Finished Swallowtail Butterfly

Hey folks, Karl here with some more finished bugs! Today it's an Oregon Swallowtail. I went a little crazy with the laser cutting on this one, but overall I'm pretty happy with the results. I've been trying to incorporate the insect's original wing pattern a bit more into the laser cut design, and I think I still need to work on it. Either way, I like how it turned out.

I found some really cool parts from those clocks last week, and had a lot of fun incorporating them into this little guy. 

Anyways, hope you're all having a wonderful day, and see you next time!

Finished mechanical dragonfly and beetle

Hey guys! I've been working on cranking out some insects, and these are the latest. I had a lot of fun making these, and used some really cool techniques I hadn't tried yet. Finding the pieces for these is my favorite part of making these sculptures and it guarantees that each one is completely unique. Some of the materials and parts for these guys are really cool!

First up is this dragonfly. It's got about a 6" wingspan, made of lasercut leather. Eventually, I'll have to do post about the lasercutting process; it's super interesting and I'm sure you all would love to see it.

 My favorite part was the lens / light cover I used for the head, it just happened to be the perfect part.

The tail light was a cool find as well.

I also finished this guy in the last couple days. I found this really cool iridescent wire and with a bit of bending, it makes for a really great beetle carapace. The color coating makes it really difficult to solder, so I had to attach it with thread-gauge brass wire, but I think it turned out really cool.

The jaws were a brass nut, and I even found tiny screws for the eyes.

Hope you all enjoyed this post, look for more to come soon! 

Swap Meet Loot!

This last weekend I went to a swap meet with the girlfriend's family. It was a ton of fun, and I got a great haul of clocks and bits to work with. I love bartering and trading so all this stuff was acquired for a pretty reasonable price. I also met some really cool people there and made a few friends.

Some pretty neato stuff. I've already started disassembling them at this point, but here's most of the stuff I managed to grab. When finding clocks, the key thing to look for is weight. Is it heavy and old looking? Then it's probably got some awesome parts in it. 

Cool! This was the internals for the 70's electric one.

Jackpot! This one came in a giant box of junk I almost missed.

Anyways, thanks for tuning in. Been working on a dragonfly that should be done soon-ish, so look for that in the next few days. Until next time!

First sculpture of many

So, it's a new year, time to get back on the project horse. I'll be updating quite often, and with material I think you'll all enjoy. Sculpture and metal have always been close to my heart and with an opening in my school schedule I can finally get back to making sculptures.

As usual, it starts with a recycled copper frame which I solder using a torch. This is my favorite part, I just love working with copper.

Lately I've been using a laser cutter to carve out patterns into leather for the wings of these guys. It's really a neat process, going from a black and white drawing to something physical you can hold. It also allows for some really incredible details.

The finished piece turned out well. Now to mount it!