Roadrunner

Happy Turkey Day! Well it's not as tasty as a turkey, it's a roadrunner. My dad wanted me to build this for him because he just moved to the southwest, and I guess these things are everywhere down there. This one is doing what they do best, running. I used to love watching the roadrunner out smart the coyote every Saturday morning. Gotta go. Meep! Meep!

Martini Lamp!

This is another lamp that i just finished. The compact florescent bulb illuminates the martini design. Why the zig-zags? Well i guess that's kind of the way you feel after drinking a couple martinis. You may notice that I have included some color in this piece. The "olive" is painted green and the "hooch" is painted pink. I thought that it would be cool to paint just the organic parts of the drink and leave the glass with the steel look. I'll bet this would look good with any color bulb in it. Personally, I really like it with this blue CFL. What's next for this series? Anybody have any cool lamp ideas?

Bottle Fly

 This bottle fly is one of my early pieces. However I just recently finished it with clear enamel. I really love this one and intend to make more in the future. It's a green bottle fly made from a green bottle. These flies usually hang out in gross places and love garbage. So it made sense that garbage could be used to build one. I think that the use of the discarded bottle adds a little punch line to piece.

Love Candle

I made this for my girlfriend Christina for her birthday. I designed this candle holder to throw the shadows of the heart and scrolls onto the wall when lit. This is something I have began to work with, light and shadows interacting with my work. This piece turned out just the way I wanted it to. It looks cool when it isn't lit and it takes on a new life when the flame is introduced. The shadows twitch around as the candle flickers. I am finishing some other work right now that has the same kind of idea.

Lightning Bug Lamp!

This piece is a little out of season as far as subject matter, but it is so cool. This is a lightning bug lamp. It's about 33 inches tall from base to tip of antenna. The creature has an impressive 26" wing span, and is using it to hover from the giant blades of grass. 

 It was been awaiting completion for a while, because I couldn't decide what I wanted to use for the butt. It needed to let light through and also be of a material that would contrast the steel, with the light on or off. I thought about screen, glass, and plastic. I ended up using some spare insulated wire to twine around the butt piece. Then I melted off the insulation, exposing the copper wire. I am very happy with the results. The wire gives just the right amount of coverage to reflect unwanted glare. The shiny copper seems to glow under the low-wattage incandescent bulb hidden up in the insects body.

This piece deserves a good home. It needs to be proudly displayed in someone's home, office, greenhouse... I don't have room to keep all of my work. This is kind of a big one so it needs to go. I want to make sure that whoever gets it really respects that work that went into it and will honestly enjoy the piece every time they see it. If anyone is interested in this work or has questions about commissions you can contact me at: kellensmetalart@comcast.net