The Joy of Sale

I've had very little success selling my work (mostly through lack of effort to be honest) but as ebay are having a listing free weekend I thought I'd list the bike:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330535555490

I feel that the web is not the best place to sell sculpture as people really want to see up close and personal what they are buying, but this is free so worth a go. Most of my work is made purely for my own pleasure so selling is not the goal. Certainly having work seen on the internet is rewarding, I have lots of psoitive feedback on Deviantart and have found my work all over the place in online galleries, blogs, articles etc which is great. I guess the next step is to look into copyrighting.

Steam Punk SAMCRO

So here is the finished piece, of which I'm really pleased. Not sure of a title yet, anyone recognise the title here?
My next job is to create some good backdrops so I can take some suitably moody pics of my work, may even employ a smoke machine.

Steam punk bike

Now that half term is here (and the weather is suitably grey and uninviting) work on the vehicle has sped up. I have been stuck on the basic shape for awhile, partly through lack of enthusiasm but also as I couldn't figure out how the forks and handlebars should look. An old hosepipe nozzle did the trick. I've drilled it and used thick brass rods to make the handlebars with old plastic ampules for the grips. I've been using brass rod a lot lately, it is great for joining pieces together securely but I can also then deconstruct to add more bits. This is important for someone who makes stuff up as he goes along!
I've used the rods to join the 2 halves of the frame together rather than cutting mdf, it's strong and light and once you get the hang of aligning holes much easier: I just slot the bits together.
I've used it to make control levers also (with white beads for knobs)

Also I think the extra type of material adds to the overall finish.

 



I realised the other night that my bike needs a really cool exhaust, after rummaging through my bits box I found these sweeping curved tubes, which once sprayed looked just right. I had a bit of trouble securing them but finally slotted thick wire inside and then sank them into dowel, this was then fitted into a plastic drum. Fortunately I had drilled decorative holes into the frame (see top photo) so 2 more bits of dowel allow the whole thing to slot onto the frame securely enough to take the weight of the long exhaust.

The bike is close to finished in these photos, I just need to add foot rests, a few little bits and pieces for detail (these will come from my dwindling plastic bits box) and finish off the engine behind the seat.

This is always the fun part and sadly over too quickly.

A perfect circle

I started the weekend by trying out my idea for cutting a neat circle.
The plan was top make a jig that would allowe me to turn the mdf from which the circle is to be cut on an axis, ensuring a clean accurate cut.
I measured the circle, drilled a central hole to take a dowl and then cut another hole into a thin piece of ply which fits perfectly against the base of the band saw to hold the circle the correct distance from the blade.
I had to cut a line into the mdf to take the blade (this was at right angles to the circles diameter), once done I gently turned the mdf on the dowl and ended up with a near perfect circle.
Cutting the inner circle for the wheel was not as effective because aligning blade and curve  was difficult but now I have the principal I will get there!

Once I had the front wheel I went back to the design and made a basic chasis, with lots of reference to choppers and trikes. So far everything moves including the steering column. To keep construction simple and not spoil the lines I'm using brass rods to pin all the sections together, this proves strong and easy to take apart as I cange and add bits.

The last photo shows some bits of plastic resting in place as I try ideas for the mechanics.