Brazed Nail Candle Holder

 



I just completed a brazed nail sculpture candle holder.  It is inspired by mid century metal wall art with square cut masonry nails.  This sculpture holds three tealight or votive candles.  The brazed joints offer an aesthetic contrast.  The whole sculpture is wire brushed to bring it to a nice satin shine.

To add distinctive character, the support bar is pitted steel, that had the rust removed, producing a textured surface.  This gives the candle holder an almost industrial look.  I plan on exploiting this technique more in the future. 



Recent work "Intrigue"

This work I called "Intrigue" because of how the creative process was so natural and organic.  In that lies the irony.  A geometric, inorganic, and synthetic abstraction came into existence in a purely organic way.  Initially, I had a 6 inch ring made from 1/4' square steel bar.  I had just previously sold my large art nouveau floral panel and needed to fill my wall with something.  It had to have substantial size but weigh next to nothing.  Seeing that, and the fact I had rough almost 8 feet of 1/4" square bar, I proceeded.  I started with rectangular frame and contemplated using the ring.  The ring needed to draw the focus and be at least somewhat central.  The intersecting lines coming in at a right angle where a last minute shot in the dark.  It work out in the end.  The hemispherical pipe cap fit perfectly between the line and the fame.  It was if it was made only for this sculpture.  The torch perforated sheet metal add to the reflective properties and cast interesting shadows.  All this was brought together by braze welding the steel with bronze filler rod.  This creates an aesthetic contrast with the grey steel.

Post modern geometric wall art

I recently made a post modern geometric wall art from left over scraps.  What I came up with was something of simple design yet quite sophisticated.  The base coat is flat black oil based paint.  The larger triangle has dry brushed silver accent paint in a diagonal direction.  The front triangle features the most dramatic finish.  The finish consist of several costs of different colors layered on with plastic shopping bags as the painting tool.   

Key Holders are here

Key holders are here!  These novel and unique key holders make great gifts for the holidays.  The retro, mid-century inspired key holder featured above is a good example.  Reactangular shapeds connected by golden curvy lines give this piece a unique style.  Whats more, the rectangles themselves have remarkable depth.  They feature a multilayers paint job consisting of a peridot metallic green basecoat.  To brighten it up a gold transparent glaze is applied to add warmth while allowing the base coat to show through.  Here is a closer look at the glaze affect:

The photo does not do it justice.  It is far more satisfying in person.

This is a smaller key holder yet it is still quite effectively modern.  The vibrant purple gel paint over a silver base coat makes for a nice accent to the dominating silver ring and the black frame. The selection of colors and simplicity of design will ensure that this key holder will fit in to any decor.

Dry brush painting on rusted metal

This is my latest sculpture I have been working on. It is a welded steel aculpture of a upcycled robot that I put together from odds and ends I had around.  After many days of deciding on the finish, I came up with the idea of rust patina.  I do not see alot of robots with rust patinas so I thought it was overdue.  I have done this before with with another rusted composition. It worked out well enough.  I used a spoon of salt in 1/4 cup of vinegar then mixed with 3% hydrogen peroxide and spray the steel.  It works instantly but needs numerous applications to get a complete cover.

Having the robot rusted I felt there was something more needed.  Then it dawned on me, I need to put a distressed paint to give the impression of age and weathering.  That, indeed, will give our robot friend a characteristic and distinctive look.  Considering the roughness of the adhering rust, I realized using an almost dry brush to apply paint could easily lend itself to a fairly convincing distressed look.



The key here is to apply a paint that is not too thin that it runs into nooks and crannies but not so thick that it shows brush strokes.  When You have the right fluidity, you apply with an almost dry brush and leave some areas uncovered.  This took only about 45 minutes but the finished results look like it took 45 years.

Abstract clock gets a facelift

A couple of years ago I completed a wild Memphis style abstract metal art clock.  Well, last week, while cleaning, my wife knocked it off the wall and it broke into 3 pieces.  Since I had no choice but to repair it, I decided some changes where needed.  I changed the color of the bowl from red violet to dashing purple. The brass star was replaced with a metallic turquiose perforated panel.  I reapplied the black paint with metallic saphire accent.  The clock is available at this listing in my Etsy shop!

Geometric garden art

Here is a recently sculpture I completed.  It is  3D Geometric traingle sculpture made from 16 gauge steel triangles welded together.

It was designed to be able to rest in a variety of positions to cast a variety of unique shadows.  With its tough oil based enamel finish and several coats of clear, it is suitable for indoor or outdoor use. If you wish to see this alongside other great garden sculptures please visit my squidoo lense about metal art for the garden!