Cork Hand

Apparently I like sculpting hands & arms,. . and I like drinking wine,
and who doesn't like wine? . . . . Nazi's that's who
I started collecting corks from finished bottles of wine some time ago. Friends of mine have also been nice enough to foster my addiction to cork hoarding. I have quite a stash of them.
I guess you could say I'm a P.R.O.U.S. -(Pack Rat Of Usual Size!)
*Those of you that appreciate that bastardized reference, . .

are, . . .

AWESOME!

Anyway, I thought corks would make for interesting sculpting material. Repetitve shapes are of interest to me! A.T.G Spools? (If anyone is actually reading this, which I doubt :/ check out an earlier entry where I made a hand/forearm outta empty plastic spools)

Enough rambling.

Check it out

ZIP-TIES !

Also know as cable ties, these handy-dandy self locking, ratcheting plastic fasteners are amazing! A genius idea!
Originally invented by Thomas & Betts, an electrical company, in 1958 under the brand name Ty-Rap initially designed for airplane wire harnesses. The original design used a metal tooth, these can still be obtained, however a majority of what you can buy now is solid plastic. These little devices are applicable in thousands of every uses. I work in retail and we use 100's of them a week for building displays. They come in a variety of sizes-(lengths/widths) and colors. Some have adjustable locks and or eyelets for screws to go through. They can bear a tremendous weight load, are water proof, and easily cut with wire cutters!
So perfect for the D.I.Y'er! . . .

I have put together some pictures of a few of the more interesting applications


A garage pull!

Made with one the belt sized Zip Ties -
(I've seen these belt sized ones used to lash telephone polls together)



They make great impromptu shower curtain rings!



They make great anchor filler for screws in concrete / cinder block walls.
Just drill a pilot hole with a masonry bit and then put a scrap length of zip tie in and screw in the screw (or hook in this case) and then snip off the excess!




Make shift shoelaces! Be careful not to over tighten!



My cell phone holster broke, . . I fixed it!



Makes a great belt loop!



I have a coffee mug that didn't have a handle. So I remedied that, . .

with Zip-Ties!





I mentioned that I work in retail, and that we use a lot of zip-ties. Here is one of the wierder uses for them. Amidst cleaning and straightening up an aisle last year I noticed a some brochures for a product laying all over the floor, so I made a holder

Re-Inventing the Wheel !

One of the U-boats (what's a U-boat, you ask? those of you who don't know, definitely don't work in retail) where was I? Oh yeah, . . .one the U-Boats we use at work to transport freight from the stockroom to the sales floor broke a wheel.

So I did what any good, hard working employee would do, . .
well, . . no, . . . not really. But I decided to fix the wheel,
all MacGyver style.

So with my trusty Leatherman, a little time, lengths of 2" wide canvas stretcher bars, 2 tubes of silicone sealer, 1/2 bottle of gorilla glue & a dozen self tapping screws.

. . .

and viola

. . .

a new wheel!

FACES!

Tired Eyes!

Behind my house there is creek. On the otherside of that creek there is a hill with a whole bunch of debris & detritus on it. Among the items on the hill are 2 gigantic truck tires. These tires have been staring at me since I moved in. So naturally I made a bridge across the stream and climbed up the hill and made a complete face out of it.
*and got a soaked right foot getting back across! That's right, I suffer for my art*




Cup Face with a spoon smile!

Just before work a few days ago, I was putting some things in the sink. I pulled a spoon outta this mug-(that was sitting in it over night) the spoon left a smile on the water surface. The eyes are a bit hard to make out, but they're there too!
This was a great way to start the day!



A t.p dispenser at Tony Roni's




Bent up filing cabinet Face!



Taco & Nacho fixin's Meat Face



PIZZA!
and my foot? *sigh*



I noticed that when Kelly was stretching her shoulder made a sad mouth, so I did what any good boyfriend would do. I gave it Sharpie dots for eyes!



A salvaged hinge off of a wooden box at work. What a great nose!



The tail light on our moving truck! Totally a Dinosaur!




Sad take-out box!



In Cassie's basement there is a face on the floor



Little picture frame, Big Smile!

Duck Tape Bunny!

I'm the Easter Bunny's twin brother, . .Darrell
(those of you who get that reference are AWESOME, and will notice that my bunny doesn't look like Darrell) any hooooo
*An A.T.H.F reference, T-Shirt of the Dead episode*

I was asked by the manager of the store where I work
to make some spring themed Duck Tape displays.
So I made a 4 ft high sunflower (a previous blog entry,. . .
God that feels so pretentious to say) where was I going with this?
OH YEAH, . . sorry my mind wanders a bit from time to time, . . .
I also made a Duck Tape Bunny for the Spring themed samples

About 5 rolls of Duck Tape were used in the completion of this guy.
All the lines for the toe seperation, smile, eyebrows teeth gap &
nose are all Duck Tape!
I will refine the hand(paws)with some detail, and possibly have him holding a roll of tape or basket. I thought it would be funny to give him a hook for one hand
I mean full on pirate hook.

(more) Fauxtography

8:30 this morning, the sun & clouds were epically reflected in my sunroof!

Not too bad for using my cell phone

(more) Duck Tape stuff!

A Big ass flower!

27" x 47"

About 3 rolls of Duck Tape were used for this flower.
2 rolls of yellow, 1/4 roll of Cheetah print,
and 1/2 of dark green, & 1/4 of lime green. A hand full of screws & staples,
1/2" strips of mat board and a 5/8" dowel, . . .
and about 5 hrs of time
I had a lot of fun doing this







My Co-worker Donna-(who is our Floral Designer) is marveling at my Sunflower


A Duck(Duct)tape Sunflower!

Same Blog with a snazzy new & improved look!
(same mediocre content!)

Shelves

So in my new kitchen-( not really a new kitchen, it's actually a bit old & kinda busted, but new to me) there is a pantry. So in this closet for my food, there was a shelf on the back of the door-(a crappy hollow door) the shelf had been made of whatever moulding & screws the previous tennants had laying about.
It fell off the door a week into living here. So I decided to make a better shelf to replace it.
Just as a disclaimer, I do not have my mitre saw, compressor, or any of the tools that would make this easy. So **sigh** I had to used pre-fab pieces of bass wood, wood glue & tapped finishing nails in by hand. I used 3" threaded bolts, passed through the crappy hollow door into a strip of bass wood on the otherside. On this wooden strip I but some brass hooks for oven mitts, aprons, measuring cups etc,...

(More) Thinkin' outside the Box

CLAMP!

I needed to put pressure on a some things at work while some glue was drying,
and I didn't have a clamp. So I made one! Out of some spare odds & ends that were laying around.




BARBELLS!

I made impromptu dumbells out of heavy 24" paper rolls at work. I can work on my fitness when it gets slow

Chrsitmas Tree Topper!

Multiple pieces of different gauge wire, with different malleabilitys were used in the completion of this piece! It will be a Christmas gift to Kelly's Dad!




Wire formed Tree Topper!

New base of Operations

Well, it's been a rough coupla weeks. I (and Kelly & Mack) moved into a town house!
Lotsa back breaking lifting of furniture, aggrivation with transfering utilities, cable, forwarding mail,. . et cetera.
This is the first real day off I've had for about 4 weeks. When I'm not at my actual work place, i'm working on moving & settling in bull shit.
*I use the term day off lightly, I've been up since 8:30 and hung pictures and mounted shelves*
I'm getting off topic as I have a tendency to do, any ways,....
I have a garage again,...finally a place to craft things. . . .
well sorta, I still have to make a run to my parents place to pick up my tools...
So at the moment I have a place to remind me of what I can eventually have.
I don't think anybody actually reads what I type here, so I doesn't really matter what I say-(type) just as It probably won't matter what I do in the garage. I have a horrible feeling that I'll get all my tools from my folks place and have my creaive arsenal at the ready, . . . .and then,... NOTHING. I'll have nothing to do. No things to make for anybody. Aside from projects for me( which, since I have all of my wire sculptures packed up in boxes. All of it's been projects for me)

Kinda like Batman in the BatCave, . . . with no crime to fight.
In other words, pretty fuckin' lame

Hopefully the aggrivation & hard work will pay off and not be in vain.

Probably not though :(

Any way here is my BatCave so far -( more pictures to follow)