Make an angel step-by-step — it’s easy if you do it one step at a time — don’t rush it.
It’s really simple to make “1 Million Bucks” in metal embossing. Start with a 1 1/2″ circle of metal, on which you make an outer circle about four to five millimeters from the edge, then a close-by inner circle to create a thin one to two millimeter “barrier strip” between the outer band and the inner band, which become your “capture bands” for the interior illustration.
Then in the inside circle, draw “1 Million Bucks”, with the standard Gorby Balloon Lettering you learned from my book, “The Art of Fine-Art Scrapbooking”, which is now available as a full-color electronic version you can download and print out for your lettering and compositional guidance. Continue reading →
First stop on our expedition was this little temple in the pines.
I just had to take a selfie here at this beautiful shrine in the Pine Forest of Shremm, quite near the start point. You can almost see the incredible Trans-Dimensional Portal behind me in the snapshot.
I always like to take my selfie so that you can see at least part of the background, otherwise why go anywhere? Continue reading →
Here I am, aboard the transdimensional airline Flight L315a bound for Solaria.
Gosh, it’s all so exciting, having trans-dimensional privileges and a travel pass all at once like this. So I got on board the transdimensional airliner Flight L315a, bound for Solaria, and we got to a gigantic island out in the middle, and it was too dark to take anything but a selfie, so okay, here it is anyway. Continue reading →
Gorby with two well-known friends at a nearby UFO spaceport, July 16, 2016. On the right is Murray Schwartz, the Director of Incoming UFO Traffic at Montez Spacefield.
When we exhibited the museum installation “Ancient Faces” at the JAL — Jewels of Ancient Lands — show in Rancho Cordova, it took over the better part of half an acre of commercial space, and drew a crowd in the thousands, but where did they all end up? You’re right, the gift shop, and in the gift shop, this is what they’d see and buy.
Famous Faces Fascinate Folks Ferociously. Not just local fame, like Elvis and the Beatles, but everlasting fame, as in Goddess faces. The Goddess Solaria is the Mother Goddess of Mother Goddesses.
She can be any God, Goddess, Buddha or Ascended Master you care to name her. The face above has, literally, billions upon billions of variations, most of them slight, most variations would not readily be discernible by the unpracticed eye. Continue reading →
Graphite Drawing 1949, available as a 24″ x 36″ — spectacular fine art print on watercolor paper retail $950, new signed VERY limited edition of only 22 copies.
Read it and weep — we’re going to wade through a bit of negative news first, but I assure you that there’s GOOD NEWS at the end of the trail — here is a list of the top 14 eBay searchwords for ART, listed in the order of their relative importance, most-popular searchword in the first place, least popular searchword in last place, thus:
Poster
Wall Art
Mondo
Mondo Poster
Antique Oil Painting
Canvas Art
Original Oil Painting
Oil
Canvas Painting
Sculpture
Etching
Watercolor
Metal Wall Art
WPA (Work Progress Administration — Depression Era Art)
One of the less-objectionable Keith Haring “artworks” generated by the Warhol Marketing Plan, which was to rip off everyone mercilessly without regard for public safety, sanity or aesthetic.
This Dinosaur Skull is my “take” on T-Rex, but it could just as easily be read as a super closeup of a brontosaurus feeding on the top of a tree — it’s all in the label, in this case, but you could get very good at reducing the elements of a meat-eater predator as opposed to a leaf or branch browser.
Of course, ANY animal will work here, alive or dead, currently in stock or extinct.
You’ll want to sharpen your skills at shapes. Note that the teeth are long and sharp, and very exaggerated, as are the double-circled eyes, bulging out from the top of the skull.
I like to sign these opposite the majority of the “weight”, so in this case, I signed it on the eastern side of the rim, meaning the right side of the image. Continue reading →
My Extra-Terrestrial Alien UFO Flying Saucer Spacecraft is typical of the smaller “Scout Ship” types you see around New Mexico and Arizona. They are piloted by greys, but the larger, flatter steel-gray crafts are from Orion and Sirius.
Of course, there are also trans-dimensionals and trans-time voyagers, plus thousands of species of reptilian and several worldsful of Arcturan visitors.
I’m including this little videoclip in the blog format, in order to underline the fact that I’m not a wild-eyed alien freak, or at least I’m among a growing number of former high ranking government and agency people who are finally starting to talk about the many visitors to Planet Earth, among whom are Canadian Minister of Defence Paul Hellyer, who testified before Parliament that there are more than 80 known species of aliens and that humans are in contact with at least four, and that this is being covered up by an international Cartel that hopes to take over the world with alien technology and with them as rulers. Continue reading →
Pueblo in the Sky looks easy, but offers some serious challenges.
My style of embossing is free-hand and free-style. Unless illustrating by example some technique or interesting embossing tool, I use only one very basic tool — a very tiny ball-tipped embossing stylus, and that’s about it.
Once in a while, I’ll use the nylon tip on the other end of my basic tool to make a larger dip in the metal from the back side, but other than that, it’s just one tool and the movement of my hands and fingertips.
You can’t just “straight draw” on metal, even foil. It doesn’t LIKE to be pushed around, and it will fight you and make you go crinkly and lumpy and weird.
Curved lines are the bane of every engraver. Spend a few hours mastering it before you screw up hundreds of pieces that COULD have worked, had you taken the time to discover how to make curved lines work in metal foil.
If you’re working in the thicker material, you’ll have to find your own way. It’s not easy to work that stuff, and anything thicker than .36 gauge will probably defeat any beginner, although there’s always beginner’s luck.
“Pueblo in the Sky”, illustrated above, uses straight lines against curves to achieve its effect. You start by drawing in the sidewalks, then add the building on the right, starting with the left top and working your way toward the doorway, actually a triple arch, if you’ll take notice. The dots on the sidewalk can also be circles or squares, to add to the illusion of depth.
Straight lines are easy to emboss free-hand on foil. They will tend to look exactly the same as your drawings on paper. As a matter of fact, even your sculptures and ceramics will reflect your drawing skills or lack of them.
If you’re not very good at drawing, try some of my art books on the subject. I can help anyone learn to draw, even if they can’t even draw a stick-figure. Continue reading →
Selfie at Atlantis Central Zoo & Observatory, Friday, July 8, 2016, 3:46 A.M.
Before I discuss the Healing Mandala, I’d like to point out that, if you’re planning on entering the spiritual game-field of metal embossing sigils, talismans, pendants, rings, pins, headbands, belts, bolo ties and pocket medallions, you will definitely appreciate knowing the following little factoid:
The 24k solid gold disk at 1.4 grams — which is the ideal weight for the small piece, to allow a reasonable retail price-point — when hammered out with a bit of body still left on it, won’t typically fit on the pin-vise without serious compensation and special mountings.
It’s a total pain in the bazonga to try to carve, even if you do manage somehow to put it into a metal harness, because the retaining pins will block your engraving tool and your fingers, making it nearly impossible to complete any cut into the top surface.
However, a 24k solid gold FOIL disk, which is rolled out, not hammered out, can be easily embossed without mounting on a vise — no vise needed for the foil, and the foil could well be an aluminum craft foil, or solid gold foil. Use your fingers to hold onto it.
Your embossing tool can be controlled with one hand, while the engraving tool simply can’t be. You need your other hand to stop the forward movement of the tool, and to guide it onto the target curve or line or gouge.
Funny thing is, once the gold foil or heavier gold slab is inside the bezel and the protective quartz-glass crystals are in place, you can’t tell whether it’s foil or a thicker beaten-out gold disk. Unless you take the locket apart, the foil gold and the heavier “token” weight gold disk, when viewed inside the locket, look exactly the same.Continue reading →
In the course of making several dozen Cornflower Mandalas yesterday, I happened upon a disk made of the embossing metal I’ve been using for decades, now, and duly made a Cornfield Mandala upon it and packed it into a dollar-sized cardboard “flip” coin holder, so-called because to look at the other side of a coin, you flip the flip over with an easy practiced move.
Boy, the key word there is surely “practiced”, and “practiced moves” is what metal embossing and coin-carving is all about, and that goes double for gem-setting and ring-making and painting and sculpting and video gaming and hopscotch and just about anything else you endeavor to do well.
The “right moves” is a Big Number in Buddhism, meaning that it’s important.
“Right Action” means making the right moves at the right time in the right place with the right intention, nice and smooth, making no sudden moves, no ripples in the Firmament or Force.
In short, “Right Action” is grace and movement in relating to the universe and other Beings, and is and was a big subject with Picasso, Matisse, Dali and Stravinski. Continue reading →
