Octalypse

Sculpture

Materials: Redheart, Grenadillo, Avocado, Purpleheart, Canary, Lacewood Info: This sculpture is one I designed and built for a woodworking class in college. It's a mechanical wooden flower that opens and closes when the base is raised and lowered.

Aladdin's Ring

Metalsmithing

Materials: Silver, Fire Agate Info: This is ring I made while taking a metalsmithing class in college. Its design inspiration came from the illustration on a Magic: The Gathering card called "Aladdin's Ring."

Library Carrel

Recycled Furniture

Materials: Used Library Carrel, Steel, Aluminum, Formica Info: One day while working in the I.D. department office I was told to take an old used library carrel out to the trash. Rather than let it go to waste, I decided to transform it into a smaller shelf system for my printer, scanner and supplies.

Pencil Case

Recycled Gift

Materials: Shipping Palette (Beechwood), Lacewood Info: While working in the machine shop at SU I noticed an old weathered shipping palette that we had been meaning to throw away. I decided to plane down a section of the grey wood to see if it had any life left within. To my surprise, the freshly smoothed surface had a beautiful grain to it. After a bit of work on the mill and the addition of some lacewood inlays, the new pencil case made an excellent gift for my future wife.

Rain Drops

Wall Sculpture

Materials: Polystyrene, Umbrellas Info: This is a wall sculpture/installation piece I made for a plastics class. The ripple forms were created by thermoforming (vacuum forming) polystyrene over forms I had lathed out of MDF discs.

Custom Bass

Bass Guitar

Materials: Alder, Ebony, Maple, Lacewood, Components Info: While attending college I played bass in a band called "The August Project." After I outgrew my first bass and was in the market for an upgrade, I decided it was time to custom design and make one. I started in the shop with a fretted blank-paddlestock neck and standard J-bass body from www.warmoth.com. I then shaped the headstock, re-shaped the alder j-bass body and added lacewood inlays to both. For components I chose EMG pickups, a schaller rollerbridge, and hipshot ultra-lite tuners.

Cube-O-Cash

Unusual Gift

Materials: Cardstock, Currency, Coins Info: This was a gift I gave to Jen's brother Casey for Christmas. It's a cardboard cube that has a roll of dollar bills taped end-to-end inside. I also printed a couple dollar bill imposters with funny comments on them and threw in a $5 bill for added comedic value and suspense. The box was filled with coins to weigh it down and for an added jingling effect.

Jen's Ring

Engagement Ring

Materials: White Gold, Diamond, Blue Irradiated Diamonds Info: I've always been a person who asks himself "Can I make that?" before buying anything. The same goes for engagement rings. After seeing all the usual rings in jewelery stores around town, I realized that if I really wanted it to be special I'd have to design it myself. Since these were going to be very expensive materials, I employed the assistance of the talented designers and craftsmen over at Bostonian Jewelers. The 9 stones on the final ring represent the 9 years we dated before our engagement.

Drum Light

Light Fixture

Materials:Light Bulb & Fixture, Wire, Colored Translucent Vinyl, Clear Drum Head Info: This is a suspended light fixture I made to go inside my kick drum so it can be lit from within. The light shines through the colored translucent vinyl logo on the front head of the drum.

Color Machine Light

Light Fixture

Materials:Lamp Fixture, Red Compact Fluorescent Bulb, Plastic Mesh, Zip Ties Info: This is one of 3 light fixtures I made to attach to each microphone stand during our CD release show. The cube shaped shade with the torn corner is in a similar style to the cover of our recent album release "Color Machine."

Audio Bracelet

Functional Fashion

Materials: Speaker Wire, Audio Adapters/Cables Info: This is a concept that I'm still refining. It's a braided bracelet made from speaker wire that can be taken off and used to connect a portable audio device to a stereo (via a 1/8" mini stereo to RCA connection). The functional male RCA connectors and non-functional female ones form the bracelets clasp.

Mechflower

Sculpture

Materials: Pine, Pewter Info: This is a DaVinci inspired mechanical wood piece I designed and built in college. When the crank on the side is rotated, the pewter figurine in the center turns and the 8 petals alternately open and close 4 at a time.

Building Module

Children's Toy

Materials: Basswood Info: This is a design I created for a modular/connectable children's building block.

Transformer "Bumblebee"

Wooden Toy

Materials: Pine Info: In 1998 the new Volkswagen Beetle came out. When my 3D professor asked us to "modernize" a childhood toy for an assignment, I knew I had to choose one of my favorite transformers: "Bumblebee" the Volkswagen Bug. This wooden interpretation featured the new modern Volkswagen design. It transforms from car to robot and back and is completely made of pine except for the hinges and decal on the chest plate.

Hand Drum

Instrument

Materials: Bass, Steel, Brass Info: This instrument design allows the user to play a variety of percussion sounds. The thimble-like wood and metal finger caps make a variety of sounds when tapped on the wood and metal contact areas on the hollow hand-drum body. Pitch can also be altered by covering and uncovering different combinations of the finger grooves.

Dakota Jackson Box

Sculpture

Materials: Maple, Walnut, Steel Info: This box was inspired by the fine woodwork of Dakota Jackson. He's renowned for luxurious wood pieces that are covered with secret compartments that can only be accessed with secret gestures. This box will only unlock and open when the top right and left inlays are depressed simultaneously. The number and arrangement of round inlays correspond to the letters in Dakota Jackson's name. Inside is a biography about Jackson and his work.

DragonBass

Sculpture

Materials: Pine, Oak, Brass Info: This sculpture depicts a bass guitar morphing into a dragon.

Computer Desk

Furniture

Materials: Poplar, Baltic Birch, Baltic Birch Veneer Info: This is a desk I designed and built for my friend Mike. He took lots of care staining and putting on the clear coat and did an excellent job! The bookshelf section ended up not being tall enough to fit the monitor, but I think it looks better without it anyway.