Oh the mysteries of bent plywood.  We all want it, yet no one can make it.  ”Do you use steam?” the people ask. “No,” we say, “we use genius…”

Step 1. Cut out your desired shape from some masonite board. 

Step 2. Glue masonite to a huge piece of foam.  Walk a few feet down to your local foam cutting shop.

Step 3. Cut that foam to match your template.  We will call this the “mold.”

Step 4. Get some 1/8” or thinner sheet of birch or whatever kind you want.  Cut this down to create about 4 or more strips to fit your mold.

Step 5. Cover the strips in glue and layer them on the mold.  Then put the whole thing in a big vacuum bag and suck all the air out of it.  

Step 6.  Trim the edges of the wood after it dries.  Here it is- your bent plywood form just like you always wanted.

10:15 pm  •  30 September 2010

This is photo emulsion.  It’s usually a nice color like green or blue, and must be stored in the fridge (apparently it can go bad once mixed).  

This is a fan on a bathroom sink.  What you don’t see is a screen coated in photo emulsion drying in the shower.  Notice the darkness of this picture.  The coating should take place in the dark with a squeegee.

This is a transparency of the cool art laid backwards on the dried screen.  Notice the messy emulsion dripping off.  A similar scene is now in the shower, unfortunately. A piece of glass is placed on the transparency so it stays flat against the screen.

This is a super bright 500 watt light.  Shine it for about 5 min.

This is a shower.  Wash that emulsion and notice the art start to emerge from the screen.  There it is! Print that shirt!

10:02 pm  •  30 September 2010

Cool balloon/ship sketch is by Alex Kranches.  I decided to color the sketch with spray paint stenciling and then go back over it with a black screen print.  The spray paint has a nice faded and soft look while the black is sharp and contrasting on top.  

11:22 am  •  13 September 2010  •  1 note

I would like to say thank you to Southern Living for including a page about downtown Birmingham in the September magazine….and including the art gallery Space One Eleven in that page….and then selecting a photo that included one of my styrofoam-light sculptures…..Southern Living, you clearly have good taste.

In case anyone forgets what that sculpture looked like- I added another (unpublished) picture.

11:02 pm  •  8 September 2010

This year is election year….which means our cities have been covered in coroplast and campaign slogans.  Coroplast is probably a poor choice since it’s non-biodegradable and only needed for a temporary cause.  But it is very cheap and can withstand the elements…

So after the primaries I harvested a couple and started a new project: Buckminster Fuller tribute light- the geodesic campaign pendant!

The process is very simple- just cut out a whole lot of triangles and hot glue them together with small plastic hinges.  (There are two different kinds of triangles, just in case someone actually tries this)

10:18 pm  •  30 July 2010

So here’s the finished piece.  That’s me walking past in the background.  That’s Mark Newson in sunglasses.  That’s Jane Timberlake Cooper’s nice art piece above. Those are Bici Coop’s old bike tubes. That random chair is not for sale.

We’re not sure yet how to make these incredibly fast so as to earn a quick buck, but it is definitely possible. 

6:33 pm  •  25 July 2010

The person you see in photo 1, 2, and 4 is Hamilton Trimm.  Ham and I worked on this project together.  It was very clutch that he had a certain amount of welding experience (he said he’d only tried it once, but that was more than me).

The process is pretty straight forward.  We cut the steel tubes down to shape, making sure each cut had the correct length and angle, which was tricky since the mitre saw had no angle measurements.  Then Ham welded the frame together, taking care that it didn’t bend out of shape in the process.

To put on the bike tubes, we talked about a number of different ideas.  In the end we went with the most labor intensive- bolting on each tube separately to the frame. (I also happened to go out of town the weekend we got to that stage….)

6:24 pm  •  25 July 2010

Bici Coop held it’s second annual Garden Party at Jone’s Valley Urban Farm.  To announce this monumental event, they needed a poster.  I was grateful to be asked to design it this year.  I’ve recently had this feeling that we are digressing aesthetically back to the 19th century- back to the days before automobiles and carbon footprints.  Maybe it’s just all the mustaches these days, not sure.  I thought a wallpaper pattern approach might work well in the background- allowing the text to jump out.

My friend Mike from Got Art? studios screen printed the posters for me.  I was there to mix colors and advise the process, but I don’t get to pull many squeegees since Mike is so fast.

9:49 pm  •  27 June 2010

I’ve been thinking a lot about paper pulp recently.  The stuff is so interesting.  I heard it could be made out of recycled paper paper documents from local businesses.  It’s cheap too (notice the humble price of your delicious pulp packaged eggs).  

So what could be made from this stuff other than packaging?  I think children’s toys could be an interesting use.  They could be flat packed and purchased pre-assembled.  Then the child could assemble a bunch of building blocks like large legos.  Graphics could be screen printed on to give some variety.  These blocks would be cheap enough that the child could be extremely creative without fear of wasting their parents money.

Toys should be environmentally friendly- there’s too much plastic stuff out there.  I think this might be a welcome change. 

9:50 pm  •  11 May 2010  •  1 note

A good shop sign is a beautiful thing.  I acquired this one from two friends of mine who are opening up a new restaurant.  The space they are moving into was once a “Lenny’s Sub Shop”.  I took “Sub” and “Shop” off their hands (sorry “Lenny”, you were too big).  I thought the signs needed a serious transformer, but they turned out to already have one built in.  A simple power cord was all that was needed.

I decided “Shop” would go best at our community bike shop- Bici (where I happen to be a mechanic in training…although the training is slow and painful…just kidding).

9:19 pm  •  11 May 2010