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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Rocky Picture

Interesting rock formations can make for interesting pictures. This shot taken from beach level has several aspects to make the photograph pleasing. first there is the colors, the blue of the ocean with the green on the rocks and the tan of the sand all work together. there is the perspective of the rocks how they seem to converge as they move further away and finally there is he textures and shapes of the rocks themselves.

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Copper Fold Formed Bowl

Using Fold Forming techniques pioneered by +Brian Brain, I made a bowl out of a flat sheet of copper. the sheet was folded in the middle with a few bends, then by shrinking the edges it was turned into a bowl shape.

 WHile difficult to see form the side, the top view gives a perspective where you can seen the fold down the middle, the middle fold, was created by a pillow fold.

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Small Glass Fish Tile

Here is a small fish I painted. it was on a small black piece of glass. The paint is actually glass particles suspended in a medium, which after it dries, holds the glass on the surface in place, when fired in the kiln at 1500 degrees F, the glass fuses with the underlying glass.

The dog bone appearance is from the black background glass shrinking. under that heat the glass starts to flow and it rounded the corners and sucked in the sides. It started as a square piece of glass.


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Desert Bloom

once a year for a very shot period of time the native plants in Anza Borrego bloom due to a few scarce rainy days. The blooming of the cactus and wildflowers is world renown drawing people from far away. The lifeless desert springs to life for a few short week then goes dormant again til the next year.

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Fold Form Convex Piece with Blue Patina

Here is another fold form piece I did, it is smaller than some of the other only 5 inches high and 1.75 inches across. the curve is done by shrinking the back side of the gap which runs down the center of the piece.

The blue patina is not paint but the coppers reaction to the chemicals. Normally copper weathers to a green color (like the statue of liberty). But if you change the chemical make up from that of the normal atmosphere, then you can get different colors.

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Plate with Melted Glass in Center

This plate was made by first melting different color glass together, to get the pattern you see in the middle. The middle consists of green blue, white, and black, heated to 1700 degrees then it flows through a wire mesh and is captured and allowed to cool. Then by using thin strips of colored glass, I created the blue background with the green inserts, then surrounded it with a white border.

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Crashing Waves

Waves crashing against a rock viewed by a lone pelican, makes for a dramatic / dynamic picture. The wave is captured at its peak.

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Metal Gingko Leaf Key Chain

This is a leaf key chain I forged from a small 3/8 inch bar it was meant to be like a gingko leaf.  I think it turned out pretty good for my first attempt.

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Flowers Close Up and Personal

Flowers have amazing detail if you look at them closely. The structure, shape and color of the leaves  petals  stamen, and pistils all are amazing.

This is just a closeup picture of a flower from my neighbors garden

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Primary Color Sushi Plate Series

I liked the last sushi plate I made I made a companion plate. the other one had the same blue edges, with a white background with red and black center. For this one I used the same blue, but used yellow with a black center. All of these colors go together being primary contrasting colors

here is the red plate for reference, it is a litte smaller the same width but the hight is a little less.

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Fold Form Copper Leaf

fold forming metal was popularized by +Brian Brain. He has written books on the subject. Here is my attempt at a leaf made from a copper sheet.

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Modern Sushi Plate

This is a sushi plate I made for myself (I don't eat Sushi), to be used as a decoration. I like the colors and the shape. the bright blue and red contrasting with the white and black center give it a distinctive look.

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Cactus Closeup

Viewing the world from a different prospective is something I like to do. Very ordinary objects can be use to crease pictures which are something special just by changing the angle, or distance at which the object is viewed.

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Steel Bar Bottle Opener

Here is a horse bottle opener I made from a steel bar

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Railroad Spike Blade

Here is a knife I made out of a railroad spike.

The process is a multistep process, first cutting a line in and then twisting the handle portion. then forging the blade. The blade is kept soft so that then using files the blade is shaped then the blade is hardened and then heated again to take the tension in the metal out again. then a final sharpening on the edge is done.

I present 2 pictures so the lighting does not hide the details.


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Skinny Fish

Sometimes a shape just happens, I was working on some glass work and had a shape which looked to me like the skull of a fish, I had some other leftover pieces and made a backbone  some ribs and a tail. I think it turned out quite nice.

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Post Sunset

Here is a picture I captured, but after the sun had gone down below the horizon. It made for a great picture, even though the sun was not in the sun set.

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Metal Fish Sculpture

I have a friend who likes to fish and wanted something to decorate his fishing pole holder. He asked me to make him a fish out of metal to go on it. Here is what I came up with. I don't have the proper tools to sculpt in the metal, just used some punches I had. I may have to make punches which can draw the lines better for a more finished look.

I applied some red and then black metal stain. this is different then paint. The chemicals interact with the metal to create the color. Then a clear coat was applied.

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Fold Form Copper

Fold forming is a process where metal is annealed  folded then unfolded which leaves the fold in place. It is a unique process which allows for some pretty cool designs. to be made. Here is a piece of copper I was experimenting with. These can be turned into jewelry  boxes or anything else you can think of. But the interesting designs are retained in the memory of the copper.

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