As with most gift giving holidays, I am unprepared. Such was the Valentines Day "holiday". My favorite thing about Valentines day is that my wife's birthday is right around there. I can disguise a beyond-late birthday gift as an on-time Valentine gift. In fact, maybe as a global community we can employ my vehicle in-dash clock method: The clock is set 7 minutes fast so every time I'm running 7 minutes late, I'm actually right on time. Here... just... while I'm not looking, just move the date forward a few days. Then, all my fantastic beyond-last minute gift ideas would become fantastic on-time gifts! Let's face it, last minute gift ideas are always the best because,"they'd better be!" The big ideas this Valentines day came from one of my mom's suggestions. A while back she suggested that I make some sculptures like you see of hands holding a heart. It...
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Yay Steampunkery! I've always been a bit enamored with Steampunk things whether it be fantasy, fashion or functional. Basically, the concept is a melding of design from yester-year with technology from tomorrow. I've wanted to make steampunk stuff for a long time now, but I get too caught up in creating designs with "actual function" rather than just making some art. I can't just go sticking gears and watch-parts together with clay... or... can I? My wife bought me a book called Steampunkery: polymer clay and mixed media projects. It's unquestionably very thoughtful but I couldn't help but feel that it's concepts were a bit... beneath me. I spend weeks and months on my sculptures. Many of the projects in this book can be done in one sitting, using techniques that include just sticking gears and watch parts together with clay. There's a lesson to be learned here. I'm not...
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(cont. from previous post) Because I molded the horns of the Triceratops as separate pieces, they had to be attached with glue. I didn't sweat it since I have a super crazy glue that promised "amazing" adhesion. The goofy thing was that when my son got ahold of the knocker, he snapped a horn off way TOO easily. Standing in the glue isle staring at the 30-40 different glues and epoxies that all guaranteed to have the strongest and most advanced formula, it occurred to me that I didn't even really know the difference between epoxy and glue... do you? With all said and done, I can safely say: If you're making something out of paper or cardboard, use glue. If you're trying to fix something that will never be touched or have to face the elements, go with the glue. But if you're trying to make/fix something that will...
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David. David who? David who just bought my first functional triceratops door knocker! Ain't that cool? Thanks David. He contacted me a couple weeks ago about the knocker. The Triceratops is his favorite dinosaur and he was excited to see my beginning attempt at a triceratops door knocker. I was scared to mold it myself though, I didn't want to risk destroying ANOTHER piece. Also, it's a knocker, getting banged around is it's primary function... it had to be done right or it would just fall apart. I looked into having it professionally molded and cast which turns out to be a pricey endeavor. In turn, for me to make a profit, I would have to sell a product at a price that I myself could not afford and that just doesn't jive. So, although mold making is scary and terribly messy (it's SO messy) the most cost effective thing...
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In between itty-bitty-dino chess pieces, I've been working on a Triceratops door knocker. It's one of the "larger" pieces I've done recently, measuring in at a whopping 3 1/2 inches across! All in all this knocker is a sporty little A-cup, but a boob's a boob it's a Triceratops. In the previous post I discovered all this information about a Triceratops head and what little information exists regarding the rest of its body. I sculpted this piece specifically for the opportunity to focus on just the Triceratops head. Also, working at a scale that is almost 20 times larger than the chess pieces head, was more conducive to "dickering with the minutia" (which is kind of my bag). The horns were made to be detachable to make molding it easier. It was a simple matter of baking the head with wire wrapped toothpicks stuck in where the horns would go....
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