The Golden Snitch

Behold!

I made this snitch  in 2007 as a gift for a friend before you could just buy one at the store. I placed it in a box that I covered in paper and ink to make it look a tad more regal. On one side there are swirling engravings and on the other side is a very poorly translated inscription reading "We'll lead as two kings" in Latin, although it more than likely says something like "Us reigning as how king twins."

The snitch was made with oven bake clay packed around a wooden core, and metallic origami paper over jeweler's wire for the wings. I carved a small compartment inside the wooden core to house secret messages, jewels, drugs, teeth, monkey tears, demon souls, etc. The etchings in the surface were made after a pre-bake (a half cook time to stiffen the clay without fully setting it) in order to avoid warping on the surface. Pre-bakes are great if you ever need to carve a design into a sculpture or you want to make straight cuts that will hold their shape, particularly if you're going for a hewn stone look. The swirling lines and the inscription we stained with a brown ink wash: coating the piece in watered-down ink/paint that seeps into recesses and then wiping off the excess on the surface.

It doesn't fly, but it looks pretty sweet.

Lamp

Music Monday - Take III

House of Jeffrey - lyrics at end of post

This song was written on a front lawn one lazy Saturday, when Remy decided he wanted to write something with a slide guitar part. I hummed along a melody and slowly started patching words in, inspired and saddened by the fact that I would soon be leaving Davis and all my friends behind to start school someplace else. We came up with the idea of writing about a tree-house because it embodies childhood nostalgia.

The next day we set about recording the song, and rushed around the house "exploring" for sounds to compliment the whimsical mood of the song.  Everything you hear (aside from guitar and vocals) were made by the following:
-A guitar pedal
-A wine glass
-A parasol
-A cymbol
-A ruler
-A cellphone
-Wind chimes
-10 overlapping tracks of us yelling like pirates
Remy made a much better pirate than I did; I sounded more like an orc.
The song remains my favorite track from that particular collaboration. It stands as a monument to my best college years and very fond memories. I hope it invokes something similar in others who hear it too.

_________________________________________

Here are the lyrics:

I went home last summer
to get my roots back in the ground,
and I was back at the old tree house
with no one else around.
And I found myself thinking
of all the things it once had been:
spaceships and time-machines,
and Big Jeffrey looking in.
He was a mean old kingfisher
with a beak of plated gold,
and he'd sit upon the bow
as we'd let the day unfold.

Time-travel?
Not a problem.
Dinosaurs?
Yeah, we rode on one or two,
and the passers-by all swam in lava
though they never had a clue.
Yeah, we rode on for hours
'till the dinner bell was rung,
and we'd hitch our pterodactyls
and wash up for some grub.

Though seasons have changed and winters come along,
the memories remain and keep it standing strong.
The bones that we've broken and trouble that we've made
just help us to find the dreams we have today.

Aliens?
Green and slimy.
Flying saucers?
We flew them at light speed.
We'd drag race any comet
and explore the galaxy.
Pirates?
Fought 'em often
Treasure?
We dug up our fair share.
We made our sisters walk the plank
and hung their dolls up by their hair.
We'd sail on for hours
'till the wind blew out our lights,
and Jeffrey would sing us to sleep
it's how he liked to say goodnight.

Though seasons have changed and winters come along,
the memories remain and keep it standing strong.
The cannons have rusted. The crew has gone away,
but adventure lives on in the things we do today.

Remy became a river boat captain along the river Styx.
I work in a bar on Mars where I sing and do magic tricks.
We may not really be in the places that we claim,
but life looks a little more manageable through a childhood window pane.

Now a new crew has taken over
to get it running once again,
and they was up in the old tree house
with Big Jeffrey looking in.

My very first clone machine!

Over the past couple of weeks I've been messing around with urethane plastics and resins to create molds for casting sculptures. I've succeeding in breaking one of my favorite pieces and melting the corner off of my desk, but lo, I've finally succeeded!

 

I used Smooth-On brand rubbers and plastics and followed their very helpful tutorial videos. The main hiccup was finding the right area on the model to make the seam so that I could easily remove the mold without damaging the mold or the original. To see the piece I molded in better detail, click here. I ended losing about half of the original's hair, its ear, a leech on the shoulder, and the tip of the breathing apparatus. With a couple of carefully placed cuts in the mold I'm now able to get replicates that are completely intact without leaving bits in the mold (it also helps that the resin is less brittle than the original's sculpey form).

I used a quick-cure formula in my first attempt, and the resin started setting as I was pouring it into the mold. The catalyzed reaction burnt my fingers even through my glove so I dropped the melted cup on my desk which is now a warped mess. The picture above shows my second try which I went into much better prepared. The finished result unfortunately has a lot of bubbles, but every cast I do I learn more about the process.

Now I can paint copies and give/sell them to people. I'll add more pictures to this post once I've put a base coat of paint on so that the details are visible rather than transparent.

If anybody wants a monster to paint I'll happily make you a copy :-)