ITALY is so EPIC! And is far richer in culture and food than I imagined!

 

I planned this trip back in February, The intent was to do 2 workshops with II Maestro Fabrizio Acqufresca of Florence. I finally made the trip. World travel is always a bit of an adventure.

I've experienced every emotion possibly known to man during the first 1/2 of this trip.

Fox Priest Studio Established July 10th 2022 a desire since 2014...

Welcome to FOX PRIEST STUDIO a blend of metal artistry, including 3D Sculpted jewelry, Hand Fabricated jewelry, a little Chase & Repousse' throw in some 3D scanning, Laser Engraving, Hi resolution 3D Printing and some Desktop 5 Axis machining. And some canvas painting by fellow artists. All for the love of making amazing things with old school proven methods and modern technology!

I got to meet my Italian Chase and Repousse' Mentor

 Yay I finally got the meet the man!

Maestro Fabrizio Acquafresca II

www.acquafrescafirenze.com/about_fabrizio_acquafresca

What a superb teacher he is and fantastic human being.

2 Incredible weeks with Rhonda Coyell

 I had 2 incredible weeks with Rhonda Coryell learning to work with Argentium Silver.

I made my daughter Lily an nice necklace with torch enamling, Myself a wedding ring fused from 2 rings into one. I learned chain making and gold onto Argentium fusing. Rhonda is a great teacher and works very hard to teach lessons that took her years  to develop. 

JCK Las Vegas was huge

By recommendation of Henry Williams of ZBJW I attended JCK in Las Vegas. This show is huge and designed as a source for Jewelers to acquire everything imaginable to make jewelry. It was a bit overwhelming to say the least. 

 

FOX PRIEST STUDIO

While at the Santa Fe Syposium I asked a few questions from the speakers using the name FOX PRIEST. A sort of anonymity. And subsequently people asked for my Instagram to follow me. Time to hire a marketing professional... The Fox Priest is a Netsuke figurine I inherited from my father. To me it represents the artistic side of life and a lot more...

What is a studio? It is a place of learning and development. Not to oneself but for all that are interested in artistry.

Got my updated Mandala Elephant from Rio Grande

I've been working on this necklace for about 4 years. 

Finally got some core knowledge to see the base form correctly the sculpt in ZBrush.

Through my mentor Tomas Wittlebach of ZBrush Jewelry Workshop I was able to get this cast by Rio Grande.

The photo's don't do it justice. 

I added World Peace and hunger issues on the back side to keep it from being boring.

It says: "I'M SO HUNGRY I CAN EAT A HUMAN!"

Had a fabulous time at the 2022 Santa Fe Symposium

 

Beginning my 6 weeks of educational adventure.

Off to the Santa Fe Symposium, then JCK in Las Vegas, Then to spend a couple weeks with Rhonda Coryell in open Argentium workshop. Finally I'll spend a week with Maestro Acquafresca II.

Anticipation got me this far, Let's see what unfolds...

SUCCESSFUL 3D PRINTS FOR THE SFS

PRINTED EXAMPLE PARTS FOR THE SANTA FE SYMPOSIUM

Peonies in Love!

I am developing a near net Chase and Repousse' process. 

ICARUS with a little help from my friends...

This is a new product in development. An ICARUS design on a "Ledger Nano S" Digital Wallet. This is a collaborative effort with Rob Stein III and myself and a little help from Rio Grande.

 

Easy come... Easy go...

 Best wishes to everyone on this side of the pandemic. Sadly we lost a few great ones to the coronavirus. Including the shop. We made a lot of progress and it was fun while it lasted. We're not done creating! We're just getting a second wind..

Open for Business

We're so very excited to open our new store today.

ARTiSTASH Welcome

Creative Jewelry, Art and Collectables. An idea as in 1st person the "ART i  STASH" for myself with an inviting "Welcome" to others to get in on the goods.

What's cool about this shop is we are creators ourselves with things like our ALIEN SOAP that's out of this world. Or "THE ORIGINAL BIRTHMARKS" 3D Sculpted jewelry with all the detail from from your child's birth certificate or digital print even if those little feet are paws.

And were showing people how they can make jewelry too with the latest tools and technology. And if your work is worthy you can sell your work and share the profit with us.

We're a virtual company larger than our brick and mortar with an omni channel business model.

We have 30+ incredible artists and looking for more partnering with us to bring their "Wow Factor" like Richard Minadeo who made Madonna's "Like a Virgin" tour earrings. And MetalManiacArt Engraving.

We have a few teams working with us to create products that others came up with.

Stop by as all are welcome.

ARTiSTASH Welcome

We're excited to be in talks with some incredible artists to bring on board with ARTiSTASH.

ARTiSTASH Welcome is officially a new shop!

I'm so incredibly excited that today I got the keys to our new shop ARTiSTASH Welcome! Bringing all my tools and driving up from Colorado Springs was an incredible feeling. Waiting so long for this day. And now the adventure begins.

Excited to attend the 2019 Santa Fe Symposium

I'm really excited I am attending the 2019 Santa Fe Symposium.

The top experts from every major jewelry company in the world attend this incredible event. 3 years ago I won a scholarship to attend for my creative passion and ideas. And it was eye opening. I was not able to attend the past 2 years as I was immersed with starting London Alley Salon.

This is a deeply rich group of knowledge that I look forward to furthering my journey :-)

Netsuke Fox Priest

Ne·tsu·ke

ˈnetso͝oˌkē/
NETSUKE are miniature sculptures that were invented in 17th-century Japan to serve a practical function (the two Japanese characters ne+tsuke mean "root" and "to attach"). 

Traditional Japanese garments—robes called kosode and kimono—had no pockets; however, men who wore them needed a place to store their personal belongings, such as pipes, tobacco, money, seals, or medicines. Their solution was to place such objects in containers (called sagemono) hung by cords from the robes' sashes (obi). The containers may have been pouches or small woven baskets, but the most popular were beautifully crafted boxes (inrō), which were held shut by ojime, which were sliding beads on cords. Whatever the form of the container, the fastener that secured the cord at the top of the sash was a carved, button-like toggle called a netsuke.

So this is a pretty cool project I am finally getting traction with some 3D esoteric modeling.

Below is a fully 3D Model of this character. Ready for manufacturing in any media.

I intend to make a full Chess Set of Netsuke Animal Characters. Think it will pay extra homage to this incredible art form from Japan.

CLICK HERE TO SEE OTHER NETSUKE FIGURES

Escher Dragon Reimagined

M.C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) is one of the world's most famous graphic artists. His art is enjoyed by millions of people all over the world, as can be seen on the many web sites on the internet.

He is most famous for his so-called impossible constructions, such as Ascending and Descending, Relativity, his Transformation Prints, such as Metamorphosis I, Metamorphosis II and Metamorphosis III, Sky & Water I or Reptiles.

I've been enamored by M.C. Escher since I was a child. I've re-imagined one of his works his 1952 Dragon wood engraving print.

M.C. Escher's Dragon 1952 Wood Engraving
(Click on the image to see more detail)

My workflow is a little unique. I am converting 2D quality art into a reimagined version.

In this case I was able to use M.C. Escher's incredible detail of shadow and contrast of dark vs light to create a 3D Surface Model.

More detail of my 3D Model
(Click on the image to see more detail)

I was able to get a part cast and the initial casting results were mixed. Lot's of nooks and crannies.

My plan is to create a Necklace that is moderate in size and send it to the M.C. ESCHER Foundation as an honorary piece to show how much detail is actually in M.C. Escher's work. 

For information on this famous DRAGON work of art, you can find it described in the following Wikipedia article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_(M._C._Escher)

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY EARLIER EFFORT ON THIS BELOW INCLUDING MY WAX CUT PIECE FROM THE 3D SURFACE

Been a little busy starting a new Retro Salon in Denver

I've been a little busy started a business on 4/10/2017 

https://www.londonalleysalon.com/

Located in the heart of Capital Hill, we offer Gold Star service. Our staff & edgy environment will take you back to the British Invasion, when the Beatles ruled the radio, gogo boots rocked, and the Twiggy pixie cut was all the rage.

blog.londonalleysalon.com/

London Alley Salon

1233 East 13th Avenue, Denver, CO 80218

(303)-830-0333