Regatta Racer

Hi. It's been a little while since I have made a new post. I have been busy looking for a new day job. If any one knows of anything please let me know. I have also been busy finishing up some pieces that were cluttering up my welding studio.

This is a regatta racer that I made for my aunt. It is small in scale and can fit nicely on a desk or shelf. I also made the sailboat removable from the base. It also has i small bracket that can be used to mount it to the wall. I think I need to build a larger more detailed boat next.

When I was a kid my Grandpa would race his sailboat in the Watermelon regatta every summer at their lake house. It was really cool. They would race their little colorful boats around the lake and then at the end we ate tons of watermelon. So that is what I thought about when I made this piece.

Stay tuned for more new work. I have already shot some pictures and they are waiting anxiously to be posted. I know I always say this but contact me with any suggestions, comments, questions or requests. Peace.

Meep Meep!

This is the 2nd roadrunner. It's sitting on my porch right now, putting on a nice coating of surface rust. When totally covered, I will use a grinder to make markings to represent the birds feather pattern. The grinder will leave shiny marks on the rusted surface and will be like the lighter colored feathers on the roadrunner. Once I have it the way I like it I give it a clear matte finish coating of enamel.

I sandblasted this piece before putting it outside. The sandblasting took off all of the oil and mill scale on the metal, allowing it to rust much more quickly. It is already more rusty than when I took this photo a couple of days ago.

After it is all finished it is going down to Texas where a friend of mine, Jerry, will set it into a beautiful hardwood base. Jerry makes amazing custom furniture from really nice hardwoods. I am very excited to work with such a talented guy and can't wait to see our work melded together.

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.

Work Work Work

  I am still hard at work in the shop. This little birdie has been waiting to be photographed. I made this oversized humming bird by request for my Aunt Becky. It hovers ready to drink some nectar from the flower, which is a botanical invention of mine. That is I didn't copy a plant from nature. I engineered one to meet my needs for the piece. Although it is trumpet shaped, like most of the flowers that humming birds actually drink from.

I like doing sculptures of things that other people like and i wouldn't usually choose to build myself. It is a good way to test my skills. I usually am very happy with the end result of the project. Sometimes to my own surprise I want to keep it for myself. 

Most of all I really like making work that my customers are really going to love. I love making people smile.

I gotta get back into the shop now. My internet/coffee break is over. 

MORE COMING SOON!

Wine Sculpture

I have just finished this piece and couldn't wait to get a photo of it. My current set up in my studio isn't big enough to shoot this one it's too tall for my bag drop. I had to take it outside and get some snaps of it. This is the only one that is good enough to put up here. I am trying to keep away from putting snap shots on this page, but i had to show this one right away.

I did this as a custom design for my step dads sister. She wanted a bottle of wine pouring into a glass. She told me how big she wanted it and let me decide how i wanted it to look. This is what i came up with. The glass and bottle are represented only by several distinguishing features and the rest of their form is suggested only by the swirling "vino". 

I really enjoy doing custom work. It helps me to flex my skills and challenge me to exceed  my customers expectations. I am running to the end of my current orders, so i am looking to get some more work. You can contact me at kellensmetalart@comcast.net if you are interested in having me design something for you. I will be working this way until i can get a proper website to sell my work using paypal or something. 

 More sculptures coming soon!