Carved Alien Guitar by Gig Goldstein

I keep coming across some amazing carved guitars and this one is a beauty, I like the control knobs representing the Alien eggs ready to hatch. Here is what the artist Gig Goldstein has to say about his work.

 “I started carving 12 years ago, it started out as chainsaw carvings and progressed in to detailed wildlife carvings and my main subjects at that time were fresh water fish. A guitar player friend of mine asked me if I’d be able to carve a solid body guitar and that’s how I got in to working on guitars. I have a small business carving for art galleries and clients that collect my carvings, the guitar thing is really just a sideline hobby I pursue but its starting to become a larger part of what I do.”

“A detailed carving job can take between 40 to 50 hours to complete, the most difficult stage is in the design of the subject. I try to strive for a flow to the overall carving, I also try to tell a story of some type. The alien guitar is roughly based on the art work of the artist H.R. Giger, the idea I had was to interpret an alien life cycle. My biggest joy from completing a guitar is knowing the person receiving it appreciates it as a one of a kind piece of art that you can play.” – Gig Goldstein

Check out some more of Gig's fantastic carved guitars on his YouTube channel:

 http://www.youtube.com/user/GigsCarvedGuitars

Bloomin' Clever Boxes

Most wood workers reading this will be familiar with the good old bandsaw box, the designs of which are many and varied and limited only by the imagination, but when I stumbled upon these gems from Ray & Kathy Sylvester I was absolutely gobsmacked, to call them puzzle boxes is in fact a bit of a misnomer as Ray & Kathy say on their website "these boxes are designed to put things in, not keep people out"

These beautiful boxes are fascinating with many interlocking pieces and secret compartments. although from Derbyshire UK. Ray will travel as far as Edinburgh to select the appropriate hardwoods for his art.

A personal favourite of mine from his collection is his 'Natural Top' boxes. Take a look at this video example:

Now watch the man himself in action, it's not hard to get your head around the principle but the precision is amazing, and how the hell does he remember how each piece goes back together ?!

The perfect gift for any gender and any age so head along to Ray & Kathy's web site  Temima Crafts  for more information   :-)

http://www.temima.co.uk

Wooden Safe / Bandsaw Box

 This wonderful and weird wooden safe created by designer Alex Schlegel is an interesting, albeit unusual way to secure your valuables. The band-saw box features thirteen drawers, which rotate with the movement of the arrows that are stuck to their openings. The objects for safekeeping are placed into the large, central drawer through a hole in the bottom of the box. The cool thing about this design is that the objects in the safe can be moved from one drawer to another by clever maneuvering of the arrows and rotation of the whole box. This makes stealing or even recovering objects from the safe a very tedious task.

Wooden Lathed Lamp Shade

I Stumbled Upon this great little film showing a lampshade being made on a lathe, Initially I thought 'what a waste of wood' but it is fast growing pine which was going to be firewood and the waste is the centre poor quality sap wood.

I would love to tell you more info, thickness of the shade, how many different timbers has he tried etc etc so if anybody knows please leave a comment   :-)

Alexander Grabovetskiy Master Wood Carver

Alexander Grabovetskiy Master Wood Carver /Aalmark LLC asked me to share this video of his work. Take a looky at his Facebook page and prepare to be amazed :-)

https://www.facebook.com/agrabovetskiy

Environmentally Friendly Solstice Tree

This year we are having a Solstice Tree in order to save a tree !!!

I know that sounds like a bit of a contradiction but it isn't. This festive beauty is a heavy section of English Ivy I chopped away from a Sycamore tree on the banks of the Shropshire Union canal. The stuff is rampant in the area and has already felled many trees through strangulation. Blasted clean with a high powered pressure washer then interwoven with a string of warm white LED bulbs it looks far more stunning than these pictures can depict.

The way ivy climbs a tree has always fascinated me, the patterns formed conjures up images of an alien in the film 'Alien' clamped to Sigourney Weavers face.

So perhaps we could start a trend here and save many trees in the process !   :-)

Happy Solstice one and all   :-)

Driftwood Delirium

There is something truly magical about driftwood as a material, totally unique and crafted by nature, the action of time, tide, sun and wind doing the work equivalent to many man hours of labour with sandpaper and tools which mother nature considerately delivers to your local beach as an art form in itself.

What happens now to this amazing material leaves many a coastal artist imbued in a fresh deluge of creative juices upon each new find.

Boys Day Out

The life sized Horses from sculptor Heather Jansch.

Interesting sculpture at Saint-Anne-des Monts Driftwood Festival Quebec

There is so much driftwood at Saint-Anne-des Monts that they have a driftwood festival every year where many carved pieces can be found around the town.

Three Men

Piano 2

Rikki Carette is a sculptor who gathers his materials from the Devon & Cornwall coast England. This Eco minded fellow cleverly combines two businesses, operating as Cleancoast Services keeping our shore lines tidy and using much of the collected wood for his quirky and comical sculptures available at Cleancoast Sculptures.

Surfer

Lobster

Also in England is Julia Horberry from Cornwall operating as Julia's Driftwood Furniture, her style of art being functional, she works from her workshop perched at the top of her garden and describes herself as 'one very happy girl'   :)

Driftwood Candle Holder

Driftwood Chair

Driftwood Mirror

Paul A. Baliker from Palm Coast Florida is a very talented sculptor sometimes working on a huge scale who endeavours to capture a moment in wood that expresses potential for a symbiotic relationship with nature.

A Matter of Time

Oceans 11th Hour

Just a tiny selection of the amazing art out there using driftwood, so next time you are walking along the beach and spot some driftwood let your imagination run wild and think of the potential in this 'junk of the ocean'   :)