Harmonograph #1

Most of the sculpture I make these days moves in some ways. That movement comes from natural forces like wind and gravity. I experiment a lot with different ways to exploit these natural forces. A harmonograph is a drawing machine that is driven by gravity. I've wanted to try to make a few of these for some time (there are several different kinds). There are two or three more designs I want to make. The thing is they tend to be large if you want to draw on full size office paper, or larger sheets of paper. So I designed one that can be taken apart for compact storage, is easy to set up, and can be clamped to most standard height tables.
I would love to make a large harmonograph. One that is, all by itself, a piece of sculpture. Imagine that. A piece of sculpture that draws pictures. Art created by Art.
So, here's a video I made of me demonstrating this first simple harmonograph.

Working with metal

I've been working with metal more and more lately. I'm really liking it. I have a few friends who have forges and I'm always fascinated with working in them. Some of the most creative fun I ever had was a night working (playing) in my friend's blacksmith shop.We made a piece that night that I entered in an art show.
I bought a welder recently so I could work more with metal and make larger things, and things that can live outdoors. I've been wanting to get a welder for a long time. I want to make larger, more durable mobile's for one thing, but I have lots of other ideas too. More on that later.
In the meantime . . .
I saw this braided metal technique, used for making decorative handles, and I wanted to try to see if I could make one. Here is my first attempt. It ended up being a barbeque fork. The fork is an old stainless steel fork, and the handle is made with four strands of braided and twisted wire. The braided part looks pretty cool, and actually is cool, because the braided part doesn't heat up in the fire. The photos were taken before I cleaned it up, buffed and polished it.  It's not easy getting a nice tight even braid and keeping the whole thing straight without putting a lot of tool marks on it. Not too bad for a first attempt though.
This technique would look nice on jewelry as well.
In the meantime I have to work on my welding skills. I'm still a bit sloppy at this stage. Anybody know where I can get my hands on some free scrap metal?

Close up of the braided handle

The finished fork, before clean-up, and polishing.

Mobile #40

Here is mobile' #40. The fourth mobile' I made this year. Still needs a bit of polish, but the construction is complete and it's all balanced. It took a bit of welding to build this one. I've been working in metal more this year. A new medium for me, and I'm liking it.

Mobile' #39

This is mobile' #39, my 3rd one this year.This is the follow-up to the prototype posted a short while back (#38).
This one is made from aluminum flat 1/8"x 3/4" flat stock, shaped, tapered and bent by hand. This is a pivot-on-point type table-top mobile', approx. 17"H x 10"W. I like working with this medium. I'd like to do some more, exploring this type of mobile'. Wind has only a minimal effect on this kind of mobile' but it's still a nice mobile'.

Cartoon of the Week

New mobile', #38

Here's a new mobile', #38 just finished. This one is approx. 14" X 20", all steel construction. Hand-crafted. I may tweak this one a little more (minor issues, really). This is the second one I made this year. I would've made more but for a shortage of time and space. All my mobiles are for sale.
See more of them on my web site:
http://www.tesserak.net/html/mobiles.htm

New painting: done with spray paint

Here's a new painting I did a couple of days ago. It is done on a 10"x18" plywood panel. It was done completely in hardware store spray paint, about 8 colors. No preliminary drawing or sketch. Time to complete: about 10 minutes. It is ridiculously easy to do. The bottom portion is a bit washed out from light glare in this photo.
I saw a guy making this kind of painting on the street and I thought, "How hard could that be?" It's not hard, but it does take some finesse to do it well. I will paint a few more of these just to play around with the technique, and have some fun.