metal_0042 :: hank and frank

I was halfway through this latest character when I figured out how deeply I was inspired by Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar’s brilliant BUG WARS series. So I rolled with it and, ended up with my own original denizens of Slade’s yard: Hank’s the (bug) explorer, Frank’s his (slug) steed, all birthed from old tractor parts, plenty of nuts and washers, typewriter bars, and, in Frank’s case, an old boot jack my wife gave me.

a metal bug with goggles rides his metal slug steed.

metal_0040

A tribute to my grandfather, who was, as per his request, buried with a stick figure drawing I did of the two of us standing together when I was five or six. Wanted to bring that drawing to life, to dimensional permanence, in metal. The anvil base was on his end table in his sunroom, the rest of the piece was made from pieces of scrap metal I had laying around and manipulated into the desired form. I think – I hope – he'd be pleased.

metal spirals on an anvil, in white

metal_0039

A friend of ours has decided to start raising backyard chickens so I made her a tiny metal chicken. Did I ever think I would make a tiny metal chicken? Not particularly (I thought my chicken-making days were behind me because I mean, how do you follow Cluckhead?) but here I am, adrift in my “tiny barnyard friend” phase and glad that I can contribute something to her backyard endeavor.

a tiny metal chicken