Give Me Speed.

Started getting back to blogging in a different way.

Most of what I enjoy revolves around art and riding motorcycles. Recently I began riding on track to try and pursue racing as a hobby. Track day riding and high performance riding in general is so much more difficult than I could have imagined. It is so addictive.

To find out more about that, visit my new(ish) blog.

Give Me Speed

Here's one of the latest pics from a trip to the track...

It is COMPLETE, and other news!

Project "GIVE ME SPEED" is finally done. It was fun to do and the process of working with steel, powder coat, welding, and framing were exciting processes. I'm really pleased with the way this piece turned out. It's probably the best example I have of something turning out the way I had always pictured it in my mind.

The letters were formed, assembled, and welded by me, the powder coat was done by Wally's, and the frame was made by Still Life Gallery. The workmanship in the frame and powder coat is just amazing. Pictures don't do it justice, every time I walk by this thing I sit and stare at it for a few minutes.

I'd like to keep it, but that was never the plan. IT'S FOR SALE! Please view the picture in full screen to get all the info about it. If you're interested then please feel free to send me an e-mail at "zenangel13@gmail.com" to discuss pricing, shipping, yaddah yaddah yaddah :)

Also, for my local people, I'll be displaying work at Westminster Station soon. Here's a little Artist Bio that I made up for the Gallery section of the shop. There are several other artists participating and more to come as the Gallery at Westminster Station gets it's footing. If any other participating artists, musicians, bands, etc need or want a printable page made for themselves then please send me a message on Facebook, comment on my blog here, or send me an e-mail to the aforementioned address!

I'm going to make coffee now. Many things have to be done, and it's quarter to midnight. Still Early!

POWDER COAT!!!

Sooo, I betcha thought I fell off the face of the Earth again, huh? Well don't get ahead of yourself, in all likelihood I still might. But until that happens, here's a picture of Project "Give Me Speed" since the brass powder coat has been finished. It looks killer, I can't wait until the sun comes to make the finish really shine! Enjoy :)

I had off work today... so I worked at home

Remember this? Project "Give Me Speed" no has a nice, steel hanging bar on the back, and it was also dropped off today for powder coat. The Next time you see this, it will look completely different...

I also made a nice helmet badge from brass today for a half helmet. The brass acts a little different than the copper, it'll definitely take some practice to get totally used to the different metals.

Another thing I've been wanting to do for a long time is try to work leather into a 3-dimensional thing. I saw an old B&W photograph online (Jockey Journal??) of two boardtrackers or flattrackers with leather face masks on, but the leather was molded to look like a real face, not like a MotoX helmet. Seemed pretty interesting so I tried it....

After I dried the leather and trimmed it, this is what I came up with.....

Not perfect, but I'll take it... The biggest problem is that I had wet the leather before checking which side was inside or out, and I totally did it inside-out. GO ME!! Whatever, this was hard, I wanted to do it, it worked for the purposes I intended, therefore I win. :)

Now, I'm making pizza. Today was well-spent playing hooky from work.

Project "Give Me Speed" Update

Last night I went out into the garage and finished the last two letters. Then started toying with ideas on how to finish the back piece of steel sheet (ended up sanding it sideways to create a million scratches and give it some depth), and tacked on the letters to the sheet with some seriously overkill spot welding.

Still not quite done yet. I'm going to add a few more touches to get it perfect. So far, of all the projects I've worked on, I think this has come the closest to what I had pictured in my mind when I thought of it originally. Very happy with this one.

New Projects That I'm Not Ashamed To Show You Guys :)

Some recent other projects that have been created.

Project "Give Me Speed" and a few goodies that were made for my friend Motolady and her 'End of the World' Ride on 12-21-2012. 

Here's what the letters look like once they've been cut out with the strip applied to the sides to give them their dimension. The welds were ground down where possible, and in the tight spots (corners and inside the letters) the welds were kept as small as possible to be less obvious, while still appearing rugged and very masculine.

The letters have all been cut out of 14 gauge sheet steel and the sides will be added using 1/2" wide steel strip. Here's a photo of the letters all cut out (some with sides, some without) and trying to mock up the sign for spacing, playing with alignment. Just kind of a bit of planning ahead :) 

 A sharpie art skateboard for Motolady (link to her site at the top of the post, pretty cool). 

A painting for the same 'End of the World' party/ride for Motolady. The piece is meant to be sort of a 'take the power back' statement, while the wrench was meant to emphasize hard work and real labor. Painted with watercolors and metallic inks on paper, 12" x 18".