Craft Fair!

Craft Fair!

I'll be vending at a craft fair in Cambridge MA tomorrow! It's called Cambridge Open Market, it's located at the plaza at Harvard, and runs from 11-5:30. This is my first real live full-scale regular craft fair! (Though I have done a real live full-scale non-regular craft fair.) It runs weekly on Fridays through the summer, with tomorrow being the opening day. I'm signed up for three days over the course of the summer: tomorrow, then once in July and once in August.

Here's hoping it goes well!

This is definitely the shortest dragon tail I've made. The commissioner requested that it be only 16 inches long, so it wouldn't quite reach down to knee height. They asked for a mix of purple and blue, and I put together a pattern for them, which they liked.

Photographing the purple scales is always troublesome. The fact that it's approaching twilight and the light is very blue doesn't help.

As usual, it's made of anodized aluminum scales linked together with stainless steel rings. I included the pattern, in case people were curious. (Though I ended up slightly expanding the top after finishing it according to the pattern and finding that I had mis-calculated the length a bit.)

Here's a quick photo of this dragon tail commission I just knocked out. It's done in anodized aluminum, primarily black with a purple underbelly.

I just finished the scale shirt I was slogging away on for a long time, and was feeling like I hadn't finished very many things for too long of a time, and was antsy. So I pounded this out in a day and a half.

Tomorrow I'll take some nice photos of it being worn outside in some natural light, but today it was rainy.

If you're curious about these, check out my tail commissioning guide!

This project is the reason I kind of dropped off the internet for a couple months there. But isn't it beautiful?

It's a chandelier I was commissioned to design and build for a big fancy fundraising gala. It's being installed in two days.

I'll make a longer more in-depth post with in-progress shots and explanations later, but for now:

laser cut

1/16" thick okoume plywood

bolted together

1/8" birch plywood internal frame

14 light bulbs inside

about 50 lbs

about 50 inches in diameter

currently taking up most of my living room

f***ing awesome.

Chandelier Saga Part 3: Assembly

And here's the exciting part--putting everything together!

We have:

Pieces being cut on the laser cutter

Treating all the wood with flame-retardant

Sorting all the pieces back out (I etched a label on every piece so this would be feasible.)

Beginning to construct the skin, expanding radially from the bottom center

Assembling the parts for the support structure, along with getting the bulb sockets in place.

Attaching the substructure into the skin

Testing it out (and replacing the bulb that released the magic smoke)

Moving it upstairs and finishing construction in the living room

Just barely fitting it into the car.

And that was it! I was done! It would be hung by rigging professionals, and it would be beautiful! Photos of it installed will be coming in another post.

This dragon tail is made of white painted aluminum, a material I hadn't had much chance to experiment with before. It claims to be a sturdy automotive paint, and it definitely has a storm trooper sort of feel to it. Personally, I'd been a bit hesitant to make much with it, because I don't really trust paint on metal, but it seems durable enough, and I sent some sample scales to the commissioner and she was cool with them.

The tail is a pretty short one, at only 24 inches long. It's also got a line of spikes down the spine.

If you're curious about these tails I make, check out this page with information about them: http://armoreddragon.tumblr.com/tails