Photography/Art, etc...

This post will just be an ongoing log of some photography I've done and edited and some image processing projects I've worked on. I may put some works in progress on here, but for the most part it will be works that I consider to be complete with some related comments if I find the time.

line drawn me...

Suburban Monument
12.31.2006

This is just a recent photograph for an online contest submission. Theme was fences. Not very exciting, but helpful to get some creative thinking going for me.




Brushfire Something




Ride to the Klein




Guess What Season It Was

Wooden Mirror Frame

A old bathroom mirror presented itself and I wanted to find use for it. It is a plain beveled piece of mirror about 38 inches by 29 inches.
I purchased 2 inch by 6 inch lengths of hemlock fur, cut them, and joined them. With this frame sized correctly I am in the process of routing out a half inch depth cut around the back of the frame to allow the mirror and backing to set into.
After routing and woodfilling the corner joints I will sand down the entire piece. After sanding is complete I will use the router and dremel tool to carve out a design I have found (a family crest design) and then inlay steel into the wood and finish the surface of the steel.
With the inlay complete I will stain the frame, seal it, and polish with steel wool.

Pictures of frame in progress:

Concrete End Table

Showing the progress of the creation of my concrete end table. Hopefully this will help me get used to the process of concrete tables and countertops and I will be able to make more in the future, as I already have a few ideas in the works for a coffee table, bar top, and kitchen counter top.

The base is from an old outside patio table. It is a square iron frame.
The top will be about 5 inches thick with a bowl shape in the middle. The color will be a a dark charcoal, as of now I am not planning any special kind of aggragate as I want to avoid any grinding or polishing after I pour the mold. This is a possibiility later, but for now the cost for diamond pads and a grinder is not something I feel that I want to spend. So once the mold is complete I am planning on putting a glass top on which will provide a nice surface as well as allow for display of items in the bowl.

Pictures:

BMX bike restoration

10July2006

Well, I've been wanting to give a shot at building/rebuilding a bike, so when I found one in the classifieds listed at $5 I couldn't say no. The bike was a piece of trash when I first got it. Take a look at the picture and you'll see what I mean. The work so far is going a lot faster than I expected. I've taken most of the bike apart and degreased/derusted all the bolts. I purchased a new brake and handlebar grips as the previous ones were beyond help. I've almost completed scraping off all of the decals and sanding down the frame as well as the pedals to get rid of the large amount of rust. I'll post the progress of the bike as it comes along. Left to do is:

- remove rust from spokes of wheels
- refurbish seat if at all possible
- prime and paint frame (gloss black)
- buy pegs
- buy new pedals or refinish current ones
- reassemble

19July2006

The bike is nearing completion. This project definatley has moved along a lot faster than most of my others and I've learned quite a lot about bikes in general.
I finished sanding down the entire frame and as much of the spokes on the wheels as I could. I then taped off all the portions of the frame I wanted to keep the brushed steel and primed, painted, and clear coated the rest. I also painted the spokes of the wheels because getting all of the rust off and returning them to a high polish turned out to be quite tedious. I purchased a new bike seat, pedas, tires, and tubes. I had wanted to keep the pedals if at all possible to keep down costs, but the bearings were quite rusted and the pedals a bit too worn. I have the brakes installed and am waiting for the pedals and seat to come in the mail. Once they come and I out on the new chain (the old one was also as you can guess quite rusted) the bike will be complete.

Some updated pics:

M6 custom grill stage 1

This project was to create a new custom grill for my Mazda 6. Using the stock plastic grill as a base I cut away a large amount of material and then using a combination of fiberglass, bondo, fiberglass jelly, and a lot of sanding I will form the grill, then prep, prime, and paint to match my car.


Here are some pictures of stage one of this project.

Headboard

This project was the construction of a maple headboard. I came up with the design and through iterations of specific geometries and wood sizes came up with the final product. All the joints are dowel joints with wood glue. The lower leg section is stabilized to the top portion of the headboard with "L" and "T" brackets.

--- pictures of assembly process (after sanding, staining, and drilling) ---