going on. It is being organized by Megan Cosgrove, Sumiyo Roland, Sunhwa Kim, and Bob Wood and will feature a large amount of artists and designers that have donated work to sell in an attempt to raise money for the Japan Relief Fund through the Red Cross. At this event I will be revealing and selling a new line of jewelry that is only for charity. It's called A Cymbal as a Symbol and is based on my previous cymbal pendants.

On May 9, I am involved with yet another charity for a young boy with lukemia. This event is taking place at the Dipson Theatres Market Arcade Film and Art Center on Main Street in Buffalo. This event is going to be fun because it is a double-feature of two locally-made horror films called Slime City and Slime City Massacre. I am good friends with one of the special effects designers for these movies, so I was excited to get involved. For this event, I am donating a custom Slime City A Cymbal as a Symbol pendant to be auctioned off.

On May 13-15 I have a weekend full of photo shoots for Rio Grande in order to show the new Steampunk Components line that they recently released and had me test and review. Modeling my work (which is essentially the collection that Lip Service is shooting plus a few extras) will be two fellow designers. Furniture Designer Eric Rose and Jewelry Designer Natasha Horeth will be modeling for this shoot.

Tonight I also updated JPHii.com to include a feed to my new Etsy shop! The site also now has a link to the Etsy at the bottom, as well as an updated contact page and some new pictures. So things have been crazy!

See you space cowboy....

Website Update

2011-04-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

I recently updated JPHii.com. There's is now a page where I will be adding images of exhibitions and special events. So keep an eye on it. There's also images of new work, as well as new accomplishments added.

See you space cowboy...

New Piece

2011-04-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

I've been very busy lately, but I decided to make a new piece with some very heavy cultural reference. One of my recent pieces (the most recent) is called The Lamellain Barb and Thread of Autosacrifice. This piece is modelled after the needle and barbed thread used by the Maya in autosacrifices of bloodletting where the spine and thread were pierced through the tongue, forskin, or labia of a person. The thread or paper on the ground would collect blood. In some cases, the thread or paper was burned. In some cases, the blood would fall or or be applied to corn which was then used to bake sacred breads. This piece is made of copper, brass, leather. and hemp.

Dark? Yes. Creepy? Yes. Just my style? You bet ya!

See you space cowboy...

Another Happy Customer!

2011-03-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

I recieved an email the other day from a happy client. At the time, I was pretty tired from working overtime on production pieces for the upcoming sales. My morale and motivation was low, and this message really picked me up and allowed me to get that extra umph into my step and finish what I had set out to accomplish. So here is the message:

"Cheers on the tattoo. just for the record, since you went ahead and got the tattoo,I figure I should let you know that the necklace you gave me is one of maybe half a dozen pieces in my life I have totally fallen in love with and almost never take off. not because of some weird obsession with you, the artist, cause really I don't do that. just because the piece really strikes a chord with me on a number of levels. it's perfectly appropriate for the here and now and i totally ♥ it."

She also sent me a picture of the pieces that she is talking about, which is The Steampunk Pharaoh's Ankh. This is an image of her wearing it.

The tattoo that she is referring to in the message is the tattoo that I recently had done of the Steampunk Pharaoh's Ankh. This is a picture of that:

So anyway, we get little victories where we can. Take those victories and use them as fuel, because if you're doing it right, you'll need all the fuel you can get!

See you space cowboy...

Site Updates

2011-03-07T21:50:00.000-08:00

So there's a lot of new content and features on the site.

To start off, the image gallery has now been split into two separate galleries. A Conceptual Metalwork gallery and a Production Metalwork gallery. Both can be found through the Home page, and every other page, of JPHii.com. With the splitting of the galleries, there is also now a third gallery of Videos that can be accessed through the image galleries. You can also choose your media player on the Video gallery.

See you space cowboy...

SIAM Postcards

2011-03-06T22:22:00.001-08:00

We (The officers of SIAM) have officially finished and put the order in for the first of two official SIAM postcards of 2010! SO we will now release the images to the masses!
(Front)

(Back)

So congrats to Vincent Pontillo for having both a piece and a photo credit on this postcard, as well as Aric Verrastro for his postcard debut. Also, I feel like an egomaniac congratulating myself here, but congrats to me for having a photo of my piece on the back of the card as well as designing the post card!

Oh yeah, and congratulations to Simon Frysz for being the only model on the post card.

Expect to see these within the next week in person!

See you space cowboy...

Design Student Exhibition

2011-03-06T21:45:00.000-08:00

The design student exhibition is up at Upton Hall on the Buffalo State College campus where a few of my pieces can be seen! Here's some images of the jewelry in the gallery.

The Amazing Extending Body Poker and Myconocle: The Eye of Psilocyborg

Dance for Me, Mycomistress and The Steak Knife of the Steampunk Serial Killer

Here's the two name plates.

See you space cowboy...

Updates

2011-03-06T21:44:00.000-08:00

The site jphii.com is now fully updated!

New images are up, as well as a newly-formatted photo gallery, and a new page specifically for production pieces!

The Achievements page is also completely updated. So have a look around!

See you space cowboy...

Updates

2011-03-06T13:03:00.001-08:00

I will be updating my site today with all new content. So please be patient when trying to view it. This will likely take me all day. Thank you.

See you space cowboy...

Need for Updates

2011-02-15T19:44:00.000-08:00

I really need to update my webpage. So just for everyone out there, the image gallery will be updated this week with all new images, as well as new videos.

Keep an eye on www.jphii.com for more.

See you space cowboy....

Production Work

2011-02-15T19:03:00.000-08:00

Well, as many of you may know, I've been working on some production pieces for the past couple of weeks. Well, they've been a huge success! Not only are they selling faster than I can make them, but I'm oddly entertained by the variables that can be utilized in these pieces.

Here's pictures of some of the pieces:

So those are a bunch of the production pieces. Most of those are sold.

And that's a happy customer!

See you space cowboy....

Change in Plans

2011-01-06T14:01:00.000-08:00

Well, because of this crazy a-typical pneumonia, I will not be working on the Emerald Ripper for the Blizzard competition. I need to give myself a little more time to heal.

However, I will have a load of new pieces and designs coming soon. So stay tuned!

See you space cowboy....

New Year = New Projects

2010-12-28T01:12:00.000-08:00

With the encroaching new year, I have started planning and designing my next piece. This piece, however, is very different than anything I've worked on in the past. How so? Well, generally my pieces come from a concept and are developed around that concept...This piece is not. However, it will be more challenging than my previous pieces because it's not my standard method of working.

The company "Blizzard Entertainment" is doing a contest called Epic Weapon Replication. In this contest, artists pick a weapon in one of their games and make a real-life version of it. I have picked one called The Emerald Ripper.

I will be fabricating the handle and other metal parts from brass, and the blade (which is made from a solid emerald in the game) will be cast from resin.

This piece will be insanely challenging, but I think it will be entertaining to work on. Artists have a mere 2 weeks to complete it from January 1 to January 14. The time constraint is tough, but doable.

Wish me luck!

See you space cowboy....

Progress and Prizes

2010-12-15T19:57:00.000-08:00

Well, here's another piece that I've been working on. This piece was made for the same Furniture Design class as the altar was made for. THe assignment was to make a serving tray, a clock, or a toy. While my Steampunk desires were shouting "DO A CLOCK!," I chose to make a toy. More specifically, a marionette. In the following photos, the controller above the puppet is not attached.

The body is carved from a block of soft maple. I used several different tools, but it all came down to hand working the wood. The left arm of the puppet is chased and repoussed copper, and the hand is fabricated brass. The legs as well as the crotch are brass and copper tubing and rod. The right eye is brass and copper, and the head is hand-carved soft maple.

More pictures will be coming soon. But I want people to toss me some name ideas for this piece. For some reason, I think Kenny will come up with something good, but I welcome all ideas. If you come up with something really cool, I will send you a prize! A piece of jewelry! Woohoo!

I will be honest: Pat is ahead right now with Avius. But naming this pieces doesn't have to be a name, it can be a phrase. So be creative! I'm tagging everyone I have the patience for tagging.

There will also be a whole slew of new pictures coming very soon.

See you space cowboy.....

More Progress: Combining Two Disciplines

2010-12-12T21:19:00.000-08:00

Well I've been working very hard on my new project. And today, I finished it! It is called "The Altar of the Oracle: Cleansing." It is an altar made from numerous types of wood, but primarily maple. It also features a massive amount of metal work. The interesting part about the metak work is the fact that a good chunck of it is functional and somewhat hidden.

Of course, to start explaining this piece, I should explain why I made it. It started as an assignment for my furniture design class where we had to choose an object and base a table design on said object. The object that I picked was a wooden incense burner. Oddly enough, the incense burner is not part of the finished table, though it was the influence for it. The idea for the design came from Aztec temples, which are very modular and geometric. Generally, I avoid geometric shapes, but I felt that when addressing the topic of religion, geometry and predictability worked well conceptually. The design of the altar evolved in a large way from its original design, but art is living.

Here is a picture of the altar after the wood was cut, glued, and sanded.

As you can see, there is a kneeler in front of the altar. The altar itself is only about 3" tall total. The back of the altar resemples an Aztec temple quite literally.

Here it is after staining it with red mahogony. I chose this color because it was the same stain that was used for the woodwork in my childhood church of St. Matthew's in Syracuse.

As you can see, there are holes in the center of the table. So I suppose this would be a great opportunity to further explain why this altar is a little bit special.

Those holes serve as a plumbing connection. For what? Good question. For the fountain that had to be installed into the table. Since I pictured this table as a cleansing space, I wanted to play into this idea of ceremonial cleansing and preparation. In the center of the table, I decided to place a brass bowl. One that I sunk and raised by hand. Coming from the back of the altar, there would be a flow of water into the bowl. This played off of the common religious concept of purity and renewel.

This is an image of the brass bowl and the faucet. Though we metalsmiths are trained well in clean-up of work, I opted into keeping, and in some cases forcing, the fire scale on the brass to pull a more aged look out of the metal.

But how would a person make this work? Well, I started out by gutting a small decorative fountain for its water pump. I then fabricated the housings for all of the components that would be used to run the fountain.

Here is an image of the pump motor housing. It has a water output line as well as a power output line.

This is an image of the power housing. It holds 4 AA batteries and has a power switch on it.

This is an image of the forward resevoir which is attached to the main water line. The resevoir attaches to the base of the bowl, and the water line goes back to the pump housing.

This piece was fabricated from brass and installed under the altar. Though it serves no similar function, the design is derived from that of an exhaust pipe.

This is the altar completely assembled. Test runs were successful.

What other tricks are on this table? Well, 4 AA batteries is more power than the pump needed. It's also used to power a white LED in the base of the bowl which lights up the surface of the water, giving it a seemingly holy glow.

So I guess it was a successful semester!

See you space cowboy....

Production Work and the Variations

2010-12-04T21:04:00.000-08:00

Well I've been working on production work for the annual student sale. I have a few different pieces for sale, and I am now beginning to work on some special variations of some of the pieces. So here's some pictures.

This is a picture of my basic line for the sale. Just the pieces as-as. All cast in sterling silver.

Now here is one of the basic post Gearrings. Sterling Silver gears on a sterling post. These were adjusted to make a specialty variation on the same design.

The specialty design is called "Tick-Tock #1," and is a one-of-a-kind pair made of sterling silver and brass. More variations will be in the make this week. The only way to get a hold of one of these specialty pairs is to go to the student sale this upcoming week. So show up!

See you space cowboy....

Production Work

2010-11-10T11:13:00.000-08:00

I haven't really posted much lately about things that I have been working on. I have been working on more than just production work, but these are a big part of what I've been up to.

These are some earrings that I have been producing for a bit now, but they've gone into further production.

This is a new piece. It's a Steampunk leaf pendant, which is a motif I have enjoyed greatly recently.

This is also a new piece, though some people have seen it already since I am currently wearing one in silver. I made this in honor of my final season at Frightworld as the manager of Return of the Mummy's curse. I gave a couple of them out to people, but I'm considering offering it for sale. I have yet to decide on it, though.

There will be more pictures soon of other work that I have been doing, but production stuff is important around holiday time.

See you space cowboy....

Reference Material

2010-09-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

Well since no one in the Junior/Senior class seems to understand my topic, I decided to post some reference material here for you all to see.

Let me re-explain the concept. Read the whole thing. Seriously. Interuptions cause stupid statements.

The concept behind my theme for the semester is to create a dialogue between the viewer and the pieces. And by dialogue, I don't mean question and answer. Question: Is this functional? Answer: No. That is not a dialogue. That is a question and an answer. I intend to invoke all forms of questions through these tools that can't actually be answered, much like questions often posed by Anthropologists. The viewer can make a guess, but will never know for sure. I plan on creating a series of Anthropological tools that carry the basic form and appearance of functioning tools. However, the location of decoration and intensity of these decorations will cause the viewer to ask: What was this used for? Who used it and who was it meant for? Why was it made and done so in such an ornate fashion? A dialogue will be created through the use of our culture's concept on material value meaning that, at least to Western cultures, objects covered with time-consuming decoration are generally revered and reserved for particular uses. Think about it...Put yourselves in the shoes of an Archaeologist. You just dug up a hammer, much like yours, and a trowel, much like yours. The hammer has finely-detailed decoration on the head and chisel ends, and the trowel has decoration all over the face of the blade. Why would an Archaelogist create such an object? Was it really used? For what? This is my intent.

So here's some references.

A tripod pulley. I would like to make one that is hand cranked with fairly thin legs to particularly bring up the question of what it was used for.

Two different types of trowels. The marshalltown trowel and the planes trowel. I may combine the idea of a planes trowel with the idea of a scoop. I'll burn that trowel when I get there.

This is a sifter and it is the piece that particularly shows the purpose and meaning of this series. Trowels, hammers, and brushes can be used in many contexts. However, those tools (when combines with a sifter) specifically point at an Archaeological use of some kind.

Brush. Duh.

So there you go. It's not everything, but it's a start. Essentially, I'm playing a small trick using archaeology. Kind of a fractal idea, I suppose. An Archaeologist digging up the tools of an Archaeologist who was possibly digging up the tools of an archaeologist. Just somehow, these Archaeologists have questionable tools. Were Archaeologists prized to their culture? Were they ever used? Were they only used for royalty? Were Archaeologists royalty?

If you've read this, you'll see that the concept seems different than that described in class. It is not. It is the same concept and it would have been described and portrayed much better had my thoughts been allowed to be finished and had my sentences gone un-interupted. So, yeah....Good critique!

See you space cowboy....

New Idea

2010-09-26T22:33:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking of, rather than the current theme I have chosen, working on a new one that I feel will better expand my portfolio. I'm thinking about making a collection of Anthropological tools. I have already created one in the past which I call "The Body Poker" (photo coming soon). Recently, I was commissioned to make one for another Anthropologist, and I think it would be interesting to delve into this concept even further. I would like to make a collection of trowels, measuring devices, dirt sifters, bone pokers, pens, and maybe magnifying glasses. I would like to do this as I go, not necissarily one piece per assignment in class, but more or less make as many as I can think of and display what I have at critique.

See you space cowboy....

Metals Meets Horror

2010-09-25T00:49:00.000-07:00

Here's another mask under development at Frightworld: America's Screampark. The mask itself (like all of the masks at Frightworld) has been a great example of team effort. It was designed and created by Arick Szymecki, Andrew Lavin, and myself. When it comes to this particular mask, I really just did the metalwork on the back of it, and a little bit of touch-up coloring and washes.

Here's a picture of the metal buckles used for the mask.

When I originally made the brass buckles for the mask, they seemed far too pretty for a mask worn by a serial killer. I rebuilt them without my usual attention of detail, craftsmanship, and overall clean-up. I allowed firescale to build up, and when it wasn't enough, I re-torched the metal to get more. I used coarse files and sandpaper to mess up the surfaces, and went back in with Silvaloy solder to make globs on the metal. I then used an amonia wrap to patina the firescale on the blue/green side.

This is the mask that received the buckles.

Since the mask has a bit of a green hue, thanks to Andrew Lavin's paint job, and a brown/yellow hue, thanks to Arick Szymecki, the brass with a patina blends nicely. The nice thing about the patina is that it makes sense with the character of the mask. This mask is thought the be the mask of a basement-dwelling, canibalistic serial killer that basically lives in a stew of human remains. The patina itself is done with amonia, but can also be achieved through humanly fluids such as urine. Really, technique met theory and story in a way that is so subtle that it will likely remain unnoticed by guests. It is, however, a small detail that I can take pride in when addressing accuracy and thought.

See you space cowboy....

Painting isn't THAT hard....

2010-09-11T01:37:00.000-07:00

So I decided that I'd post a process update from work. For those of you that don't remember (or didn't know), I'm a designer at Frightworld: America's Screampark. We're actually rated as one of the top haunted houses in the country. In our building, we have 5 haunted houses, so it takes a lot of work to design them, build them, design and create costumes and characters, then hire the massive amount of employees to work there. Well, I've been working on a mask for one of our senior actors and I decided to release a bit of a teaser for this season.

Some of you already saw this mask when I worked on it in the studio. But here's another image of what you saw:

Well, it was my task to further detail this mask. So I did. I may be a 3D artist working in a tough medium like metal, but appearently painting isn't out of my grasp.

Here's a close-up of some of the detailed painting.

There you have it.

See you space cowboy....

Mask: Completed

2010-07-19T15:01:00.000-07:00

Well the leather mask is done! Leather, copper, and fine silver. I still need to take good pictures of it, but I have some from my cell phone.

There you go. Good pictures coming soon.

See you space cowboy....

Production Line: Steampunk Bracelet

2010-07-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

I started working on my first leather and metal bracelet for my Steampunk production line to be introduced for the first time at Dorian's Parlor in Philly on August 21. So here's some process shots of the leather working that I'm doing. It's called Wet Press Embossing in the leather industry.

Here's the design as I designed it on my computer.

These are two designs once printed on PNP Paper for etching the embossing plates. The white in the image will etch, the black will not.

I applied the PNP Paper with the design onto a sheet of copper.

I etched the design for about 3 hours in Ferric Chloride for a deep cut.

The receded areas will be where the leather it thickest.

I did a special conditioning process to the leather, then pressed it under lots of pressure for 6 hours. I just used plywood, acrylic, and C-Clamps for the pressing.

The leather came out pretty well. The discoloring comes from the clamped areas, and goes away with time.

The circle in the center will have a metal component in it. There will also possiblky be decorative riveting after I cut the cuff out.

I will take more pictures when the metal work is finished, but I still have to mold it and cast it.

See you space cowboy....

More Done on the Mask

2010-06-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

I finished the eye for the mask. I've gone through many designs, and actually fabricated three different eyes for this mask. But I think I finally found the one that I like. It still features the partial filigree lense and the filigree climbing the eye. However, now it repeats the copper tubes that appear on the forehead.

I anticipate completion within the next week or so. I need to take a few days off since we're moving this weekend, so hopefully I can finish it in its entirety tomorrow.

See you space cowboy....

What's Left?

2010-06-19T23:41:00.000-07:00

Well, there's not way too much left on the leather mask. After learning and getting comfortable with filigree, the rest is all a breeze.

But there's some basic fabrication left.

Here are some sketches of the eye. There's three

The eye will have a hollow-formed piece coming off of it. Actually, the hollow form is built. It's just not on yet. As seen in the two smaller sketches, the filigree will climb, like the vines it resembles, from the eye to the external portion.

Here's a close-up:

As can be seen in the close-up, there is really no lense to this piece. The filigree covers the viewing area, causing a filigree screen. I'm trying to go reasonably traditional as far as technique goes on this piece, so acrylic or resin lenses won't really do.

The filigree will also climb on the inside of the eye.

Now, a HUGE problem I have whenever I work on a mask is the method of adornment. It seems that I always just assume that straps will be used, but that's not necissarily the case. Since this piece was designed based on Cirque du Soleil masks, I decided to go with a masquerade technique and use a handle. Much like The Contemporary Shaman Mask of the Healer. However, this time around it will transition much better with the mask and the concept of the piece. Take a look.

Like the forehead of the mask, three tubes will extend from the right side of the mask (I am a righty, after all) and lead to a larger copper tube. The connections will look very industrial, as is the purpose of the copper in the mask. Going down the handle, there will be filigree climbing. It will then extend into the mask. There's some other ideas that I'm tossing around, but I don't really know. I was thinking of using a chain to connect a bracelet to the handle. The bracelet would clasp on the wearer, and would incorporate both the copper and the filigree.

This piece in idea and design has greatly evolved. I decided to change the perspective name (like I usually do half a dozen times) and call it the Contemporary Shaman Mask of the Apocolypse. What I find interesting is that, from the side, the mask is starting to look like an industrial landscape that has been taken over by silver vines. I'm running with that.

See you space cowboy....

Progress on the Mask

2010-06-18T23:09:00.000-07:00

Well I've been working very hard on the leather mask. The hardest part has been the fine silver filigree. Yes, filigree. True filigree, too. No solder here! So here's some pictures from the past few days of work. Please keep something in mind when viewing these photos: The leather is not fully finished, and neither is ANY of the metal. Polishing, sanding, shining, and patinas still need to be applied.

Day 1:
This is the first day of work on the mask. I formed the leather using an old European traditional method (I may go into that in a later post...Or I may be greedy and keep it a secret. Who knows?)

Day 2:

This is day two of the work on the mask. I started working on the fine silver filigree, and figuring out its connections to the mask. The filigree is held on by fine silver nuts and bolts that go through part of the filigree. It just takes a little planning ahead.

Day 3:
This is the third day of work. I added some more filigree and applied some copper tubing with filigree on it for the purpose of the industrial vs natural message of the mask.

Day 4:
On day four of the work on this mask, I attacked the cyborg eye. This has been the part I have been fearing the most. Soldering filigree to small copper tubes is fairly simple, but large pieces of copper with overflowing filigree is a different animal all together.

After a several hour nap, I then went back to work, with more filigree coming off of the eye to the top. More filigree will be done within the next day or two around the eye.

See you space cowboy....

New Memento Mori Maximum Pictures

2010-06-15T23:50:00.000-07:00

I took some new pictures of Memento Mori Maximum. The dark shots came out really well.

Here it is in normal lighting.

Here's three pictures of the crystals lit up. The far right and farm left pictures are during color changes. The center is an interesting one. I extended the exposure to about 6 seconds on the camera, causing all of the colors throughout the changes to combine to make a white-ish light. It definately does the chlorine crystals justice.

See you space cowboy....

Mask Making is Mask Making

2010-06-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

Today I started and finished working on the leather for my first leather Steampunk mask. This one is a doozey! What I find amusing is the fact that no matter what the medium, mask making is mask making. A lot of the techniques that I learned and picked up from Arick Syzmecki and Andy Lavin translate directly into traditional leather mask-making. It's so similiar to so many things that I've seen those two do. The other thing that I find amazing is how much leather works like copper. That gave me a huge leg-up.

Here's the leather portion of the mask done. It took about 12 hours to complete this part.

There will be metalwork all over the mask. The two metals I'm using (always 2 tones) are copper and fine silver. And as usual, my masks make a societal statement. In this mask, the statement is in the choice of metal primarily, but is carried through the entire piece. Fine silver naturally maintains its shine, never gaining the natural patina put on by weather and human hands. Meanwhile, copper patinas very quickly. The metalwork will be similar to previous masks, having a cyborg eye and tubing on the forehead. What is the statement? If the copper is man, then the silver is what man has created. Much like the mask as a whole, the silver's appearance will outlast the appearance of the copper. In the big picture, the metallic cyborg components will outlive the organic leather human components. It is a statement of time, thus it will be titled The Contemporary Shaman Mask of the Eternal.

See you space cowboy....

Memento Mori Maximum

2010-06-11T22:19:00.000-07:00

So I've been working on this pieve pretty intently. After a few weeks of wailing on metal, molding and carving resin, and figuring out/assembling electronics, the piece is done.

Before I throw some of the pictures up on here, I'll explain the piece a bit.

As some of you may remember, I experienced what I perceived as the Memento Mori Maximum a while back. A memento mori, to review, is something that reminds us that we will die. It comes from a Roman practice during war when a hero was followed by a servant that reminded him over and over to celebrate today because tomorrow he will die. It was later adopted by Catholics during the dark ages.

Well, this Memento Mori Maximum occured when I was cleaning out the Buffalo State Metals Studio acid cabinet, and discovered a container full of ferric chloride, with large chlorine crystals growing inside. The beauty absolutely struck me, but then the realization occured that I must destroy these toxic crystals.

This event really did change my view and perspective on things (it also helped that it followed a deadly concussion). To see these crystals in their utmost toxicity thriving, and to realize that it is my job to whipe them out, this was shocking. But in a final middle finger, the neutralization of these crystals caused a color-changing and moving cloud in the water. This was then followed up by a shocking realization on my own place in the world when I talked to Steve Sarcino (professor of Metals at Buffalo State for those of you not from here) about the whole thing. I said "I realized I had to kill the crystals, even though I know they aren't technically alive." He replied "According to us biological beings, they aren't alive. But don't we have a bias on the definition of alive?" This absolutely blew my mind. In Anthropology, we are taught to remain relative and unbiased at all times when it comes to dealing with other people. But the idea of biological relativity absolutely blew cultural relativity out of the water in the scale of the universe.

Since this whole event was so important to me, it only made sense to display it in my work.

For this piece, I chose to utilize the idea of a thurible. A thurble is the hanging, swinging incense burner used it masses. I chose this because when I was growing up (not that I'm not still), I was an altar server (shocking, I know. I actually wanted to be a priest.) My favorite things to serve were life events, seeing as altar servers were paid for it. On Wednesday, I'd see a Baptism, on Friday I'd serve a wedding, on Sunday, I'd serve a funeral. Week in and week out, I saw the circle of life (LION KING!) take place, and the one standard part of this constant repetition of birth, life, and death was my task of preparing the thurible for each.

So enough of the talk, here's some pictures.

This is the thurible after the pieces were all fabricated.

This is the thurible after I carved the positives of the crystals that would be molded and cast in place.

This is the thurible with the lights on. The color is a little scewed. It looks like it's entirely brass, but it isn't. It's copper and brass.

This is an animation of the crystals changing color. I did all of the electronics myself. The purpose of the lights is to promote the interaction between the incense smoke and the light.

So there we go.

See you space cowboy....

Memento Mori Maximum

2010-06-07T06:19:00.000-07:00

Much progress has been made on the Memento Mori Maximum thurible. It should be done this week, then I will move on to completing my stone mask.

See you space cowboy....

Leather Mask Work

2010-05-19T12:12:00.001-07:00

Thanks to a famous leatherworker and some books, I'm starting to work on a leather and metal mask. So here's some process shots of the progress.

This is the clay sculpt of the mask. The mask will end above the lower jaw.

A slow-gel mold of the sculpt.

Took the positive out of the slo-gel, and poured in Plaster of Paris.

The wood circle on the back is used for tacking leather later.

The master mold next to the slo-gel mold.

The mastermold after its release.

The mastermold carved down to the bare mask, and detailed up to refine the forms of the mask.

More pictures will obviously come soon once the leather is formed to the mold. The left eye will have a metal, cyborg eye (suprise suprise) and the right forhead will have brass tubing protruding from it.

See you space cowboy....

More Mask Research

2010-05-17T23:20:00.000-07:00

I've been doing more and more research into masks. It seems that I can't get masks out of my mind. Something about the changing of one's face to become someone else, or application on anonymity, just seems interesting and appealing to me. Through my research, I've found an absolutely amazing book that teaches how to make traditional leather masks. I will be doing this as soon as I get the leather. I also found a great website with a vast selection of masks and information on them. Here's a link.

Masks of the World

They had a lot of different masks, and loads of information on them. Here's some of my favorites.

I liked this one because it's a wood and copper Iroquois mask. Very interesting.

This is a wooden mask from Switzerland

Wooden mask from Bulgaria

This is a cool Korean wedding mask. It's very similar to the Commedia dell'Arte style masks.

So there you go....Cool pictures, cool link.

See you space cowboy....

Corrosion

2010-05-14T22:58:00.000-07:00

Well I spent the day today attempting to make natural, desert-like corrosion to a raised copper bowl. This task sounds simple, but isn't...At all. Most of our corrosives are done in techniques and methods that we've learned to make controlled bites. However, accidental and natural seems to be harder to accomplish when done on purpose. But I made a valiant attempt.

Here's a picture of the attempt:

How I did it:

I covered the bowl with my resist of choice (nailpolish), then did a quick contained sandblast (containt the blast with a tupperwear container with a hole as to not contaminate the sand with nailpolish). This removed sand-like absrasions in the nailpolish. I then did a Ferric Chloride etch for about 90 minutes into the surface. I then cleaned off the nailpolish, and tocuhed up with a bit more sandblasting. Just a bit though, and an uneven job at that.

The sad part is that the vessel was pretty well planished. But oh well, that's art.

This vessel will be the base of the Memento Mori Maximum.

See you space cowboy....

Hunt for Inspiration

2010-05-12T18:59:00.000-07:00

So I've been looking around at some inspiration for my mask ventures. I really enjoy making masks, but have a hard time coming up with ideas for them.

Well, since I'm so into the whole Steampunk thing, I started there. Generally speaking, Steampunk masks are based on two things: goggles and gas masks. Right now, so soon after my monocle, these two things don't seem so appealing to me. But here's some pictures anyway.

Those, right now, are not my goal. So in my struggles for ideas, I decided to trace back those roots a bit. Steampunk is the combination of fantastical, industrial, steam-powered machines with the beauty and elegance of the Victorian era. Obviously, those previous masks are much more on the industrial side. However, I decided to look at the Victorian side of masks. We've all seen the masquerade styles, which are pure influence of Victorian masks. These masks allowed for prominate social figures to have relative anonymity.

Two pictures of Victorian masks caught my attention. Pay particular attention to the depth and peircings. They are obviously doable in metal.

See you space cowboy....

Coming Soon!

2010-05-11T12:09:00.000-07:00

Here's some sketches and descriptions of some works in progress.

This first one is called Memento Mori Maximum. This thurible is entirely inspired by the chlorine crystals that I discovered in the acid cabinet. It is smithed from copper, with copper crystals at the top eroded to show the green crystals underneeth. The green parts will be cast from resin. There's some other suprises in store for it. The point of this pieces is to show an industrial erosion of the natural crystals. It will have some of my normal aesthetic stylings, heavily influenced by the Steampunk style, but will have a taste of the organics. It follows my favorite type of dichotomy in which we pit nature against machine. The way I like to think of it is "The organic goes to the machanic."

This piece is a production piece that I am working on for my opening at Culturshoc in Toronto. It is a leather and brass cuff. In this sketch, the black is all metalwork, the red is leatherwork.

So there you have it. I'm working commercially and artistically at the same time.

See you space cowboy....

Life-Changing Experience

2010-05-09T06:24:00.000-07:00

So I was cleaning in the studio. Specifically, the acid cabinet since I know a lot about the acids. In the back, there was a Tupperwear container that changed my life. The container was marked "Copper Etch." The solution was brown, endicitive of Ferric Chloride, which is used to etch copper. Ferric Chloride removes small amounts of copper at a slow rate, allowing for patterns and designs, as well as for technical specs like circuit boards. I picked it up and noticed that the container was a bit heavy, so I opened it to see what I had to do. When I opened it, I saw something undescribably beautiful! Green crystals everywhere! Likely, it was chlorine crystals.

Here's some pictures of the crystals.

I tried to remove some (with gloves, rubber apron, respirator, and eye protection on of course), but they crumbled in my fingers. So after my moment of awe and shock, I then realized that this crystals are living out their lifespan, and that I had the incredibly unfortunate task of ending it. Using ammonia, I neutralized the Ferric Chloride. But as if in a crazy way of laughing at me, the crystals had one last ounce of beauty to them. In their neutralization, they made an absolutely beautiful brown and blue chemical cloud in the water.

I know that this all sounded like some interpretive BS, like the Family Guy plastic bag in the wind thing, but it's not. This was seriously, for me, great inspiration and seems to be the memento mori maximum.

See you space cowboy....

I've Been Busy

2010-05-07T14:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been working harder than ever! With two companies interested in selling my production pieces, I've been trying to make that fly by! So here's some pictures of what I have so far.

So keep an eye out for this going on sale soon.

I also made another piece. This piece is called The Steak Knife of the Steampunk Serial Killer. It is made of brass, copper, and wood. I actually forged out and serrated the blade of the knife myself. Why is there a crank, you may ask? Well, when you crank the crank, it maked the blade go back and forth like a turkey carver. And it actually works!

I also took more photos of the Myconocle.

So there you go...I've been busy.

See you space cowboy....

New Website and Cards

2010-05-01T21:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I've decided to re-do some things in my medical time down. So I switched my website over to make a bit more sense. I've been using Hw7online.com as a website since I was in high school. Well, I've grown up a bit (just a bit) since then, and have more egotistical needs from my website, so I switched it over. The new site's address is jphii.com. Why? John Paul Harris II. There you go. Nice and simple.

With the new site comes a new, upgraded photo gallery as well as a resume. So go check it out and favorite it.

Hw7online.com will (for a short time) forward you to jphii.com.

Also with a new site comes NEW BUSINESS CARDS!
Here's what the new ones look like:

Front:

Back:

So there you go. So go.

See you space cowboy....

Steampunk Gearrings

2010-04-29T17:14:00.000-07:00

Well, several days ago I made a pair of Steampunk earrings for my wife. Then, with a little coaxing from Steve, I decided to mold one of them. So today I injected 30 waxes and sprewed them up for casting. It looks funky.

They will be cast in sterling silver, and will have a sterling post on the back. They will be for sale within the next 2 weeks or so. So pre-order now! You can pre-order it by going here!

Here is a similar pair in brass! Don't worry....Even when in brass, the stud on the back is sterling silver.

See you space cowboy....

Smoke with Edward

2010-04-28T16:58:00.001-07:00

Just to start off, this is not a post about Twilight.

I received a commission from a friend of mine. The commission was to re-build an old smoking pipe that belonged to his family, but broke over time. The pipe was brass and wood, and was of traditionional Tibetan style. Here's a picture of what the pipe somewhat looked like before it broke:

I stuck with an industrial design, which is the general approach for me, but also speaks for the client's skills and talents in construction. The client named the pipe Edward, which is the title I will stick with. Here's some pictures of the finished pipe:

See you space cowboy....

Myconocle: The Eye of Psilocyborg

2010-04-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

Well today I finished my monocle. It's of Steampunk design, and relates (in combination to the crown that is almost done) to a story that I wrote when I was younger. I'll go into that more when I complete the crown.

It's entitled Myconocle: The Eye of Psilocyborg

Myconicle
Myco from Greek mukes for fungus
Onicle from Latin oculus for eye

Psilocyborg
Psilo from psilocybin from Greek psilos for smooth and kube for head
Cyborg from combination of cybernetic organism

It's brass and copper with a leather strap and resin lense.

Here's some photos of it.

See you space cowboy....

Taking a Break from Being Stoned to Switch to Shrooms

2010-04-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

Well, because of recent medical problems, I have to take a short break from my stonework. So in 2 days I made this monicle. There will be a leather strap to make it wearable, and the dome will be etched and filled with red resin for a lense.

This peiece is called Myconicle: The Eye of Psilocyborg. It is a steampunk monicle with (suprise suprise) steampunk mushrooms. It is a follow up to my previous piece The Crown of the Psyilocyking (Pictures coming soon, I swear.)

So here's a snapshot of the monicle pre-etching and pre-leathering. Professional pictures of both pieces will be coming soon.

See you space cowboy....

Stoned: Day 4

2010-04-23T17:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I was told today by the doctor that I could not do any strenuous activity. However, he said that filing and sanding should be fine. So though I was planning on taking the day off from stoneworking, I decided to give rasping and sanding a shot. It's a bit early in the piece's development, but progress is progress.

Here's the stats and a picture for the day's work:

Hours Worked: 2

Amount Subtracted: 2 lbs

Tool of Choice: Half round course rasp, 60 grit sandpaper

See you space cowboy....

Stoned: Day 3

2010-04-20T17:25:00.000-07:00

Oddly enough, I've been titling these posts as "Stoned," and today is 4:20. So I thought today would be a good day to do some sanding in order to take a good look at the grain and pattern of the stone. I took the picture, then put it into black and white so that everyone can see the grain a bit better. So here's the stats for the day, followed by the picture for today's work. You can actually really start to see the form coming out.

Hours Worked: 3
Amount Subtracted: Less than 5 lbs
Tool of Choice: Chisel and Mallet, with a little sandpaper

Is anyone actually reading this?

See you space cowboy....

Stoned: Day 2

2010-04-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

More stonework today. This time, I have some progress pictures of me working. On the most part, in my safety gear. Eye protection and a leather apron are a must. The shards flying off from the chisel are very sharp and move quite quickly. The glove on my left hand is to help absorb the blow on the chisel. Here's the statistics of the day, followed by some pictures.

Hours Worked: 4
Amount Subtracted: 5 lbs
Tool of Choice: Chisel and Mallet

This is the picture of today's work.

These are two pictures of the stone before I worked on it. It shows some of the color and grain.

See you space cowboy....

Stoned: Day 1

2010-04-18T16:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I attacked this stone head-on and got a good deal of the shaping done. Statistics for the day:

Hours Worked: 3

Amount Subtracted: 5 lbs

Tool of Choice: Chisel and Mallet

Here's a picture of the work accomplished for the day.

See you space cowboy....

Contemporary Shaman Mask of the Beast

2010-04-17T13:56:00.001-07:00

Today I picked up my slab of stone from Sculpture Supply Canada in Toronto. This is one of the (if not the only) supply store in the greater Northest (Southeast for the Canadians) that offers the more exotic alabasters. The only other choices were really New Mexico and Colorodo, and the shipping for a 50 lbs chunk of stone is about $100, so not really in the range of my grant.

This piece is being done thanks to a small creativity grant from Buffalo State College's research foundation. So thanks to them, I can make a cool piece out of metal and stone.

This is an image of my original design for the Contemporary Shaman Mask of the Beast. This one is sculpted out of clay, and was to be cast in resin. However, I think the organic nature of the stone would be best fit for this design. It has a hinged lower jaw allowing the wearer to control it.

So there you have it. A lot of work ahead of me this week. But I will say: The folks over at Sculpture Supply Canada are great people. Very knowledgable and kind. So if you're ever in Toronto, they are a place to stop by and see. They have a bronze foundry, too.

See you space cowboy....

Key Changes

2010-04-13T23:20:00.000-07:00

The mushroom veil will no longer be a veil. It will be a crown. Instead of a mistress, it will now be a king.

Beads and Leather

2010-04-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

Well, even with a disasterous shoulder and god-aweful concussion, I managed to get a bunch of work done on the mushroom veil. I sprewed the new mushrooms, but I won't bother with a picture of that. However, I re-processed the beads and embossed the leather.

The beads that make up the veil are red and black. The red beads, since they were commercial, were very bright and sparkly. So I processed them into new beads.

This is a before and after shot of the beads. The beads on the left are after, the right are before.

The beads next to the crown.

Here's how I made such a dramatic change to the beads. I'm puting it out there since I couldn't really find a description like this when I wanted to do it.

Step 1: The interior of the beads (where the chord or wire goes through) was covered in a metallic foil. This made the beads far too shiney and sparkly for my uses. So I heated up a small amount of pickle, and soked the beads for about an hour. I though that this would effect the surface of the beads (I was hoping for it), but it did not. However, it did remove the metal foil.

Step 2: Rinse about a dozen times to remove the foil from the water.

Step 3: I repeated steps 1 and 2 to ensure it was all clean.

Step 4: I used Armor Etch, which contains ammonium and sodium biflourides, to etch the surface of the glass beads. However, I knew that these two chemicals were water soluable, so I deluded the bath so that the beads would soak longer, making it easier to control. This made the surface of the beads far less glossy, and a little foggy and textured. The texture helped with the next step.

Step 5: I put the beads in a liquid-tight plastic jar. I used plastic instead of glass because the beads are also glass, and I wanted to minimalize the damage to the beads. I then, in a seperate container, oured a little bit of black acrylic paint. I then added a copper acrylic interference, which added copper powder to the black giving it a copper and metallic shine. I then let it solidify a little bit, then added it to the beads. I then shook it up in the jar, letting it coat evenly. I shook it for about 15 minutes, which allowed the paint to dry evenly on every surface to limit contact differences.

Step 6: Lay the beads out on a paper towel and put them under a light to heat them up a little.

So that's how I did it.

This is the embossed leather for the strap. It carries on the form of the crown, as well as the pattern.

See you space cowboy....

Show Last Night

2010-04-10T08:13:00.001-07:00

The show last night was easily the best show in Thrown to the Wolves history. Without a doubt. 250+ people showed up for the show. Not a single one from the studio. But 250+ none the less. People really got into the music last night and the crowd was going crazy!

A Resource Post for Aric

2010-04-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

Well, this post is for Aric to help him out with his Ocarina.

This company is called Songbird Ocarinas. Songbird has been around for years. How long I actually don't know, but I can say that when I was 12-15, I bought 4 ocarinas from them and they are all still solid. So they are a good source. Their site is also very useful in its inclusion of the history of the ocarina. Now, out of the four that I bought, they only still sell one of them. The first one that I bought. It was based on Link's ocarina in Zelda: Ocarina of Time (which I used to be able to play every ocarina song on ocarina...Dorky, I know). How I found this company was that Nintendo was doing a promotional thing where if you bought Link's sweet potato ocarina from this company, you got a free ocarina songbook with Zelda music in it. I have 3 or 4 ocarina songbooks laying around still. I had some friends that picked them up for me along the way.

If I could make a recommendation: Stick with a 4 hole rather than a 6 hole. The 6 hole ocarinas usually seem to be a craft object mainly for decoration. I can try to find mine if you'd like to take a look at how Link's is made or how my other ones are made, but they've been put away since I moved so they aren't just out in the open. But I'd gladly help out. I also made one in ceramics my second semester at my old college, but it isn't that great so it's not worth an examination. More or less, I just didn't give myself enough leeway for shrinkage so it didn't get the right notes. I now know that mistake. So if you need any help, feel free to ask.

See you space cowboy....

The Trees Get Their Revenge

2010-04-06T04:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I will be temporarily slowing down in the studio for a week or two.
Saturday evening I was working in the back yard. I was embossing some leather, which seemed simple enough. A very large gust of wind swept through my back yard, knocking a large limb off of the oak tree above me. The limb crashed directly down on my shoulder, dislocating it and knocking me to the ground, giving me a concussion. Three doctors later, I have a lingering concussion with some possible lasting effects, as well as a level 2 AC sprain in my shoulder. So I must slow down.
The up side is: the embossment looks good.

See you space cowboy....

Exhibition then Show

2010-04-02T09:01:00.001-07:00

So everyone should go to these two events. On April 9th, Tara Nahabetian and her husband Dennis Nahabetian will be having an opening reception for their exhibition at the Indigo Art Gallery in Allen Town, Buffalo. Right after, my band Thrown to the Wolves is having a show down the street at Mr. Goodbar on Elmwood Ave. So go from one to the other!

The opening reception is April 9 from 6-9PM at the Indigo Gallery at 74 Allen St, Buffalo NY. The show is at 1110 Elmwood Ave at Mr. Goodbar at 11PM. Here's the posters:

See you space cowboy....

More Progress with Good Weather

2010-04-01T18:10:00.001-07:00

Well since the weather was so beautiful today, I thought it would be the perfect chance to set up my outdoor bench on my back porch. So here it is:

It's really just set up for carving, so I worked on waxes today. I finished one half of the mushrooms for the crown.

They will be cast in brass. Tomorrow I will likely start and probably finish the other half.

See you space cowboy....

A Different Kind of All-Nighter

2010-04-01T04:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been pulling pretty regular all-nighters recently. But last night was a bit different.

I spent the night rebuilding my band Thrown to the Wolves' photo gallery on the website throwntothewolves.com. Now it's all fancy and high-tech.

So go check it out, damnit!

See you space cowboy....

Even More Progress

2010-03-30T00:44:00.000-07:00

Well even more progress has been made on the veil. I started carving the new mushroom clusters which will be cast in brass. Here's a picture of how they will be soldered onto the crown itself.

I also came up with a possible title for the piece. I was thinking Dance With Me, Mushroom Queen. As stated previously, this piece is based entirely on the concept of self-medication, which I have personal experience with. This entire piece has specific personal meaning to me, so feedback isn't too overly required. But appreciated, still.

See you, space cowboy....

Progress on the Mushroom Crown

2010-03-29T02:38:00.000-07:00

Well I managed to progress a bit more on the veil today. The rest of the chasing and repousse, as well as the etching are done. I also managed to make some of the chains.

So here's a picture of the etched, pierced, chased, and drilled half next to the other half which is chased and has the resist applied with the design scribed in. I thought it was a cool shot.

This is a picture with some of the chains on the piece. The links have been hammered somewhat flat. It's my attempt at drawing a transition from the flat sheet where the holes are to the spherical beads that will make up the veil. There is exactly 80 strands of 3 chain links which will transition into the beads via tubing. There will then be 80 strands consisting of 175 beads each.

So yup.....Progress.

See you space cowboy....

Mushroom Crown

2010-03-28T00:11:00.001-07:00

So I started my mushroom crown and made great progress. Within two days, I finished the chasing, repousse, etching, piercing, and forming for half of the crown. I also started finished the chasing and repousse for the other half. So here's a picture of the finished copper half without the mushrooms or veil on it yet.

So that's my plan for Spring break....Finish this thing, and work on the stone mask for my grant. Woohooo break.

See you space cowboy....

Some Work Done

2010-03-25T18:27:00.000-07:00

I managed to finish about 1/3 of my veil, and I still have all next week to work on it. But while waiting for a good chunk of it to etch, I made a new Steampunk pendant influenced by a friend that I met in Texas named Heather Wobbe. She was one of the cool Steampunks that took me out to the rave.

So this necklace is called Map of the Convergence of Time. It's sterling and brass.

Now I need to take some actually decent photos of it, but an academic all-nighter has me whiped for now.

See you space cowboy.....

SNAG Conference Review

2010-03-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't really written too much on the SNAG conference as it had some slightly awkward and off-puting situations involved. It started out horribly, and had be second-guessing my decision to even go right off the bat. To let all know, Vince and I are all good. I've told the entire story of the incredibly unlucky occurances that happened leading up to the trip far too many times, so I won't go into that topic on here. It's neither here nor there, and it is in the past. If you must (which I promise, besides Vince and Amanda, no one must) talk to me about it to clear the air, feel free to approach me.

Anyway, to move on with the description of the conference itself. The first day (Wednesday), I really didn't arrive at the hotel until about 9PM, so I missed everything that day. I checked in (to a very awkward and irritating welcome) to the conference, then I went to my room where I paniced myself to sleep. The second day, my roommate Rickson Salkeld arrived. I had previously made friends with Rickson through Crafthaus where we had some great deep and intellectual conversations, which only continued at SNAG. We went on a gallery hop leading up to the exhibition in motion. We went to the Menil Collection, which I thought was the most impressive. There was a massive collection of surrealist work from Dali, Picasso, Tanguy, Lam, Magritte, and loads more. It was amazing to see the ranging works of a style that I find so influencial. They also had a small room called Witnesses to a Surrealist Vision. This room contained many odd items that were owned and/or collected by surrealist artists.

This room was amazing to see because of the collection of native masks, as well as French theatre masks.

From there, we went to the exhibition in motion which Rickson was part of. This was very entertaining, though I wasn't the largest fan of the space used. The Houston Museum of Fine arts is absolutely beautiful, but it wasn't as visually impressive of the Exhibition in Motion in Philadelphia. But considering how unconventional this type of event is, it worked out fine.

After that, I ended up at dinner with Rickson, Brigitte Martin, Michelle Pajak-Reynolds, and some others. It was a great night with a lot of philosphical artistic talk. It became one of the most perspective-changing nights of the trip.

The next couple of days, I went to every lecture, demo (makume), and presentation that I could get to. I also met up with a local friend of mine from high school for lunch. On the final night of the trip, we had the normal final dinner. Passing the torch, raffles, dinner, dressing nice, socializing, dancing, drinking....Not my things. I ended up outside chatting with a friend that I made days earlier named Phrog. Phrog is a tattoo artist from Austin. After talking for a few minutes, his friends (also attendees of the conference) called and wanted to have some drinks. They invited me to join, so I did.

It ended up that Phrog and his friends were Steampunk jewelers. Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I am a practicioner of the Steampunk style, and have actually been the recipient of a grant to study Steampunk metals. I ended up at an underground Steampunk rave! That was great for my research. So I'm going to end this post with some pictures from the rave.

See you space cowboy......

Casting Mushrooms

2010-03-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I started working on my next piece.

This piece was greatly inspired by many influences that I took notice of during my trip to Texas for the SNAG conference. One of the most influencial presentations that I saw was Kathleen Browne's presentation on Hyperpractice.

So this piece, to fill the assignment of sound ornamentation, is a piece for self medication. It is an Arabian-style veil that will have hundreds of individual strands of beads. Around the crown of the veil will be many many many little bunches of cast brass mushrooms, all different from eachother.

Here's some pictures of the work in progress. I have included some rather uninteresting images purely for the fact that I've had several people ask me to explain the process of lost wax casting, and figured that I'd include a little more images than normal.

Five of the mushrooms sprewed.

Five of the mushrooms sprewed.

All of the lovely math to convert the weight of the wax over to bronze.

The mushrooms in the flask.

See you space cowboy......

Me in Houston

2010-03-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I just arrived home safely from my trip to the annual SNAG conference which was in Houston, TX this year. I have to say that this year was far more inspiring and educational for me than last. That's not to say that Philadelphia wasn't great, but I was far more open to to the information being presented to me. I spent some good time with Rickson Salkeld, had some great talked with Brigitte Martin, and experienced some great parties. Really, I have to thank Ryan, Heather, Phrog, Heather, and Erika for probably one of the funnest nights that I've had ina long time. I plan on bringing the massive amounts of notes and information that I picked up home and applying it to my work.

Mask of the Beast

2010-02-20T18:25:00.000-08:00

More work has been done on the mask. The form is well-developed, and the concept is evolving (thanks to some long talks with Vince Pontillo on the topic). Refinement of my sculpting is finally becoming apparent in the piece.

See you space cowboy....

Mask: Re-Imagined

2010-02-19T21:08:00.000-08:00

Now that I'm switching up my approach to my current series, I started working on the latest mask.

This mask is (or is going to be) the Contemporary Shaman Mask of the Beast. It is a piece, like many of mine, that makes a comment about the sociological, moral, and political stances and issues within Western culture. Specifically, this piece is influenced by the hypocritical standards held by some radical animal activists. An article about an ice skater named Johnny Weir (in which Weir's life was threatened several times because of his inclusion of fox fur on a costume) became a large influence for the piece, though many other articles and issues have also influenced it. The hypocritical standard that started as a movement of animal equality eventually lead into the value of animals superceding that of humans, which largely speaks toward the bipartisan mentallity within Western culture.

So here's some process shots so far.

Sketch of the mask. The design has already changed since that, though.

Mask on production board. These are the initial steps int he carving process.

Within a few hours of the first process shot, the animal form is starting to appear. After limiting the mold, the mask is on its way to completion.

I guess I should decide what color it will be.....

See you space cowboy.......

Masks for Masks' Sake

2010-02-16T11:26:00.000-08:00

I decided to start over on my series of masks for this semester.

Originally I had applied the theme of Insanity to my projected masks for this series, but with the application of the same theme to my other jewelery pieces for the semester, I am removing this theme from my masks.

Why?

Well, I feel that I need to treat my mask making as an introduction. I have limited experience making masks, and I'm not yet comfortable enough to apply such an interpretive and expansive theme to techniques that I have yet to gain decent control over. Just as a student of jewelry design sticks with basic concepts in intro (simple pendants and rings), I will do the same with my masks for now. I need to learn proper techniques and concepts before attempting to interpret and adjust them into less literal pieces. This is a decision based not on concept, but on technical skill.

So I plan on doing some more masks like my Contemporary Shaman Mask of the Healer which are more literal adaptations of masks, and more conceptual in the depth of meaning.

So onward I will push using traditional designs with contemporary interpretations and concepts. I will also be using different mediums to attempt very traditional techniques, including the hopeful application of a full alabaster mask.

See you space cowboy.....

Hallway 7: On the Band Waggon

2010-02-14T18:01:00.000-08:00

Well, I had to jump into the real world with everyone else. SOOOOO I started a Twitter. I became quite confortable using it with Thrown to the Wolves, so I decided to do it for Hallway 7.

So here's the address:
twitter.com/hw7online

So follow me or whatever you do to other people on Twitter. I'm sure you'll be so very entertained.

See you space cowboy.....

Featured Artist on Crafthaus!

2010-02-07T07:53:00.000-08:00

Well, I woke up this morning and did my normal routine. Just much later than usual since I slept in. I checked my email, and the first thing I saw was that I had a comment from Steve on Crafthaus. I read it and he was congratulating me on being a Crafthaus Featured Artist this week. Then I actually read the Crafthaus email congratulating me.

The featured my pipe Ruachuliu Layer 1: Fire and Stone!

See you space cowboy.......

TttW Needs Your Help!!!

2010-01-30T15:53:00.000-08:00

Will the arrival of a new year (and new decade), Thrown to the Wolves has much in store for everyone!

New music is on its way with the release of the new album Reality. New merchandise, new web features, new media, and loads of new shows are soon to follow!

Currently, we are battling in the ArtVoice popularity contest, and we need your help to get us to win!

Help make our new year start on the right foot!

(You can hear us at throwntothewolves.com by the way)

VOTE NOW!!!!

[TttW Thanks You]

See you space cowboy......

Psychosis Mask: In Red

2010-01-23T23:59:00.001-08:00

Well, I pulled the resin of the Psychosis mask out of the mold and it worked out pretty well. Some of it's thinner than I would have preferred, but I can make due with it and thickin it a bit.

The plan was to make it look like irritated, rashed skin over the wearer's healthy skin. I did not want a direct skin reference (as would have resulted using latex,) I wanted the skin to be armorish.

So there you go, the startings of the next mask. The next time I post a picture of this one, there will be much metalwork involved.

See you space cowboy.......

Work Overseas

2010-01-23T06:54:00.001-08:00

So I talked to one of the owners of Eerie Productions this morning. We are going back in session in a few weeks to plan for the upcoming season of Frightworld. But the more interesting part of the conversation was an offer to fly to London to work on a house in the old UK. As much as this is a dream come true for me, I had to turn down the offer to finish off school. I'm on my last semester of my Anthropology degree, so I figured that I can't stop in the home stretch. I will likely be heading overseas sooner rather than later, though, to work on some haunted productions within the next year or so, which would be the experience of a lifetime.

See you space cowboy.....

Psychosis Casting

2010-01-22T07:05:00.000-08:00

I started to cast the mask for Psychosis in resin today. It will be transparent red resin.

This is the resin in the mold.

See you space cowboy.....

New Masks: Psychosis

2010-01-21T03:04:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to work with masks more with some refinement in concept, design, and technique. I learned a lot with Contemporary Shaman Mask of the healer, including techniques to limit the clean-up, and produce a more efficient process. I also learned more about the use of masks, and the incorporation of the human body conceptually and functionally.

My series is based on the theme of Insanity. There will be three masks in this series being Psychosis, Depression, and Paranoia. The first mask to be produced (or at least be started) will be Psychosis, which is currently being worked on. Depression will soon follow using entirely new techniques based on metal's own Chasing and Repousse. Depression will contain none of the previous base used for the mask; resin. Paranoia will probably also use a new technique and medium of fiberglass, but I'll burn that bridge when I get there.

Here's some photos of Psychosis up until now.

This is the start of the mask. The basic shape of it.

This is the mask expaned into a raw version of its final form.

This is the mask completed in clay and sealed.

This is the mold of the mask, still containing the original.

What will separate this mask from the precious one? Well, the concept is key. My previous mask did not interact much with the body, and the handle was a mere handle, with no impact on the wearer. Now, for a traditional shamanistic mask, that is acceptable. However, for masks showing raw human emotion and mental "deformaty," mask/wearer interaction is a necessity. As far as the Psychosis mask, this will be done in a few ways. The handle will be more integrated in concept and function. The "handle" of this piece is 4 brass rings on either side of the head. These rings will be around the temple of the mask in that the wearer must cover their ears to hold the mask to their head. On top of that, there will be a neck brace coming off of the mask forcing the wearer to look upwards. So picture a humanoid face looking upwards, screaming, and covering their ears. It sounds quite psychotic indeed.

Depression and Paranoia will also supply some dark, creepy, and rather disturbing suprises to them. So keep an eye out.

See you space cowboy.......

Ruachuliu Layer 2: Trees and Vines

2010-01-20T06:57:00.000-08:00

Well, this piece only took forever to make.

I originally designed and fabricated the initial version of this bracelet back when I made the pip Ruachuliu Layer 1: Fire and Stone. I planned on casing it using the new Neutec caster in the studio, but that machine is still not ready to use! So before the holidays, I decided just to use the old method and cast it out. I then bezel set the Labradorite in it just in time to wear it to holiday dinners back at home. Here's a picture of it:

The silver behind the Labradorite is pierced out so that the light can shine through it. The piece resembles a leaf, and the linework resembles grasses and vines.

In Layer 2 of ruachuliu, creatures are given their flesh by an old man or woman (depending on gender). They are all given their flesh in this layer because trees bear fruits that give us flesh when we eat them.

See you space cowboy......

New Camera=Stuff for Sale

2009-12-29T06:41:00.000-08:00

My parents got me a new camera for Christmas. This is a big deal, since I've been using my 35mm since 7th grade.

They got me a very very nice digital camera, with manual control and good macro focus.

So with that, I put 2 pairs of earrings up on Etsy for sale since I can take decent pictures of them. So my Etsy page is

www.etsy.com/shop/spyke927

The Abandoned Factory Memento Mori

2009-12-19T19:22:00.000-08:00

Well I had some technical problems soldering my incense burner before, but with some time to clear my head and relax, I did manage to complete it. It also does work as planned (for once), so here's some pictures and a little video.

See you space cowboy.....

Final Critique

2009-12-18T01:55:00.000-08:00

I was plesently suprised by the final critique. I really like good crits, but have noticed a lack in participation and objectivity through the past several. But this semester's final was much improved, so thank you all.

I felt that I worked very hard, and was well-prepared. I was disappointed in the fact that I could not solder the top of my incense burner completely, but I am not well aware of my limits, and know what I need to learn next.

To give everyone an idea of how much work I've put in this semester, the week previous to the final critique I had spent about 100/144 hours in the studio. This semester, I averaged about 9 hours a day in the studio, and the last week was about 15 hours a day in the studio. So I feel accomplished and excited to get back to working in the studio. I'M ADDICTED!

Anyway, I think I'll end my last post of this semester with a few words to others:
Enjoy learning and strive to learn more. Intellectual curiosity is a gift of sentience, so use it and push forward to find your way. If you want to be an artist of any kind, you must love it.

Congrats to Rachel, and good luck in the future. Have fun in grad school!

See you space cowboy.......

3D Meets 2D

2009-12-10T16:47:00.000-08:00

This is a really cool link.
It's the vido of a painter that hides in his photographs. Check it out. It's a great application of 3D interest in 2D art.

LINK!

See you space cowboy......

I Just May Be on to Something!

2009-12-09T18:24:00.000-08:00

So I was excited with this production work to A.) Finish it on time and B.) Have customers really like it. It was all Steampunk-based in design, which came from an Anthrometalic (I made that word up) study funded by a small creativity grant from Buffalo State. I learned a lot about the Steampunk aesthetics and ideals, and have incorporated the ideas from this fairly esoteric American gothic subculture into my own artistic productions. I did not know how well they would sell at the Student Sale, but all of my ear rings are gone, and the pendants are going fast as well.

And then it was brought to my attention that the Steampunk aesthetic approach is now becoming mainstream. My wife sent me a picture of the Victoria's Secret runway show on December 1st, and, well, I'll just show it to you. I don't think anyone will complain about looking at some models.

SHE IS STEAMPUNK!
She has the tuxedo-esque bustier with the forearm gloves!
AND LOOK AT THOSE WINGS! Brass gears with silver feathers! On top of that, this production has run me short on watch parts, so I looked online for some more. Last time I bought them, I had to hunt down an old man that bought and sold estates, and happened to buy one from a watch maker. He sold me a little baggie of gears, and we met int he Wegmans parking lot. It was skeavy and fun. NOW THERE ARE STEAMPUNK PART SUPPLIERS!

IT MAKES ME WANT TO PERMANENTLY TYPE IN CAPS!!!!1!!!

Anyway, I'm actually kind of proud for the fact that I hopped on the bandwagon before it was cool, so that I could hopefully ride this wave during its height of popularity for a while.

See you space cowboy......

Been Busy

2009-12-06T22:55:00.000-08:00

I have a feeling no one is reading this, so I'll write for sanity's sake. Lol.

So anyway, I've been very busy working on production pieces, as well as planning out my Chasing and Repousse assignment.

Production:
For the production assignment, I'm making about 13 pieces. 10 of which are Steampunk pendants, with custom clasps. 3 of the pieces are Steampunk ear rings. Here's a picture of those ear rings:

Chasing and Repousse:
For the chasing and repousse assignment, I was originally going to make a monicle. However, some recent literature that I have read changed my mind a bit. I am going to make a Memento Mori Candleholder. Memento Mori is a concept that dates back through all of human history, but picked up in importance in classical cultures, especially Rome (thus, the Latin wording). Memento Mori means "remember that you must die." It was a concept utilized by Romans to keep generals and other high-ranking officials modest. When a general accomplished something great, parades were done in their honor. However, the general would be followed by one or two servants that would say things like "Memento Mori," meaning "remember that you must die," as well as "Respice post te! Hominem te memento!" meaning "Look behind you! Remember that you are but a man!" Another common saying was "Sic transit gloria mundi" meaning "Thus passes the glory of the world." These sayings were uttered to keep the general modest and grounded to the fact that though he was celebrated in life today, tomorrow he will likely die in battle.

The concept of the Memento Mori was later adopted in Medieval Europe by the humble Christians. Tokens, often in the shapes of skulls, hourglasses, or bats, were carried to always remind the people of the impending end. The Grim Reaper is the most famous Memento Mori, in fact. The Christian adoption of Memento Mori lead to the celebration of Ash Wednesday, in which ashes are placed on the heads of worshippers. The common utterance is "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" meaning "from ashes, return ashes, from dust, return dust." We are born of the earth, and will return to it.

What I plan to do for my piece is a Memento Mori spanning centuries of humanity's fear of death. The piece will be a contemporary candleholder which serves the purpose of stacking candles (image below). This is a ritual done to show the passage of time, and the nearing of death. It will depict a somewhat Medieval style, showing the more Medieval interpretation of spiritual and religious devotion to death. The images around the candleholder will depict Ragnorok, which is the enevitable death of the Norse gods where Odin, Heimdall, Loki, Thor, and Freyr are all killed.

I figure, we're spanning about a thousand years there. The piece is being made now, using styles and concepts from 500 years ago, depicting a myth older that 1000 years ago.

Below are some pictures.

This is a stacked candle that I did when I was a teenager. It is a little over 2 feet tall, and contains over 100 candles. It took a little over a year to make.

This is a sketch of the base of the Memento Mori. It will have a domed top for the candle to rest. The front of the box will have an hour glass, and the two sides will have 2 battles of Ragnorok on each. Fenrir vs Odin, Freyr vs Surtr, Thor vs Jorgmundr, and Loki vs Heimdall.

It will be VERY basic, based on time. The back of the box will be blank for easy wall placement. It will be about 4 inches wide and 4 inches tall. Possibly smaller.

Sources:

Belanger, Michelle. Walking the Twilight Path: A Gothic Book of the

Dead. Llewellyn Publications, 2008. Print.

Cotterell, Arthur. Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology. JG Press,

2008. Print.

Keenan, Sheila. Gods, Goddesses, and Monsters: An Encyclopedia

of World Mythology. Scholastic, 2000. Print.

Wikipedia

See you space cowboy......

I Am Published

2009-11-27T23:25:00.000-08:00

So I recieved an email today from a group that I studied a while back.

A couple of years ago, I had to do a study on an American Subculture for an Anthro assignment. Through some research, I became interested in the Vampiric subculture of America. It is actually what lead me into my artistic studies of the Steampunk subculture.

The Vampiric subculture is pretty obvious, so I won't explain it with entirely too much detail.

Here's me covering my ass:

During this study, I interviewed about 50 Vampires. Wether you believe them or not, they do, so for the purpose of cultural relativity, please don't even bother getting into discussions on wether or not they are real. Wether you believe that a man over 2000 years ago was half human and half god, or wether you believe that there are people that drink blood to survive, it's the same argument on faith and belief. I won't state my views purely for the fact that an Anthropologist merely observes and reports according to the standard scientific methods. My opinions, as a result, are absolutely beside the point.

Anyway, through my interviews, I drew many sketches to try and understand the views and spirituality of the two categories of vampires (sanguine, psivamp).

Well, I was approached by a leader of the Vampiric community, as well as a well-known author, to use my sketches from the study (as well as a tattoo design that I did for a friend) in a book that they are publishing. I was very happy to have the opportunity to do this, and recived royalty rights as well (after a nice 6 page contract).

So I will be published in a book called Dark Chrysalis. The book is a collection of vampire art, lyrics, poetry, and stories.

Hey, published is published!

It also gives me some street cred in this VERY SECRETIVE culture. According to one of my professors, I may be the first scientist to even remotely have the opportunity to infiltrate this culture in its over 50 year history.

I'll have an ISBN within a couple of days, and will be recieving a few copies of the book once it's off the production line. But I'll post these pictures here for everyone to see. Keep in mind, they were sketches done based on spiritual and theoretical conctepts held dear to the two seperate vampire communities.

This is the concept of Psivampirism. The collecting of life energy (much like that of Chi or Ki)

The hungering of a vampire is often compared to a strangling serpent.

Just a little tattoo design that I did for a friend a few years ago. She got it done, and also signed a release form for the use for this book.

So there you go.

See you space cowboy......

Mask: Complete

2009-11-27T22:58:00.000-08:00

Well, after much much MUCH work on my mask, it is complete.

I only did the front mask as it seemed to promote the original concept without the necissity of the top mask. I may still make it, though, since I did like the design, and the molding is already complete.

So here's some pictures of the mask, and the process in which it was produced.

The original first design was scrapped for the second design. It was then molded with the copper eye in place.

It was cast in resin with the eye in place, then was (sadly) painted. I then removed the paint because it looked so bad to show the resin below. I then fabricated the forehead from copper, and filled it in with resin. I then fabricated the copper along the cheek and to the side of the chin.

I then fabricated the handle for the mask from copper, with a domed brass end to reflect the brass screws and bolts used for stability, structure, and accent. I used a peel-type embossing method to emboss the spiral on the handle, and also etched it with a motif held common throughout all of the copper on the mask.

Explanation of the Piece:

This piece is my attempt of blending my two primary disciplines: Anthropology and Metalsmithing. The mask is supposed to be similar to those used by shaman to tell stories and to perform rituals of healing. The mask itself is called "The Contemporary Shaman Mask of the Healer" because of its significance. It represents the mask that would be adorned by what is considered to be a healer in contemporary western cultures: the doctor. The robotic forms and designs shows the modern dependence on technology and science for healing. It's often perceived in western culture that if science and technology can't cure it, it's incurable. However, science and technology did not exist at these levels for hundreds of thousands of years, and humans managed to survive to be the most world-altering species on the planet. In other words, the science we depend so heavily on is not the only manner of healing available, but we rely 100% upon it. We also push it on others. The handle itself makes a statement on the so-called "healers" of modern days. The handle is long, and requires an absolute upright posture to wear the mask. In this pose, a person would seem to be puting themselves in a prideful, god-like posture. This represents the god complex displayed by many doctors. The massive grin has wide lips, which is a motif standard to all shaman masks, but the massive grin represents the fake smiles and joy that doctors act out to patients as they treat each patient as a mere number (the average doctor/patient interaction is less than 5 minutes).

Here's the original sculp of the second mask.

So there you go. I'm happy with the piece. It seemed to pull in my steampunk aesthetics accidently, as well. Can't argue with that!

See you space cowboy.......

New Pictures

2009-11-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

Well, it was the last weekend of Frightworld. Last night was my last night of scaring for another 10 months. Very sad. But I guess now my life can return to school-focused. I'm still a designer there, so I'll still be working. Just not so late.

Anyway, I have some pictures to share. Some that I didn't know were out there, one that's really cool.

Here's a picture of me working on detailing the columns outside of Return of the Mummy's curse. I designed the column layout, then started carving and painting cracks into them, as well as antiquing them.

Here's another one of me working on the columns. I'm up on a lift because the columns are 10ft tall.

I didn't really know that those pictures were out there. Now I do. Damn stalkers.

This is the cool one. On the last night, our amazing makeup artists went to town. They really liked my bald head. So another actor named Rob Cmor sculpted and molded this wound, then our lead artist Arick Szymecki painted it, then our prop artist Andrew Lavin applied it to my scalp and applied the makeup around it. Pretty damn convincing.

Now I can take credit for three artistic tasks at Frightworld: I'm a designer, an artist, and a canvas.

See you space cowboy.......

Eye of Balor: Chasing and Repousse

2009-11-02T08:18:00.000-08:00

Well for the chasing and repousse assignment, I've really been quite lost conceptually. So this morning I whipped out a bunch of my myth references and started reading. It worked out well because I found a story to use. Now, to some of you this idea may seem familiar. It's actually and idea I almost attempted a little over a year ago. It was right before Halloween last year, and I started to design a monocle. The monocole was going to be a monster's cycloptic eye. I actually got the idea from this myth, but totally forgot until I rediscovered it in one of my books.

The story is the Celtic myth of Balor. Balor is a god of death and king for the Fomorians, a race of monstorous giants that once controlled Ireland and were rooted to the sea. His father was Buarainech, a poison-maker. He kept Balor chained up at a young age, and the poisonous fumes made his one eye toxic. Everything he looked at died instantly. A prophecy came to him later that said his grandson would be destined to kill him, so he locked his only daughter up in a crystal tower on the island of Troy. With the help of the druid Birog, Cian (a God of the Tuatha de Danann who was trying to take over Ireland) inpregnated Balor's daughter. She had 3 sons, but Balor ordered that they all drown in the whirlpools near Troy. One son was dropped, and was saved by the druids. His name was Lugh. Lugh was raised as a proud warrior of the Tuatha de Danann, and was highly respected by his fellow gods. It's even said that the good god, Dagda, stepped down from his command of the De Danann military to allow Lugh to claim his destiny in the second battle at Mag Tuireadh. In this battle, Balor killed the De Danann leader but became tired. Since it took 7 servants to lift his eyelid, he closed his eye to rest. Right before the eye was completely closed, Lugh shot a rock from a magic slingshot at Balor's eye. His eye shot through the back of his head, and gazed upon his entire military behind him...Killing them all.

The Tuatha de Danann took over Ireland, allowing the Fomorians to live with them since their leader was killed. Eventually, the Milesians went to war with the Tuatha de Danann, and took over Ireland to become the ancestors of the modern inhabitants of Ireland. The Tuatha de Danann, along with the Fomorians, moved underground and became the fairy folk of Ireland.

So there we go. Really delved into the Cultural Anthropology on this one. So basically my plan is to do a monocle with 6 panels on it. I want the order and method of the display of the story to somewhat resemble that of Renaissance portals, with the large center one being similar to the tympanum. I made a digital sketch real quick of my idea, but I need to work out more details.

Stylistically, I'm going to take major influence from early (BCE) Celtic Metalsmithing styles. In other words, very round and somewhat idealistic. My primary reference for Celtic styling, especially in reference to chasing and repousse, is the Gundestrup cauldron. Here's a good picture of it.

Here's a close-up of the panel showing Cerennus, the god of the beasts.

So yeah, there we go. It's a decent start.

See you space cowboy....

Half-Dead

2009-10-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

I'm alerting everyone out there:

I will most likely not be in class tomorrow, and possibly Wednesday.
I was working Friday night and at about 12AM, I felt insanely sick. At about 12:30AM, I blacked out.
Paramedics checked me out. I had a fever of 103. They sent me home, and the next day I went to the doctor. I have advanced H1N1. While they don't check for H1N1, they did a flu test which positively placed me in category A. No other strain from this category is rampant right now aside from H1N1, so they can safely assume that it is my plague. I am showing all red-flag signs of deadly H1N1, so I'm on red alert. ER on speed dial.
When I showed symptoms about a month ago of H1N1, it probably was. The doctor said that when I got better, it probably went dormant and my lack of food and sleep made it pop back out.

I feel much better today thanks to the large amounts of Tamiflu. But the doctor told me that no matter what I need to rest for several days.
According to the CDC, someone with H1N1 may return to full function only after 24 hours without a fever. And it has to be unassisted, so no Advil or Tylenol.

So lucky me....

See you space cowboy.....

Project 2: Some Questions

2009-10-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, I started to think about ideas for the second project as I'm detailing the first.

One of my major questions is:
Does the story have to be another person's narrative? Or could I have written it?

The reason I ask is that when I was between the ages of 16 and 19, I wrote a story for fun. The basic explanation of the story is as follows:

Every night when the world of man falls asleep and the eyes of the world's
beasts are closed, the mushrooms of the earth come alive. They eat, love, fight,
pray, and do all that man can do. Just smaller. The mushrooms exist in tribes
battling eachother for territory, but they must also defend themselves from the
attrocities of man. The chemicals and poisons that come alive to attack all that
lives. A great mushroom came about and united all of the tribes in a massive
battle for the defense of the mushroom colonies. In the final battle, the king
died in his final push for victory. The mushrooms won, but had lost their king.
Until another great mushroom came along. He was born blind, but built himself
eyes. This Mycomechanic, as he came known to be, rebuilt the king out of the
metals of the earth, much like his eyes. The mycomechanic named the
newly-constructed king Psilocyborg, and they both ruled the colony forever
more.

This was just a basic overview of it. It actually got real detailed once upon a time. This story was the one that I described in the beginning of the semester on how it influenced that mask. So anyway, I want to make the Mycomechanics eyes, so my other question is:

Does the object have to TELL the narrative? Or can it just be PART of the narrative?

See you space cowboy....

Mask Progress

2009-10-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

So I've gotten a hell of a lot done on the mask. Now that I've done it once, it will go much smoother in the future. Or so that seems to be the pattern. So here's some process pictures for y'all.

The original concept sculpture for the mask. I was in NO WAY happy with it, so I started anew.

The new mask sculpted

The mask with the eye to cast in place

The mask cast in transparent blue resin with eye cast in place

There's loads more details to add including a paint job and a bunch of new metal work. There's also a lot of clean up for the resin itself. But really, that's not too bad. The hard part is over and now it's just little things.

The secondary mask (top mask) from the original design isn't even started yet. However, I'm considering not casting it in resin but instead casting it in latex. I need to play with that idea a little more, but I'm not overly concerned about it. Yes, I know it's due Wednesday, but I now understand the process because I've done it on my own. So I predict that I have the time.

The primary (front) mask is the largest concern to me. It's much more important than the secondary.

See you space cowboy...

BLOG LIST

2009-10-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

Just to alert every0ne that is still searching for classmates:

There's a blog list on the right side menu of this blog! It says "Followers Blogs" above it. They are links directly to every blog. There's 17 of them, which is pretty close to everyone.

Here is the list repeated:

Amanda Albertsson
Melissa Aldrich
Sally Avery
Jihea Eum
Brian Gouche
John Harris (Me)
Lizabeth Kelley
Sooja Lee
Alison Long
Jennifer Mook
Tara Nahabitian
Vincent Pontillo
Dorothy Rapp
Glen Stew
Rachel Timmins
Aric Verrastro
Pei-Chen Wu

More Masks

2009-10-01T23:10:00.000-07:00

So I decided to rebuild the plastic base of my mask. The first one wasn't crazy enough for me. I've been doing loads of research to gain a better understanding of "successful" masks, so here's some images from an awesome mask maker.

The artist's name is Monica Roxburgh for Portland. Her website is goblinart.com

So there you go. Some pretty pictures.

I'll have ALL weekend to pound out some research seeing as I officially have influenza of the oinking variety.

See you space cowboy.......