A Bit of Repair Work for a Friend...........

My friend Patsy owns my piece titled "The Red Chair". I made it way back in 2001 and as you can see it's in my older style - all wood and much more colorful. She said the man's hat was missing after a recent move to North Carolina. She sent the piece to me and I carved, painted and attached a new hat. I also had a chance to shoot a few movies of it in action.

The hat I carved, on the end of my favorite X-acto knife. (For the past 15 years or so, I've been doing the majority of my carving with this knife. It's easy to spot on my cluttered work table because it's green!)



I wanted to make a simple crank, which ended up not so simple. I had to add the yellow slider piece to keep the red connecting rod at the same angle all the time or the mechanism would lock up.






Closer view showing the chunky gears and how they mesh.






For scale -the man is exactly 3" tall.




Back to working on the piano piece tomorrow - I'm building out/embellishing the piano.....

Piano piece update......

One last thing on the arms - since I need the arms to be heavier, I drilled these holes and poured in molten lead. I've done this a few times before and it works well. I covered the lead with a mixture of wood glue and sawdust. When dry, I file and sand it down. After painting, this "adjustment" will be undetectable.



After carving all the body parts I sculpted the head from polymer clay. Since his head will nod slightly, I have to work that out before I can finish the figure.

I drilled a hole in the neck which will be the pivot point. His neck this time is solid wood- I do this because the polymer clay, even though I have a supporting stick inside, isn't that strong. His head is at a slight turn towards the audience.


His head and the finished pin in the neck.


The line to move his head goes around a rod - usually I use screw eyes, but a rod seem better here. As the line is pulled his head goes up. The line runs inside a small brass tube that runs up through his body. I had to drill out section in his chest so the lever that connects to his neck has room to move.


Th figure is finished, and this shows the final position of the upper arms. Since he's not sitting straight on to the piano I adjusted where his upper arms were positioned. Only his lower arms will move.


Final position of the piano and figure. At this point everything has to be "nailed down" because now it's on to making the mechanisms and from this point forward nothing can move, or change. To get their positions correct, I placed them on a piece of paper and traced around the legs of the piano and the figure's feet. Then I determined how big the base would be and it's orientation.




Now it's on to making the mechanisms and the base..............

Piano piece is started.....

I started a new unnamed piece the other day - a man playing a piano. His arms will move and I'm pretty sure his head will but have not worked out how or which way.

In order to start making the figure, I first had to establish the overall dimensions by drawing it out full-size. This told me the height of the keys, so I had to start there. There have been a couple of starts and stops on this one. First I was going to use a couple of old boxes from which to build the piano, but then decided I needed something more refined and found this jewelry cabinet that seemed better. Also I wanted to hand-carve the keyboard, so I laid everything out and carved it. When it was done and painted, I realized it was too formal and opted for a more funky stylized keyboard that was actually a little easier to make.

Here are some in-progress images -----

Beginning the carved keyboard, (I still have it and it may work itself into another piece).


Carved keyboard finished. You can see I made it wavy, but it was not funky enough for this piece.


A more better keyboard - I glued a bunch of tiny pieces of wood together.


The keyboard installed in the piano - I was working out the position of the arms and how the figure addresses the piano.


My drawing of the hands.


The hands ready to be cut on the band saw.


After cutting they look strange.


Carving finished - it took all afternoon but I think they came out great, and I didn't break off any fingers or drop them. I had to add some bits with glue, (the black blobs).


I saturated them with thin CA glue which makes them much stronger - now I can quit worrying about breaking them.


The hands attached to the arms, notice the 2 different colors of basswood.


The figure's body. I will have to make or find something I can use for a chair.


More later!!! Now I got to get back to work.

New piece - "Undaunted" 2010

I had this idea of mounting an electric motor on the back of a figure for a while now- and I'm pretty happy with the results. The motor dictated the size of the figure which is larger than my "standard" size figure. The piece measures 9 1/2" x 19" x 9 1/2" and the propeller is powered by a 2o RPM motor. Click on images for a larger view.


Front view.


His power pack, complete with hand-carved propeller. I had to engineer the "backpack" in a way so the motor could be easily replaced (someday) if needed. Two screws hold everything together and the small round tin holds the wires which are connected with small wire nuts.


I did some preliminary carving on the legs and shoes, then cut them in half lengthwise in order to place the reinforcing rods and wires inside. You can see the legs are made with a half lap joint.


The wire runs alongside the 3/16" rod. I used CA glue to hold the rod and wire and wood glue on the wood surfaces.


The legs reassembled, ready for more carving.


The body and "backpack" in progress - you can see how the motor is placed here.


Carved hands ready to be attached to the arms and then painted.


The hands holding the controls.


The head before paint.
I really tried to push the caricature aspect of his face and when Paula said, "he looks French", I knew I accomplished what I was hoping for.


His head after painting and aging.


The figure, ready to be dressed.


This back view shows how his arms were glued into place before his shirt is sewn up. I had 4 mounting holes for the "backpack". Here you can see the wires that come up his legs, go through his torso and come out his back.


Each layer of fabric was cut away to reveal the mounting holes for the "backpack".


My table while working on the backpack part of "Undaunted" - you can see my drawing of the piece underneath.


The motor cover - in progress.


The motor cover before antiquing. I took a while to drill all the tiny holes and fish the ends of the screen through but I couldn't see any other way to do it.


The "backpack" ready to be place on the figure's back and finished. Four "hoses" were added in final assembly.


The "backpack" all assembled.


Detail shot of the shoes. In the past I've always painted on the laces- these are a little more work but I think it's worth it.


View of deck and shoes. Soon I will post a step by step of how I made and finished the deck.


Video of "Undaunted"....

"Ovation" - Phase 2

More pics from my latest commission. I'm ready to put it all together except an integral part is on back order - the sound/applause component won't be in the studio until the end of August. I set this aside and started working on more pieces for my Obsolete show. Pics of that to follow soon......

The stage is finished and painted.


The curtain, made from thin plywood - painted and aged.


The curtain inserted into lid. It's not attached to the hinges yet, of course.


Two tiny arms, ready for assembly.


One of the smallest set of fully-carved hands I've ever done.


The performers body, pre-assembly. The dress is put on and the arms and head are glued in position. Finally the back of the dress is hand-sewn closed.


The figure ready to be placed on stage. Bravo!


Her head up close.


I will post final pics when I get it all together, and also a video of how it works.

"Ovation" In progress........

My latest commission is a music box of sorts. When you lift the lid, a figure on a stage pops up and the sound of applause is heard. Here is my rough sketch of the piece......

When I first talked with the woman who requested this piece I was not sure what her budget or size constraints were. Initially I envisioned a grandiose, elaborate, and much larger piece. I imagined a moving figure, operated by strings or rods connected to a motor, popping up, illuminated by stage lights. After some consultation we scaled it back to what you see here, (she wanted it to fit on a bookshelf).
This piece is more like what she had in mind.

Here are my in progress shots, in order----

I took apart this old crate and used the wood for my box....


My box with lid......


The hinge that enables the stage to swing upwards....


After drawing out how this piece was going to operate, I had exposed linkages on either side of the stage that I thought were very distracting (ugly). I had an idea to make them decorative, to make them look like they belong there. They work to pull the stage up when you lift the lid.

The stage showing the 2 post that act as connector rods.


The stage connected to the lid with the linkages...


Cutting the linkages...


Linkages cut out and ready for finishing...


Finished linkages. My idea was to make them look sort of like ropes.


The figure's legs and shoes. The figure needs to be well-built because when the lid is closed she rest at a 22 degrees angle.


That is where I'm at today. I will post more pics later.