I made some fused glass Xmas ornaments for gals at work most were Santa, a few Xmas trees (forgot to take a picture of those).

Beach Sunset

Beat the Heat this weekend by going to the beach. always an opportunity for a great sunset picture. Here is on from June 30th at Wind an Sea.

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translucent red sushi plate

I had a request from a friend for a translucent red sushi plate. This is similar to one I had done in the past, but instead of just the black and red I added a yellow stripe.

This was a three step process where I had to do a bubble squeeze to make sure there were no air bubbles between the red and clear layer below, since it was transparent. I also tried a different technique where the black and yellow stipe were allowed to melt into the red layer. then I had to slump the plate to the sushi plate shape, then I did a fire polish to make it nice and shiny and round the edges so they were perfectly smooth.

original plate

notice the bubbles in the glass, no bubble squeeze here, and the black line is sharper, the black glass was cut to fit in rather than allowed to sink in.

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Large Lawnmower Blade Kinfe

the knife in the top of the picture is one I have shown before. the bottom one is a new knife from a lawnmower blade (most of the blade). making for a pretty big knife. I made the handle from purple heart wood.

I put a mirror finish on it you can see my hand and camera reflected in the blade.

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Kinfe from Remainder of LawnMower Blade

Here is the 2nd knife I made from the old lawnmower blade I had. I patterned this one after a Bowie Knife.

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Cactus Blooms

objects can take on different characteristics based on your perspective. Here is the top of a cactus up close and personal, with some small flowers which otherwise would go unnoticed. But they are quite colorful.

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Non Bone Fish

Usually I make fish with just bones. This fish is different it has muscle and skin. I like the green color of the fish against the contrasting yellow of the fins.

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La Jolla Sunset

I was down at the beach over the weekend and got to take a few sunset pictures. It was cloudy on and off during the day. But luckily the sun was able to get under the clouds as it hit the horizon.

Lots of people come from all over San Diego to this spot to watch the Sun Set every day. From the picture you can see why.

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Ipe Wood Fence

Sorry Computer was on the fritz again. I have repaired it at least for now. New one on the way.

Here is a fence I designed and built for my back yard to give some privacy to the spa. It is made from powder coated steel beams (black in picture) capped with silver tops. The wood is Ipe wood. known for its denseness, bug and water resistance. it is supposed to last 40 years.

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Completed First Lawnmower Blade Kinfe

Here is the knife I made from lawn mower blade finished, both the blade is polished and the handle is on, and finished to a smooth sheen.

The blade from 1/2 a lawn mower blade, shaped and polished. Then an edge put on. I also gave 2 edges to the top. Additionally I put a pointed hook on the hand guard on the bottom.

The handle is made from Bubinga wood.

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Memorial Weekend Sunset

Happy Memorial Day weekend.

Down at the beach every day we are treated to one of natures more spectacular sites. Every evening the beach swells with people who come to see the sun set. Enjoy.

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Brass Etching with People

Sorry I have not posted anything for a few days. But my computer overheated and I have been off line, just got it fixed today. and still wrestling with some of the programs to get them back working.

here is a brass plate. I have been experimenting with trying to do images of people. Converting a picture of someone and representing it in just two colors is not as easy as it would appear to be. Here I did some stippling of the shading, I am going to try cross hatching and just outline to see how they work.

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Inspirational Quotes on Brass

I am experimenting with perfecting getting lettering on the brass/copper plates. once I can get a few samples. I will update my Etsy page to allow people to purchase predone plaques, or I can make custom requests.

here is an example of a Walt Disney quote done in brass.

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Glass Embeded Leaf

Here is an experiment I did trying to fuse leave under piece of glass. It came out pretty good except a small air bubble was trapped under the glass. I will have to experiment more to try and prevent that.

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Copper / Brass Etching Tutorial

I was asked to do a tutorial for Copper / Brass etching on a blacksmithing website. I did it here is the plaque I used for the demonstration. the link to the Tutorial is http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/33266-copper-brass-etching-tutorial/ (you might have to sign in to see all the pictures).

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Mother's Day White Orchid

An orchid from the San Diego botanical garden.

Happy Mother's Day

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Miracle Ranch Plaque

A friend from work wife has a breeding farm for jumping horses. The name of their enterprise is Miracle Ranch. They have given me horseshoes in the past. So I thought I would make them a plaque for their barn.

the detail on the jumping horse came out great.


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Garden Art Glass Ladybug

here is a ladybug I made for some garden art. the idea is to put it on a rod in a planter. the red body is translucent which should look great in the sunlight. the red part is about 6 inches in diameter.

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Copper Bracelet

A friend has been having trouble with joint pain and wanted to try using copper bracelets to see if they would help her condition. I made this bracelet using form folding. I may make another either with form folding or with etching.

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What can you do with a Lawnmower Blade

My riding mower blade broke and I had to get it repaired. The repairman left me the old blade, not being one to let things go to waste, I thought I would turn the blade into a couple of knives. Here is progress so far.

Here is the raw mower blade which has been cut in half across where the diagonal cut is. I had at this point also put the piece in the forge brought it to a temperature to anneal the metal to make it easier to work with.

here I have started to shape the blade, using some files and some grinders.

here is the blade near its final shape. After this step the blade was returned to the forge heated til it was non magnetic, then quenched in oil. After that it was cleaned tempered and then polished.

Final picture of blade and with ruler to show size. All that is left is to make the handle.

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Beautiful Sunset with Blue and Orange sky

This sunset was taken at Wind n Sea beach in La Jolla CA. it has not just the beautiful sunset turning the sky blue and orange, but some interesting grass and trees in the foreground which nicely frame the picture. this is much more interesting than a sunset just showing the water.

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Angelfish Skeleton

This little fish was made from some left over blue pieces I used in a plate the the red was from another fish.

He kinda looks like an angelfish skeleton

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Beach Rocks

A beach is more interesting when it has rocks and formation which interact with the waves. Here the rocks are partly covered by the waves some of the day and not other parts which allows for algae to grow given them a green color. The relentless waves have also sculpted the rocks giving them their shape.

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Steel and Wood Trestle Table

I wanted a trestle table but could not find one I liked. Even ones I didn't like were not of very good quality. So I decided to make my own. Using 1/4 inch steel I shaped and welded the legs together, and then finished with a black matt paint. The top is made from Maple.

here is another view showing the cross members (sorry chairs are in the way).


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55 Gal Drum Smoker

Here is a smoker I made from a 55 gal drum barrel  I made a wire basket for the coal, put some screws in to hold up the grates and some thermometers. 

I used the bottom half of a weber barbeque for the top. looks like R2D2, but makes a mean pulled pork and or ribs.

you can see on the bottom picture I used a ball valve to control the air intake and thus the temperature.

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Bad Bass Guitar

One of my hobbies is playing the Bass Guitar. I took a picture of one of my guitars to make a wall poster. I took the picture, made a cloudy background the printed it larger than life. It is hanging on my music room wall.

I put the picture of Vivian next to it for size comparison, vivian is 5' 8" tall.


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Leather Wolfs

Here is an example of some leather work I have done. I made these wolfs for a roman armor project I did. the smaller one went on to the chest plate. The larger one was done to go on a shield. I used an intarsia pattern for the design.

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Now Thats a Knife

Famous words from Crocodile Dundee.

I forged this knife from a single railroad spike. As you can see in the picture I drew the blade out over 8 inches, making the whole knife over 12 inches long. the railroad spike started out just over 6 inches long, the handle is 4 inches so the last 2 inches was used to create the blade and streched over 8 inches.

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April Showers Bring Glass Flowers

When making some glass ornaments for my garden, in addition to the other creatures and bugs I have made. I made a flower, which at the time was an experiment, in different techniques of the glass fusing.

I was learning how to do layers of glass which owuld blend with each other as well as some painted on glass you can see in the center and on each pedal

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Waiter Theres a ? in My Coffee

Taking still life photos is a career for some photographers. The are paid by advertising companies large sums of money to make the products look good. I have shown some photos I had done with some wine and fruit before. here is some shots of a coffee cup, the first with the fancy design normally put in by a barista.

In this one I did it with the andromeda galaxy in it.

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Skinny Fish

I had some scraps left over and then turned them into another fish skeleton.
I had some beige / off white left over from a plate. And some translucent red and some yellow.

hes is a skinny little fellow.

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Brass Plate Etching

I have been planting some citrus and Fruit trees at my place. I thought is would be fun to make plaques to put in front of each tree to identify it. I have looked at some different ways of doing it. This is one where I start with a 1/4 inch thick copper plate, cut it to size, then put a resistant material over the lettering or pictures, then use an electric current to etch off the plate to make the letters raised.

 Start with a clean copper plate

 Stencil on your design

place the plate, in some electrolyte, then place another piece of metal over it. then attach a power supply and the metal from the Copper plate will dissolve into the solution.

Finished Etched Copper Plate with raised lettering and picture.

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