Beachwalker Boxes Blog - Beachwalker Boxes: Unique Handmade Wood and Glass Boxes located in Austin, Texas

Ocean Boxes:Shells, Mermaid, Cephalopods

3/24/2015

We're clearly dreaming of the ocean recently. Here are two new shell boxes: to left, a pate de verre (glass piece made with glass powder packed in a mold) shell on a curly maple legged box. The wavy grain of the wood suugests waves to us, and it's lined with leather in a beautiful oceany wavy pattern. Below, an aqua glass box in a wenge base with a natural opalized ammonite fossil as a lid lift- the box is sandblasted for a "sea glass" effect. And next to it, a woodburned and painted mermaid top on a walnut box lined with suede.

And more lovely water creatures: some new cast glass octopuses. All these and more will be for sale at our upcoming art fairs!

This Year's Erotic Box... Mature Content in this Post!

3/8/2015

We love making an erotic box to donate to the Octopus Club's Art Erotica event each year. We started thinking about this box immediately after we made last year's. So without further ado, please look below the "read more" break to see this year's box, which is graphic. If you're going to clutch your pearls and cluck over nasty bits, go somewhere else.

New Spring Work: Cat and Fish, Medusa, Little Red Riding Hood, Spring Art Fairs

2/1/2015

Our newest box is also our new favorite: a sandblasted cast glass cat fishing in a koi pond with a curious paw. The pond is mirror etched underneath with fish, which were then goldleafed and painted in the etch. The box is curly cherry. We love how the cat is reflected in the mirror, and how this box combines all of our passions: woodworking, glass casting, and glass etching.

Also new is our rosewood Medusa vase box, with a cast glass Medusa head on a gorgeous handcarved curvy rosewood box. The snakes on this are great- this piece, like the cat box, looks great from every angle. All glass pieces are cast using the lost wax technique- sculpted out of wax, molded in plaster, the wax melted out, and the molds filled with glass and fired in a kiln for days.

And last, our new "story" box, a Little Red Riding Hood with Little Red walking into a dark forest on the lid, and a snarling wolf inside. This is a woodburned and painted maple top and base on a red padauk wood box with beautiful joinery.

And our Spring line-up of art fairs is shaping up: March 27-29 in Houston at Bayou City Art Fair, April 3-5 in Dallas at Deep Ellum Art Festival, April 10-12 in the Woodlands (near Houston for The Woodlands Waterway Art Fair, April 18-19 in Wimberley for The Blue Hole Art Fair. There may be a few more (we're deciding if more will kill our souls), so stay tuned. And come out to see us at a fair this Spring!

Creepy Fantasy Girls: Mermaids in Glass and Wood, and a Glass Medusa. East Austin Studio Tour Is This Weekend!

11/11/2014

Some of our newest efforts: a cast glass mermaid in an indigo blue set into a wooden box top with shiny black lacquer so it looks as if she's rising out of dark water. This will be set into a simple shiny black lacquered box with blue suede lining. Below is another mermaid, this one woodburned and painted on maple and waiting to get a box, too. And also below, a green cast glass Medusa head fresh out of the Beachwalker kiln. Scary, no? And don't forget that this weekend is the start of the East Austin Studio Tour. We're #283 on the tour, right in the hotspot of Cesar Chavez and Comal. Come out and see us! And please, support a local artist on the tour by buying local art. It matters.

Green Glass Goddess, and our Box at the Due East Gallery show!

11/6/2014

Here's our box at the Due East gallery show, part of the East Austin Studio Tour, which starts next weekend! This box is for sale at Due East, along with hundreds of other amazing artworks by East Austin artists. We're # 283 on the tour, so come by! Maps and catalogs are available at libraries.

Remember to support local artists- do the tour and buy something from a local artist! We need your support to keep going.

In our last blog post, we detailed the process of making a cast glass pate de verre piece from the start. Here's the result: a sleeping green glass goddess with pink glass roses covering her. It turned out lovely. See our last post for step-by-step photos of the process.

Beetle, Snake, Creepy Face. Off to Dallas.

10/3/2014

Fresh out of the kiln today is an experiment in pate de verre: a glass beetle with a dichroic green shell cast into a clear/white glass base. This was done using glass powder. When it's cleaned up, this will sparkle on top of a box.
Below: A new rosewood box with the cast glass rhubarb face as a top. The base is mirrored. And also new today, a green glass snake which will be set into a wooden base as a top for our snake box, pictured with it.
We're off to Dallas for the Art in the Park fair at Klyde Warren Park this Saturday, Oct 5. See you there!

Winning is Awesome.

9/8/2014

We just got back from our first art fair of the fall season, Septemberfest at the Museum of the Southwest in Midland, TX, and we won 3rd place overall in the fair (of over 100 artists)! Here is a picture of Tom with our ribbon. I might be upset that it isn't blue, except that the guy who won first place, Denny Wainscott, makes the most unbelievable art from gourds and deserved to win. Below left is a picture of one of his creations (oh, how I wish it was mine). So the competition was fierce and the lineup of artists was fantastic. Also below, a picture of work from one of my favorite artists there (we bought something from him)- Larry East of East Art, who makes beautiful, graceful, iridescent pottery vessels embedded with metal from reclaimed saw blades and rebar ties. I would love to have more of his art. I'd like to promote all of the wonderful artists I met there, but there isn't room here, so check them out through the link to September fest above. Thanks so much to all the wonderful people who came out - even in such rainy weather- and bought art and talked with us. It's people like you who allow artists to keep working, and that's a wonderful thing.

Our next fair is Art and Wine in the Square in Georgetown, TX on Sept 27-28. Come out and see us there!

A bird (egg?) in the hand. Snake Box. Golden Girl. A dirty, bloody job.

9/3/2014

Here is our cast glass bird and egg box, of a lavender pink glass, with a top of the same color with glass hands clasping an egg. The birds and egg are 22 kgoldleafed, and the branches are copperleafed. It's sitting in a curly maple base. Because people keep asking us: the top is ALL ONE cast piece. No glue.
Below, two new pieces just out of the kiln: an emerald-colored snake box which took DAYS to make. DAYS. Each snake was hand-made in wax, attached to a wax box, and all the scale and head detail was done by hand using a toothpick. Then the wax piece was cast in plaster, the wax was melted out (hence lost wax), and it was filled with glass and fired (for 3 days), which is how we do all our cast glass pieces. Just in case anyone wonders why we attach a high price tag to them.
Also below, a new glass piece (also out of the kiln today): a sitting girl in amber-gold glass. This will sit on top of a wooden box. Didn't she turn out lovely? I was sure she wouldn't fire correctly in the kiln... but then, oh, she did. And she took forever to make, too.

We're off to Midland for the season's first art fair! Tom and I are in sore need of total strangers telling us how wonderful we are (we love all you friends and family telling us, but you don't count). Below: a picture of how hard I work: my bleeding thumb on my dirty, plaster-covered hand from removing razor sharp glass from molds, holding a toothpick for delicately picking plaster off the cast glass golden girl. This is seriously what my hands look like all the time from working with glass: cuts, cuts, and more cuts. If you buy something from us, chances are it has some of my or Tom's blood in it. And also, a picture of the box we are giving (yes, giving) to the Museum of the Southwest for its fundraising event: an etched glass hummingbird painted and 22K goldleafed in the etch over a woodburned and painted maple base. The box is made of walnut and is hinged. You can buy it at the museum's auction on Friday (Sept 5). I remember cutting myself on this one, too. See you in Midland!

Glass Body Parts! Also Roses and, of course, Tentacles.

8/30/2014

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Our lovely roses box, all finished with a dark wenge base and a clear glass top with an etched hummingbird with dichroic extract fused into it for subtle glimmer that echoes the pink and green of the roses on it. Hello, but it turned out great. On to body parts!

Below, a few new things right out of the kiln:a box with faces cast in 4 different colors, one on each side that blended together beautifully. Aint that seriously creepy? But in a really pretty way? A head top is also shown, in a lavender blue, with 3 heads put together. This will probably go on a different box, since too much pretty creepiness would probably result from putting them together.

And below, a top with a glass hand rising from it. Zombiesque! Also, a new tentacles box in cast glass. Both hand and tentacles are in shift tint glass, so they appear different colors in natural vs indoor light. Behold! Ah, I do love tentacles. I feel a bug phase coming on, though. Beetles. Lots and lots of glass beetles

And we'll be at Septemberfest at the Museum of the Southwest in Midland, Texas next weekend. Come out and see us and all the other artists there!

Glass Roses, Swan, Flames. So Much Pretty.

8/4/2014

Here's the finished cast glass rose box! Several posts ago I put up a picture of this box when it was wax. As you can see, it worked out- pink and green glass flowed together beautifully for this effect. I think this will get a curly maple wood top with a single pink glass rose set into it and a curly maple base- a glass top might be too much. Holy crap, I can't believe I made that.
Below, a blue glass box with a rosewood top with a cast glass mermaid on top, all in a delicate rosewood legged frame. Also, a ruby red glass box carved with flames. This will get a red top with a black glass bird and a black wood base.

And yet more! To left, a lavender/pink glass box with a raised design of glass birds on branches with leaves. I goldleafed the birds and copperleafed the branches and leaves. The bird on the top came out beautifully, but either the bird or the base needs metal leafing. I'm still trying to decide.
And right, a blue glass box with a clear/white glass art-decoish swan on top. This will get a dark curvy wood base, also in an art deco style. Hello, but we are rocking the cast glass boxes now. Look forward to frogs and tentacles in cast glass soon. And the fair art fair season is coming up: we'll be in Midland, Houston, Dallas, Austin, and hopefully more this fall. A full list of art fair dates wille be on our homepage as we learn about them.