Jumping spiders are my favorite spiders. They’re cute, they’re floofy, they’re incredibly observant, and their athletic abilities are astounding. They also dance to woo the ladies like I never could.
The name comes from their family name “Salticidae.”
All pieces cut on scrollsaw, in this case exclusively using my scrap wood collection. Species: maple (regular and curly), walnut, mesquite, ipe, katalox, ebony, holly, cherry, & rubber tree (reclaimed from a cheap old jewelry box).
The main image upon which this is roughly based is “Come Closer, Jumping Spider” by Diaz Gio (@godzaid@giochimitsu), who has some amazing photography and an art account).
Boba Fett is complete! It only took ~6 weeks! When I started this thing, I had no idea Boba would suddenly become big news again (no spoilers, aside from the fact Fett is back, which I think is safe since they’ve announced “The Story of Boba Fett” series). I had just read a really cool panel by @john_cassaday in Marvel Star Wars (2015) and instantly decided it would make for a cool wooden intarsia piece.
I wanted more “comicy” colors in this piece than I can get with natural wood grains, so I dyed the pieces with alcohol dyes. All 270 (!) pieces were cut on scrollsaw from a single storm-felled sycamore branch I picked up nearby.
“Momo”, 2020, wood intarsia, no paint/stain, except the eyes.
My niece @dorky_artista recently convinced me to watch “Avatar: the Last Airbender”. I had already been considering it since I’m a huge Dave Filoni fan (Clone Wars, Rebels, now head of Lucasfilm animation, and was involved in Mandalorian), who got his start with Avatar.
Let me just say that, despite being a show “for kids”, it really lived up to the hype in terms of superb emotional storytelling and character development. I became an instant fan. Such memorable characters!
As I was watching I randomly had the thought “I have to make Momo for my niece!”. I didn’t even initially intend for it to be a birthday present. It was gonna be a “just because I love you present”. But I saw her bday coming up, and thought “perfect!!”.
Then as I designed it I thought “this is too cute. I have to make a matching one for me too.” So I made two of them. 😂
Made from holly, maple, walnut, ebony, yew, elm, and a cherry background. @chestnutproducts Spirit stains for the irises.
Wooden intarsia art. 23 species of wood, no paint/stain.
Im happy to finally post the final shots of this piece devoted to everyone’s favorite Vampire familiar/slayer!
After watching “What We Do in the Shadows” (@theshadowsfx) on @fxnetworks, this idea randomly hit me one day and it was one of those “well I guess I have no choice but to make this now” deals. I felt compelled. After I began, I must admit that a big motivation came from the Guillermo actor himself, Mr. Harvey Guillén (@harveyguillen). It turns out, Harvey is a pretty rad guy in real (virtual) life and gave me tons of private encouragement and funny little quips he’d rather I not share for reasons that would be obvious 😜. Needless to say, my inner geek was pretty stoked to be chatting about an artwork with the actor who inspired it! Harvey is easily 1 of the 4 funniest characters on the show and everyone should watch it. 😜
The best part? Harvey Guillen himself now owns this piece!!!
This piece is is roughly based on a promo from FX marketing. I wanted to add a little more detail to highlight the duality behind Guillermo’s loyalty as a familiar/desire to become a vampire and his apparently inherent penchant for slayage. The sun, fire, and door represent his first hilarious kill. Of course I added the stake bandolier and a crossbow. But astute fans will note that the bandolier also contains his trusty “Tide to go” pen for clean-up duties. The promo had the bat wings as sort of a looming presence. But I see them here more as Guillermo’s desire to become a Vamp and “BAT!” away with Nandor (@kayvan_novak). The font is based on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.