Nativity Scene

So a friend of mine had seen some of my work and requested I create a nativity scene for some figurines she had which were to be a gift for  a family member of hers that actually collects nativity scenes. I was flattered with the offer and got it under way that very day. Here is the figurines set I had to work from (Scottish Design) and some basics for the build.

The first step was to create the basic structure of the actual stable...I used broken branches for the logs

Next, I used spray foam to create the hillside the stable would be built into and began to cover that in actual soil, rock and moss.

This is a trial fitting i did of the figurines to be sure I was heading in the right direction....looks good to me.

Finally i painted the landscape, added in more soil and rock, glued in the greenery, built and stained a frame and felted the base. That looks fairly darn good, if I don't say so myself.

My friend was very happy with the piece and I hope it has a place of honor among the colection that is now resides with. 

Restomod Cafe Racer

Geeze...I have not been keeping the updates coming. Anyway...Here is the 2 Wheeled post I teased about.

I have a passion for motorcycles and after a tragic "acid mishap" (long story...but not my fault) I decided to give her the makeover she deserves. From red 1998 Honda Superhawk to custom blue restomod cafe racer.

Here is the starting point pic (before acid) and the finished product for comparison.

 So first thing I needed to do was strip the bike down to the basics and remove all the damaged equipment. Here you see the fairings, nose and clutch cover removed.

Next pic shows more of the tear down and me mocking up a new cats eye "cafe" tail.

Once I had the tail fairly ironed out it was time to start the seat design. I wanted to veer a bit from the traditional cafe seat and decided on a split seat and back rest pad.

The electrics, new headlight and brake and clutch lines were all damaged so on with the new equipment. I went with a 7" LED headlight and Spiegler Lines

Big step next, Paint!! After shopping around a bit I found a painter that thought he could handle the job I had requested (hot rod auto body shop owner with custom paint exp) but he charged a higher price than the others. I decided to give him a go at it none the less. Here is the before and after on the paint work...(at least this first time)

Although the pic looks great, I was not happy with the work. There was numerous imperfections in the paint work and he had avoided fully painting the entire pieces in body color and the stripe. After two more times I finally got back an acceptable product (but not anywhere worth the amount I paid or the extra time and effort I had to get it to "ok".

Here are the finished pieces installed on the bike...starting to look like I had intended. I also added in some custom LED turn signals from Gregg at http://greggscustoms.com/ I really like his work and they are so bright it is amazing. I'm changing every bike I own over to these.

I took my custom seat pans over to Steve Gowing for a new pad and woven white vinyl covering which turned out amazing. Mad props to Steve. www.stevegowing.com 

Rims were sent over to Colorado Powder Coating for a nice splash of white. Mark and his team are my go to guys for powder coating and they did not disappoint!

The final finishing touch was me fabricating a mount for the new "gauges"

Nothing like taking a bike you love and making it even that much better.

Silhouette Parodies

So much to update...

First off, I've postponed my "2 wheel" post but it's almost ready.

Secondly, I have the first series of my Silhouette Parodies ready for release. I really have enjoyed quite a few of the artists out there doing similar work, normally blending traditional silhouette with either a Steampunk or horror twist and I just had to give it a try. Some I took more seriously than others and even slipped in a bit of social commentary for fun. I will be producing each of the pieces in large format laser cut wood in a run limited to just 5 per piece. My samples below are very low resolution versions...

Barn Dance

Col Dratsum

Finish Line

Hall Pass

Like Mom used to Make

Margarita and Woland

Missing Grandma

One Track Mind

Pemphredo feeds Graymalkin

Trick or Treat

Trophy Hunter

Valentines Day

VooDoo

Wall Street

the final works are high resolution striking, clean and will be framed appropriately. The final sample is a picture of a finished piece in a 22"x28" frame ready for pick up.

  If there is enough interest I may produce a run of vinyl stickers or T-shirts from the work. We shall see.

Treadle Sewing Machine Refinish

Client brought me an extremely worn Singer treadle sewing machine that she wanted brought back to life if I could. We talked about the challenges with the piece (deep scratches, water damage, initials carved in the top with a heart, paint splashed on the legs and more) she understood the chances of it not being perfect but was comfortable with me "doing the best I could". Here are the pictures when I got it to the shop.

Dissembling the piece went very smooth...Singer mass produced these machines over many years and they did a fantastic job of streamlining the build. Here we have all the pieces laid out ready for repair and refinish.

I started on the metal legs, treadle mechanism and wheel. Luckily there was no rust but I needed to remove all the original brown flaking paint and some "added"splattered black paint so its shiny new black enamel could do its job. As an added feature I decided to highlight the metal "Singer" name on the actual treadle, leg brace, and the belt wheel in the original singer gold enamel.  Here is a before and after on just the Metal work.

During reassembly you need to be sure that you grease all the fittings and ensure that they are torqued so to spin freely before locking them in place.

On to the woodwork now. The majority of the pieces were skinned with veneer so taking ones time with sanding out the imperfections was important for a good final product. A few spots of the veneer had actually begun to peal away from the base wood so I needed to reglue them and clamp till dry. It was apparent that the original finish Singer required of their machine cabinets could be expanded to cover all faces and interior spaces...some of those nooks and crannies are a pain to prep but I know it will be worth it later. Here are the pieces after all repairs and prep were done.

I re-stained all the pieces attempting to retain the original look of the cabinet...It is fairly difficult to perfectly match the past finish colors but with a bit of mixing and tinting you can get very close. I have seen some woodworkers out there that are masters of this process and I hold their work in high esteem...I have not reached that point in my learning as of yet. Once truly dried I fully coated all  pieces (even drawer and cabinet insides with polycrylic for a enviro-friendly final finish.

After getting the cabinet back together I noticed that the bobbin rewinding wheel and the leather belt that runs the machine were so dry rotted that they would have to be replaced. Luckily, a top notch go to for vintage machine parts is right here in Loveland Colorado. A quick call to Steve's Sewing Machine Repair and I had my new parts (A+ for Steve and crew). A quick clean out of the actual sewing machine and a reoil of all the internals and she was working amazingly well and looked great.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll try to get my next project up a bit quicker for ya. Have a great day.

Donald Duck Bookcase/Displaycase

I just finished a commission that I wanted to share with you all. I was was able to create a really fun Donald Duck themed display/book case for a very reasonable final cost. In order to keep the costs as low as possible (required by the client) I started searching Craigslist for a inexpensive bookcase. Within a week I found a gal that had a nicer flat pack bookcase she had tried refinishing that was for free. Here is what I brought back to the shop.

Unfortunately, there had been little prep done before it piece was spray painted purple and it was coming off everywhere. Thankfully, the piece was solid and should be easily lend itself to a bit of fun. Time to start sanding off the purple and get a good starting point for the piece. 

Finally after getting off all the purple and getting a good surface for the primer to grab onto I gave it a few coats of a basic white primer.

Now that In had a nice clean canvas to work with, it was apparent that the decorative feet needed a dressier top to go along with it. With a quick trip down to the local hardware store I was able to pick up some rosettes and trim that I was hoping would do the trick.

With some slight modifications I was able to get everything dressed up and looking a bit more "respectable". one more coat of primer to get everything on the same page and we should be ready to get to introducing the "Donald Duck Design" to the piece.

I had seen many pieces in the past that had been reproduced with a cartoon/comic theme but I wanted to do something a bit different. In my mind I pictured the cases itself as Donald with a fun backing to the interior of the piece. When you think of Donald Duck (at least when I do) you think of the sailor suit and hat. I wanted to create an actual hat for the bookcase/Duck to wear.

I began with a small wood base  with cardboard support that I could apply spray foam to  which would be light enough to not be a tipping issue for the final bookcase and also easy to "sculpt" into a realistic shape. I choose to have "Donald" wear the hat cocked to one side so the hat was easier to see and I thought it would give the final piece a bit of Donald's attitude.

At this point I got a bit remiss in my picture taking...please forgive me. I applied bondo (yes, automotive body filler) to the hat to create a sand-able final layer that would easily take paint. I tossed out the original cardboard like backing to the bookcase and replaced it with a much stronger paneling. To the paneling I created a collage of reproduced comic and story book pages for the interior back. This turned out extremely well but needed a bit of lighting to be seen as well as I wanted. I decided on a rope light for cost savings and ease of future care. Finally I painted the piece with the appropriate colors and attached the hat.

Here is the final piece. Hope you like it, client was amazed at what I was able to do and I hope to have a picture in the future of the case filled with her collection of Donald Duck memorabilia. Again, sorry for dropping the ball on the second half of the builds pictures but I kinda got to rolling and was having a bit of fun creating.

Stay tuned for more