An Duille Glas Studios

Shillelagh Prototype

2009-07-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

Been testing out the best way to make a shillelagh this week, since I don't have to do any carving there rather simple for me to do, just trim of the ends at the needed length and shape the nob. The big thing to figure out was how to do the finish, the black color originally being archived by sticking the stick up a chimney and smoking it till it turns black.

Used the closest thing to blackthorn I could find, a piece of wood from a old plum tree I cut down a couple months ago, removed the outer bark, used power saw to shape nob to the rough shape, and then used a black stain with polyurethane, looks good but think I might try some other method in the future.

Then used a sanding drum on my dremel tool too shape the nob.

And then finished the nob with danish oil.

Sword Project

2009-06-07T23:56:00.000-07:00

Finished drawing a new version of my design for bronze sword project, only this one shows whole sword and in full 1/1 scale, now just have to figure out that whole getting molten metal to do my bidding part...

Sketchbook Randomness

2009-06-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

sketch of a bronze sword I want to make, not sure if you could cast such a intricate hilt, grip, and pommel as one piece with the blade...

Sketchbook Randomness

2009-03-07T22:33:00.000-08:00

DeviantArt

2009-02-19T15:53:00.000-08:00

I've add some of my old stuff to Deviant Art,
http://nategreenleaf.deviantart.com/

nothing new...

2009-01-19T22:16:00.000-08:00

...nothing new to report, no stuff done lately due to the combination of lack of tools, crumby winter weather, and lack of motivation...

New Walkingstick

2008-11-23T12:33:00.000-08:00

The newest walking stick I've started working on, I'm wanting to get away from using a bunch of Celtic knotwork on this one, I'm going decorating it with woodspirt faces, green man, plant based knotwork, etc.

So far, I've roughed out a couple tree spirit faces.

And I've started carving a berserker, based on design from the Isle of Lewis chess set,

its basically a knight biting the top of his shield, giving it a great buck toothed look.

Shillelaghs - now in production

2008-11-01T15:29:00.000-07:00

Orders now being taken for a limited number of custom made Shillelaghs.

Material- Black Cherry
Features- Each piece to be custom tailored for it's desired use and features.
Number to be made- Up to 6
Delivery- Up to three or four years
Cost- Starting at $50
Deposit- Pint of Guinness

Shillelaghs are traditionally made from blackthorn, but being from the barren tundra of southern Minnesota, blackthorn is not that readily available here; so I'm going to use some Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) branches that I have.

It's going to be some time till they're ready, the branches need to be completely dried out to work with them, a common method to cure shillelaghs is smeared them with grease and put up in a chimney to be smoked, giving the Shillelagh its typical black shiny appearance. But, this can cause them to develop cracks and break. Instead I'm going to let them dry out slowly on their own, which ideally takes a few years. But as soon as someone wants one, I could probably have one ready in a couple months.

Each piece to be custom made, starting at $50 for a basic finished stick with a leather strap and copper ferrule. Available custom features include, type of finish, different types of ferrules, coin walking stick badges, wood caving and wood burning decoration, or anything else you might want.

If interested, let me know.

To do list

2008-10-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

Things I'll be working on in the near future-

A couple Dirk and Sgian Dubh sets
start doing sculpting agian, want to get into bronze casting
assorted woodcarving
a Kubbestol
a walking stick or two
Carved wood toilet seat, don't ask
Christmas presents

Sketchbook Randomness

2008-09-16T00:17:00.000-07:00

Celtic Dragon

2008-09-07T12:07:00.000-07:00

Because a blurry closeup pic of one of my hairy body parts is what everybody wants to see...

Evil "Little People"

2008-09-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

A bunch of little evil looking 'Fisher-Price Little People'-like things I made of Raku ceramic, Dante's Inferno play set not included.

Greenman Stuff

2008-09-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

So here is a bunch of the ceramic greenman stuff I made a few years ago, if I ever get into doing ceramics again sometime in the future, I'll probably make more of these. I think that they're really neat'o and they could be a profitable item. I had made a half dozen different versions of different green man things.

Most of them were round wall things, but this was going to be the lid of a box that didn't work out, I might get around to making a wooden box with carved decorative panels for it, sometime...

This is the round design, how I made most of my green man stuff, only the glazing on it is butt ugly, because I was trying to test out a bunch new glaze recipes and stains, none of which wanted to work the way their were supposed to.

This one is a toilet paper holder that didn't quite workout, one of the arms that holds the spindle, got warped and bent to far in during the drying and firing process, and as a result you couldn't spin the roll around in it.

After that it all got a bit odd

2008-09-01T07:16:00.000-07:00

Final got around to transferring files from my old computer to my new lap top, so I'll post some more of my old things sometime soon.

Raven Walkingstick

2008-08-23T11:54:00.000-07:00

The Raven Head walking stick is one of my most favorite ones, of those I've made. Not that tall, just a little longer then cane length; the decoration is rather simple for my work, just a Celtic tree of life, with knot work roots, out of the top is a big old crow/raven head.

I think, I made this walking stick about two and half years ago; and by 'made' I mean finished it, because was working on it for several years, I think...

Anyway it was always getting knocked over, and part of the lower beak kept getting broke off, I'd glued it back on a couple times; the last time that happened, the piece of beak got lost before I could get it glued back on.

So I've had cut what was left of the old beck.

And I've whittled a new lower beak for it.

Then I used monkey glue(Gorilla Glue) to attached the new beak, but as usually I forgot about much it expands as it cures. So my crow is foaming at the mouth, and I have cut and scape the glue off and then re stain and seal the stick...

Viking Walkingstick - Part 4

2008-08-17T15:33:00.000-07:00

Almost done with this walkingstick, finished staining it, added one coat of danish oil(polymerized linseed oil), I'll add one or two more coats.

Fancy custom made copper ferrule, actually just an end cap for copper plumbing, I grind the edges and surfaces with sander to give it a smooth matte finish and to develop a nice patina faster as the burnished finish that it comes from the factory with tends to resist developing a patina. And then I made a small copper cut nail to tack the ferrule in place, as I've ferrules working lose with the wood shrinking and swelling and glues failing.

Celtic/Sci-Fi Awsomeness

2008-07-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

A sweet little decorative redwood pediment that I made for over the side door, it's decorated with the Seal of Rassilon(it's a Doctor Who thing) flanked by a Celtic stylized dragon and a phoenix.

Sketchbook Randomness

2008-02-20T13:45:00.001-08:00

Mr. Cuddles, there are few things funnier then a smoking monkey...

Sketchbook Randomness

2008-02-10T12:44:00.001-08:00

I think it's a sketch of a Blackfoot warshirt...

I got really bored today

2008-02-09T18:34:00.000-08:00

-25/-30 windchills, nothing good on tv, so I decided to try something I once saw in a Photoshop magizine, it was Art Nouveau elements photoshopped over a photo for a great 3D looking, Alphonse Mucha-like pictures, but I'vn't got photoshop just ms paint, a Mucha picture from the internet, and silly picture I found of Angie; so just something simple but I think it turned out neat.

Ctheltic Cthulhu

2008-02-07T10:16:00.000-08:00

I've finished the rough design for my little celthulhu, not sure what it be used for yet......Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu Rl'yeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

New Thingy

2008-02-05T23:52:00.000-08:00

New design I started working on celtic style Cthulhu... Celthulhu

Sketchbook Randomness

2008-02-04T22:45:00.000-08:00

I think it was something from the Book of Kells, a man's head in a lions mouth; why?, I've no clue...

Viking Walkingstick - Part 3

2008-02-02T20:18:00.000-08:00

Blogger still isn't working at 100%, but it's letting me post pictures now. The Viking walking stick is more or less done, I just need to put the finish on. I added some woodburning details to the dragon head.

And I've added a copper tip to the bottom.

Neo-Luddite

2008-02-02T10:35:00.000-08:00

I was going to post an update of the finished wood burning on the viking walking stick, but blogger isn't working right, right now.

Viking Walkingstick - Part 2

2008-01-13T08:28:00.000-08:00

I've almost finished using a wood burning tool to add more of those Viking knot work beasties,

All the designs for the beasts are actual designs from Viking artifacts either items like jewelry or rune stones.

The beasts are intertwined within a field of some curly-que vines.

I'm really like how the wood burning has turned out, I think I'm going use it on future walking sticks.

I just need to touch up some of the wood burning and put on the finish.

Viking Walkingstick

2008-01-06T12:59:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of the new walking stick I've been working on, the designs are a Viking style of knotwork instead of the Celtic knotwork styles I've used before, and I've experimented using wood burning as well as carving, I think the over all design has turned out pretty nice. The piece was made from a branch from an apple tree that got blown over in a storm a few years ago.
There are three sections to the piece, the carved head at the top, an about ten inch section of relief carving, and an area of wood burning on a two foot section of the shaft.

The top was supposed to be like a dragon ship head; but it doesn't look very dragon like to me, style wise I think got it pretty authentic looking to what I wanted, an actual ships head being much larger would be far more detailed; I think I might add a little detail to it with wood burning.

The designs I've used are from a style of Viking design from the late eleventh century, called Urnes Style because of its best known example the Urnes Stave Church in Norway, the oldest remaining stave church and an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Typically the Urnes Style is a broad curved interwoven knotwork plant or animal ornamentation.

The section of relief carving based on some of the carving on the door of the Urnes church. The interpretation of the carving is that it is either a stylised lion, a symbol of Christ fighting a snake symbolizing Satan or a scene from Norse mythology of intertwined snakes and dragons destroying the world during of Ragnarok. I'm of the belief that its of both, as many times pagan symbols were repurposed to be used as christian ones. As in the Thor's Hammer becoming a type of cross.

In the relief carving I changed the beast, whatever it was, to a stylized deer intertwined with some vines or tree trunks or whatever.

And now I'm working adding more Urnes Style designs to the shaft of the walking stick with a wood burning tool.

More to come...

Raku Tiki

2007-12-16T12:00:00.000-08:00

During my last semester taking ceramics, I did a lot retro 50's/60's tiki things but I used the Raku process on them, so they're all dark and charred like volcanic stone. This guy is a bobble head; body is of the style of a Hawaiian tiki statue and the head is like those of Easter island, I think they work well together. His necklace come off some tropical drink liquor bottle. The picture isn't that great, do to the fact that for some reason unknown to me my digital camera takes blurry pictures unless the flash is turned on. So i can't take closeups with out them being blurry or washed out.

More to come...

2007-10-23T17:30:00.001-07:00

So I decided to start this blog, to show people all the different artwork that I've made in college or the past couple years and is now just taking up space in cardboard boxes. Sometime I'll get around to taking pictures of my old drawings, paintings, ceramics stuff and my walking sticks; and post them here.