Lets call it the S2 for simplicities sake.

My second act

For those of you who have been following some of the different machinist related Makers and craft artists I have been writing about lately, you know that the scene is exploding with various machined art objects and kinetic art pieces. There is a proliferation of metal spinners, tops, and other fidget works that speak to both function and aesthetics. It has all the makings of a budding creative arts movement. It is an exciting time to be in the world of machinists, with any luck, it will continue to evolve. 

It is my desire to continue to add my voice to this growing movement. And while I am at it, see if I can't find some inspiration for larger and more ambitious machined sculpture in the process.

So with that in mind, the day is finally here to unveil a new Pocket Sculpture project, I am going to refer to it as the "S2" until a proper nickname takes hold. This one builds on the original "Slider" design and takes it somewhere completely different. I intend to attempt to spin this off into a larger sculptural object as well.

This design is a return to symmetry and a much more complex assemblage than its predecessor. And while visually, the relationship between this work and the original Slider may be obvious, from a machining perspective this work is an entirely different animal.

The original Slider was a triumph in creating complexity using as few steps as possible, this work is simply complex for how elegant it seems. This work has many more machined parts and while the Slider could be built in just 11 machining steps, this one requires well over 33 machining operations (depending on how you count).

So even though the unavoidable pull toward complexity won out for this particular design, I think it is a natural next step for this journey into trivially functional art, and I am very happy with the result.

As you can see in the above image, the sliding mechanism is double acting, meaning both ends can be extended and retracted independent of one another. With a little practice this piece can be flipped and clicked in a number of different ways. So far it has been quite a lot of fun to prototype and test.

I will say it can be a little more rough on the hands than its predecessor, but the price of finding a balance between form and function seems to be the development of a few well earned calluses.

(It's really not as bad as I am making it out to be, but still worth mentioning.)

The visible hardware on this work is another area where I had to depart from the norm to reconcile how the sculpture worked, with how it looked. Figuring out a method to keep the ends from overextending (and sending springs and bearings flying everywhere) required a bit of a visual compromise in that regard.

So even though I had to bend the rules a bit and leave some set screws visible while the work was in the open position. It is a compromise that I can live with as the hardware is only visible when in operation. When closed, the piece is an attractive sculpture like any of my other works. 

I have settled on two metal combinations for this design, all stainless steel and a stainless steel with brass inner element. 

The work is 1.25" wide and a bit over 3" long when closed. While extended it is just under 4" inches Long

My intention with this work is to take a page from my Spinning Top collaboration with Richard Stadler.

I want to use this small design as well as the experience of building this edition to create a larger, more elaborate "one of a kind" work.

I like the idea of using the internal logic of a functional art piece to spin out a completely non functional, full size sculptural work. 

You know, intentionally going further down the rabbit hole.

I have the beginnings of a larger design based on this prototype, but I am going to take my time and let the project have plenty of influence along the way.

Important information if you want to collect one of these: 

Because I am going to be building a larger work based off of this piece, it means I am going to have to limit the edition size to a much smaller batch than my last project. (probably 30 or so works total)

I will be doing a sign up pre-order just like the last time, but depending on how many sign ups I get, I will be running part of it like a SUS or "Sign Up Sale"

This is how it will work:

-I will open the preorder on Monday November 21st, at 11AM Eastern Standard time via my newsletter. I will leave the sign up open until the following Monday (1 week)

-The first 15 people who sign up will be able to purchase the works directly.

-After the first 15 sign ups, and after the pre-order closes, I will randomly select an additional 15 people using a random number generator to award the remaining 15 slots on the list. 

After the sign up sale closes on November 28th, you will not be able to sign up for a chance to collect one of these. But as always, I would encourage you to join my newsletter so that you can get a first look at my sculptures as I complete them and catch future projects of this nature.  

As always, comments and questions are welcome. 

A Collaboration with a fellow machinist/artist, Richard Stadler from BilletSpin Tops ( sculpture TP533351444623)

The day has finally arrived when I get to share this collaboration between Richard Stadler from Billetspin tops and myself. It has been very hard keeping this special project quiet, and I am just beside myself with the results.

Above you will see two objects, on the left is one of my signature machined metal sculptures, on the right is the spinning top design that inspired that sculpture.

As some of you may remember, a few months ago I wrote a post discussing some of the machinists who are doing interesting aesthetic work within their own niches. Makers working with industrial processes in creative ways that maybe goes unnoticed by the arts community because it is viewed as craft, or too utilitarian. Regardless, to me, the content of the work feels very relevant to any conversation about material, technology, and art. . One of those machinists was a spinning top maker named Richard Stadler.

Where as I tend to characterize myself as someone with no formal training, who came to machining in pursuit of making sculpture, or "art for art sake. Rich grew up surrounded by machine tools and has worked for his family machine shop since he was 13 years old. He has manufactured custom parts for all manner of equipment for many decades. and fits the ideal of a formally trained craftsman who has started to branch out into more artistic avenues of expression.

To this end, Rich has been making some of the most beautiful machined objects I have ever encountered (additional examples above). His tops have attracted an incredibly large following and are highly prized collectors items in there own right. These are not toys, these are immaculate works of art. I encourage everyone who is unfamiliar to go over to Rich's website and look around.

Following my previous post, Rich and I struck up an email correspondence and before long I found myself pitching him an idea to do do a collaboration. I thought it might be fruitful to take on a project I might not normally undertake in the hopes it would help me see things from a different perspective, and give me an opportunity to explore new lines of thinking about my own sculpture-work.

But while I was eager to collaborate with Rich, I did not want to simply design a top and call it a day. I was interested in using this as an opportunity to build bridges between some of the different corners of the machinist world. I am always looking for ways to inspire machinists to make art, and also inspire artists to take up machining as a medium. so I wanted the project to be something that could fit into a couple of different categorical boxes.

So with this in mind, the basic premise became this; With Rich's guidance and advice, I wanted to design a spinning top with visual elements that could translate into a broader sculptural composition. The starting point would be something that hued closely to Rich's area of expertise, but with my own flavor and aesthetic. 

From there, I would use that design experience as a springboard to make a whole new stand alone sculpture, something that would be "one of a kind" a more traditional "non functional" sculpture that would incorporate the visual elements from the top design. It would be a conceptual bridge between our two means of expression.

I know this is a long way of saying we collaborated on something, but I think the details are important. It is in the details of designing and machining something that I get most of my ideas, and Rich understands that as well as anyone I have met. 

Coming up with a workable design within the specific set of constraints that spinning tops demand proved challenging for me at first. Size requirements were a limiting factor I was not accustomed to, as most tops are pretty small by my standards. Eventually, with some good tips from Rich, I got into a rhythm and probably annoyed him half to death with an avalanche of concept sketches and emails at all hours of the night. 

After exchanging notes for quite awhile, we hit on something with a central design theme that I thought was flexible enough to translate into a bigger work and we moved forward from there.

The end result is what you see hear, and by all accounts the reaction has been incredible. Rich has also reported that this project helped him to see his medium with fresh eyes, and got his gears turning on some new designs of his own.

And I am very thankful for the opportunity to design within a new ecosystem of constraints (something I absolutely love) and leverage that experience as a way to come to a sculpture concept I otherwise never would have.

Some additional notes about the Pieces: The tops themselves are just 1.25”D x 1.32”Tall. 

The Sculpture is 5.5” x1.7” and man is it heavy.

While I did  much of the design work for both the tops and the sculpture, Rich will be undertaking the fabrication of the limited edition run of those tops, which will be available in a number of materials and finishes, but will be made in extremely small quantities.

If you are interested in owning one of the Bathgate tops (They are being called “The Bathgate”crazy right?!) or one of Rich's tops more generally, I would encourage you to join his Facebook group page (click here to join it). His tops sell out instantly, so he has too distribute them through a raffle system. These tops are no different and will be handled through what is called a "sign up sale". (this is the portal for that)

He will be releasing them as he makes them so they will start trickling out this coming Friday.

Additionally, if you are interested in the sculpture I made for this project, that process will run through me as usual (just email me). But I should note there is only the one, so if more than one person is interested in adding it to their collection, I will have to try to come up with a way to decide where it goes to live in as fair a manner as possible.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this as much as I have. As always, comments and questions are welcome.