They are used as an attachment for angle grinders to clean rust, grease and grime off metal. They are very handy, but wear out easily.

As the brush wears down, the bristles break and fly off at tremendous speeds.

Here is one that flew across my shop and stuck in a leaf of my new tea plant.

And this one flew fast enough to embed itself in my finger.  If the skin on my hands has been made tough from years of working with them, imagine how far this might have penetrated my eye had it traveled in a different direction.

Let this represent the importance of proper safety glasses!

-Stay Tuned

Some women, after delivering a baby, fall into a state of sadness brought on by a powerful cocktail of hormones and the newly formed void in their bodies where the child had gestated.

While it is unlikely that I will ever bring a baby to term in my belly, I can say that the experience I had from seeing so many creative projects at the Maker Faire left me a little overwhelmed and sad when the event was over.

Some Highlights for me were Michael Pedroni’s ”Howdy”, The SF Amateur Astronomer’s hand made telescope, The Nautilus and many others.

2013 has been a year of transition for me. I moved into a new work space and am putting more energy into my fabrication business, Backbone. My hope is to plant a few solid roots that will let me branch out into new and interesting things.

On the list of things to do:

1. Get started on a couple of kinetic pieces that have been floating around in my mind since last Maker Faire including a swimming shark and an undulating rib cage,

2. A set of hand forged garden tools,

3. Electrify Tones with pickups and effect pedals,

4. Forge a set of jewelry forming stakes,

and last, but certainly not least,

5. Build a tiny house.

-Stay Tuned

This is by far the weirdest, and possibly the greatest, hot air ballon ever flown.

The city of Canberra Australia commissioned artist, Patricia Piccinini, to design it for their 2013 centenary celebrations. Reception was mixed of course, but what else would one expect when something this interesting is paid for with public funds.

Read the full article here.

-Stay Tuned

Guy Reid made this beautiful short film about the emotional effect that astronauts experience while gazing at Earth from space. They describe it as an experience that has transformed their perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it, and enabled them to perceive it as our shared home, without boundaries between nations or species.

The subtext of the film is based on the increasing need for humanity to adopt this planetary perspective so that we can react to the issues that threaten us as a species.

It seems the filmmakers are also working on a feature length film here.

-Stay Tuned

View more videos at: http://nbcbayarea.com.

My friend, and fellow instructor at the Crucible, Ben Cowden is one of the current artists in residence at the San Francisco dump. The company that manages the dump has also managed the Recology program for many years and provides several local artists with 3 month residencies each year.

I’m looking forward to seeing his show at the end of the residency.

-Stay Tuned

As an apology for not posting in a while, here are a couple of super close up views of a needle making its way through the groove of a record. The details are pretty amazing and communicate the shape of the sound waves that were recorded into the vinyl disc. I especially like how the groove’s shape changes so drastically from pass to pass in the second image. I wonder what is on the record.

-Stay Tuned

Nick Diphillipo runs the foundry at the Crucible and he is the best at what he does. I was lucky to have had the opportunity to watch the bell in this video get made over a few weeks.

-Stay Tuned

Last week we began the fabrication of a custom dinning room table for a private client. She had a 4″ slab of redwood that she had wanted as a table top for several years. The slab was a bit narrow so we ripped it down the center and fabricated a steel section to widen the surface. The steel strip also serves as the main structural element that holds everything together.

We should have this job finished in another week or so.

- Stay Tuned

I participated in the forging, forming and fabrication of these gates while working as an assistent to the blacksmith Peter Hapney. They now stand in the doorways of St. Thomas Church, 1 W 53rd St  New York, NY (directly adjacent to the MOMA)