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

Weird New Boxes: Monster, Hand, Black Glass, Cat

12/8/2014

Our finished sea monster box: swirly cocobolo with green cast glass head, body, and tail. It's lined with green suede, and weighs about 10 pounds! The wood is just gorgeous. And another new finished cast glass box: a glass hand cast into the glass top, polished sides, and a delicate lacewood and walnut base. The glass changes color depending on the light: inside it's blue, outside it's purple. It's really pretty awesome, and it's one of our less expensive cast glass pieces!

And some pieces in the works: our first experiment in cast black glass, which turns out to be a booger to polish: a black glass box sandblasted with a swirly design. We're thinking white holly wood for a top and base. And next to it, our newest box in the works: an orange cast glass cat crouching by a vintage brass birdcage (we painted the little bird green) on a beautiful walnut top. It will get a walnut box under it. Once these are finished, they'll be for sale!

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.

New Golden Girl, Violets, a Glass Menagerie.

10/27/2014

Here is our new cast glass gold girl box. The figure is kiln-cast glass using the lost wax method, sitting on a mahogany box. She turned out lovely, I think.
Below, our new cast glass flower box: purple and green glass in a lost-wax cast box that took A LONG TIME to make- all those little petals and leaves in wax. Luckily, it worked out and is absolutely stunning. This will get a wood base and a glass top much like our rose box. Also below, one of our new glass cats, in orange. This will sit on an aquarium box, I think, with etched glass fish, so he's reaching down to catch them. I personally dislike cats, but they do lend themselves to glass.

And below, one more cast glass cat (this will be sandblasted white) and an abstract-ish horse (also to be sandblasted white). Animals and more animals this week out of the Beachwalker kiln.

New Golden Girls (one deformed), Mermaid, Helix.

10/14/2014

Out of the kiln last week, a new cast glass golden girl to sit on top of a box. We're working on a series of them. She's been sandblasted for a smooth, matte effect. Below left is another gold girl out of the kiln today. Tom thinks she's crying, although I didn't mean it that way when I sculpted her, although now it really does look like she's pretty sad. She will get some serious polishing before she goes on top of a box. Also below, a colossal gold girl screwup- WTF happened with her legs? We're still trying to figure out what went wrong. This would have been awesome if it had worked out- we would have built a stair-step box for her to climb up. Maybe I'll try it again, since I still think a staircase shaped box would be awesome. I've been working really hard on the female figure, with some success, I think.

And below left, out of the kiln last week, a cast glass mermaid in blue. We think we'll make a black box for her. And below right, new today, 2 helical figures in shift-tint glass to sit on top of a box. It was a pretty happy kiln-opening day, except for the fucked-up gold girl above. Sometimes glass does weird things.

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!

Cthulhu Rises! Hell! And also something sweet.

9/23/2014

Here is our lovely cast glass tentacles box, all finished with a little ship of wood, paper, and string on the cast glass top, and a base of sapele on a ring of jarrah with live edge.The bottom of the box is faceted inward and highly polished to let lots of light into the box, which is cast of a shift tint glass that is green under inside light and a lavender blue outside. Wowza, if I do say so myself. And Tom constructed this weird-ass base that is so perfectly a work of art in itself.
Below, our cast glass hell box- the box has a flame design on the ruby red glass, and a wenge top and base. The top has a skeleton (made of bone, of course) on it (with a convenient small hole for, as seen here, a flower). And finally, since we don't always do monsters, our sweet cast glass golden girl, sitting on the lid of a tall, plain, polished sapele box.

But those of you with darker sensibilities will be pleased to know that snakes and sea monsters and beetles and skulls are all in the works to counteract the sweetness. For instance, below is an experiment in negative space casting: a skull in a light lavender gray glass (the lavender color will NOT show up in the pictures, which is frustrating Tom). The skull is the empty space. Creepy, eh? This will go on the bottom of a wooden box, on top of mirror to reflect light, with a split etched glass top so you can see the skull beneath. And also below, another negative space adventure with a face in rhubarb shift tint glass- this one will go on the top of a wooden box.
And get your ass out to the Art & Wine in the Square Festival in Georgetown, TX, next weekend (Sept 17-28) and get loaded and come see us. And buy something. You know you always wanted a hell box.

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!

Damn, We're Good. More Gorgeous Boxes

8/16/2014

Another finished cast glass box- the swan box of lovely soft blue-gray glass got this beautiful dark walnut base that echoes the art deco curves of the swan. Just the wooden base is a work of art on its own (Tom is a fricking wood genius). These cast glass boxes are blood, sweat, and tears to make.

Below, our latest effort right out of the kiln- a glass box decorated with a leafy vine design ( I wish I had a picture of it in wax, because it took A LONG TIME to make the wax model- tons of little wax leaves, each detailed with a toothpick. The glass is a shift tint, so there are two pictures of it, one in natural light (where it's a pink/orange tint) and one in indoor light (where it's an olive green tint). It sorts of shimmers between these colors depending on how the light hits it. Cool, huh?

And another mermaid box- an aqua cast glass top in a box of bird's eye jarrah with turquoise inlay and curvy sapele legs- it's treated with oil and then epoxy so the sides look like they're dripping with water. Now Tom is sick to death of girly shit like mermaids and swans, so also below is a new etched glass topped box: an homage to the great Julie Speed's painting War Bride. This is glass etched on two sides (jellyfish on one side, skull on the other), with peppermint wood (a weird Australian wood) sides with a watery, swirly natural coloring, and a swirly blue painted base.