I recently taught an art toy design class where I used off the shelf wooden doll pegs as a blank canvas for my students. I liked the idea of using a humble craft material as a starting point. Below are a bunch of experiments I did in color, form, and texture.
Been experimenting with milled acrylic inlay. I CNC the acrylic parts, use acrylic weld to attach the parts (I used a lot), let it dry then sand up to 400 grit, and finally polish with wax on a buffing wheel. The parts came out pretty seamless and the waxing wheel knocks all of the hard edges off. I really like the look and feel of this process.
A toy car experiment, borrowed heavily from Tai Geng’s otto and Playsam’s Streamliner.
Two pieces of milled plywood and some modified caster wheels made for a pretty fast little racer.
The home improvements continue. I recently finished an end table, CNC’d plywood with a nice hardwood top. You’ll only see the front and top, but there is a lot going on that you can’t see. Hence the Iceberg.
I made a couple of home improvements. I turned a wooden doorknob and a wooden toilet paper holder. They are small things, but really spruce up the place.
I recently built a couple of custom stands for some great pieces of art.
The first one is by Christ Bathgate, Slider sculpture (S1). I wanted to present it, so I turned a piece of walnut that fit a glass dome. I also soldered some brass rod to display the piece properly. Everything looks better on sticks.
The second piece is the Gemini figure from Outer Space Men. This little guy had a balancing problem, so I turned a piece of aluminum and added two small rods so the feet would be fixed. There is a hole in the back to store the extra pieces.
Robot Recipes: Rabbit will be on display for the next two weeks at the American Design Club Built Show.
“Built is starting from scratch. Built is the process. And a method. Built is a decision. And a material. Built is the tools we use. And how we use them. Those who innovate a way past limitations deserve a stage of appreciation during NYCxDesign 2018.”
Built will be on view and open to the public May 11th - 23rd. Hours each day are 11am - 7 pm (Sundays 12 - 6pm).
There are a bunch of great designs and products showing there.
I had some scrap brass and walnut (?) lying around and figured I’d try making a brass headed hammer. I did all of the work on a wood lathe. Brass can be worked with wood turning chisels, kind of amazing.
Crazy to think of all of the work that goes into assemblies that no one will even see.
Been working on some fussy little parts. First CNC’d, then slip rolled, then eventually going to be powder coated.
