THE END IS NIGH

boy howdy

The semester is coming to an end for the summer, and I think it's plausible for me to say that everyone here is facing the big crunch that comes with it. For myself, that means finishing up the aluminum-cast turtle for an art show this friday at the Studios on Sheridan near BU. On top of that, there's a website that needs finished for all of my graphic design work, which will be in a show the same day as my sculpture show (how it'll work I don't know, but I'll burn that bridge when I get there).

Since I'm not at work this week because of the massive workload I have between now and Friday, I'll give y'all a progress update on what I've been doing. My portfolio and print pieces from the last few semesters here for my graphic design show have all been finished and are on display until the reception this friday at the Prairie Center for the Arts in Peoria, and so are all the projects done by my classmates (what a load off this was, let me tell you). Having to do that on top of my sculpture projects has been a nightmare, to put it delicately. However, that's not to say I don't live for this stuff. 

Because of my course load I've had to put things off at times to finish up other things for other deadlines, but when the last deadline is the end of the semester that leaves no time at all to procrastinate. These last 6-10 days have been going on upwards of 16 hours each in an attempt to get everything finished, but in my experience hard work never fails to pay off and I don't see it doing any different now so long as all my ducks stay in a row. 

In the pictures below you can see my aluminum turtle being pieced together, as well as the complex pieces my classmates are doing. Large scale seems to be a recurring theme this semester, and while mine is on the smaller side of large-scale I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along. I'd love to show more pictures this time around, but NO SPOILERS. 

Also time for a shameless self plug, 

COME SEE US THIS FRIDAY

Prairie Center for the Arts: Student Graphic Design Show

1506 SW Washington St, Peoria, IL 61602

May 3, 6-8pm

Studios on Sheridan: Student Sculpture Exhibition

Sunbeam Building 929 N Sheridan Rd

May 3, 5-9pm

TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS, HUMANS

Until Next Time

chaotic neutral

hey everyone

this week i'm back at school instead of securing the bag, which is for the better in this case. These last few weeks of the semester are getting to be a crunch and honestly I don't have time for anything except schoolwork at this point. That being said, I've been cranking out my graphic design portfolio over the last week or so. Even though it's due Monday and I'm not nearly as far along as I'd like to be it has been going better than I expected. 

I'd be lying if I said due dates weren't making me lose it a little, but that's another story. My sculpture pieces that I mentioned last week are less complete than I'd like them to be, and I've had to cut two of my 3 pieces related to the original concept. This is only because the one piece I've been pouring my time into (the turtle) is going to end up big enough to make up for 2 of my 3 pieces. I'll also have my cast-iron piece that I made during my trip to SLOSS, and all that needs done there is to clean it up. My turtle's shell is partly cast in aluminum, and I would attach pictures but it was still ~300˚F when I tried to pick it up (that felt nice).

The other half of my shell casing developed a crack when it was being hardened, so it's going into surgery tomorrow as soon as possible, and I'll be casting it and all of the turtle's limbs in aluminum the same day hopefully. After that it's just cutting and cleaning (assuming all goes well). I hope my rambling made sense to some of you, it's kinda therapeutic at this point.

Good luck to everyone in the same boat. Until next time
I'll throw some pictures up of the turtle once it's cooled off if I have time.

Homework for Life

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WELCOME

So this week I don't have any amazing finds for you, and instead of being at work this week I'm spending most of my evening at the sculpture studio at Bradley University. These next few weeks are critical for my sculpture class as we are finalizing our pieces to exhibit at the Studios On Sheridan in Peoria, IL. I will be displaying several pieces (at least 3) alongside those of my classmates and professors. We have about two weeks left, and we're all pumped for the event.

Conceptually, my personal projects are about the relationships that wild animals have with humans and with themselves respectively, that humans have with the environment, and the effects of man-made disasters on the environment. My first piece is a surrealistic themed tortoise, with the shell folding up on one half to reveal a house built into the tortoise's body. All of this acts as a metaphor for the fact that the home is often more fluid and easily destroyed than we'd like to believe, just like the shell of a tortoise. These animals are known to shed their shells as they grow, which is similar to the way that people grow and change in the non-literal sense. The shell will always grow back and keep the turtle protected unless it is destroyed, but once it is there is most often no repairing it. This piece is nearly finished, I only have to cast it in aluminum and refine from here on out. It's in pieces and covered in plaster for now so the details can't be seen, but the pictures I include should show them all with their venting systems (these are so the metal doesn't trap air when being poured into the mould).

The second piece is a rabbit, twisted by the effects of a man-made disaster, which in this case is nuclear radiation. In places where disasters such as this have occurred—Chernobyl, for example—the wildlife has been almost permanently genetically mutated and/or stunted, in some ways very grotesquely. My rabbit has two heads on an otherwise completely normal body, which is a known and observed mutation caused by radiation. This one is nearly finished in wax and ready to be coated in plaster.

My third and final piece is a head with a hairdo, only the head is in it's most basic skeletal form and the hair made of old and useless cables and cords from that pile that arguably most people have had or seen in their home at one point or another. There's nothing wrong with the phrase "it's just an extra," but when the extra becomes trash to us it can often become harmful to the environment it's thrown out into. Being made of synthetic material, odds are they will never decay in the average human lifetime if ever at all as the bones they are attached to in this case. I have yet to start this piece, but I feel it's crucial in visualizing the concept.

In a nutshell, that's what I'm up to for the foreseeable future on top of the heavy project load for my other classes as well. It's gonna be a fun few weeks.

Until next time 

Upper Tortoise shell and limbs

Lower turtle shell, house visible

Two-headed rabbit, happy easter.

Behind is a 5.5' tall sculpture being done by Liz Johnson

50lbs of Mobile Recording Power

HELLO FELLOW KIDS

Ever wondered what kind of device they used to record all those tapes when Watergate happened? I would bet money that it was one of these, or something very similar at least. Before hand held tape recorders became a big thing oh, this is what people had to work with when they wanted to record something as simple as audio. These bad boys have about a 30 minute record time, even with spindles that seem pretty large. That's not to mention how awkward and bulky these things are to carry, assuming you can get it off the ground. I'd say this thing weighs about 50-60lbs. You could also record by winding the tape either way and control the speed of the playback, both of which are some of those top shelf features.

It may seem like this thing doesn't have a lot to offer, but this was top shelf at one point. It comes with all the audio jacks you can possibly imagine for any kind of microphone for its time. It even comes with two solid-state microphones that are wired directly to the recorder, so you'd always have something to record with. I suppose if you had the right jack, you’d be able to record instruments like an electric guitar using one of these. On top of all of that, it’s also got some built in speakers (again, high tech for the time) which adds a lot to the weight but definitely would have made this one of the more portable audio recorders for its time. This would have been especially handy for Watergate indeed. 

UNTIL NEXT TIME

SLOSS

hey guys

so this week I'm not at work, so I have nothing to show you in terms of rare or mildly interesting items that someone didn't want. Instead, I'll tell you briefly what I've been up to while I'm in Birmingham, Alabama. Five art students from Bradley University and I are in town for the NCCCIAP (National Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art and Practices). We have our own Iron pouring cupola (10' tall furnace) and will be competing in a competition tomorrow night basically on who has the biggest and baddest cupola.

Day1:
We arrive at Sloss Iron pouring facility in Birmingham, and set up the cupola for a burn-in which will basically prime it for the actual iron pour. Next thing up was to smash up 492 lbs. (exactly) of iron to use in our furnace on Day 4. Next up we made around 20 sand-cement moulds using materials provided by Sloss to use for the actual competition. We brought some of our own custom moulds with which to fill with iron, so we began prepping those as well later on. Head back to the hotel after an 11 hour day.

Day 2:
Back at Sloss, we smash up 146 lbs (exactly) of coke to use as fuel for the fire, so to speak. coke is the 'technical term' for a material similar to charcoal briquettes used for grilling, except on a larger scale. We followed this with finalizing the prep for most of our custom moulds, which involved cutting in air vents to allow the heat from the 4000 degree iron to escape from (took most of the day). We also had a "chainlink" mould that we made to represent Bradley University, this mould broke so we spent some time repairing and finalizing this as well. I'll include pictures if I have any. Back to the hotel after another 11 hour day of prep.

Day 3:
Once again at Sloss, we attend a workshop on direct moulding with a special kind of oily sand that hardens and that can be prepped and used for an iron pour in a day or so. We finalized the prep for our cupola, ran over the technical aspects and what we need to do and when we need to do it during the competition. Demonstrations ran through the day, showcasing the incredible art of the people who attended sloss past and present. I cannot stress enough how talented some of these individuals are, the things I've seen here in the last couple days have absolutely blown my mind. The last thing we saw today was a trebuchet launching balls of clay and fire into a lake while a team of iron casters blew up a 20' long snake made of straw that was filled with fire works. Incredible to say the least.

The competition is tomorrow at 4pm, and I've never felt less ready for anything in my life. So it goes I suppose, but we came to dominate and I think we have more than a good chance.

Wish us luck. I'll add pictures tomorrow if I remember, but it's been an incredibly long day and I am going to sleep.

GOOD NIGHT HUMANS

BALLS

WELCOME BACK HUMANS

Alright guys, so this one's an absolute game changer, or at least it would have been in its time. This bowling ball comes with its own commercial straight from the 70s, and with fame like that I simply could not resist sharing with the internet.

Sports are not for everyone, myself included. However, with the superior grip and handling quality if the AMF classic, even I might be willing to step into the bowling alley. If memory serves correctly, bowling is like gold and my best score is around 100. With a ball like this, I would bet money that I could half that score without breaking a sweat. Given that this is just a bowling ball to most of you, I’d like to point out that the reason this ball is so special is because it is made up of a special polyester formula designed for the best possible traction in 1973.

Honestly, there really isn’t any information about this bowling ball other than one website that simply lists the manufacturer details. If there was more to it I’d love to tell you, but that’s part of the reason I picked this item for this week. While some of the things I see at Goodwill make me wonder why someone would ever give them away, some make me wonder why they were even created in the first place. This one is the latter, and while its purpose may seem obvious (it’s a bowling ball, duh) it seems that this is one of those things that the internet forgot to swallow up, save for a few online auctions where people just looking for a quick buck.

Here’s a classy 70s commercial about a bowling ball.

BYYYYYEEEEEE

Basket Case

COMMENCE BLOG

Today I have for you a basket. Not just any basket though, this one is guaranteed to be Handmade by a single person and distributed by one of the biggest basket companies on the face of the planet. The basket at hand is called the Housekeeper. The kicker is that this basket can hit resale prices of around $420 on ebay, but if was going to use it I'd probably just put my laundry in it. If you know anything about the basket Market (which I didn't even know was a thing before I started at Goodwill) you're probably thinking of Longaberger right now. Every basket produced by Longaberger has a signature on the bottom of the person that made the basket and the logo etched into the bottom to ensure that it's the real deal.

Longaberger is (or was, until last year) the basket producer in the United states. So much so that their factory was constructed in the shape of a basket. When they went out of business in 2018, the resale prices of these baskets went up if anything, and as of their closing the most expensive Longaberger item sold was a wall display with 14 small baskets inside of it. That sold for $2200. If we guess the price of the display is about $200, that's roughly $130 per basket.

While this one is likely much larger than the individual baskets that sold in that particular set, it's still only one basket. If you're reading this and want that basket, it's only $124.99 here at Goodwill. It sort of blows my mind that people would be willing to spend even that amount of money on a basket (even if it is collectable), but to each their own I suppose.

HAVE A GOOD DAY