I am proud of myself today. I made the decision to move my creative wax design work out of the hostile summer environment of my garage workshop and into the air conditioned comfort inside my home. The reason is that I am now working wax with 90 to 100 degree ambient work conditions which are not quite suitable to the medium.

In my new location I will not have to be working in the swirling air currents of the powerful shop fans that do nothing to reduce temperature. The fans disturb the gentle flame of the alcohol lamp when I am trying to work with hot wax.

All of the grunt work will still be done in the garage workshop. That includes all the metalwork itself. It’s only the master model (in wax) that will be babied while being designed and developed. I will feel and actually be, a lot cleaner with the wax design and creation being separate from the main shop. I can work on it quietly at midnight if I choose to do so and not feel that I am isolated on another planet.

I also do not want to stop what I am designing in wax and have to reset my low bench in the shop for filing and finishing silver and other metal work. At the Craft Guild the two kinds of work were kept totally separate to avoid contamination. I have to do the same.

I ordered a small jewelers bench (shown) like I used for wax work at the Craft Guild of Dallas. It will only be used for wax work so it doesn't need to be massive, but it will keep me and the wax filings organized.

I have to arrange my office for the new purpose. I have a LOT of obsolete items and books cluttering up that space that will be a pleasure to either dispose or put into permanent storage. Hmm… I think that is one and the same. The space will be better apportioned for what I am doing today and not what I did decades ago.

I haven't posted here for awhile. That's because I haven't been making very many, uh... let's say NO, artsy items for awhile. I have been busy but in other ways.

Here is the latest addition to my art studio. It's a mobile cart where I will do (but haven't yet) high temperature heating and melting of metals and where I can do lost wax castings using the vacuum assist method. Centrifugal casting could be an alternative but not if this process works good.

Details of the cart build can be found HERE.

I have several wax carvings ready for investing and casting. I also have a whole lot of wax projects ideas I want to start carving. I feel that I have to have the system ready for "loosing" the wax I have been carving. This is a big step to that end. I have the kiln ready and some flasks and investment material on order. Also a lots of other "bits and pieces".

I find there is a lot of preparation and tooling required when getting fully involved in lost wax casting process from start to finished item. But I love every bit of it!

If you have been here before and things look a bit different, I have spent a couple of days tweaking the looks of this blog website. I thought the old one was actually quite attractive. But one thing I didn't like was all the space the Leaf Picture was taking up on the main page. So I decided I should make some changes. I poked that leaf up into the header and made it significantly smaller.

The pages themselves are fairly similar to what they were. There are some color changes and maybe I lost a bit of the "class" of the old pages. I'll probably do a little more tweaking until I get it exactly right. It is kind of like painting a picture. I never know when to stop and say, "It's done!"

The menu is stretched out a bit longer with separation between the blocks that wasn't that way on the original. It's functional but that is what I may play with a little more. Of course change is good so I should probably just look at it for awhile longer...

Most of my thoughts and effort the previous year (2013) have been focused on working in a much smaller scale than large heavy projects to which I have long been involved. I am getting more awkward in lifting and safely carrying things around in my workshop. I am now most comfortable when setting comfortably on my butt and working with my brain, eyes and arm and hand movement.

My days of hands-on heavy construction and contracting are behind me. That’s OK and not a concern. I am proud of what I have accomplished and am ready for new challenge wherever it leads.

I have always been a techno-nerd so now I am into working in the design and machine control arena. I love the micro machining and CNC control. I also like the 3D CAD/CAM draw-it-and-I-can-make-it ability of dimensional art software. I am not into creating pictures for viewing but rather designing three dimensional objects for machining and occasionally rendering those designs into graphic display.

I share my interest and projects by publishing them here in Dimensional Art Studio. the .org in the URL meaning organization. The definition of an organization is a non-commercial association. I have another URL also linking here which is KautzCraft.com.  The com of course is indicating a commercial intent.

When my creations are good enough and abundant I will advertise their availability for purchase.

My resolution is to not keep my “dimensional” art as a personal collection. My plan until I become more skilled and productive is to perhaps give some away as gifts.  Eventually I would like to become skilled enough that sales will keep me in supplies, and busy in mind and body making more. My second life as an artist will continue to be as good as my first one.

This is the third lost wax silver casting I have made. I obtained a drawing of the Celtic Eternity Knot and transferred the lines to the wax. From there it was a lot of removal of what didn't look like the knot. That's what carving is all about.

It is imperative that the wax be as smooth and finished as possible. Every little flaw in the wax will become part of the silver casting.

The actual casting was done on the last night of the class my daughter and I were taking on wax carving and lost wax casting (in silver). That meant I would have to do all the silver finishing work on my own.

No problem as I enjoy doing everything there is about this process. The finished knot is a gift for my spouse, Gloria.