It’s a little difficult to make out in this shaky video, but the Baby Cuttlefish are now properly mounted on the “piers” and have little mechanisms causing them rock gently back and forth. I’m looking forward to introducing them to the larger Cuttlefish I’ve already assembled.
Having roughed out the lighting and backdrop issues with this piece, I moved on to the second “actor” on the stage. A smaller Nautilus which has been caught in a net and had its shell harvested. He’s naked!
A short while ago I briefly installed my latest piece “Armed and Dangerous” at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. This can be a very crowded place, and the majority of visitors tend to be young people. These young people happen to be the best stress-testers available for work like mine. A big robot with buttons and gauges can sometimes produce mania in kids and this time was no exception. Their enthusiasm quickly revealed several flaws in my design.
The first issue I noticed was that too much heat was building up inside the sculpture. I had never run it so constantly before. The solution was to add cooling fans and air intakes in the head and torso.
The second issue was an attention span one. The piece is designed to be in “stand by” mode while the mercury switch mechanism in its head goes through its revolutions. This way the arms only move for a few seconds out of every minute. Most children couldn’t bear waiting and just pounded on the start button until it burned out. Lesson learned, there is now a toggle switch inside that allows me to over ride the secondary timer so that the arms move as soon as the button is pressed. I prefer the piece in its original state, but part of working with the public is making compromises with them.
Another problem was that the motors driving the upper arms began to struggle after the first day. I had made an error in assuming that since all of the arms were the same weight, they would need the same force to move them. In fact, since the upper arms project further from the body they need considerably more. I replaced these motors with new ones, increased the tension on the damping springs, and added brass counter weights to the inside. They now require nearly the same energy to move as the lower ones.
So essentially the piece looks the same as it did before, but is now considerably more robust and up to the challenges presented by heavy use, and enthusiastic children. Each new piece reveals its quirks the first time out of the studio and I’m always grateful for the opportunity this provides me with to further hone my craft.
I just got the mechanism working on a new Nautilus sculpture. Eventually it will be built in to a diorama for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I still plan to add a few more tentacles and install a LED behind the eye, as well as a few other small touches. I’ve found its best to work out the moving elements before getting lost in the details though.
It took some fiddling, but I finally got the little mechanism working on my new octopus piece. The principle is very simple, but there was a lot of room for error. I’m looking forward to coming up with some big spooky eyes next.
Shown here are some wooden shoe stretchers on their way to being a pair of homunculus workers who will power the machinery inside my next large figurative piece.
I’m pretty excited about this little piece. The mechanism turns some cranks inside each of the film canister “heads” causing them to sort of yawn, and grind their zipper teeth. Expect LEDs inside the eyes etc.
I first used one of these canisters in my piece “Head Case #2“.
It’s pretty unusual for me to find myself making multiples of parts. Lately I’ve been working on a figure that will have four arms, so I’ve had to make an exception. Shown here are the individual pieces that will make up the shoulder joints. The motor mounts and cranks will come later.
A short while ago Michael Sturtz gave me a nice old radio. You can see from the “before” image on the left that its face had been damaged. Upon seeing it I immediately worried that it would displace the head I had been developing for a large scale figure I was working on. Well, this turned out to be the case. The radio has since evolved into some kind of Chihuahua / Bat / Monkey creature. I’m currently working on a little machine that will cause the eyebrows to pivot back and forth on their center.
A few weeks back I had the honor of participating in the Liu Lecture Series in Design at Stanford University.
I’ve posted video of the lecture in two segments here.
I’m working on a new large piece that I would like to have four arms. This is tricky because it means finding twice as many matching parts as usual. I think I’ve settled on a design I like that I can replicate. It consists of bean scoops, table legs, pipe elbows, coffee pots, and some strange industrial wooden spindle things I cant identify. Ideally the wrists, elbows, and fingers will have a little bit of adjustability so that each arm can have a slightly different pose.
The other day my neighbor gave me this crazy old bit of medical science. I just love the range of functions on this thing. Finally I can have sinusoidal feet, whatever that means. Just take care not to vaporize them.
CTP gave me these incredibly cool bomber pilot map lights a while back. You can change the output from a clear amber light to blood red by rotating the lens. It has always been my intention to incorporate them into a sculpture as eyes. Its finally looking like I’ve got just the right project in the works to do this. We’ll see…
Here is a pretty cool wide angle photo that Gregory Hayes took several weeks ago for an upcoming article in Make Magazine. In addition to my motorcycle project, if you look close you can see “Mandolinsect” and “Djinn” in various stages of development on the workbench, as well as some other pieces that have yet to be defined..
This is a tiny little machine I built to operate an old ash tray that I am turning into a blinking cyclops sculpture…..I hope.
Entering the final stages of the never ending project. All parts are degreased/painted/polished. Plenty of assembly and trouble shooting left to do though.
Crumby old motorcycle engine finds fountain of youth.
Cam mechanism to animate antennae. This element is really simple. The difficulty is in mounting it inside a dome shape. It’s a definite down side to my preference for curved, organic shapes.
Working on an insect piece with multiple incandescent eyes. The plan is to run the bulbs at the lowest possible voltage so that you can just see the filament glowing.
Working on a mask from sheet metal. Part of the motivation in my motorcycle project was to pick up some new techniques that could be applied to art. I’m not thrilled with this piece so far, but I can see the possibilities opening up.
Mounting solution for gauges. The temp gauge is the original stock one mounted in a random vintage housing I had laying around. Pure luck that it fit so well. I just had to black out the face and apply colored stickers to indicate the temp range.
Shop tip: for an extra high gloss finish on aluminum, set your “machine” on “purr” and move in a slow clockwise rotation.
Just about finished with the motorcycle fairing…
Early stages of motorcycle fairing.
It would be a stretch to say I’m getting “good” at this, but I’m at least beginning to see how it works. To me, a new skill is only enjoyable once I’ve reached the point where I can improvise with it. Up until now I’ve felt totally at the mercy of what the metal was willing to do. Now at least I feel like I’m gaining some control.
So, the bike project needed headlights. I came across a set of projector headlights from a car. Once free from their plastic tombs I set about building mounts to fit them to the bike. The result looks pretty good, and I think they have enough adjustability to function well. Next up, front fairing…
I definitely underestimated the difficulty in my tail light concept. I had planned to simply back the slots with strip LEDs. Turns out these are nowhere near bright enough. The solution was a hacked pair of LED car tail lights. Same light source, but each cell is encased in a tiny reflector cone which greatly increases the visibility (and they were pre-wired for two brightness levels). Needless to say the original plastic housings were not eager to play nice with my aluminum tail shape. Bandsaw, belt sander, zip ties, and some custom brackets and I can finally call it a success.
I had to make a funny overhead support arm to help hold my TIG torch for this project. I’m really glad I did too, taking the cord weight off the torch makes a huge difference in getting consistent welds.
Thinking of going with an old airplane theme for my bike project. Feeling pretty good about this plan to join two upside down windscreens to make a fairing that looks somewhat like a bomber nose. Bear with me if I change direction, it’s still early.
I’m excited to have finally begun my motorcycle project! I was given a Honda CX500 in poor condition as a starting point. My plan is to rebuild the tank and body work from aluminum sheet. This is a process I have always wanted to learn but have little experience with. To get over the vertigo of not knowing where to begin, I’m roughing out design possibilities with styrofoam. No telling how many attempts it will take before I eventually get a form worth translating into a metal pattern. Bear with me, this one may take a while.
Yesterday I made the mistake of saying “I kinda want to build some models of shapes to make patterns from. Maybe out of styrofoam, but where am I gonna find a huge chunk?” Then Jeremy says “Oh, theres one on the curb a block from here”.
So now I am the proud owner of a huge block of styrofoam. I had to whip up a 13 volt hot wire cutter to process it into manageable pieces. Next up is a smaller, more precise cutter to do detail work.
I’m working on a series of pieces that will be as tiny as I can manage. Equal parts fun and maddening.
Some pretty good finds this week. Check out the crazy adjustable brass candle sticks! I’ve also been looking for a little sheet metal machine for a while now. Not the kind of thing one expects to find at a scrap yard.