With this project I needed to make what is called a trade pin, which are basically small, easy to make objects, that artists can trade with one another. They don’t have to be pins, or made of metal, but mine are both.

I got real art nerd on these and made these #11 blade pins. I use them for cutting my stencils, so I have gone through hundreds of them over the years. I knew that because they are so specific, that there would be a lot of people that won’t appreciate them the way I do, but I decided that was ok for this project.

Here are a couple of mixed media pieces that I made. Not sure how they work as a group, but these all came out of experimenting with a number of techniques.

I really like what happened with this one.

I like these too, it has been a long time since I painted anything small and realistic with a brush, so the bike was fun to paint.

Here is the finished piece. It has a cast silver ring shank with a wooden piece on top. For the wooden piece I laminated two pieces of Walnut with an Oak piece in the middle. The larger piece of Walnut had a small live edge so I tried to include that in the final design.

The blue stuff is wax that I carved into the form of the ring. Once I have it cast in silver and cleaned up I will be attaching a wooden component to the top to complete the project.

Here is the completed buckle.

I am making a belt buckle with copper and brass, I will be soldering posts onto the pieces and using tube rivets to elevate the different layers. I am starting by cutting templates to roller print into the metal and then constructing my pieces from there.

Stoked that I was asked to be in another of the friendship shows at HotPop, especially because this one has the theme of geometric shapes, which is perfect for me. Opening Friday, May 23rd 6-9pm. The work will be up for almost 2 months so there is plenty of time to see the show if you miss the opening. Check it out, I have 6 brand new never seen before paintings, and there is some exciting stuff happening with them. I will post photos of the work after the show is up, if you want to see it now, you will have to visit the show.

Fun project that I got to work on for Sarah at True Skool. Glad I got to be a part of the new space that they have in the Grand Avenue Mall.

This was my first time casting metal, and my first time soldering, so I had a lot to learn on this project. I used direct casting which is a fairly simple process to cast the silver components, I then soldered posts onto the silver pieces to elevate them from the copper back plates. I didn’t know much about patina, so the finish of the pieces is really simple, but that is part of the learning curve.

This was my first project working with metal. I took a 6in square of copper, I could cut and bend it, but I had to keep all of the material, and the end result needed to be wearable.I think it turned out well considering that I had never worked with metal before. I really enjoy the texture I was able to add to the metal, but looking at it I realize how rough it is in spots, but that is due to inexperience.