Though I will miss a chance to see everyone this year, I’m certainly enjoying the break and very excited to have some extra breathing room to work on some new technologies that I plan to include in the sculpture. Thanks to all who sent best wishes and stay tuned for the next great thing in solar powered sculpture!!
Happy Vday everyone!!
February 14th, 2013Blackberry clipping
February 14th, 2013So here’s the result: Let’s call it a blackberry clipping. This one is named “Dodgeball” to acknowledge a certain collision that occurred when it first made its appearance at Burning Man 2012, now the clipping (part of a full size bramble) is a stand alone piece. More on the way…
Valentine’s Roses
February 6th, 2013Hey Everyone!
Even though there’s no Sunbrothers Vday show this year, I do have single and double roses available in a variety of patinas and light colors – send me an email and we can discuss (more examples in my portfolio)
Longstem Blackberry?
February 5th, 2013Working on some new ideas for a smaller blackberry vine. This one has a thorny stem and a separate vine with the panels and berry cluster. Looks like it has some potential…
Solar Bramble in progress
August 22nd, 2012Here’s a few pics of the bramble as I work feverishly to finish.
Sunbrothers Valentine’s Day Roses 2012
January 25th, 2012
Sunday Sunday Sunday February 12th
5 – 10 pm, rain or shine 510-215-2884
at sunbrothers studio 1345 S. 50th St. Richmond 94804
A dozen roses. Feb 12. 2012. Jesus and his 12 apostles. Are we getting a theme here?
Please join me for my 12th annual Valentine’s Day show! In addition to roses I’ll have peas, carrots (well, ONE carrot but its a giant one), and a few surprises thrown in for good measure.
Also included in this year’s show will be selected works and wares from a rag tag collection of some of the meanest, dirtiest, most despicable….er, uh, hold on a second I think I meant to say ‘other local artists’:
Joe Rut – hand carved hearts joerut.com ! dorklandia - goofy little things - www.dorklandia.com
Vance Cearley - small bronzes Foolproof studio - intentional adornments by Lee Kobus
Kitty Hutton - downsized fine art for the 99%! Zak Timan - floating objects
Jana Olson – hand crafted lamps Roger Carr – chunks of plasma arrrt Matthias Beckmann – glass fusion
Katie Keech – paintings and sculpture Mike Woolson – photography www.jumbobrain.com
and don’t forget the RAFFLE and a chance to win a Sunbrothers Rose – drawing at 8:30, tickets may be purchased at the show
See you there!
Sunbrothers Valentine’s Day Roses 2011
January 26th, 2011February 12th, 6-10 pm (rain or shine)
At Sunbrothers Studio: 1345 S. 50th St, Richmond 94804
Valentine’s Day 10th Anniversary Show
January 31st, 2010Sunbrothers Studio Presents:
Valentine’s Day Roses 2010
Has it been 10 years already? Join me for a look back
at a decade of solar powered sculpture, and take a peek at
what’s to come in the next.
Saturday, February 13th, 2010
from 6 pm-10 pm
FREE admission
Sunbrothers Studio
1345 S. 50th Street
Richmond, CA 94804
The show will feature examples of past work, a special
edition of new Long Stem Roses, vining sweat peas, solar blades,
and a collection of artworks and crafts by other contributing artists.
And don’t miss the raffle at 9pm. Grand Prize: a Longstem Rose!
- raffle tickets available at the show.
Glass flower construction
January 28th, 2010
Glass flowers start from 18×18″ pieces of flat borosilicate glass. The glass is scored with a glass cutter in a grid (across and down) to make an x/y array of smaller squares.
Cutting running pliars break the glass along the scored lines. Individual squares are broken apart by hand.
The final result: when everything goes well, a stack of glass squares used to make petals for flowers. When things don’t go well, a stack of glass squares and a stack of odd shaped waste pieces where the glass didn’t break evenly.
CNC Plasma Cutting
November 28th, 2009One of the early steps involves cutting the basic leaf shapes out of copper. This was once done by hand, but now accomplished with a CNC plasma table. Plasma cutting uses superheated gases to ‘blow through’ the metal. For the rose leaves, I use 12 oz. copper sheet.
The start of a CNC run
Each leaf is composed of 3 -5 leaflets on a central stem. The CNC allows me to cut this out as a single shape, with copper details as thin as (about) 1/16 “. This would not be possible to do by hand.
A rose 'leaf' is composed of 5 leaflets
The leaf drawings are done in software and stacked together in the CNC program. A bit of experimentation has yielded a process that cuts a whole 3′x5′ sheet in a single session, with a water fed assist on the plasma torch to keep the copper cool, minimize distortion, and leave a cleaner edge on the cut metal.
A water feed allows finer detail and minimizes distortion from the heat
The goal of the run is to have as many succesful cuts as possible. Errors can lead to unused copper and wasted time. This run had over 100 leaves, with 5 that were not succesful. I have not had a large run like this go 100% good, though one time I came close with only 1 lost leaf.
A finished sheet. A few of the leaves on this one were lost.
