Descending Ashtray

Here are a couple of cutting boards that I made for birthday’s. The one with the handle has tapered pieces in it.

A few months ago a publisher in Singapore contacted DA asking if they could use a picture of the watermill they found on this blog. We thought it would be cool as long a they credited Descending Ashtray. So today in the mail I received a copy of the textbook that they published.

A larger picture can be seen under the “Watermill” post

Well, I think I’ve let this puppy age long enough in Kari and Andrew’s garage. I’m selling Labyrinth: the Mini-Golf Hole on Craigslist. Please pass this along to anyone you think might be remotely interested in it, or at the very least, amused by it.

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/tag/385794483.html

UPDATE: The Labyrinth has been SOLD. Thanks for all your interest!

Wow, that was a long hiatus. Sorry. I have always been a pretty flighty artist, working in fits and spurts with long periods of inactivity. Last night I began what I hope is another long period of activity, picking up my “building” sculpture I began earlier in January (see also: 139 Pieces of Wood, 133 Holes).

Here’s my plan for the scultpure again:

All 133 pieces, glued up on waxed paper so they wouldn’t stick to my benchtop. I didn’t use any clamps or masking tape since the pieces were so small, just rubbed them together and squeezed by hand for a few seconds. Seems to have worked pretty well. Thanks, Titebond III.

After about an hour, I had to see what the finished product might look like, so I stood the pieces up and taped them together.

… which led to a bunch of photographs. I really like how it looks in the darkness with a single light source. It should look cool in daytime too. The contrast between the woods will be even more apparent once the wood has a coat of finish on it.

In 2004, our friends Dan and Emily asked Sarah and I to be godparents to their son Will, who was born in September 2004. As part of our duties, we would be joining them in his baptism at Christmas in Minneapolis, at the same church where Sarah and I were married. To commemorate the occasion, and Will’s first Christmas, I decided to make him a rocking horse. Per usual, I didn’t finish it in time, and it has languished ever since in a perpetual state of near completion.

With his third birthday drawing near, and Will growing ever taller, I decided I’d better make a push to finish the horse before he got too large.

3 years in the making. Ouch. The horse is poplar with woodburned linework and built-up acrylic paint. It’s based on a plan I found in Wood Magazine. I still have a few touch-ups to do on the paint job, and then plan to give it a few coats of spray-on clearcoat to protect the paint. Any ideas on a good finish?

On my recent visit to Boston to visit my sister, we made a day trip to Maine, and stopped at “The Lobster Shack” for lunch, a roadside restaurant near Portland Headlight we used to go to a lot as kids. I don’t remember these sculptures being there when I was a kid, but having Gabe’s recent kinetic sculptures post fresh in my mind, they impressed me enough that I took a few snapshot videos with my still camera.