Miscellaneous | ctaylorart

Miscellaneous Projects

My Efforts have always been somewhat scattered! Here are some miscellaneous projects.

The octahedral fish tank was the culmination of many years of effort. At the time, I lacked the technical knowledge and the means to see the project through, but I imagined this becoming an aquarium chandelier.

Here is a tube bending jig (integrated into a welding table that I made). This was made to help with my Dolphin Fountain project.	Here are a positioning jig and welding table that I made to help with my Dolphin Fountain project.	I made these hubs to be used with miniature tubing in the creation of octet (octahedron and tetrahedron) masts and spaceframes
Here is an octet mast created with the hubs shown in the previous photo.	This is an octahedral terrarium/aquarium prototype. I spent a good amount of effort in making fish tanks, but I did not, at the time, have the technical means to see the project through properly. My intent was to create a fish-tank chandelier in this form.	If you've ever seen an architectural model, the trees usually begin as flat metal castings like these. The branches get bent into a 3d shape, and then flecks of green foam are glued on to make the foliage. I made this collection of trees for a company that was making a model of an arboretum (or something similar). Like a lot of beginning artists, I had trouble saying no, so the number of species got a bit out of hand. The rubber disc in the background is one of the production molds.
Here is a closeup of the architectural model trees in the previous image. I used a soldering iron to melt together little pieces of wax wire.	Here is a little cardboard garage that I made.	Here are a few other cardboard buildings I made.
This goldfish, which i modeled in plasticine, was created for a painter to use as a visual reference	This goldfish, which i modeled in plasticine, was created for a painter to use as a visual reference	Here is a sign that I made in 1/2" steel rod for a local restaurant. The sign is about 4' wide, and I did all of the bending cold. Unfortunately I did not design the awesome logo, I merely bent and welded the steel.
Here is the text portion of the sign in the previous photo. From this project I learned that I want to avoid, at all costs, the task of making small, blind-ended threaded holes in stainless steel!	Here is the sign in action. I wish I had taken photos of the installation process, but such things were far from my mind at the time. I was very fortunate to have good help at each stage!	One of first bits of formal art education were continuing-education figure sculpting classes. This piece came out really good for an early effort, but unfortunately I didn't photograph it before I used it as a soldering jig. At the time , I thought I would be doing much more such work than I ended up doing, and so I treated this sculpture somewhat carelessly!
	This is a shot of my work on display at my show at the Piano Gallery in Boston back in 2008.	This is a shot of my work on display at my show at the Piano Gallery in Boston back in 2008.
This is a shot of my work on display at my show at the Piano Gallery in Boston back in 2008.	Here is a guitar fretboard with custom inlay that I made for a guitar that was being built for one of my sisters. Little pieces of mother of pearl are really difficult to machine!	I made several attempts to cut out the abalone (mother-of-pearl) pieces for the guitar fretboard inlay in the previous image. Below is a piece resulting from an attempt with a laser-cutter, which yielded unusable results. Above is a piece resulting from the method which was successful (learned from an online forum): Glue the abalone to a board with water-soluble glue, and then after cutting the pieces, soak them in water until they float free!
Here is a lightbox that I made after a friend gave me some large pieces of curved acrylic.	This is one of several tubular hand sculptures that I made with George Poulos. We eventually showed these at the Art Vigor Gallery in East Boston.	This is the opening of the show which featured the tube sculptures that George and I created.
I sell a lot of items with necklace cords. Here are some examples of metal fittings I created for this purpose. In my hubris, I thought I could create the perfect necklace... Click the link below to see the full story.	This is a portrait sculpture that I made to go over the front door of a friend's house. It is about life-sized I sculpted the original in plasticine, and someone else molded it and made resin castings. The copy that went over the door (not this copy) was given a faux-stone finish and then skillfully integrated into the existing stonework.	When I began making tube sculptures, I lived in an apartment that was unsuitable for welding and brazing. The soft-solder that I was limited to required some sort of fitting to be used, and so I created these fittings to expand on the limited, commercially available options. I started by turning one piece on a borrowed mini-lathe, and then assembling duplicates of this piece into the shapes seen here. This unspectacular assemblage represents several months of effort!
Here is a closeup shot of the tube-fittings in the previous photo. These are lost-wax castings from which the sprues have not yet been cleaned. The molds were challenging to make, and looked better than the fittings, but I could not locate them for the photo-shoot.

Miscellaneous Projects

Here is a tube bending jig (integrated into a welding table that I made). This was made to help with my Dolphin Fountain project.

Here are a positioning jig and welding table that I made to help with my Dolphin Fountain project.

I made these hubs to be used with miniature tubing in the creation of octet (octahedron and tetrahedron) masts and spaceframes

Here is an octet mast created with the hubs shown in the previous photo.

This is an octahedral terrarium/aquarium prototype. I spent a good amount of effort in making fish tanks, but I did not, at the time, have the technical means to see the project through properly. My intent was to create a fish-tank chandelier in this form.

Here is a closeup of the architectural model trees in the previous image. I used a soldering iron to melt together little pieces of wax wire.

Here is a little cardboard garage that I made.

Here are a few other cardboard buildings I made.

This goldfish, which i modeled in plasticine, was created for a painter to use as a visual reference

This goldfish, which i modeled in plasticine, was created for a painter to use as a visual reference

Here is a sign that I made in 1/2" steel rod for a local restaurant. The sign is about 4' wide, and I did all of the bending cold. Unfortunately I did not design the awesome logo, I merely bent and welded the steel.

Here is the text portion of the sign in the previous photo. From this project I learned that I want to avoid, at all costs, the task of making small, blind-ended threaded holes in stainless steel!

Here is the sign in action. I wish I had taken photos of the installation process, but such things were far from my mind at the time. I was very fortunate to have good help at each stage!

This is a shot of my work on display at my show at the Piano Gallery in Boston back in 2008.

This is a shot of my work on display at my show at the Piano Gallery in Boston back in 2008.

This is a shot of my work on display at my show at the Piano Gallery in Boston back in 2008.

Here is a guitar fretboard with custom inlay that I made for a guitar that was being built for one of my sisters. Little pieces of mother of pearl are really difficult to machine!

Here is a lightbox that I made after a friend gave me some large pieces of curved acrylic.

This is one of several tubular hand sculptures that I made with George Poulos. We eventually showed these at the Art Vigor Gallery in East Boston.

This is the opening of the show which featured the tube sculptures that George and I created.

I sell a lot of items with necklace cords. Here are some examples of metal fittings I created for this purpose. In my hubris, I thought I could create the perfect necklace... Click the link below to see the full story.

Here is a closeup shot of the tube-fittings in the previous photo. These are lost-wax castings from which the sprues have not yet been cleaned. The molds were challenging to make, and looked better than the fittings, but I could not locate them for the photo-shoot.