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.

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.

To the left, a new glass-topped box made of wenge with bloodwood detail. The ravens were etched into the glass and then stained black. The base is leafed with 22K gold and copper in a sunset pattern, then epoxied to get a reflective effect from the ravens on top. Below, a new tall leggy box made of a gorgeous live-edged mesquite with sapele legs and a stone frog on top. And we're making another frog box- in glass- because we love frogs so much. Finally, below, a new Little Red Riding Hood Box, with Little Red in the winter woods woodburned and painted on top, and a wolf inside (both top and base are maple). The sides are padauk.

Here is one of our first kiln-cast glass boxes! It's solid cast glass using the lost wax method. The lid has a glass shell cast into it in different glass. It does need some grinding and polishing to make it smoother. This will get a wooden base and legs, probably something like the legs on the zigzag box shown below, only curvier. More are coming as we experiment with different methods in the kiln. These take forever and a day to make: making a wax box and lid, pouring plaster mold material around them, melting the wax out of the plaster mold, prefiring the molds, then loading them with glass and firing them for 3 full days! Then the glass  needs cold working to remove the extra glass at the base and clean up any blips- the uneven look at the bottom  is due to extra glass that needs to be ground off.

We started making this box as a prototype for a cast-glass box, but it looked so great in design that we used beautiful woods (bocote for the sides and yellowheart for the legs, base, and top), and it turned out gorgeous. It has brass detail on the legs, and a bronze bird skull lid lift. Below, a new story box: Rapunzel woodburned on maple, with 22K goldleafed hair, leaning out her window. On the inside is a woodburned and silverleafed pair of scissors. The sides are yellowheart. Below, a new etched and painted glass-topped hummingbird box: walnut with a woodburned and painted maple base. It's hinged.

And why can't our parrot say "Peekaboo"? ALL the YouTube birds say peekaboo. It ain't fair.

We're starting glass casting this week! The amazing and talented Alan Stratton of As Wood Turns is making us a turned wood egg box, as seen in his video here, and in the picture to the left, so we can use it as a template for lost wax cast glass egg boxes. If you're interested in cool turning projects, I highly recommend you follow Alan's blog.

It's a doozy to cast this, though. First we need to make a two-part silicone rubber mold for both the top and bottom of the egg, and engineer the two parts so they sit together well in order to make a sturdy, symmetrical mold for each part. Then, we'll pour hot wax in each mold to give us a model of the top and the base in wax. Then a plaster mold is poured around each wax part with a reservoir attached to each for glass. The wax needs to be melted out of the mold once it has set. Finally, the molds are fired (for several days!), and then each mold is broken carefully apart to remove the glass egg piece. It's tough, because each plaster mold can only be used once!

We'll make wood and metal bases for these glass eggs. If we can get this system working, they'll be beautiful!

Below are new boxes to debut at Artscape art fair in Dallas April 25-27. First, a new Little Red Riding Hood box- walnut sides, woodburned and painted maple top and base. The top shows Little Red walking into the dark forest; the inside shows a snarling red-eyed wolf. Also, a new handcarved, slightly heart-shaped walnut box with turquoise inlay and a snaky design in relief.

 And coming soon- new carved tops waiting for Tom to get off his butt and make boxes for them. He seems to think that a major bleeding finger injury is an excuse not to use that hand. First, a spalted maple wavy top: it looks like stone.Next to it, a curly myrtle top carved in one big curling wave, with natural purplish stripes in the wood. Gorgeous, if I do say so myself.

And we proudly announce that we are the proud landlords of a new family: 4 baby cardinals in a sturdy nest in the bamboo outside our studio. Behold our babies! They're ugly, but we love them.

I've been thinking a great deal recently about the curious girls of mythology: Eve and Pandora. Here's a recent box effort: a Pandora's Box, with all the evils that plague humanity growing out of a hole in the top. Inside, of course, is what was left when Pandora shut the box: Hope, woodburned and goldleafed. The box is maple, woodburned (woodburning all those letters and leaves by hand took about 10 hours!) and painted, and the whole thing lacquered. It still needs some finish work, but it's fantastic.

Here is a new Eve woodburning for a box top- Eve holding the apple and spellbound by the snake. It's modified from a lovely painting by Lucien Levy-Dhurmer. Below, a new glass-topped box: an etched glass jellyfish painted and covered with colored epoxy. The sides are bubinga wood, and the base is silverleafed with sterling silver to reflect light behind the glass top. Also below, a pecan box with a woodburning on top modified from a Rossetti drawing- but I added a dog. These boxes will be for sale at Art City Austin this weekend, so come out to see them- and us!

Here is our newest box- probably my favorite in a long while, which is good, because it battled Tom the whole time he was trying to put it together. He is now my Yoshimi- he didn't let those evil monkeys win. The 4 sides and the top are glass etched with monkeys on branches. The sides are connected with dark wenge wood and legs, and the inside base is goldleafed in 22K gold, which makes it glow from the inside. It's hinged. I was inspired by the gorgeous cast glass and brass monkey boxes of Georgia and Joseph Pozycinski (I would DIE to own one of these, but I'll remind everybody that our boxes are much less expensive). These made me want to make an awesome monkey box, too, and so we did. And the Pozycinskis have also inspired me to travel to Oregon in May to take a week-long glass-casting class from the master: Linda Ethier. Hopefully, cast glass boxes will be coming soon!

We're donating a box to a fundraising benefit for The Octopus Club benefiting the Paul Kirby Foundation, which provides emergency financial support for HIV/AIDS patients in Central Texas. It's an Art Erotica art auction on April 5th in Austin. The art at auction there will all be of a titillating nature, and 100% of the proceeds go to the foundation. It's a great cause, and a great reason to buy a naughty piece of art, so go to the event. We made this one specially for it- we've always wanted a reason to make a sexy box. Below the "read more" break (which for some bizarre reason doesn't work on Facebook) are pictures of our contribution (if you're going to be offended by sexy bits, don't look).

 We will be showing this spring in April at Art City Austin on April 12-13, and Artscape in the Dallas Arboretum on April 26-27. Come out to eiher of these fine art shows at fabulous locations- downtown Austin or the gardens of he Dallas Arboretum- and see us!
Here is our new koi box, made of leopardwood, with an etched, goldleafed, and painted top and a lacquered base- it's so shiny that the koi are reflected in it. It's hinged.

Another new box: walnut root burl top on a mesquite box with wenge trim and ceramic skull details. Also, we're working on a 5-sided glass box featuring monkeys. Here are some of the pieces- it will be glass on all four sides and the top, etched with monkeys on branches. The wood connecting pieces will be of black wenge, and the inside base will be goldleafed.

And here is one of the side pieces for another mostly glass box: an art nouveau inspired fish and water lilies. The top will be etched lilypads.