Welcome to where the past meets the present, in a sometimes chaotic exchange of creativity and discovery. My goal here is in bridging the gap between ancient artistry and modern innovation, and this section of my website is your source for all the latest happenings at the studio.
Nov 02, 2024
Workshop Sketchbook
My Fascination with Ornate Metal Work.
The allure of Victorian industrial era embellishments lies in their intricate fusion of functionality with ornate aesthetics, transforming even the most mundane objects into pieces of art.During this period, the burgeoning wealth from the industrial revolution allowed for an unprecedented level of detail in everyday items. Items like cast iron kettles, door handles, and even coal scuttles were adorned with elaborate scrollwork, floral motifs,…
Read More...
Oct 23, 2024
Workshop Sketchbook
The Warmth of Copper, Brass, and Bronze…
My idea of relaxing Saturday evening. Unless you've spent years doing metal work, it's hard to describe the satisfaction and also the kindred spirit you feel even watching someone else at their craft. I've met many artisans over the years, including ones from other countries and funny enough, we don't even have to speak the same language.There's an undeniable romance in the patina and warmth of metals like copper, bronze, and brass that modern…
Read More...
Sep 28, 2024
Workshop Sketchbook
Mystical, Glowing Mushrooms and Other Fungi
From time to time I like referring back to my old miniature painting and sculpture days, and one of those burner projects I've had for a fair number of years now has been being able to reproduce various types of fungi and make them, ah, glow. There are different forms of this out in the natural world that have their own bioluminescence and over the years people have hopped on the train and started making their own versions, and I've come across…
Read More...
Sep 24, 2024
Workshop Sketchbook
Random Steam Galleries
Things can get a little crazy in here, so be warned. I set these up primarily so I can refer back to them when I'm doing my own brainstorming in the workshop. I may enable commenting and voting just to get a feel for what people have to say and what they like, but that can come and go depending on potential abuse or other unwanted miscreants showing up. If you do decide to grab any images, and I know some people probably will, all I ask is that…
Read More...
Sep 24, 2024
Workshop Sketchbook
Workbench Random
Anything could be possible in this section. One day I may be staring out the window and a mossy log being caressed by a fern may catch my eye. I travel when I dream, and my dreams take me places I have been before, places I wish to explore, and places I never knew existed. You never know what I may be thinking about, then all of a sudden my hands start telling me it's time to make these with manifest. It's my way and always has been. As I…
Read More...
Sep 23, 2024
Workshop Sketchbook
Gears: Form Over Function?
When you are a tinkerer, and a lifelong one at that you have a tendency to take things apart and put them together in the back of your mind and I guess I can say it's always been a little game just looking at something I've never seen before and trying to figure out what it does and how it works. That's where some of the accepted aesthetics and often controversial opinions come into play with Steampunk. We've all heard someone say “Just glue on…
Read More...
Sep 23, 2024
Workshop Sketchbook
Seeing The Need And Imagining Parts…
At times when I've tried to explain the ideas behind some of the dressing parts that I'm designing, I usually see an all too familiar “deer eyes in the headlights” type of look on most people. That's the problem I suppose with having both a photographic memory and a self-aware ability to build things in my mind's workbench and see them before I tell my hands to go. Some of the images in this gallery are really good examples of what I consider…
Read More...
Sep 23, 2024
Workshop Sketchbook
Steampunk Inspired: Lamps
Some of the earliest things that I found just fun to dream up in the back of my mind- remember that imaginary workbench I told you about that for me I never stray far from throughout the day? I've always liked the older Edison bulb look to things, even if they aren't very efficient and didn't offer much then a slightly more stable bit of candlelight luminosity. They just impose an inventors imagination in me at times. When I was growing up I…
Read More...
Sep 22, 2024
Historic Origins Studios Site News
Site & Store Update, September 2024
I've been slaving for over 10 days now doing back-end cleanup and software conversions for the Historic Origins Studios website, and a lot of the same work carries over to my other sites.10 or 15 years of reformatting old journal entries so they aren't susceptible to loss of software support in the back end, as well as just the overall logic system behind how the website is built has taken most of the time.And then there's the store, that's a…
Read More...
Sep 16, 2024
Workshop Sketchbook
Sketchbook: Dialing In...
When I first started plotting my course when it came to reimagining and making parts available in the steampunk/machination line, one of the very first things I did was look at how difficult it was to procure real life examples- whether it be buying them new which is almost impossible, short of being limited to modern parts, or spending hours trying to hunt down ones that people were offering that could classify as antique, or vintage. The…
Read More...
Jun 23, 2016
Workshop Sketchbook
First Waxes, in The New Shop 2016
It doesn't sound like much, but the first waxes coming out of a new setup are a mark of progress. Add that with a visit by a minion of a snake cult and some good music. Not that I'm relaxing, but I am breathing a bit better because this whole result today marked the working completion of a whole chain of new, untested equipment, new methods until now worked out on paper only, and some serious sack sweat. Let the molding and production onsalught…
Read More...