This was my Christmas gift to Lauren this year! An Industrial Chic, Steampunk esque Chess set. I found the board on Etsy, and built the pieces out of nuts and bolts from the hardware store. I got one side rusted using Patina Blue solution, which I found from this sweet tutorial.

If you want to make your own, or you want a set, drop me a line!

Well, here is my next foray into the world of industrial chic design. As with my ladder shelf, this coffee table is made completely from reused items, right down to the screws. The top is made from hardwood flooring straight from a basketball court, which I found at Construction Junction. Also from CJ are the 2×4′s and legs, made from case iron pipe I cut down, and leveled off with adjustable pipe fittings as feet. The drawers are from an old filing cabinet I had in storage. It turned out to be a fun project, and it feels good to recycle old goods into some cool furniture.

Check out the pics below to see the steps I went through, and feel free to comment and let know what you think!

So I built some shelving out of a ladder last week, and figured I’d post some pictures, as well as a simplified tutorial. The process was pretty simple, and only took a few hours to build. It also cost me a whopping $2.50 for the whole thing, since I found two old ladders on Craigslist for 5 bucks.

The ladders were from Lousville Ladder Company, circa 1988. That officially makes this shelving only a few years younger than me

After cleaning the ladder, I took off the top rung, as well as the metal attachment on the side holding the ladder together. This was done by chiseling off the heads of the rivets. I just did this with a chisel and hammer, and made sure to wear thick gloves, because I like to miss and hit my hand from time to time.

Next, I measured the width of the shelves, and cut some old weather worn boards into the correct shelving length. I made sure to use some thicker boards, to the middles wouldn’t bow.

Then, I put my lader into my inset upside down, and laid in the boards, getting them all level. This took a good bit of shimmying on each end of the ladder, as the rungs on each side were not the same height to begin with. Once I got them level, I marked the spots on the wood, and gave each a dot of wood glue, just to keep them from sliding. Not too much though, as I would like to have the freedom to move this shelving later.

That’s just about it. I decorated the shelves up with some plants and the like, and ended up with some pretty cool shelving. Finally, as a bonus, I took the top rung that I had removed, and made it into a key hanger with some random hooks I had in my workroom. Now I just need to use the metal fasteners from the middle of the ladder for something, and I’ll have used every part of the ladder!

Once again, the folks at AIR never cease to amaze me. The girl working there, Jen, let Lauren and I stay late to get our pieces done, and we did our best to not disappoint.

Lauren got her robots prints together, a sweet piece drawn by her friend Andrew. As per usual, she shies away from the spotlight.

I finally got to put my one up flag idea into production, proving that not all of my ideas end up in the ether for eternity. And it actually came out pretty decent!

Now I can have the sweetest front porch in existence, one up flag flying in the wind.

So, my friend gave me a Star Wars record this weekend. I was of course excited, as I love everything Star Wars. I realized quickly though, two vital facts about the gift:

1. I do not own a record player. In fact, I don’t any tangible music player, other than an ipod, which doesn’t count.
2. The gift sucked. It turned out to be just quotes from the movie which, while cool in visual form, do translate to audio only for my listening pleasure.

I immediately decided upon another alternative. I had seen a post a while back on making records into bowls. I figured I’d try my hand at it. Since I’m chomping at the bit to add more ordered lists to this post, here were my steps:

1. Prehead oven to 300 degrees.
2. Place metal bowl upside down on cookie sheet.
3. Center record on top of bowl, and place the whole shebang in the oven.
4. Bake until it melts in the shape you want. This took me only five minutes, so don’t get ADD and burn your house down.

And Viola! A masterpiece for my coffee table. My remotes are no longer homeless.

Painted this for Lauren’s step mom and her dad. Turned out pretty decent for a three hour, off the cuff painting. This duo might just work out after all

Yep, I’m finally getting these bad boys together. Thanks to the awesome people at AIR for helping me with the screening process! The one on the right is the original screen, and the guy on the left is my first attempt at “weathering” the piece. Below are some different versions, as I worked with some variations of tea, coffee, paint, and wine to get my desired effect for the weathering. The final pieces will be 11 x 16, hand signed and numbered editions of 24. Let me know if you want one!

I finally got this piece finished a few weeks ago, and finally got the post up here on ze blog. Yes, procrastination is my strong point.

Anywho, I’ve been wanting to get this piece up in my bathroom for a while now. It’s a broken pencil pointing to the toilet that says “No. 2 Happens” on it. The piece is about 36″ x 36″ acrylic on wood. Here is the original sketch, it was eventually tweaked a bit, so the composition would work a bit better with my bathroom layout:

Anywho, that’s what I was working on a few weeks ago. Now on to those damn Walking Dead posters.

Yes, The Walking Dead is over until next October. I was so enthralled by the show however, that I decided to dust off my pen and ink and get my own little homage to the show together. It was a short time after this decision that I realized I wanted to put my first poster together. After a bit of research, I stumbled upon this rare gem:

Apparently a movie called the Walking Dead, starring none other than Boris Karloff, was shot in 1936. I’d found my muse. I would make a poster for the new show, that paid homage to the poster of old.

I still have a good bit of tweaking to do to the final poster, especially to the colors, but I’d like to try and get a screen print together sometime soon. Maybe even sell a few prints. If anyone would want one, please drop me a line.

I happened upon this Flickr feed today when perusing my google reader. Has some pretty choice material:

Don Solo’ Flickr Feed