Longfellow

Longfellow ssstrikes again...

Komposit Legno

Nice font...

the kids have equally distributed the contents across time and space.

Keep/Give

Compulsive hoarders the Collyer brothers, who amassed 130 tons of garbage in their brownstone house, eventually causing their demise, including mounds of newspapers and 14 pianos.

A Northwest pacific tribal (Haida, Tlingit and others) custom known as 'Potlatch' whereby high status was granted to those who could give away the most stuff to friends and neighbours.

Gifts might include blankets, tools and foodstuffs. This practice was apparently banned by government until the 50's.

Drillium again

Drillium project: Gear shift levers minus a couple of grams...
Sacrilege? Well, if you want to go faster, the bike has to be lighter, no?

( actually... you just have to pedal faster ;-) )

P.S - nobody does this better than a jeweller- if you want some, drop me a line.

Up To

Simple silver triangle earrings.

In a unfinished state...next: polish? plate? leave as-is?

I made a whole bunch of these, such a basic and familiar idea that I think the proportions really matter; they should be distinctive, but not be too strange. I always change them, I think some are better than others, but they're all good. I do make some much larger ones which are my favorite, - they are a pretty bold statement!

Imagine if I went here to make these...

Magnifico!

(pic via old chum)

What is this?

Its a nice object- cousin to these?

:Alice's folding hoof-pick-(well, that's what it has been used for!)

...for keeping your horse neat-o

Another Little Brother

Giacometti?!

Yeah; Diego Giacometti, Alberto's little brother.

'The Cat Butler'.

I think I really do like this- it's funny. It's humble. It transcends.

Shout-out to all the little brothers. I am one.

Rembrandt Bugatti

Sculptor: Rembrandt Bugatti...( better pics here)

His story, as far as I can gather:

He loved animals- the big cats... the big cats.

He would go to the Antwerp Zoo to make observations.

During WW1, the zoo-keepers had to kill the animals.

He was deeply saddened.

Soon after, Bugatti took his own life, age 31.

Tinsmithing a Phonograph Horn

John Yard making a phonograph horn- great! I want one!

via NMA

Ram-a-lama ding-dong

via FTJ- exceedingly long-horned claw hammer made me think of...

ram-a-lama rutting

Viking boots reproduced from archaelogial finds.

Comes with bonus toe-cloud.

I could shuffle around the house in these, pillage the pantry.

...and carry off my loot in this. ( medieval back pack)

Jünger and Eggs

Excerpt from an interview with Hermann Jünger (click for source)

H.J.:" Technical and organic perfection strike me as two different things. A steel ball turned and polished to precision can often be endlessly repeated with today’s tools. Each ball will look exactly like all the others—perfection to an extremely high degree.

An egg has a shape that hasn’t changed in millennia; eggs are all alike—“to be as like as two eggs” as we say in German—and that too is a perfect shape.

But upon closer inspection we discover that, in fact, no two eggs are alike. There are differences in the surfaces, the shades of color, the sizes.

In contrast to industrially manufactured things, the egg is something organic, living. It is more than perfection; I see it as something organically perfect, complete.

This is why perfection in craft perplexes more than it convinces me. Older craftsmanship is rarely entirely perfect; it was industry that ultimately destabilized craft.

Organic irregularities were regarded more and more often as mistakes. The ambition to produce flawless things overshadowed the sense of responsibility to form. Most of today’s craft workshops work with machines that make perfection possible but no longer allow for organic perfection."

What he said about the eggs... made me think... of Jüngeresque eggs

This illustration of eggs is like a page of Jünger pendants...

Whitewash + Other Actions

My Whitewash Recipe:

-Slaked Lime ( wet calcium hydroxide)

-cement for more body

Apply to dampened wall with an old broom.

Best action-painting experience!

Some recipes call for salt or animal glue to 'fix' it.

Or oyster shells... for extra luminescence? ( its already bright!)

Inside sign to remind myself.

( "put... down... the guitar...now step away")

Right, back to work.

Whale cuff, work-in-progress

Colour Coloumn

Black painting

Through a glass, darkly

I unearthed this funny object and wondered why, on earth, would I squash a nice tube so brusquely... then remembered... that it is actually a special tool for scooping out sediment from between narrow fissures in the rocks of creek beds... the sediment where alluvial gold lies hidden! Earthy, man.

Ethically sourced gold: coming soon to the workshop.

"Mouse" by E.

The Making of Wire

Ancient way of making wire:

1.Bash out a blob of gold into a flat sheet, ( use a smooth rock for an anvil)

2.Chisel off a strip, ( A stone chisel is ideal (!))

3.Roll strip between two hard surfaces- (perhaps two stone blocks)

The strip will roll/twist into a round wire.

So thats what I did. ( see gold earrings above on green)

(actually, I used clay bricks instead of rocks. And a steel chisel. Sorry)

The result:

grosso modo ma bella!

Drawn wire (the current typical method of wire production) is passé!

Well, its very predictable anyway.

Still the history is also interesting. (WARNING: goldsmithing geekiness ahead)

Theophilus' Treatise (early 12th Century) is thought the first technical description of wire drawing.

A solid rod of metal is pulled through a series of conical holes in an iron block,to make thinner and longer.

A page of Theo's ramblings in german, in case you didn't follow my description.

AD 1389. the first illustration of wire drawing? ( Mendel Bros.)

Workshop of 1576. Note the draw-table with crank wheel (apprentice-powered) on the left. Different draw plates on the wall. Drooby hats and hosiery for all. (Stephanus)

1698. The illustration is more sophisticated, but the wire-making is essentially the same. This wire-drawing workshop has a nice wheeled draw-table, and... drooby hats. No puffy shouldered tunics though. (probably for the best )

Note draw plates on floor. (Weigel)

Historical info from here

Andrew Oddy (British Museum)

OK!

Yawn.