Bracelet

Old! Busted!

Here's my first go at a bracelet design.

It's available in raw or polished bronze, or in rose-gold plated brass.

It's at http://shpws.me/Mtr8

Welp....

New! Improved!

Turns out my original design was too flimsy and puny to print, so I've had to redesign it. I pulled in an element from a pair of earrings I'd done before (my very first pair, in fact) to make this version.

Winter Weekend 2016

Russian novel scenery

Just regular scenery,
with maybe a touch
of the Russian novel

Blue

Grey, with prison camp huts

Activities Hall,
with an excellent view
of the rubbish bins

Frost lights

Common area

Gavin being educated

Game

Game again

Camera self-timer test

Workbench modification for long-planing

I can't believe this hasn't been thought of before, but I just thought of it, so yay me.

If you have a woodworking bench with a well, a series of dog-holes staggered down the centre line will allow you to use the dogs to wedge a plank up against one of the lips of the well, holding it securely along its entire length.

It wouldn't be absolutely necessary that the walls of your well be perfectly square, but obviously that would be the ideal case.

Bling Tray

I made Annette a little tray to keep her current crop of favourite earrings in.

The timber is rimu, from an old desk I dismantled and reclaimed a few years ago. The pattern around the border of the central cavity is left over from the Forstner bit I used to hog it out, and I'm in two minds about leaving it — I don't find it too offensive, but it wouldn't take all that long to scrape it out if I decide to get rid of it (though I'd have to make a scraper for the job).

I'm fine. This is fine.

Brush pen and digital colour. Approx. 150x170mm.

Pencils of Colour

Graphite and coloured pencils on A5 cartridge paper

Pencils of Colour

Graphite and coloured pencils on A5 cartridge paper

When you gaze into the earring, the earring gazes back at you

Egg cups? Candle-snuffers? Parabolic microphones? Whatever you think they look like, they're definitely earrings.
You can get them in a range of metals at http://shpws.me/Mm72

Sphere-Cage

More earrings!

This is a very simple openwork sphere, about 15mm in diameter, with a twisted faceted stem. I've stuck with flat surfaces as far as possible to maximize bling-glitter.

They're available at http://shpws.me/Mks1

Spindle earrings

These are a variation on my Flytrap earrings.

They're smaller overall, with a more prominent dish to the disk, and a shorter and slightly beefier stalk.

They're available at http://shpws.me/MhRp

Octagon Cage Earrings

This is my latest earring design.

They're about 27mm long, including the loops. This is Shapeways rose-gold material render.

They're available at http://shpws.me/Mh6Y

New 3d-printed jewellery

http://shpws.me/MaGo

http://shpws.me/MaDU

I've just got these back from Shapeways.

The link beneath each image will take you to the page where you can get them.

These are all in polished bronze, but they're all available in a variety of metals and finishes.

I definitely need a better camera.

http://shpws.me/McDe

TV-watching doodle

TV-watching doodle

And another...

And another set of earrings.

These ones are available at http://shpws.me/MfIC in a variety of metals. They're about 35mm long.

Two New Earring Designs

Cube-Cross earrings — http://shpws.me/MfnC

Tangle earrings — http://shpws.me/MfnE

Diatom Earrings

These are the other set of my earrings that arrived today from Shapeways.

These ones are in polished bronze.

They're available at http://shpws.me/LWAE

Rosette Earrings

Here's my latest earring design, a simple geometric rotation in three dimensions.

The render shown here is of the rose gold version.

They're available in a range of metals at http://shpws.me/Mf6U

Lattice Earrings

Lattice Earrings http://shpws.me/MaDd

A new shipment of Things from Shapeways arrived on my doorstep this morning, among them a couple of pairs of earrings in polished bronze.

This is one of them; the other will have to wait for photography as Annette swooped in on them immediately and wore them off to work.

And yet more earrings

This time I'm playing around with turning text into a lattice design.

They're quite small, about 26mm from top to toe.

They're at http://shpws.me/MdPw in a variety of metals and prices. The render shown here is Rose Gold, but they're also available in bronze, brass, silver, and steel.

Earrings (in the flesh)

http://shpws.me/LPFg

http://shpws.me/LY2a

Now I have a couple of pairs of the earrings I designed and had printed at Shapeways.

Those to the left have been produced in polished bronze, while those to the right are in blackened steel.

The unpolished surface of the steel gives the form an old, corroded look I think, which quite suits it. I might get another pair in polished bronze though, to see how it looks with smooth reflective surfaces.

I've ordered some more of my designs, and I'm all a-quiver to see how they look in the real.

NOTE: click on the photos to see them in giganto-bloato form.

More earrings

Yet more earrings.

These ones are available at http://shpws.me/McDe in a variety of metals.

More Jewellery

I've made another couple of pairs of earrings and put them up for sale at Shapeways in a variety of metals.

Get these ones at http://shpws.me/MaDU

Get these ones at http://shpws.me/MaDd

Get these ones at http://shpws.me/MaGo

West Coast

This is one of the very few photographs I remembered to take.
I can't remember precisely where it is, except that it's on the way up to Arthurs Pass.

Annette and I went on an overnight road trip up to Arthurs Pass, and then over to Greymouth, Westport, and back over the Lewis Pass home.

I didn't take very many photographs, because I'm terrible at remembering that I'm supposed to be taking photographs.

1. There's not much to Arthurs Pass village, and nowhere really to buy groceries that aren't weet-bix or tomato sauce. The pub does surprisingly good food, but it's quite pricey, and they close their kitchen very early (7:30, I think). The motel we stayed at, Arthurs Pass Alpine Motel, was cheap and comfortable, and the hosts were very pleasant. The weather overnight was extremely wet and stormy, and trains seemed to go past very, very often.
2. Otira Gorge is very spectacular and not very comfortable to drive. It seems like a place that very rarely gets any actual sunlight — dark, brooding, and dangerous-feeling. The road is incredibly steep in places.
3. Greymouth is kind of a dump. Admittedly, our acquaintance with it was short, and the weather wasn't great, but we couldn't find any interesting shops or anything, and the breakfast we bought was just OK.
4. The journey up to Westport was in dense fog and rain for a lot of the way, sometimes with visibility down to twenty or thirty metres, which does not make for fun driving. However, when it was possible to see anything, the coast road is spectacularly beautiful.
5. Westport is also not very interesting.
6. Reefton is surprisingly attractive.
7. The Lewis Pass is beautiful, easy to drive, and felt very long.

By the time we were half way through the Lewis, I was pretty sceneried out and just wanted to get home. Unfortunately, Annette is very reluctant to surrender control of the vehicle, so I pretty much had to sit immobile for about six hours (with a few breaks), just looking out at scenic wonders. Now my back and bum hurts.

On the way up to Arthurs Pass. All very majestic and what-not.

Very strong gusty wind made long-lense photography a bit tricky. This is the only one that was even a bit sharp.

In the bush on the Lewis Pass on the way home. Lots of mosses, very wet.

Shapeways earrings: first look

I just got the first examples of Shapeways' metal casting, and I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with them.

These ones are in polished bronze, and if you look at the picture at full size, you'll also be able to see what their raw bronze material looks like — inside the filigree, where they couldn't polish. It's pretty nice, in both states, and has the additional advantage of being a fraction of the cost of gold.

You can get them gold-plated too, which would be a good option if you want something non-tarnishing. It's a bit more expensive, but not nearly as much as solid gold of course.

Here's the link to these earrings again, just in case you missed it the other hundred times I've broadcast it — http://shpws.me/LPFg

The filigree is a bit confusing, bright on bright; I wonder if it might not be an idea to fume-patinate them and then re-polish the outside, so that the shiny bits show up better against non-shiny bits.

Second Jewellery

Here's another pair of 3d-printed earrings. They're loosely (very loosely) based on forms found among microscopic diatoms, which are enormously varied.

In point of fact, they're actually 3d-printed in wax, then cast by the lost-wax process and polished. But that's splitting hairs; the base form is 3d-printed.

Shown here is Shapeways' material render of 14k rose gold; they're also available in other, cheaper materials: silver, brass, bronze, and various plated metals.

You can find them for sale at my Shapeways shop.

First Jewellery

As well as building little digital tanks and what-not, I've wanted to try my hand at some designs for 3d-printed jewellery.

This is the first fruit of that ambition: a pair of filigreed earrings. The design that makes up the body of the tube is my logo.

I've made them available in various materials — rose gold (as seen here in Shapeways' own material render), silver, brass and bronze, polished and unpolished.

I don't know as yet whether or not Shapeways' handling fees apply per piece or per pair when it comes to things like earrings, so for the moment they're sprued together to keep costs down. If it turns out I don't need to do that, I'll get rid of the sprue, because as well as being a waste of (possibly) precious material, it's also a hassle for the potential customer to have to remove it.

Commercialism!

I'm not good at selling my skills, owing to having a pathetic timidity and a morbid fear of rejection. Having access to examples of other people's work from all over the world via the internet hasn't helped the situation at all, since it just grinds my face in my own perceived mediocrity.

Still, having said that, I know I'm not the most terrible craftsman ever, and it would be nice to make a little bit of money at it. Vast sums of money would be even nicer.

To that end, and as a tiny beginning, I've opened up a shop on Shapeways to sell off some of my digital 3d designs. It's at https://www.shapeways.com/shops/mojobobdesign

To begin with, it's some bits and pieces related to my interest in wargaming miniatures, but I'd like to expand into other realms, such as jewellery design, statuettes and what-not.

Arty, Yet Curiously Farty

Acrylic and pastels on hessian, 450 x 800 mm.

I've had this sitting in my workroom, (just the under-painting), taunting me for months and months. Today, since I was supposed to be organising my workroom, I instead finished this off.

It's really not much more than a glorified doodle, but I quite like the way it ended up.

I rather like the coarse texture of hessian as a painting surface, but it takes a hell of a lot of gesso to fill in the holes in the very loose weave. I might try a nubbly linen canvas another time.

Thing

Ball-point thing doodle.

I bought myself a new Parker ball-point because I thought it looked pretty, and drew this guy for no particular reason.

A New Spoon Sweeps Clean

I made another spoon out of a scrap of oak, because

1. I had nothing better to do for a couple of hours, and
2. You can never have too many wooden spoons until you have too many wooden spoons.

Something fairly important that I forgot until it was too late was that you should carve out the bowl of the spoon before you cut out the profile, not after. It really does make life so much easier when you remember that simple thing.

I need to get (or make) a curved scraper to smooth the inside of the bowl — it should be simple enough to make; it just needs a bit of 1 mm spring steel ground to shape and sharpened.

I could clean up the bowlwith sandpaper, but that's a great big pain in the arse. It's not that I hate having gouge marks left behind, but I would like to have the option not to.