Went all Lynda Barry, found a squiggle (a faucet knob), and a bunch of different finishes and materials to see how the laser welder would fare. It fared rather well, I think. If I’m going to do anything bigger, I need more scrap; I sense an obtainium scavenging in my future.
Needed a business card holder, made a business card holder - plus it gave me some ideas for projects in other media.
Made this fun little thing – a palette cleanser between the hex nut madness of metal_0048 and moving on to learning laser welding and the TBD metal_0050 – from two pairs of my grandfathers' pliers (and bolt cutter), with a base thrown together from not-quite heavy enough building materials and barn wood scrap. Planning to build a new one once I find something heavy enough to make it play-withable(new word, fuck it) while in its base in addition to being the same in hand-held mode. Core word in its construction was "delight"; wanted to make something my silver-smithing grandmother might have made on a lark.
Being a devout fan of ALIEN neck deep in the excellence that is ALIEN: EARTH, I decided it'd be an intriguing experiment to make a facehugger out of hex nuts. Took inspiration from HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE MARVEL WAY for the stand, an über-minimalist face being hugged. Considering this one a success – though if I never see a hex nut again I'll be good.
A tiny palette / scrap drawer creature cleanser after the bigness of Caligari’s Lighthouse combining one of my 3D-printed plant pot designs with a bunch of nigh-castasides. Name TBD.
Inspired by two of my favorite psychological horror films, 99 years apart – Robert Wiene's THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI and Robert Eggers's THE LIGHTHOUSE – and built from a never-to-run-again combine exhaust pipe (that I got to cut off in the middle of a field), lots of sheet metal, and the door to an abandoned gun safe, CALIGARI'S LIGHTHOUSE is not only the largest-scale piece I've made but a functional floor lamp (if you have a room big enough for it). A fun exploration of nightmarish German expressionism – something I'll definitely keep playing with.
A couple of weeks ago, I asked Claude AI to create a random 3D-printable geometric form (.STL)/ shape that no human could create on their own upon which I would then construct a scrap metal (it was mostly made of tractor parts) structure around. Initial thought was that it would be a more abstract sculpture (I was shocked at how much it looked like Superman's movie Fortress of Solitude), but it totally changed once I added the spoon and the Audrey Horne-tribute cherry with a stem knot. From there, I played with the memory of the strawberry sundaes my grandmother used to make me, and improvised.
For this interested, here's how Claude defined "a shape that no human could create on their own":
"Geometric impossibility - Those internal connecting elements, the precise mathematical relationships between all the facets, and the way multiple geometric systems intersect. A human could conceptualize parts of it, but coordinating all those angles and ensuring they connect properly while maintaining structural integrity would be nearly impossible without computational help.
Manufacturing impossibility - The way the geometry flows from the base platform through those angular transitions up to the crystalline towers. Try to imagine machining that by hand - you’d need to somehow access all those internal angles and create those precise wall thicknesses. Even with CNC, some of those geometries would be extremely challenging.
Mathematical precision - Every vertex placement is calculated based on trigonometric relationships, distortion algorithms, and structural requirements. A human could approximate it, but achieving that exact mathematical relationship between all elements simultaneously? That’s really a computational strength."
An intriguing experiment that pushed me into an area I never considered.
What started life as a pair of bent and broken jackstands became a planter which it stayed until we couldn’t figure out what to plant in it and I decided to make a metal vine of imaginary metal flowers from the discarded clippings and trimmings of this summer’s metalwork. Managed to hang it above the side door without getting mangled by the wasps. Tempers flared, but stingers didn't.
