The ‘Verse
The ‘Verse in a star chart arranged around the zodiac to also be a calendar. Made with materials that could look like they were from any century since the written word I wanted it to have both a past and futurey vibe
Technically it’s art so you can really just throw in any old meaning, but here we go… every human that ever lived a full life wondered at those same stars, wondered at strange transcendent things, and tried to make sense of it with diagrams, and constellations, and myth so in one sense it’s a connection to all those people and that sense of wonder and a shared feeling across millenia. In another, the materials are old but the polygon globe implies futurey things and imposing order on the universe and so it’s a link to what will come. I’ve always looked up at the stars and seen some decoration sure but more than that, they’re a promise, a challenge. One day we’re going up there and we’ll bring star charts of our own, before we could write we made these things to navigate the ground and seas and then it’ll be the black itself
For a project I thought I could get done in a week, a few months might have been a bit of a left hook.
From picking a terrible method of mapping the constellations (stitching together a bunch of screen shots from an online planetarium stellarium-web.org). To skipping the check to see if the constellations actually aligned on pentagons that weren’t already touching (re-drilling those really cost me some time but did earn me an amazing demerit badge, that you could buy from Adam Savage’s website). Then the hand cramping sewing of the constellations themselves!
I really have gained an amazing amount of appreciation carpenters, embroiderers, and sign writers. I started this project with the goal of using some tools I wasn’t 100% used to, to expand my itty bitty horizons, and I’ve loved and hated every minute of it
An ancient, actually the most ancient, game we still know how to play. The betting and drinking rules version was translated from a Babylonian tablet in the in the 1980s and the actual rules were reverse engineered from that. I really loved the idea of making a version that in just the right circumstances might be unearthed in another 5000 years and so I give you Geoff’s version of The Royal Game of Ur! (The way I made it it’s not too hard to replicate so you can also buy one in the shop)
I felt a powerful need for a 6 shot elastic band gun and low and behold i had the power to make one! And I managed to make it simple enough that even I can put them together correctly the first time. Which got me thinking everyone else might be able to do the same and so… Arbored Irons (wood guns) were born.
The first of the irons was an homage (for legal reasons) to space cowboys like those from Firefly and Cowboy Bebop. Eventually I’ll have them in different designs and maybe even interchangeable clips (I’ll keep you posted on those)
the Summoner's Grimoire
For ages past the reclusive players of games first forged their homunculi of a cursed metal that would poison with a touch (…ahem lead), and then they boiled the bones of long dead leviathan (…plastic) for abhorrent shapes that must be covered by paint to be viewed by mortals well. The poorest of those outcast players could rarely afford such extravagances using naught but simulacra; tokens, dice, the sacred cheeto. But I the pre-eminent mastermind, the greatest conjurors of this or any age have devised the ultimate solution for every one of our number!
Using the art painted by mechanical hands, wood carved the same, leather from never existing bovine hides… friends, colleagues…
I GIVE YOU THE SUMMONER’S GRIMOIRE!
