Broom Straw Casting, or Ralph is Melting Things Again

When we went to Maker Faire we saw several Austin jewelry artists demonstrating techniques. Michiel Rushing was demonstrating broom straw casting. Ralph was inspired to do some himself. The first picture shows the silver being melted.




Now he's pouring the molten silver into a broom head that has been soaked in water and bound with twine.




This is the resulting casting. I'll probably cut the piece into two pieces. They will have to be cleaned with a brush and then a pickle solution. Then they'll be either drilled or have a ring soldered onto them for pendants or maybe I'll make that top one into a pin.

Sometime in the future I'll have a blog going up on Metal Chik showing our photos of Michiel Rushing doing the broom casting.

More Pictures from Maker Faire

I'll have to look up what this "ride" is called. Right now I'll just call it Big Wheel. When I get Stefan to show me how to process videos I'll put up a video of this. It was moving down the sidewalk when I took this. Below is a close up. Yes, there are people in the center.



This is a moving inter-active sculpture. There are little music boxes riveted all over the outside. When you turn the crank on the tiny music box, the music is amplified by the shape of the sculpture. Stefan is in the middle here.



Here's a better shot of the detail and Stefan.




This is a second sculpture. This one has large strings across the top.

This painting was done in dust on the back windshield.

Detail of the painting.

Maker Faire Austin Art Cars

We went to Maker Faire last weekend in Austin and had a blast. I took 100 pictures, many of which will make their way to this blog, or to my blogs on Metal Chik. These are some of the art cars shown there. The first one is the Yarn Car. I've seen a lot of pictures of it on Flickr so it must have been a favorite with a lot of people. We talked to the owner who said he used acrylic yarn. He had driven it down from Dallas.




I really liked this VW. The decor is mosaic work and it was very well done.


This car looks kind of like a post apocalyptic armored bug.

Here is the Brick Car. There are 870 pounds of brick all over the car.

Two views of the Camera Van are shown here. Stefan is looking at one of the many video screens in the first one, and Ralph and Stefan are inspecting the vehicle in the second picture. The Camera Van is by Harrod Blank. Here's what the promotional info says about it: "An interactive Art Car that was inspired by an actual dream, the Camera Van has the ability to capture the amazed reactions of people who see it for the first time. Of the 2,500 cameras mounted to the van, six are functional Canons that shoot print film, and two are operational video cameras that transmit live images to the giant "filmstrip" composed of four TV monitors on the passenger side of the vehicle. One of the best-known Art Cars in the world, the Camera Van has toured the US, England, Germany, and Canada capturing shocked expressions in over 5,000 photos."

This one is kind of humorous.

Here is a car being decorated at the faire. This is an interactive art car build sponsored by HEYA. This HEYA project was made possible by Toyota and was hosted by HEYA and Harrod Blank.