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Hello Everyone.

This post is for those who are interested in adding one of the Cves13 vessel sculptures to your collection. Link and details are below.

THE LINK

This link will self destruct in seven days

Sincerely

Chris Bathgate

The Cves13 mechanical Vessel Sculpture

Hello Everyone. It feels like forever since I have posted something new. That is partly because I have been busy splitting my time working on the new studio (The Center for Fine Art Machining is nearly complete!), going on secret artist retreats (I spent a week at Haystack Mountain School of Craft), and planning several new works (there is more than this one coming soon). All while tending to the everyday of my sculpture practice. But with a lot of heavy lifting behind me, I am once again ready (finally!) to launch a new work out into the world.

I am calling this one the “Cves13”. This name may not mean much to a viewer, but it means several things to me (some of them you can probably guess at). But no, I do not intend to share because being cagey with my titles has always been more fun. And as you will see, this post in particular asks far more questions than it answers.

On first impression, this piece most easily fits into my vessel series of works, as it is designed to be a (not so functional, but fascinating nonetheless) sort of bottle. But that is just a starting point, because there are some alternative lineages within my body of work that I can point to that make this piece all the more intriguing as a mashup of some of my favorite concepts. I will highlight just a few. 

For starters, this piece also fits neatly within my last two releases. Those projects were sort of Ray shaped pieces with a more overt creature-like aesthetic. This zoomorphic thread is a very intentional departure for me. I am interested in how people relate to objects of this nature, but less so in creating specific fictions about my objects. So it is a facet of my work that I continue to undertake with great care. 

But yes, I would definitely put this work in a camp with the Rays as well. 

Lastly, this work is a piece which embodies my love for complex (if unnecessary) turning set ups. It uses dovetail joinery as an excuse to employ some really fun turning techniques on a lathe. Most practical machinist would prefer to use less risky tools or processes to avoid the kind of work I do to create this piece, but where is the adventure in that? 

I need to come up with a better name for this type of work, but for now lets call it the "extreme eccentric" turning family of processes.

I think the first reaction most will have with this sculpture is a desire to point out what it (does or does not) look like. So let's get the Rorschach test out of the way. All I am willing to say is that if anything, I was going for a sort of a crabby vibe with this work. But since I don’t like to lean too hard into literal interpretation, I am very non committal about that.  If it looks like something different to you, then I think you are also correct. 

Amusingly, there were plenty of people who felt my last project looked more like a Horseshoe crab than a Ray. So does this actually make this a second crab? Is this actually a crab series? If there is a similar faction of people that forms who feel this work resembles a different creature, I am for it. Please let me know what you feel I've created. 

 

Regardless, the point of this project isn’t to make a functional bottle, a crab, or anything else—but instead to find an interesting point in space between several concepts at once. I am beginning to imagine my works are like Venn diagrams of my many interests. This metaphor helps me better explain how utility and aesthetic considerations can orbit one another without colliding. Shaping each other without giving more weight to one or the other.

That is to say this piece is ever so slightly functional, but it need not be. This piece is aesthetic, but in a way that tries to speak the same language as its modest utility. If this makes sense, congratulations. If it doesn't, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it. I am having a good time either way.

To circle back to its status as a vessel. The thing that makes this feel like a bottle (albeit a machined one) is mostly attributable to it having a narrow neck. For a bottle, it is incredibly stout—but technically, with a little tweaking and gasket work, this piece could be used to store a liquid of some kind. I am not sure that you would ever want to, but true functionality is never the point. 

Another thing that reinforces this as a bottle for me is that the lower vessel is suspended from the upper portion. When installed on the lid, it does not touch the table. Like a lab flask or beaker maybe? Are those technically bottles too? In my mind they are.

Which begs another question. If the lower section of this work is the bottle, then logic follows that the upper portion of the work is somehow the cap? or lid? If so, that makes it an incredibly over-wrought and oversized bottle cap. Does one get a cap-y vibe from the crab shape? If I squint real hard, I do. 

Either way, I can live with the cap designation because the goal in machining craft forms from other industrial traditions, is in seeing how the physical properties of my medium transform them in interesting ways. One can explore wildly different proportions when moving from glass to metal.

Also conceptually, the extreme inversion of scale between the relatively modest bottle portion of the work, and the huge lid is mildly subversive to me. It humorously challenges what one can get away with and still call a thing a vessel. At what point does something stop being a vessel, and start being just a sculpture with a vessel attached to it? Maybe one day soon, we will find out. 

On the mechanic for securing the bottle to the lid. I am not entirely sure if there is a proper name for this kind of keeper, but as you can see above, once the bottle rim slides into the split ring enclosure, the top portion rotates to entrap it, creating a close circle. 

Although it is a relatively simple mechanism with just one moving part, it was a devilishly difficult one to integrate in a way that didn't feel bulky and detract from the aesthetic. Figuring that out was incredibly rewarding. 

Another mechanically interesting feature is how the legs attach to the lid. It is a sort of dovetail system where the legs are forced into a wedge by a dowel and screw that pierce the length of the lid profile. It looks simple now that it is complete, but finding the form, while leaving room to thread a screw straight through the lid, took a lot of fiddling (the good kind of fiddling). Another rewarding problem solved. 

One production note: I really didn't anticipate how long it would take to machine the large stainless steel element for the lid. It was by far the biggest time sink of the project. It has geometry and features that do not live at complimentary angles to each other, and so required many individual setups to get a proper attack on each feature. I think I spent three weeks fixture-ing and puzzling out nearly a dozen machine operations to make this one part.

That probably sounds like complaining, but it is more interesting to think about in the context of aesthetic considerations causing havoc down the production line. I have some ideas on how to minimize this going forward, but I wanted to share my tribulations as it represents more fun problems yet to be solved. 

Producing the six legs of this vessel was an excuse to do what I described earlier as "extreme eccentric" turning.  Some may see this as an unnecessary stunt, but to me it feels like a way to ensure I am constantly pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved on each of my tools. 

Although I try to take this approach of finding unique capabilities with each of my machines, I take a special pride in cramming the weirdest setups I can think of onto one of my many lathes. If you look at the history of decorative wood turning, you will see this is a common practice among ornamental turners as well. So I count myself in good creative company there. 

Finally to wrap this up, I have one last (longish) tangent. I spent a lot of time 3D printing test models before attempting to machine this prototype. I don't often do this because I prefer to launch myself right into the fray. But in this case it felt necessary to make sure everything was fitting and playing nice.

Throughout this process, I was constantly reminded of when 3D printing first came onto the stage, people often asked me if I was worried that it would make my talents as a sculptor, or elements of my craft, obsolete? To be honest, I was never very worried and I would say as much at the time. But the longer I use 3D printers, the more secure I continue to feel in what I do. I think this image perfectly illustrates why. 

3D printing remains incredibly useful as a prototyping and fixture making tool, but the aesthetics and mechanical functionality of its output continue to leave much to be desired. I mean, which of these would you rather have? I know theres high end 3D printing equipment out there hitting some very interesting benchmarks—but process and material each leave a unique mark on a work of art, it's not just a simple matter of creating a sterile shape in digital space. My 3D printer is great for what it does, but I still have not found a way to make anything that feels like my art with it. 

On a similar note, lately people have been asking me how I feel AI will affect my work? I just have to continue to shrug, because it has yet to enter into my equation. I can see how it might one day, but I suspect it will be just like 3D printing with a niche use. It will be a useful approximation (facsimile?) that leaves something to be desired. There is no question it will be disruptive, it already has been for commercial illustrators and image creators who work in the world of "good enough". But even there, I have not seen it move entirely into creative storytelling spaces. Those who have something real inside them to say are still finding a way to say it.   

From where I stand, the things I create represent more than an a outcome driven means to an end. I am not trying to solve a specific problem, make a specific thing, or pander to a trend. I am simply inventing interesting problems to solve—problems that then lead to the discovery of still more interesting problems— all for my personal enrichment and enjoyment. The things I make are unique artifacts of a mind in motion experiencing the act of learning. They represent my unique way of seeing, thinking and feeling the world around me. Last time I checked, AI is still just really fancy pattern recognition, and re-combination—It doesn't feel, see, or understand anything. It requires an army of humans (curated and labeled data) to tell it what it is being shown. Philosophically speaking, even if AI could do my job or help me speed up my process in some way, why would I outsource the thing that brings me joy? Why give my hard earned dopamine away to a bot that would feel and appreciate none of it? 

The overall sense that I get from people who currently use AI is that it automates some things—sadly I am learning, much of the fun part (the discovery, the research, the idea iteration). What it leaves behind is much of the drudgery (the menial labor of polish and format). That simply has no appeal for me at this moment. If AI ever finds its way into my practice, it will be because it can do something that elevates my unique abilities without averaging them out—but as of this writing, it cannot do that. 

End of digression.

The size of this work is roughly 6" wide, by 4" deep, and a bit over 2" tall. As always, comments and questions are welcome. 

Note for collectors: For the collectors out there, there will be a somewhat limited opportunity to add one of these to your collections.

Unlike my other editions, this work is quite complex, expensive, and time consuming to build. So while I am planning to make a small batch of these, I am going to limit the number of pieces to only ten works.

There are a number of decorative opportunities here I want to explore. I think the bottle lends itself to experimentation with decorative hardwoods provided I can find (or make) some interesting specimens. Because of this, I am going to give myself a little more time than usual to make these. I will probably take the rest of the year to slowly and carefully execute each of these ten works.

If this is something you might be interested in collecting or collaborating on, I will be sending out a second email/post in two days (Thursday July 3rd 11AM EST) with a simple sign up to register your interest. Given the limited numbers, I suspect there to be a good chance interest may exceed supply, so let's just say that the first five spots on the list will be allocated on a first come first serve basis. The remaining spots will be sorted out with some sort of lottery.

I will include a lot more details at that time (including pricing). However, if you do have a burning question, you can drop me an email in the meantime. 

Thank you all for your time and attention. 

K Ray

Happy new year everyone, I decided to take some much needed time off to close out last year, but now I am back in the studio and putting the finishing touches on my latest project. 

This work is the next progression in my "Ray-shaped" series. It builds on what were mostly superficial knife design references from my RR212 piece, and brings them into a more functionally familiar space.

As with all my knife inspired works, I want to start by repeating a phrase I have written often. “I am not a knife maker”.

When I say that, I simply mean that I am a sculptor taking a sculptural approach to a genre I admire, but do not pretend to fully understand. That sort of thing can take a lifetime, so I feel obligated to say that I am just a visitor, not a resident, of knife-land.

With that said, I find myself circling knife design often, and so have endeavored to dip my toe in once again with the goal of saying something new about a craft with a very long tradition.

So lets get started. This piece borrows from the mechanics of your standard issue folding knife, probably the first one you might have had as a kid. Specifically, it uses a slip-joint to articulate a tail-like feature that folds out of the work, either by pulling hard enough to overcome the spring, or when you depress a lever.

Originally, I thought I might make the tail a locking feature using a what is called a back-lock arrangement that would hold the tail firmly in place once open. However, I settled on a slip joint because it provides a third neutral position for standing the work up in interesting ways, as well as just working better in terms of tactile response and some other fidgety qualities.

Also, a firm locking mechanism would have made it a better piece of art to truly stab something with. That is not really what I want my art to be about, contrary to how some of my pieces have looked over the years. So I went with the more versatile mechanic.

However old the slip joint design might be, I still tried to put my own mark on the mechanism (see video above). Traditional slip joint knives use a rigid metal spring of some variety to provide tension to the lock. However, In place of a proper spring, I have taken the opportunity to use magnets to provide the opposing force in the mechanism. Magnets are better suited in this piece because they provide better haptics to the lock bar. I worked up my prototype thinking I was some sort of pioneer because I had never seen such a knife, but that didn't last long

I had assumed this type of spring would be completely impractical in a real knife because magnets tend to attract debris if kept in a pocket and used out in the world (especially for a metal worker), but after discussing my working prototype to a collector friend of mine, he kindly corrected me, and directed to a knife design that already uses a similar principle, but takes it into some very clever territory.

All of this is to say, when an ideas time has come, it has come. Regardless of how practical this arrangement might be in a real knife–for a piece of art like this, the magnets work really well. Not too firm, and just click-y enough to give a very unique feel.

On the design front, I am usually a bit coy about my visual allusions, but I think it is pretty obvious that I am working with a sort of Ray shape here.

I also went out of my way to relocate the bolt hardware from the sides, where they looked more like a utilitarian adornment, to the front of the piece where they have a more obvious creature feel to them. Moving the bolts to the front was both a visual and engineering challenge and really brings some charisma to the piece.

And of course there is the tail. I felt that since this is knife inspired, one might assume the fold out should be a proper blade. But it is not really my style to be so obvious. Instead, I have produced a more ambiguous convex spike shape. I think it serves well as both a tail and a blade-form without being too much of either.

Turning this pointy bit required me to build a fun little arbor to align this unruly shape with the center line of the lathe.

More on the engineering front: I took a number of extra steps to lighten the weight of this piece to balance how well the tail can support the weight of the work. For starters, the “wing” sections are made in aluminum, which is very lightweight. I did some extra hollowing out on the hidden side to lighten them even further.

I specifically wanted them to be aluminum as well because this piece was screaming for some bold colors. That dark blue is actually a deep deep grey dye that takes on a battleship blue or denim color when left to fully saturate.

I also tried making the tailpiece and lock-bar out of titanium, thinking maybe I would have an opportunity for further anodizing, and because it to is much lighter than stainless steel.

But, although I already knew this, it turns out that titanium has very poor sliding qualities and is too prone to galling to work here. I somehow thought I could get away with it, but I underestimated how poor the sliding action between two titanium parts would truly be. It felt downright gross. so I scrapped that idea and switched to stainless steel for the sliding parts.

This created a much friendlier bearing surface.

For the pieces that I will refer to as “the liners” I prototyped in aluminum, and then worked up a pair in titanium and stainless steel. Both stainless and Ti presented unique challenges here.

I ran into some extreme warping issue with the stainless version. Thin stainless steel bar stock has a lot of internal stresses caused by how it is rolled in manufacturing. Once you start cutting into its surface, it loves to curl up like a fish. My first batch of parts warped pretty badly and needed to be bent straight in a press. I know a few ways to mitigate this in the future, however it was a fun to be reminded again of the hidden forces hiding inside various materials.

The titanium version stayed much flatter for me, but this material is prone to work hardening and other general mayhem when machining. My test parts here came out with slightly oversized perimeters, and so there was some fitment issues. But after a little fiddling, I ended up with good parts here as well.

Now I could assess them in the context of the piece.

The titanium liners are lighter, but honestly, I personally like the extra heft of the stainless ones. They feel better to me in the hand. And, it turns out I saved so much weight making the wing parts in aluminum, that this added weight does not seem to be the issue I thought it would be.

There are of course lots of reasons to use the titanium liners, chief among them is that titanium opens the door to further anodizing and colored details. Time willing, I will get to explore that next, as I still have a bit of R&D to do to refine the piece, as well as my processes.

But thats my journey so far, and I was eager to share how this mix of design, engineering, and sentimentality has comes together in a work that feels pretty unique.

Lets call it another great example of my “not a knife” style work.

A note for collectors: Naturally, I am planning to make an edition of these pieces for those interested in adding this work to their collections.

I think I will open the sign up this coming Thursday January 9th (my birthday!) and leave it open for a about a week. Then, as is my way, I will close the books on this piece and set to work. Most of you who collect know the drill at this point.

So look for a sign up email and or links at all of my usual places (My blog, My IG, and email) at 11AM EST.

I will have most of the details sorted out by then and will include extra details on the sign up sheet regarding pricing and options.

In the meantime, and as always, comments and questions are welcome.

Thanks for reading

Sculpture BM 414162522242621331

Hello All, I am back with a new work, and a new exhibition. 

I held off on posting this blog for a few weeks because I felt what better way to show off a new work, then to do it while sharing where you can come see it. So if you are going to be in the Miami area during Art Week and/or Art Basel, come check out my exhibition at the Phase gallery at Moonlighter FabLab. It is just a stone's throw from the convention center.

This show is the second stop on my slow motion book tour, which is to say I am not super keen on simply hawking an art book, so I’d much rather turn the opportunity into a traveling exhibition where everyone can come see me, the book, as well as all of the work itself.

 

The opening for this exhibition is timed to coincide with Miami Art Week and Art Basel, so if you are traveling that way for either of those, do drop by, say hello and yes maybe get a signed copy of my new book while you are at it. You can reserve one if you RSVP for the opening reception on Thursday December 5th.

You can be sure I will continue to plug the show a bit more, so…..with the exhibition announcement out of the way, let's talk about this new sculpture. It's called BM 414162522242621331

 

I suppose you could say that superficially, this work is a scaled up version of my Mod4 module series. But anyone who knows my work knows that kind of concept is simply a starting point for a completely new piece with different goals and considerations. Scaling a work is akin to continuing a conversation, but not necessarily repeating the same words.

For starters, aside from the basic geometric composition, there are no parts that are a direct 1-1 scale of the original piece. That means every element is completely re-engineered.

What the large and small works share visually is intentional, but it is an allusion, not a copy.

 

The work maintains a radial symmetry, while abandoning one plane of lateral symmetry. Scaling the piece allowed me to open up the composition, to reach inside and approach assembly in a different manner. Whereas the small work is light enough to be assembled using only magnets, this work has large bolts that thread through the inside of each module. This meant creating clearance for both the bolts, my hand and a very very small socket wrench.

This opening up also introduced new sight lines and a means to bring the eye into as well as around the work.

There are a lot more details on this piece, but they are not strictly ornamentation. I had a lot of fun playing with overt assembly methods which lend a certain utilitarian-ness to the work.

 

The video above details some of my trials and tribulations with some of the assemblies.

Sadly, a lot of the video I shot during the photoshoot was no good, but I pieced together something reasonably workable for a demo as well.

Lots of great details on this one

Eventually I will get the final drawing for this work together, but I like to give myself more time after a large work is completed to refine such a large document. Rest assured it will be ready in time for the opening reception.

(Edit) drawing below.

Sadly, this drawing is huge and does not read well on a screen, but you get the idea. 

Thanks for reading, and as always, comments and questions are welcome.

Introducing the RR 212371

Hello all, it's that time again. Today I am introducing what I am calling...simply...the RR 212371.

(If you are unfamiliar with my naming scheme, that is just my way of encrypting titles so that interpretations don't get muddled by more literal naming schemes)

This piece weaves a number of ideas and influences into one deceptively simple design.

For starters, like many of my pocket art pieces, it is a kinetic piece with a series of rollers that reward your curious thumbs as you handle the work. 

Perhaps some might consider rollers less novel than some of my other mechanics, but it is (in my opinion) expert in its implementation for its contribution to the aesthetic and its tactility. 

This piece also contains a number of allusions to knife making forms. 

Even though I am not a knife maker, I am a student of its aesthetics. So I have taken great care with this piece to elevate my relationship with that craft. 

There are also visual references to some of my own previous works, or an earlier aesthetic.

On the technical front, I was able to crack a process idea I had been toying with for many years. 

I always thought It might be possible to use an offset turning set up–one where the axis of rotation was perpendicular to the axis of symmetry on the piece–as a design constraint to derive a novel geometry.

I had tried to design around this on a number of occasions with little progress until now. Work-holding was always the biggest obstacle with previous attempts. But the necessity of using a split design to allow me to properly nest the rollers helped me solve it. And it did so in a way that presented nearly all of the visual opportunities I listed above. 

In this way, solving a new problem, helped me solve an old one. 

The video above does a good job of explaining what I mean.

 

As I also touch on in the video, in my mind this piece is not a materials piece, it is a piece about line and form. 

It wants to be exclusively stainless steel in my opinion. I can see little reason to break with that at this time outside of maybe making the rollers in brass or bronze so they run a little smoother on the stainless pins.

So if you were expecting a range of wild colors or other materials this time, that will not be forthcoming. Less is definitely more for me with this design. 

To wrap up, I am just so pleased I was able to pack so much into this little piece. There is a perfect blend of utilitarian notes, vague creature feel, implied functionality, and real functionality. It really represents the whole language I have been building over the years in a way that I can so rarely capture.

What a gem.

 

Overall dimensions on this work are approximately 2.5"x2.25"x1"

Note to collectors: I am definitely going to make an edition of this work, as I want to spend some time with the design. So if this is a must have for your collection, expect a sign up next week. 

The sign up for this work will open on Monday July 29th at 11 AM EST.
I will send out the link through my usual channels (email, the blog, IG etc)

Figure on a one week order window and then the books on this work will close forever. 

I know everyone wants to know the pricing on new works, but that is my job to figure out between now and the sign up (it is always more complicated than you think). So mark your calendars and I will have that info sorted out by sign up day.

Thanks as always for your eyeballs and your patronage. And as always, comments and questions are welcome. 

Lastly, lastly, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't mention I have a new book out this year. The details of which are all at this link (where it just so happens you can also order it)