Smoldering Iron Blog

Liberty Tools

[Your Name Here] — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:23:41 +0000

Little moves like this are helping us retain basic crafting skills that are being lost to technology at an ever increasing rate.

Perhaps there is something in the water?

[Your Name Here] — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:18:20 +0000

The sound of buzzing fills the air around my workshop, repeatedly zooming in close, then disappearing into the faint distance. I glance up from studying the pages of drawings scattered across my work bench, each of them littered with tiny black specs of welding burns. I see one of my giant fly traps, its leafy traps springing back in forth in the cool breeze just outside the cracked shop window. I know this sound but it is strangely amplified, like a helicopter swinging in low over my property. Flinging down my pen I step out the shop's roll up door on the east side of the building to try and get a visual on the sound. As my eyes adjust to the morning rays of light pouring over me, I lock eyes on the sound's origin.

And I thought our crows were massive!!

Boxes and tape and shipping oh my

[Your Name Here] — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 19:28:00 +0000

You know there is a huge marketplace out there on the internet. If you have a product that is viable people will buy it. Of course its not as simple as taking a snapshot of something, throwing it on the web, and waiting to snap up the sales orders like a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos. No its quite a bit more complex than all that. I have been tackling the ins and outs of the online store process for years. My most recent battle is shipping. Lets say that I sell 1 flower stake for $15.00 plus $7.00 shipping. Now domestic United Postal Service is about $6.00 for base shipping. So I'm a dollar ahead of the game, however I have to box it up. Well a box is about .70 so I'm only up .30 cents. But wait I also have to cover tape, printing of shipping labels, internal packing material, and gas to drive to the post office. All in all I am spending about $10.00 in shipping for a $15.00 item that I am only charging $7.00 for shipping on. Maybe time to raise some rates.

Crating the big stuff

[Your Name Here] — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:44:00 +0000

Well this isn't really a new sculpture being made, however crating these larger pieces for shipping is defiantly a project. This particular one was purchased by Josh Cote Fine Sculpture in Oregon. It took a lot longer to box up than I originally thought and when I tried to drop it at UPS they told me it was over sized. So with a little more effort and a skill saw, I cut it down to size and shipped it out.

Let me tell you that I am not a carpenter nor do I wish to pretend so. I don't like sawdust in my hair and the sound of the circular saw, oh its like sweet, sweet music!

The Scottie

[Your Name Here] — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 12:45:00 +0000

I had a customer ask me once why I didn't have any sculptures of pets. I thought about this and told him to give me a week and ask again. When the week was up I had created this smooth lined Scottie dog. This little guy has been quite the conversation piece when my dog loving friends come to visit. I designed this one with some basic lines as not to make it look to much like one specific breed. It measures over thirteen inches high and eighteen inches in length. It is cut from heavy plate steel and then brushed, painted, and ground. I can make other types of dogs upon request, but keep in mind that the charge will be higher for a new design.

News of monumental importance

[Your Name Here] — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:48:00 +0000

Good Morning America opened up shop today with three major headlines. The first was a short segment featuring a dubbed interview with Muammar Gaddafi in which he gave some slight insights into his current situation with his rule. The second news worthy story was on the antics of actor Charlie Sheen, followed closely by the third most important story of the day, Lisa Lohan….Preposterous.

Scrap mosaic

[Your Name Here] — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:54:00 +0000

"How did you do that?" Without fail this question gets asked at every show I attend with some of my scrap art. The scenario is normally played out when a passerby stops, studies the sculpture for a few moments, and then homes in on me. For some reason people are under the false impression that this is a difficult task. Nothing could be further from the truth. The process is simple. Get an image in your head, something you can visualize in detail. Find a starting position in your mind, a foot, the tip of the tail, the mouth, wherever you feel most comfortable. Then pick up a bolt and start welding. Then weld on a washer, then a gear, keep the outermost skin of your project the same shape. Even if it means that a piece will protrude deep inside of the finished piece, it doesn't matter, as long as the outside looks fluid. Look at this close up of an alligator leg, its just a matter of tack, move, tack, move, tack again. At fist it will look nothing like what you envisioned, but persistence pays off, and once enough parts have been put together you will start to see the sculpture come to life. The most important aspect of this type of sculpture is strong welds. Without a strong bond on each component, the entire project will crumble the second you try to move it. If you have the equipment, which can be even the most basic 110 volt flux core welder, and the parts, and the dedication, you can make scrap art of your own.

My scraps get thrown away, oh hell no.

[Your Name Here] — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:43:00 +0000

Whenever I make any scrap pieces in the shop, I save them up until I have enough to make something.

I can't stand the thought of throwing any of my metal in the garbage. I mean seriously, I'm no recycle fanatic, my household produces more trash than I would like to admit every day, but I do try to limit it when possible. Measuring over six feet in length, this wolf is the most recent creation from my leftovers. I have entitled this one "the hunter".

Flies be gone

[Your Name Here] — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 01:31:00 +0000

One morning I woke up and decided that indeed I must have a giant Venus Flytrap. I spoke with my darling wife and laid out my plans to build a ten foot Venus Flytrap. Surprisingly she found the fundamentals of my plan to be somewhat ludicrous. I therefore redesigned it and created the below fly trap. It stands a little over four feet tall and over five feet wide. It is made from a collection of various scraps at its base and the leaves were fashioned from 16 gauge plate steel. Currently available for the barging price of $225.00 plus shipping.

Bone Bass

[Your Name Here] — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 01:27:00 +0000

I had a friend ask if I could make him one of our local large mouth bass with an artistic spin. I came up with this fellow and it was well received. Carved from heavy plate steel and welded to a twin base plate, it measures over 15 inches in length. It has a raw steel looking finish that I textured using a grinder followed with several sanding pads. A thin clear coat protects it from rusting while still letting the natural finish of the steel shine through.

I have made a couple of other fish for people. Some of them creepy deep sea monsters in black tones and others simple trout in rustic brown. Free standing, wall mounted, or framed types are all available. Please feel free to contact me to get your custom version produced for that die hard fisherman in your life!