bringing down the roof

ripping down the roof - Rachael helping too.

BELL

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This is a bell I made when I worked in the Arcosanti Bronze Foundry.  It's a 104 to be exact.  The form is standard pattern, but the reliefs on the outside are unique to each bell - pressed free form into to the sand molds before casting as in these pics from 2005 below of a mold.  Also me pouring bronze.  (I also made those patchwork curtains in the background.)

Day Bag

This is day bag I'm making for the trip Rachael and I are planning through Turkey and Syria.  I'm using the core of a bag I started making in Boston, but never finished. Mostly I plan to use this to carry around my sketch book, pencils and daily essentials.  It's cut to the format sketch book I plan to make for the trip.  You can see I quilted a divider that runs down the center of the inside of the bag (foam between canvass).  This will serve to give shape and also allow to whole bag to become a cushion to sit on while drawing. In the past I've sat for hours (sometimes days) or cold or wet or very hot stone working on a drawing (see older post of Sultanahmet Camii in Istanbul - very painful to sit there doing that.).

 The core is made from canvass. Most of it salvaged from the cushions from an Ikea couch that belonged to my bother that were given to me by my Mother who pulled them off a curb in Chicago - my brother was going to toss them.  She brought them to me in Boston when she visited. It all double thick and double stitched.

I've going to sew the checked cotton into a shell over the core.  The leather straps come from my highschool back pack that my mother bought for me second-hand from a army surplus store in MPLS when I was 16 - that bag lasted about ten years of repairs and patches and died in Boston.

One last feature - you'll see the core has flared sides.  I plan to put a button on each side to allow the side to be folded in to make to bag smaller when needed.

Wollrich shirt

This is a very nice Woolrich shirt I got for 10 bucks second-hand.  The fabric is a really nice washable wool.   The fit was OK, but the tails went down to about my knees and there was too much material to tuck in.  So I hemmed the bottom leaving the flares that were built into the tails.  Also I put on the white buttons to be snazzy.  Last, I machine laundered some elbow patches, then sewed those on.

Modest attempt at tailoring

This is a sport coat I bought at Good Will that was a funny late 80's type cut - 2 button with huge sharp shoulders (think American Psycho). I let out the sleeves, added an additional two buttons and repressed the lapels.

Test of stain and paint for the Record Grotto

This is test piece of the salvaged doug fir that I stained and rubbed with linseed oil.  Next I taped and primed a strip of it then laid out this pattern (this is tile motif used at the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia 670 AD that I found in "Islamic Geometric Patterns" by Eric Broug).  I then began painting it (Rachael helped) with some relatively cheap enamel - Testers brand, the same stuff my brother and I used on model airplanes when we were kids.  It worked very well and I think this is method I will used to finish the Grotto.

The record grotto (in progress)

It is a little hard to see the drawing here (you can zoom to get a better look). Eventually this will be two tall cabinet towers (each with 5 cabinets with doors) set at right angle to each other.  There will he a bench built at a right angle in the corner with a roof over it with lighting built into it.  All built from reclaimed floor joists and bit of salvaged shelving. Here's a picture of the skeleton of the first tower.  As you can see this project has moved into my living room while I am replacing the roof of the porch for my landlord (pictures of that project to come).