Lots of sawing.

Lately my studio time has been spent sitting at the bench and sawing out components for the limited editions.

Decals, decals, decals!

Finally finished applying the decals to the powder-coated aluminum sheets.

Penland was a blast!

Mechanical Playthings gang

Lower metals

Lower metals

                                    

Penland Post Card Projects from Gary Schott on Vimeo.


Penland Make it Fly from Gary Schott on Vimeo.


Penland class project from Gary Schott on Vimeo.


astro boy a from Gary Schott on Vimeo.
This was my teaching sample for the postcard project.


elephant no1 from Gary Schott on Vimeo.
This is my teaching sample for the Make it Fly project. I think I'm going to do a limited edition of this eventually.

Last update before Penland

Leaving this week for Penland but thought I'd post the latest progress with my limited editions... decals! The next step when I return is to cut out all of those images and apply them to an already powder-coated aluminum blank. Then it's into the toaster oven!

I'm sure I'll have plenty of photos and videos from Penland to share when I return, too.

New studio, limited editions and preparing for Penland

It's been a bit crazy around here but I wanted to share an update about the new studio, the limited editions before it gets too close to leaving for Penland.

The almost completed studio... well, almost completed on the outside, anyway. The last of the windows, which will go along the top of the north wall (backside of studio) will be put in next week, along with the last of the siding.

The next step is waiting for an estimate for our electrician to run a couple of lines out to the studio so that I can put in outlets. Then it's time for insulation and osb board (or something similar) for the wall surface.

I've also been getting some work done on the limited editions in between administrative work and prepping for Penland. Below are some process shots.

 I decided to silver solder the two parts together and just trim the wider part on the lathe. I'm sure a machinist would roll his/her eyes at this but it works for me.

 Trimming off the excess before heading to the lathe.

 All dressed up and drilled. Now, it's a proper shaft bearing!

 Start components - end result.

 I also took advantage of a slow day and powder coated all the aluminum plates for both the limited edition brooch and wiggly mustache machine. The above image shows three plates getting the powder coat baked on. I love that I can just use a toaster oven for this. Make sure to have ventilation though!

 This is our setup at school. We use the Eastwood powder coat gun system.

There they are! All ready to have decals applied and baked on.

So, on top of everything, I'm also in the midst of preparing to teach my first ever class at Penland. The class is titled, "Mechanical Playthings." The following videos are of recent samples to add to my growing collection of mechanism examples.

The sample shows both a set of pin wheel gears and a set of spur gears.

 

The sample shows how to create intermittent motion and an example use for a bell crank.

 

Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in all the fancy mechanisms that we forget to address more basic decisions - how to keep a lever-follower in contact with a surface (a cam for example).

 

 

THANK YOU!

I would like to thank each person that contributed to my Indiegogo project and believing that my overall project was worth investing in. A huge THANK YOU to these people:

Arthur Hash

Liana Tomchesson

Stacey Maddock

Jennifer Fillius

Andrew Stansbury

Ann Swan

M P Smith

Gary Sudhoff

Jerry Hooker

Gwynne Rukenbrod

Melanie Sweet

Cynthia Eid

Billy Lambert

Brigitte Martin

Prazzoli Enrica

Miel Paredes

Masumi Kataoka

Steven Libert

Jan Harrell

Jennifer Chowning

Susie Sonnefeldt

Additionally, there were 3 donors who wished to remain anonymous.

These individuals, and everyone who helped spread the word, together raised $3,203.20!

So, the main reason that I've been a bit slow to start posting about my project is that we needed to finalize and now the backyard has been a crazy and will continue to be for a little longer. Here's some photos of the studio structure!

It's definitely coming along. I would whole-heartedly recommend our builder to anyone in the San Antonio area. He's thorough, and works hard! His name is Mike Long. This week it's going to get water-proofed and then we need to wait for the windows to get done. After that the siding and door. I will be doing the electrical, insulating and drywall myself so there's still plenty to do but it feels great!

Also, I've begun organizing parts for the limited editions. 

It doesn't look like much yet, but I've actually started fabricating more parts this week, so there will be plenty to show again starting next week. Also, the decal paper should be arriving soon so I better get powder coating!

Thank you again to everyone who helped push along my project and I'm excited to keep everyone up-to-date!

WEBSITE NOT WORKING!

I apologize for the confusion, but I'm having service issues with the host for my website. Talk about bad timing! Anyhoo, I've moved beyond my initial state of frantic and just trying to be positive.

My project site for Indiegogo is still up and running so at least that's not affected! Sorry again for the confusion, everyone!

9 Days Left!

There's just 9 nine days left to help share and/or contribute to my Indiegogo Project! I have added two new perk levels - one at $75 for the Mustache brooch and one at $200 for the Wiggly Mustache Portrait. These new levels won't come with the book of my work and make collecting either limited edition piece a bit easier.

    "Victorian Woman with Mustache," brooch            "Wiggly Mustache Portrait No.2"

The Project:

1. A true private work space.
2. Comprehensive book of my work.
3. Limited editions of mustache portraits.

The Studio. For the last seven years I’ve rented, shared, worked out of a bedroom in a house (not exactly safe now with two kids). Each move requires too much time to reorganize and reconfigure my equipment to fit the space. Currently my studio practice happens at work in a shared office space that doubles as a shared working studio. Although its proximity to my job is great it doesn’t afford me privacy to think, create, take risks all to further develop my practice.

The Book. To date I’ve been included in many books, most recently Humor in Craft by Brigitte Martin, all featuring one or more pieces. However, I’ve yet to produce a comprehensive book highlighting my favorite works, successful projects and bodies of work. I’m interested in this to not only mark my accomplishments but to offer collectors, colleagues and students something affordable to share in comparison with most of my works. 

The Limited Editions. The Mustache Portrait series is my most current studio project at this time.  The creation of these two editions gives the opportunity for me to continue working in this series, exploring process and aesthetics while also providing collectors with two affordable designs. The Wiggly Mustache Portrait No.2 edition is similar to previous works, but the Victorian Woman with Mustache, brooch is my first attempt to take this series into a jewelry format. 

INDIEGOGO Funding Campaign!

I can't believe I have finally done it... I'm going to be building a studio at home!  And to help with that I have launched an INDIEGOGO funding campaign.  To get to the project page CLICK HERE

I think it's funny that the last post I had done in awhile ago was about moving out of the studio space I shared and into a smaller space so that I could save money towards building a studio at home!

All the details are on the project page but here's some quick highlights.  In celebration of deciding to build a home studio, I am going to put together a book featuring my work, and produce two limited editions- one a brooch and the other a small mechanical sculpture.  Here they are:

"Victorian Woman with Mustache"

"Wiggly Mustache Portrait No.2"

Indiegogo Project from Gary Schott on Vimeo.


Please share this project with anyone you may think would be interested in contributing to!
Cheers!

Good bye studio...

Well, today I closed the door to what had been my personal work/studio space for two years.  It's the largest space I've ever had to play and explore and it will be missed.  However, I've moved most of my stuff to fit into a shared work space at school (SSA) in an effort to make my life a bit more efficient as Sarah and I get ready for baby no.2.  Now, I can use the money I was paying rent with instead for materials and to save to build a home studio.  Mmmmmmm... home studio...

Here's a photo of the studio space not long after moving in.

A bit of paint and almost ready for assembly...

Cabaret Mechanical Theatre!

After a decade of being inspired by and admiring the artists represented by Cabaret Mechanical Theatre, I am happy to announce that they are now representing me with my limited edition Wiggly Mustache Portraits.  This is hopefully the first of many works to be shown with them.

Now I understand!

This is a fantastic video that my friend Arthur Hash shared with me... thanks, Arthur!

A glimpse from the weekend.

Working hard at finishing works for my solo show at the end of May!  Making good progress still but it's going to be close!

In between annealing sessions, I finally gave my railroad anvil a coat of paint.

At least come for the wine!

Sneak peek

A sneak peek of works from the Plumb Bob series I'll be installing at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft this May.

Embossing dies

I've been working on making some new embossing dies for my plumb bob series.  I'm going to re-cast the forms but figured I would give them a test run anyway... not too bad!

Studio tour

This Saturday and Sunday I'll be participating in San Antonio's On / Off Fredericksburg Studio Tour.  The hours are 11-6pm on Saturday and 12-5pm on Sunday.  I'm at 140 Fredericksburg Rd.

Here's a video on a new piece, Wiggly Mustache Portrait,  I made an edition of three of and available for sale during the tour event.

 
   

Works in progress

The new Wiggly Mustache pieces are getting closer to being finished.  They'll be finished in time for the On/Off Fredericksburg Studio Tour February 16, 17.  Come on by to check them out and see my studio space!

Bob Ebendorf version...

It sounds like all who attended my workshops at this year's ECU Metals Symposium enjoyed my presented project - a Bob Ebendorf version of my Wiggly Mustache Toy.  It served as an introduction to exploring and implementing simple mechanical motion into creative works.  We talked about shafts, bearings, levers, cranks, cams, springs, counter-weights and materials.

I really had a blast seeing existing friends and was glad to make new ones.  A big thank you to the ECU crew that made this a fun experience.