making a box

   I have been slammed lately. Work is busy. The studio is busy. Home is busy. Craftees is busy. As a lot of you know I am very much a yes man. I am starting to become a "don't bother asking because I am busy with other stuff"-man. I am working on some pieces for an exhibition that is coming up soon. The exhibition is all about wire frames. Specifically, reducing shapes to facets and then lines. I hate to call them wearable 3D contour drawings but... that is sort of what they are. 

    In CAD software, I start with a torus or doughnut.....mmmmm doughnuts. Then reducing the polygon count, much like reducing the resolution of a jpeg, the surface becomes faceted. Then by pushing and pulling the surface moves and bends at the edges. These edges become lines, pipes or in the real world plastic and stainless steel. I have been using Zbrush for a while now. It took a lot of practice to get used to the interface. In the beginning, when I was learning the software, it was like painting with a six foot paintbrush or dialing a phone with a boxing glove. Now I feel like I am using a mechanical pencil and mittens. 

   Unfortunately, all of the pieces are out at the powder-coater or they have not yet been made. Photos to come. In the mean time I have been preparing display. Some of the bracelets in the exhibition will be in wood cubes or boxes. I LOVE BOXES. I was going to make the boxes the "arthur" way which involved using the CNC and some pain in the ass jigs. The wood tech at New Paltz (Ed Felton) showed me a trick that kind of blew my mind. It involved bevels, glue and TAPE! So nice.I took photos......you cut it open at the end.  Like a coconut....awesome.