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

Glass Cat, Violets, Horse

12/20/2014

Our newest finished boxes! To right, a cast glass violets box in green and purple. Each petal (60 of them!) was made individually in wax, detailed with a toothpick, and carefully assembled on a wax box. It was cast in plaster, the wax was melted out (or "lost"- hence "lost wax"), glass was carefully added to melt correctly, and the whole thing was fired for 3 days. I sandblasted float glass with a butterfly for the top and colored it with iridescent dichroic extract and fused it. Pretty, pretty. Tom made this lovely simple wenge base for it- it looks a bit like flowers growing out of a flower box. This one was a real labor of love.

Below, an orange cast glass cat crouches next to a little vintage brass birdcage with a green-painted brass bird in it. They are attached to a curly walnut top, on a curly walnut box. And finally, a custom order- a sandblasted abstract glass horse on a box of holly and wenge with a woodburned initial "J." It has a red suede lining on the inside base.

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.

The Process: Lost Wax and Mold-Making for Casting Glass

10/30/2014

Casting glass is wicked tough, but really fun. For those of you interested (and who isn't?), here's some photo documentation of the process. To left is a wax figure I worked on for 2 days- a sleeping woman covered in roses. The reason it took 2 days is that this is about 8 inches long, and the 26 tiny roses on her took HOURS to make and attach in wax. It isn't quite finished here- as you can see in the next photo below, I added some vines and leaves carved into her body.

The below left picture is the finished figure (carved with vines and leaves) on a clay base, being molded to the clay in preparation for making a plaster mold of her. Below right is the mold material poured over her in a mold box clamped together to fit her size.

And below left, the finished plaster mold. Once the plaster set, I picked out the clay base and melted the wax out of it. Now you're looking at her from underneath, through the space that once was the clay base. I'll pack pink glass powder in the roses, and green glass powder for her body, and then fire her in the kiln for about 35 hours for a pate de verre figure. If it works. I have no idea- all that work may be for nothing. I will post a picture of the result- success or failure. But below right is a picture of a finished box with a pate de verre that DID work- a green glass frog top on a glass box detailed with vines. It's SO great when it works.

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.

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!