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Laughing Mantis Studio

Art inspired by biology, created by a biologist

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You can see my frequently-updated works-in-progress by following @laughingmantisstudio

laughingmantisstudio

Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D. | Breast Cancer Research Scientist
Woodworker/Artist
Husband to @tamarynart.
AKA: @danieldbrownphd
Pittsburgh, PA.
Instagram post 2225768692052994400_556906553 “I Can’t Carry It For You...” 3D Wooden light-up “Lord of the Rings” intarsia art, roughly based on the scene when Sam carries Frodo into Mt. Doom (“but I CAN carry you!”). ... I’m finally ready to call this piece done! It ended up taking me 2 months to complete, despite initially planning it to be simpler and quicker than my Han/Chewie/Millenium Falcon piece. Ha! I always thought Samwise Gamgee was the real hero of the story and I decided a scene of him carrying Frodo into Mt. Doom might be a cool artwork with LEDs. My first design had much fewer layers, with the characters much larger. But I decided to add Barad-Dur, Shelob, and the black gate, which changed the scale dramatically (and made it almost 6” thick, and 24” tall). Obviously I’ve taken some liberties as they were much closer to the entrance when he carried Frodo (and Shelob was dead by then). Plus their scale isn’t exactly accurate. But they needed to be large enough to see. Everything was cut by hand on scroll saw and hand carved for the characters. I built this from crab apple, walnut, and cherry I milled up myself from reclaimed urban trees, as well as katalox (thanks @rapfohl), spalted hackberry (thanks @chipdwoodworks), reclaimed mahogany, red oak, poplar, canarywood, and ebony, with a maple frame. My wife @tamarynart did her pyrography magic to burn the “One ring to rule them all...” inscription into the frame. There are 4 LEDs running off three AA batteries, colored orange with acetate film. Shelob serves as the power button. The eye is a walnut pupil embedded in multiple layers of watercolored resin. I’m pretty stoked to have this thing shining over our “lair” across from the Millenium Falcon! Note: the build process was documented in many stories now highlighted on my profile. #lordoftherings “samwisegamgee #frodobaggins #gollum #scrollsawart #geekart #woodart #intarsia #oneringtorulethemall #pittsburghwoodworking #madeinpittsburgh #woodworking #handmade #scrollsaw #woodworking #woodworker #handmade #woodporn #maker #imadethis
Instagram post 2214359057492488896_556906553 And here are a couple stills. ... I haven’t posted on this LOTR piece entitled “I can’t carry it for you...” in a while (but tons of stories). I’m still working on it. When I designed this, I thought I was making it simpler and easier than my Star Wars project. It’s turned out only modestly so. I still have quite a bit to do, but the pieces are all cut, adjusted to depth, and finished with poly. I put resin in Mt Doom, got Sauron’s eye more or less how I envisioned (multiple resin layers with sanding and watercolor, then an acetate backing and a watercolored paper backing to hide the LED heat sink). It’s all wired up - the lights weren’t bright enough for my taste on 2xAAs, so I threw in some resistors to bump it to 3xAA (which is slightly above the voltage rating of these LEDs. Hopefully the resistors will protect them.). I still have to actually assemble everything with glue, attach Sam/Frodo, Shelob, and Sméagol. And figure out how I’m gonna frame/mount this beast. ... #lotr #buticancarryyou #samwisegamgee #frodobaggins #smeagol #mountdoom #scrollsawart #woodart
Instagram post 2214349162298817312_556906553 I haven’t posted on this LOTR piece entitled “I can’t carry it for you...” in a while (but tons of stories). I’m still working on it. When I designed this, I thought I was making it simpler and easier than my Star Wars project. It’s turned out only modestly so. I still have quite a bit to do, but the pieces are all cut, adjusted to depth, and finished with poly. I put resin in Mt Doom, got Sauron’s eye more or less how I envisioned (multiple resin layers with sanding and watercolor, then an acetate backing and a watercolored paper backing to hide the LED heat sink). It’s all wired up - the lights weren’t bright enough for my taste on 2xAAs, so I threw in some resistors to bump it to 3xAA (which is slightly above the voltage rating of these LEDs. Hopefully the resistors will protect them.). I still have to actually assemble everything with glue, attach Sam/Frodo, Shelob, and Sméagol. And figure out how I’m gonna frame/mount this beast. ... #lotr #buticancarryyou #samwisegamgee #frodobaggins #smeagol #mountdoom #scrollsawart #woodart
Instagram post 2211824432245322337_556906553 A few days ago, @mandyrubes asked me to make a quick box for a chef’s knife she got from @jestergregg. So I whipped this thing up from gorgeous claro walnut and some scrap cherry I milled from firewood. @tamarynart burned the letter. If you want a laugh, swipe to the last photo to see what I put in the box. They hosted last night’s New Years party, and I cut the box contents in the 5 minutes before we left for it. Which means my official final project of 2019 was a.... 😂😂
Instagram post 2206239980911694777_556906553 I’d say 2019 was a pretty good year for making things. The 7 weeks I spent on the Star Wars piece with sound and Arduino-controlled lights alone was worth it for me - it shines over me nightly. I made several other art and furniture pieces for my wife and I (some not shown). Quite a few gifts were churned out - most happy occasions. I made a wedding gift for my niece and her hubby that included my first oil painting in years. A random gift for the Copper Pig himself, Paul Jasper, elicited probably my favorite response I’ve ever seen (you’ll have to dig back for the video). But making the box that some of my step-father’s ashes would be buried in was definitely the most emotionally challenging project I’ve undertaken. Here’s hoping 2020 turns out equally productive. And based on what has given me the most enjoyment, I predict it will be an even geekier year (which will hopefully start with me finishing my Lord of the Rings project...if it turns out okay). ... cc: @copper_pig_fine_woodworking #scrollsawart #geekart #starwarsart #woodworking #madeinpittsburgh #pittsburghwoodworking
Instagram post 2191076635623724420_556906553 If you’ve seen my stories, you know I’ve started a new project called “I can’t carry it for you...” Hopefully you can guess the subject from that and the pic. I’ve always thought Samwise Gamgee was the real hero of the story, hence the title. I’ve now got a lot of the pieces rough cut (except for the characters!), so I thought I’d share in a post. It looks a bit complex, and it will certainly have a lot of layers/depth. But I actually designed this one to be quite a bit simpler than my last one. Even the edges of the layers were only roughly templated - the mountain details were made up on the fly as I sawed, letting me be a bit more artistic than precise. I chose the wood species without a lot of thought or deliberation. I could have put more into prepping just the right colors or grains, but I just wanted to see what happened when I started just grabbing interesting wood, throwing it into my bandsaw to resaw panels, and then went to town scrolling. The pieces are haphazardly placed right now - and I haven’t decided on how I want to do the eye yet. But I have a few different ideas. #scrollsaw #scrollsawart #woodworking #madeinpittsburgh #lordoftherings #lotr #samwisegamgee #buticancarryyou
Instagram post 2182383290491611193_556906553 Hyperspace star trails pen. Extra resin + thin walnut slices from scrollsawing hyperspace + new mini-lathe from @tlalexan = new writing utensil. #penturning
Instagram post 2181597427709007758_556906553 This is the last time you’ll have to see this piece (at least until May 4th). I made a stupid YouTube demo video for this thing. Link in profile. It’s just for me, really - but it’s there if you’re curious. It was pretty hilarious in that just adding simple text took forever - even just typing in Adobe Premiere caused my computer to hitch ~5 seconds for every. single. letter. typed. And I could only see it in ~1/4 frame rate. In the end, I just rendered it once it was barely good enough. Render time: ~40 min for a 2 min vid. Not even 4K. 😂 I need a new computer. The only reason I made it was as so that I could have an embeddable vid for my website post on it (purely for my own documentation. I like having a portfolio). ... #starwars #intarsia #madeinpittsburgh
Instagram post 2179372529347506694_556906553 “Punch it!” This post is to 1) show the sound clips included in the piece, 2) highlight the kind folks who provided help and 3) list the tools and materials used (I get many questions). See previous posts for info on the build. Special thanks to @cyclocrosscutter for convincing me to upgrade the sound, encouraging me with witty insults, and being an inspiration with his mediocre geek builds. Also to @worksbyahurst for generously sending me his sound files from his mind-blowing Millennium Falcon build. And to @hardwoodmikes for incredibly helpful coding advice. The wood: most reclaimed by me from various sources. Padauk, purpleheart, bloodwood, elm, spalted maple, sycamore, ebony, wenge, cherry, white oak, sapele, mahogany, pine, luaun ply, bamboo, unknown pallet & scrap wood. Chewie is made from a 1970s S. African stinkwood chair from @sledv_life_rocks . Han’s sleeve was curly maple given by the master woodworker/artist @copper_pig_fine_woodworking. Some walnut from woodworker @mpi_woodworking. Some exotics were a gift from guitar builder @rapfohl. The rest came from @ocoochhardwoods and @rockler_woodworking. My trusty scrollsaw: she’s not the best $ can buy but I’ve made some cool things with my @portercable w/ Flying Dutchman blades. Big cuts done on my sweet @rikon_powertools bandsaw, and @dewalttough table saw and planer. Drill press was a generous gift from my buddy @slapstufftogether (he carved a badass Yoda lamp that was an inspiration). Shaping is with @saburrtooth and @kutzall burrs on my @dremel. I’d be lost without my @ridgid and @boschtoolsna sanders (with @mirka_usa discs). I go through so much @starbondadhesives CA glue, @titebondproducts II, and @3m Super 77 spray and packing tape. @odiesoil and @generalfinishes for finishing. I used an @adafruit soundboard and their DotStar LEDs, as well as an @arduino.cc Uno to control them. Of course this thing would not exist without the IP created by George Lucas (@lucasfilm and now @disney). #starwars #starwarsfan #starwarsart #starwarsgeeks #igwoodworker #woodworking #woodart #scrollsawart #maker #scrollsaw #intarsia #woodintarsia #millenniumfalcon #empirestrikesback #anewhope #returnofthejedi
Instagram post 2178586136908206176_556906553 “Punch it!”, Daniel D. Brown, 2019, handmade wooden multimedia intarsia artwork based on Star Wars. (The basic demonstration video) I built this artwork of Han Solo and Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon over the course of 7 weeks from ~190 hand-cut (scrollsawed) pieces of wood from over 20 different species, most of it reclaimed. The star trails were also scrollsawed and filled with resin. Although the original plan was much simpler, over the course of the project I ended up adding a soundboard with 6 scores that play through 1 button (the small white one), and 10 movie dialogue clips that play through another (the left thruster stick). A rebel insignia button on the right of the frame powers the sound. Toward the end of the project, I decided to add radiating LED strips controlled by three different programs I coded on an Arduino, which can be switched by moving Han’s dice (from a previous project) containing an embedded magnet. The top of the frame has 2 hidden magnetic switches embedded within it. The light power is currently controlled by telling my phone “Hey Siri, punch it!” Or “Exit hyperspace”. I am planning a separate post for the details on materials, tools, and special thanks. Note: this is not for sale. This was for me alone. The entire process was documented in well over 200 stories, now highlighted on my profile in 3 parts. I have to give HUGE heartfelt thanks to the many many people constantly offering encouragement and advice. You’re seriously the only reason I posted all the build details. Of course, I’d like to thank George Lucas and the countless artists of all types who’ve made Star Wars such a fun Universe. ... #starwars #starwarsday #starwarsfan #starwarsart #starwarsgeeks #starwarsnerds #maytheforcebewithyou #igwoodworker #igwoodworkingcommunity #woodworkingcommunity #woodworks #woodart #woodworking #woodworker #scrollsawart #maker #scrollsaw #intarsia #woodintarsia #millenniumfalcon #artistsoninstagram #artist #artstagram #solo #chewbacca #empirestrikesback #anewhope #returnofthejedi #disney #lucasfilm @crafttheforce
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