The above photo sequence shows the process of getting a 200lb piece of limestone up onto the carving bench. This was March 31st and the weather was great, but I didn't take advantage of a beautiful April since I was busy working metal. So the stone still awaits. Since then, I've sawed off the top third of the stone since I didn't think a carved piece could survive being that thin relative to its length. I'll start on this soon.

New metal piece, May 16th

Here is a piece I finished just today, one that took about 4 times as long to finish as I expected. It is painted and then abraded, and by showing a photo of it before painting, I expect many to say, "I liked it better before the paint!". Too bad 'cause it's my piece and I wanted it painted! Seriously, the bare aluminum was not consistent with my idea for this one whose title is, "Armored Low Rhombo". It will be mounted on a 1/2" thick, small square of MDF. Dimensions: 15" x 15" x 4.5". Weight: 1lb. 11oz. I thought about hanging it on the wall, but trying that out revealed an interesting phenomenon: The shape began to lose visual volume and became an unusual perspective representation of a cube, losing much of its "object-ness". The effect was compelling, but again, not what I was interested in achieving. So, the piece will be displayed horizontally, as though hovering close to whatever horizontal surface it sits on.

New metal piece

This piece, "Post-Structuralist Dilemma #2", is a reprise of a piece I did in 2008 that happened to sell immediately. I've been wanting to work with the forms and structure of the first one because they are still of interest to me after a considerable time. It has a core of 1/2" MDF covered with steel and features details of brass and copper. An aluminum-covered board holds it all together, though most of that component is not seen. Size is 26" x 6" x 2". I wasn't sure if the steel was going to work out for this type of piece, so I started small, hence its modest size. I think I can use steel, building on this experience, to make some larger scale works.

Art Deco Pull Toy

Another pull toy is finished. This one's a 6" cube with art deco encrustations. I like the appearance of the rivet-less construction (although I like the rivets too), but one of the internal braces came loose while I was attaching the wheels, hence the two rivets on one side. So, the next one may feature really small screws to make it structurally sound. This piece, except for the wheels, is all aluminum.

Near Miss

The "Near Miss" in the title above refers not to my assessment of the success of the piece, but rather to it's tentative title. This is a piece I finished today, after about 8-9 hrs. of work. It features rivet-less construction, and will be left unpainted. I like the simplicity of the forms and their appearance of solidity and weight. Actually, the pieces weigh roughly 2oz. apiece and, together, measure 26.25" top to bottom. I plan to continue with this style for a while, simultaneously developing more adult pull toys.

It's black . . .

Well, my paint experiment turned out well - it looks pretty much like I envisioned. This piece was spray-painted flat black and then abraded with some very coarse steel wool. A spray acrylic enamel top coat was then applied and should offer good protection. Just today I've bought three more colors of spray paint bringing the total to five, which gives me an adequate palette for future pieces. More to come soon . . .

On to the metal!

Some of my friends have been pointing out to me that I haven't posted anything for quite a while. Well, I've been busy cleaning
my metal shop so that I could actually work – and here's the result. I'm thinking of this as sort of a prototype for a series vaguely
evocative of mountains. I've not been too concerned about the finish of the aluminum on this piece because the next step is to spray paint it black. Yeah, FLAT black. Then, I plan to mess with the surface with abrasives. Painting should happen tomorrow, followed by roughing it up and finally a satin clear coat. We'll see what happens . . .