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Art inspired by biology, created by a biologist

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Mulberry Pen – Daniel D. Brown, 2018

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Mulberry Pen – Daniel D. Brown, 2018

I made this pen from a mulberry log that came down in my neighbors backyard.

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Oh and while I was waiting for the glue to dry on that box this weekend, I turned a leftover mulberry scrap from it into this pen on my drill press. Damn, mulberry is pretty. #penturning #mulberry #madeinpittsburgh

A post shared by Laughing Mantis Studio (@laughingmantisstudio) on Jun 26, 2018 at 6:08pm PDT

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June 26, 2018September 25, 2018 LaughingMantisPens & Wands, Woodworkingcarving, diy, drill press, handmade, lathe, mulberry, pen-turning, wood, woodworking

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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.

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This post is mainly just for my own documentation. I like to have at least one “making of” post for big projects when I look back at what I’ve made. If you’ve seen my stories, you know I’m on a brief art hiatus to build a TV console table for my wife @tamarynart. I had two old rough-sawn African mahogany boards I got for pennies as firewood scrap from a furniture maker a few years ago (he said he was seriously gonna burn them if I didn’t take them). So I’m trying to get the whole base from that. I had two big pieces of walnut I’m resawing (cutting down the middle parallel to the face grain) to make bookmatched top and shelves. That’s what you see in the first pic. Sadly this will be mostly hidden by TV and books. It’s a simple design, but one I’m comfortable with (and one she requested). All mortise and tenon construction, with lightly tapered legs. I should be to the finishing stage by next weekend. I hope.
#pittsburghwoodworking #madeinpittsburgh #diyfurniture #woodworking

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Here’s a quick little project I built last weekend. A wooden intarsia piece featuring everyone’s favorite Jango clone and Ahsoka-friend, Captain Rex (@deebradleybaker) from Star Wars: Clone Wars. What can I say? I’m excited as hell for Season 7 next month! And why build 1 when I can build 2? The second one went to my fellow SW geek and woodworker buddy Luke @cyclocrosscutter. Made from regular, curly, and spalted maple, purpleheart, katalox, wenge, walnut, cherry, and luaun ply. PS pretend the purpleheart is blue. Unfortunately, blueheart wood isn’t a thing. And I don’t do stains/dyes.
#starwarsart #captainrex #clonewars #intarsia #scrollsawart #woodart #maytheforcebewithyou @craft_the_force

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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

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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

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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.... 😂😂

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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

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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

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Hyperspace star trails pen.
Extra resin + thin walnut slices from scrollsawing hyperspace + new mini-lathe from @tlalexan = new writing utensil.
#penturning

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