A self sustaining still life.
Author Archives: Mark
Satan the Waster
My best guess is that the New Haven Police Department dumped these guns in Long Island Sound. Continue reading
Tension, Painted Wood
Tri Color, Painted Wood
Utixo
I
got into the habit of giving names to my computers long ago, once I learned how useful a recognizable identifier can be in a network setting. I’ve named machines after Ansel (Adams), (Thelonius) Monk, Euclid and other figures that resonated with me for some reason.
Pine Bench with Green Top
Bench Dog
A bench dog is a piece of hardware that fits into a workbench for the purpose of holding or steadying a piece of material. A woodworker might use a bench dog to clamp a block of wood in order to carve it, for example.
Small Round Triangular Stool
Gibson Inspired Sunburst Coffee Table
I acquired a factory produced Queen Anne coffee table some time ago, and it hung around the shop serving as an overflow storage surface, buried under paint cans and unsorted hardware.
I forgot all about it until the day I finally got around to cleaning up.
The Sportsmanship Cue
Legends are born in events that we rarely take personal part in. Actions that transcend ordinary lives always seem to occur when we’re not there to see. Those near enough to bear witness later share their tale with a circle of friends, and eventually the word reaches our ears. This is such a tale. Continue reading
Mystery Toadstool
I’ve had a short section of a log in my possession for years. I have no idea where it came from, or what type of wood it is, just that it’s very light in weight. It’s also light in color, yet it produces dark brown chips. It’s a mystery.
Boarding Ladder Shelves
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I welcome the whole ‘re-purposing’ movement. It makes fashionable what people all over the world have been doing for thousands of years as a matter of instinct and survival: simple conservation. Continue reading
Scribble and Scrawl
Oyster Sloop Hope
For almost fifteen years, I performed maintenance work on the F/V Oceanic, a 41′ research and teaching boat owned and operated by the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, CT. Continue reading
Thank You!
Your message in on its way.
Carry on with whatever you were doing. Once my fully robotic staff has read your message and added their well intentioned comments to the margins, it will be rolled up and served to me in a copper samovar along with a warm biscuit. I’ll get back to you.
Thank You
I’ll be able keep at it for a while longer thanks to you.
The Back Room
Is Not the Gift Shop…
Special offers, unrelated items and other stuff may appear here.
Specials Currently Offered:
Donations Accepted
If you’d like to help keep this operation operating, this is the place.
All donations, regardless of the amount, will be received with a mixture of solemn respect for your good judgement and generous nature, and giddy celebration at being reminded that the world is indeed a friendly place.
This is a simple, secure process handled by Paypal. No information is collected, no awkward questions are asked, and no further commitment is required. Just a warm glow of civic pride.
Untitled, Painted Wood
I
can’t honestly say that I always have a preconceived idea of what I’m about to make when I begin a project. In fact, I enjoy that the most. All too often, what can be imagined doesn’t translate well into the language of reality. Other times, an idea is simply incompatible with reality, and it can be a sad moment when that becomes apparent.
2005, Painted pine 10″x22″
Continue reading
Kokopelli
Guitar Rift
This guitar was handmade by some guy I met in a field. I bought it from him right then and there. Rash purchases are often followed by remorse, and this case was no exception.
Continue reading
Hephaestus
This piece is built around my first welding helmet. I retired the helmet long ago, but never got rid of it. It hung on one wall or another for twenty years or more, silently watching as I went about my life.
Then one day, surfacing from deep and distant thoughts, I found myself staring at it, and this is what I found looking looking back at me.
I didn’t recognize him immediately, but once the mask was complete, I realized I’d captured the image of the Divine Welder. Continue reading
Consumer Cycle
This Yamaha is a festival of useless cosmetic flourishes. Its drooping lines and pudgy bulges are just silly. Its ancillary components are remarkably overweight. The design team been must have told We don’t care, it just can’t look like last year’s model. I really didn’t want to start a new project, but I just couldn’t resist. Like picking at a strip of peeling wallpaper.
Entropic Chic Interrupted
As a species, we scramble around trying to improve our situation. We invent, experiment, build and create, all in the hope of finding something better than whatever it is that we already have. We like change.
Nature, however, prefers things as they were. What follows is an example of that ongoing disagreement.
The link to this page was left in place by mistake. You’re welcome to read the post, but I’m afraid you’ll have to find your own way out. Sorry.
Shackle Bookends
These old shackles probably should have been retired long before they reached this level of wear. On the other hand, their extended service has given them a look that the most creative of ‘distressing’ efforts could never match.
Excelsior No.1 Table
Even though ‘repurposing’ has become an overused and somewhat annoying buzzword, I think the underlying concept is sound on many levels, and even noble in an environmental context. Continue reading
The Ants & the Grasshopper (A Fable Retold)
One bright day in late autumn a colony of ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat.
“What!” cried the ants in surprise, “haven’t you stored anything away for the winter? What in the world were you doing all last summer?” Continue reading
Bird House
“Sometimes a television is just a birdhouse” (S. Freud, 1922} Continue reading
Wood Screw
A visual pun. Lag screw made of wood. Sorry.
Flying Fish
This is special to me. I started it a long time ago as a present for someone, but didn’t finish it in time to give it to them. Many years later, I set out to complete it, but found it had become something different in the intervening years, both in appearance and in its meaning to me. That’s all I really care to share about this aspect of the Flying Fish. Continue reading
Melt
A small and rather personal sculpture. Small, because it’s not very big. Personal, because during it’s creation, watching steel melt in the flame hypnotized me, for the lack of a better word. I was transported to a different place, and I merely observed as this emerged. Continue reading
Waring Blendor Lamp
Fred Waring was a very popular musician from the 1920s into the 1950s. During this career, he earned both the appellation ‘The Man Who Taught America To Sing’ and the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor the U.S. government can bestow on a civilian. Personally, I’d never heard of him prior to doing this bit of background research. Continue reading
Bust of Triliminal Entity
Original sculpture incorporating copper, glass, industrial and organic remains.
Motorcycle Tribal Mask
Increasingly, we see the term ‘Tribal’ applied to tattoos and other graphic designs that vaguely resemble genuine ethnic cultural symbols. That got me to wondering exactly what makes something ‘tribal’. Continue reading
Sculpture
3-Dimensional Works in Various Media
Oscilloscope Wall Mirror
This used to be an EICO Model 460 DC Wide Band 4.5 MHz Oscilloscope. Once the oscilloscope lost its ability to analyze signal frequencies with any degree of accuracy, it was simply cast off, its useful life ended. Continue reading
Furniture
Original and Re-purposed Pieces
Antique Tool Chest Table
I found this old carpenter’ s box lying on a tarp in the middle of a vast flea market. There were a few hand tools still in it, possibly original, maybe not. The box is plainly made and humble. I imagine it was built for the simple purpose of holding its owner’s tools. I wonder who made it, and how their story went. Continue reading
Margaret Tarrant Reprints
Margaret Winifred Tarrant (1888-1959) was a prolific and popular English illustrator, best known for the charming illustrations she produced for various fairy tale and children’s books.
In my ongoing effort to preserve things worth saving, I have digitally restored a collection of her classic fairy tale illustrations. Additional prints will be added as they are completed. Continue reading
Buick Hubcap Guitar
I was commissioned to build this guitar featuring a vintage Buick hubcap as a resonator. The earliest musical instruments were made from found materials- gourds, shells, and even human skulls were used as resonating chambers, so a hubcap makes perfect sense. Continue reading
Bits and Pieces
A Smattering of Unrelated Stuff…
It seems that I’ve taken a non-traditional approach to the work bench.
Google ‘woodworking bench’ and you’ll find an ongoing competition among those claiming to have created the Ultimate Workbench. You’ll find exquisite variations based on a familiar tradtional pattern. Impressive indeed, but I’d be afraid to make my lunch on some of these heirloom-quality, statement-piece masterworks, much less defile them by actually using them.
I do like some of the clamping and work-holding features these benches feature, but the work surface seems too tall for for a good portion of the work that needs to happen, and they seem a little unstable for rythmic, multi-directional hand work, unless bolted to the floor, which interferes with re-configuring the shop space as needed.
After years of working in various shop and field environments, I have come up with a table that I’m pretty fond of. Actually, let me back up and say that I’ve come up with a set of guiding principles that seem to work for me.
- The table is a tool that will be used.
- The table is subservient to the job at hand.
- The job is ever-changing.
- There is no single perfect table.
Most of us undertake projects that require varying technologies. There’ll be a layout phase, machine work, hand work, hardware modification and finishing. Ideally, there will be a dedicated work space for each of these, but most of us need to perform multiple operations on one or two surfaces.
At the same time, we’ve all learned over the years that having work surfaces at a variety of heights can make it easier on the back, eyes, and other assorted body parts.
There is no single perfect table.
I’m lucky enought to have primary woodworking table that I’m pretty fond of, a workbench for general mechanical work, a set of trays that can be moved about for mixing and prepping finishes, a small rolling bench for applying finishes and a small welding table. The top of the bench and band saws offer auxilairy space, and a good set of horses complete the stable.
My Primary Woodworking Table:
My Mechanical Workbench
My Rolling Finishing Stand
My Versatile Vice
Grouping No. 2006
Megapixelmania
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Bench Racer
A long time ago, my father made a simple bench out of a scrap of 4×6″ fir. Back then, a bunch of us were racing motorcycles, and we would engage in ‘bench racing’ sessions- reviewing memorable moments from recent or famous rides- akin to the idea of the ‘Monday morning quarterback’ sessions. Straddling this rustic bench was a natural visual aid to the storytelling. Continue reading