Composed primarily of scrap metal, this headboard is a labor of love, requiring a hell of a lot of hammering, tempering, buffing and polishing to turn each copper square into a spectral tile. Finished tiles are laid out in a checkerboard pattern on a 3-foot by 5-foot frame (for a queen bed) and then resin is poured over the top to coat and join the metal pieces.
Continue reading Reclaimed Copper Headboard
I scanned a bunch of sketches for furniture projects and am posting them here so I don’t lose them. Feel free to look, but they might not make much sense. Eventually, I will expand each one as it’s own post with notes, etc. As always, I appreciate feedback, critical or otherwise.
1. “Cabot” Storage System 
2. “Conver” Table 
3. Steamer Trunk Bar 
4. Reclaimed Copper Headboard
5. Nightstand 
6. Blok Sofa 
7. 4-Leg Table 
8. Vase 
The latest draft is live and seeking for your feedback. http://www.nermo.com/dimsum.php
I did the math (yes, art teachers can do basic math) and the permutations are phenomenal. There are currently 1331 possible unique taste sensations generated by my little widget, and when I add the “dip” button, that number will grow to 14,641.
Strange thing about elevens, the first few times you multiply 11 by 11 by 11 and so on, you get palindromes.
11 x 11 = 121 x 11 = 1331 x 11 = 14641
After playing with my Jolly St. Roger design and looking at bandanas online, I’ve hit a snag. I like the mullti-layered, paisley-type borders that traditional western bandanas have, but if I buy those and print on them, the center square has a smattering of squiggles that detract from and distort the central image:
So, now I am thinking that I will need to design the border pattern as well. In keeping with the theme, I’ve been considering borders made up of alternating sleigh/ship and scabbard/candycane patterns. What other images should I include?
I’m fascinated with the modular Sonobe origami forms and their potential application in lighting design. I’ve been toying with a variety of designs ranging from a simple votive-type light, up through elaborate chandeliers.
Most recently, I built this “solar nightlight†prototype. It’s not as counter-intuitive as it sounds.
A solar panel charges a battery pack attached to a light inside the Mylar shade. In the light, the solar panel charges the battery, and works as a sensor, so that when it’s dark, the light turns on. It’s a super-green piece because it uses a renewable energy source, it uses energy intuitively, since it only turns on in the dark, and uses LEDs, which are vastly more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs.
Not a whole lot to report, but I made a creepy nightlight out of a dried pufferfish skin and a string of LEDs.
I never get around to writing the mass Christmas card that those with better time management skills create, and even my Lunar New Year Cards go out late. I am terrible at remembering to get something for everyone and I really like putting a personal touch into gifts that I give.
All of that, with my rediscovered love of silkscreening led to my new generic Christmas present. I sketched Jolly St. Roger here and I am going to silkscreen him onto red bandanas and give them to everyone I know this holiday season. Now I just need to find a good bulk bandana distributor.
I officiated a friend’s wedding last weekend, and although I played this one straight, it got me thinking about the potential for officiating weddings as more of a performance piece. Of course this would be done in league with the couple to create some sort of spectacle, and not at their expense. Regardless, I’ve got a perfect record so far: 1 wedding; 0 divorces.
Maybe I can set up nermo.com as the site for my new wedding officiant business.
Addendum to my last post. I forgot to include these notes on the topic, which I had jotted on a napkin and then misplaced:
Marketing all prints as “hermeneutically sealed” as opposed to “hermetically sealed”
Using elements of old ephemera in the designs
Hole-punching designs, or perhaps the monetary value into the prints.
Once I get bored with the site in it’s pre-reformation form, I stage a neo/net Lutheran hacker attack on my own site, posting that they have taken control of nermo.com and demand reformation, post a page of 95 theses on the homepage. Maybe it will just be 95 links to pictures of those awful lolcats.
Using renaissance design elements in the layout of the site.
Designing the site with a central navigation menu, splitting the site right down the middle, because everyone has one on the side or top.
I’ve been toying with the indulgences idea a little more.
I’ve been getting back into silkscreen printing lately, and was thinking it would be fun to hand-print big, beautiful, frame-worthy certificates of the indulgences as limited edition pieces of art. To tie them into the website, and reinforce the notion of the indulgences as the virtual, spiritual commodity, I’m thinking of encouraging their transfer, sale, barter, etc. and putting a tracking number rather than an edition number, and having the current owner “register” with the site. I’ll have to come up with some sort of incentive to get them to play along.
Also mocking a trend I so greatly enjoy, I was thinking of selling them as “sin offset credits” tied into the seven deadly sins and/or the ten commandments.
I’m thinking of calling it the First Hypertextual Church of Nermo.
