pink cactus

So, cacti now come in pink. I've made so many pink cacti via custom orders, I thought I'd see what happened if I kept pink cacti in stock. Time will tell. For sale in the shop!


PS- These photos were shot yesterday in my new backyard!

not all new birds are blue birds

I had some smaller birds laser cut and finally got around to giving them a paint-stain. I really like the effect of this, since you can still see a hint of the grain through the paint.



I also have been toying with making things out of acrylic, but I just can't seem to find the right thickness. This bird is made out of 1/8" thick acrylic, but I'm afraid that it is just too fragile. Back to the drawing board!

my life is composed of weekends

Here are some things that I finished this weekend. I made lots of beads a couple of years ago while I was interning at a bent-plywood furniture manufacturer. I would save boxes and boxes of wood scraps and stay after work to make wooden goods. I first started making my jewelry displays while I was there.

Anyway, here are some necklaces that I put together this weekend:





And I painted more cacti for a custom order:

Cermics and dinosaurs?

Well, I've been doing lots of things but not telling the blog about any of them.
I finished up another ceramics class and below are my favorite legged items (on a chair I made, of course). I have some fun mugs that I couldn't bare to give away, so I'll post pictures of those soon.


I'm working on some custom colored wooden goods. I'm using a lot of mustard yellow spraypaint. Here is a SAURUS in my very advanced outdoor spraybooth:

Cactus cats

I just can't do anything without some cat help. I often have to protect freshly spray-painted objects from the wrath of kitty cat tails. I finished this cactus today, and he is free from tail-harm and for SALE!

Oriented Strand BRACELETS!

My newest creations:

OSB, or Oriented Strand Board has long been thought of as an ugly construction material not suitable for applications of which the desired affect is beauty... until now! Take that, society!

Funny how sometimes the cheapest materials can look the best. Oh yeah, did I mention that I got this OSB out of a trashcan?

If it ain't flat, don't pack it!

After getting my new job and preparing to move, I realized that I wanted/needed (who really needs any kind of table, though?) a new coffee table. So I whipped this one up real quick. I was totally NOT IMPRESSED with the Maple plywood I bought. I suppose I will forever be a Birch girl. Anyway, it was inspired by a $800 (I think) table I saw somewhere or other. I think I may adorn it's top with Blik wall decals.

wood is good

I finished my 4th woodcut today and finished the first bracelet I've made in a long time.

I haven't named this one yet, which is an extreme rarity for me. Not to brag, but I have been told that I should be a professional namer. Anyway, this one went pretty quickly and I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of woodcuts. I think my next one might be a big, square one, but we'll see.



I had said that I wasn't going to make bracelets anymore... but they sell much faster than anything else I make... so, what can you do? Maybe you should buy it.

first woodcut

I've been thinking about making a woodcut for a long time, but just started on one before Christmas. I found this paragraph in the Anderson Ranch Art Center workshop catalog that embodies everything that I find intriguing about woodcuts:

"Why explore the woodcut print today? Can such a anachronistic medium still have relevance? Is it the energy, the honest hand work, the raw physicality and interaction with once-living material? The oldest form of printing, the woodcut has a readily understood mark and a direct process that continues to intrigue makers and impact viewers."






The print is about 1' by 2.5'... My initial meaning behind the cut sort of got lost in the process, which is strange because usually the opposite happens to me. Anyway, my next one is already in the works and will be the same size. I'm really excited about it... Its going to be my reaction to industry/progress/work/etc.

birds and dinosaurs

I finally took some better pictures of my dinosaurs.



And, I finished the big bird I've been working on. 22 inch wing span, oh yeah!


With these birds and dinosaurs, I feel more like I'm making sculpture than design. I think I've been trained not to make objects that don't preform a function, but I've always found value in things that somehow made me feel good, even if this wasn't necessarily a function they were meant to preform. So, the sole function of these objects is mood improvement? Eh?

birds and brachiosauruses

More birds finished today. Made-to-order birds to be exact.
And, the first dinosaur!

building birds, not bridges

My mom has ordered 10 hanging wooden birds from me for Christmas presents and I have a custom order for 3 more, so I've been doing a lot of bird-making.


I'm just going to have to make a giant one soon... I'm thinking at least a 2 foot wingspan. Oh yeah.

holy cacti

My friend's mom contacted me to make two Christmas presents for her daughters. I finished them today:
They are my usual CACTI, but with holes drilled so that earring posts can pass through.

lamp geometry

I've been making slow progress on my flat-pack lamp project. Within a few days I should have a working prototype.