After an extended break from pouring due to a particularly busy semester, I’m now back in the workshop and planning out a new phase of art bar designs. Here’s a teaser of the Libertad bar I’m currently in the early stages of sculpting. I’ve been wanting to experiment more with optical effects and light refraction in my work, so I’ve reached out to a friend and fellow artist with a PhD in topology to explore new ways to torture geometry and play tricks on the eye. Keep an eye out for these new collaboration pieces!
Five sand molds. A day’s worth of work. And nothing to show for it. Five failed pieces to be melted back down and tried again on another day. This is the reality hidden behind each successful piece. It’s a bit demoralizing when it happens, but you just have to mark it as a loss and keep trying. That’s why it feels so great when you open a poured mold and see a successful cast. For every piece I produce and go on to sell, there was a moment of anticipation, of pleasant surprise and satisfaction. That’s part of the beauty of things that are hand made.
I grew up being fascinated with illustrations in books, from the Art Nouveau inspired paintings of John R. Neill for the Oz series to the moody ink drawings of Frank Frazetta for the Mars series and Tarzan books. But one style of illustration jumps out as particularly suited to the medium of silver art bars. For my second running collection of pieces, I hope to faithfully reproduce my favorite black and white etched illustrations in fine silver. The contenders for inclusion are many, but I can already think of several that top the list!
One of the joys of collecting silver coins is learning about the currencies of different nations. In bullion, the first coins that most people collect are the major government backed silver pieces from different countries–the Eagle, the Maple, the Libertad, and the Britannia (and so many more!). A great passion of mine has been hunting down the old silver coins that were used as currency in different countries in the past. So, when I started pouring silver, it was natural that one of the first themes I would settle on, almost unconsciously, was the imagery of nations. It started with the Rising Sun of Japan (which I reinterpreted as a rising moon!), and was followed by the imagery of my own country with my own take on the US Peace Dollar. And in tribute to my friends over on the Stackers Social discord, most of whom are from the UK, I then created my tribute to Britannia. There are so many more designs to come in this series, as there are so many more countries for which I have a deep affection. All of which leads to the question… How does one make a Quokka look majestic?…
The Jabberwocky is the second addition to my Famous Engravers series (following Dore’s Empyrean). This design comes from a classic illustration to Lewis Carrol’s Through the Looking-Glass. The etching was originally created by the artist, John Tenniel.
As a sociologist, one of my areas of interest has always been the objects that humans create. From arts and crafts to the seemingly mundane, such as tools and packaging, these objects are ephemera, they are artifacts of our culture, our society, and the people who made them. The things we make tell a story, they are a reflection of ourselves. A well-crafted object is a thing of beauty.
Over the years, I’ve found myself collecting weird things. Pieces of chalk so thoughtfully designed that mathematicians have been known to hoard boxes of them. A brand of pencil coveted by writers, animators, and architects. Pieces of clothing that intentionally show the hand of their maker in their stitching and the specific machinery on which they were made. There is satisfaction in things that are designed with care and intent.
When I joined the stacking community, I was quick to see the marks of good craftsmanship in various corners of the hobby, from highly respected mints, to periods of history where the craft of coin making truly shined. And when I began to pour my own silver pieces, I wanted to carry that passion for craft into my own work.
Every Pub Sociology piece is the product of my love for the well-crafted object. From their thoughtful design, which starts in careful research into a topic and involves several stages of graphic design, sculpting, and iteration, to a labor intensive sand casting process, to an elaborate and multi-staged finishing process, every step of each piece’s production is intentional and meticulous. Everything, down to the cloth bags and cardboard boxes the items ship in has been carefully designed and crafted by the artist. All because I feel that attention to detail is how I show respect to the objects I make and to the people who buy them. Thank you for sharing in this passion and taking part in the story of these pieces.
pubsociology.com 