Art of Bruce Whistlecraft

For anyone who cant wait for the show page to go public later today.
Here is the preview link.

Link: http://rivetart.com/shows/2008/preview/6.jsp

Username: burlap
Password: hgwells

Thanks to everyone who visited the opening of my “Welcome to Retropolis” show last night. Wether it was physically getting out to the gallery to taste the Scones or virtually squeezing down a web tube..
I will post links to any coverage as it starts popping up. Expect some photos later.

Also this morning it seems I have been included in a long article called called “Steampunk Rising”. You can find it hear :
http://www.crn.com/hardware/208400607;jsessionid=NUV5EKEPOHGXIQSNDLOSKHSCJUNN2JVN?pgno=1
Rounds up a lot of the tech modders and makers out there.
A good basic guide type thing..

Incoming Solo show…………
A primer to the world of the Mechtorians.
Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures and custom toys.

Drop me a line if you want to get on the previews list.
anyone on the list for a previous show will be on this list already.

With one of the most anticipated art toy releases of the year, the good Doktor A and MINDstyle are releasing ten (10) resin paint masters of the Mr. Head figure from the upcoming Mechtorians Series I. These hand painted and highly detailed resin masters will certainly be a must have for any collector and fan of Doktor A. Known as one of the industry’s best toy customizers, Doktor A has made a name for himself with his unique style and amazing attention to detail.

Not to be confused with his vinyl toy figures in production, these resin figures are rare paint masters that have seldom been made available to the public. The resin paint masters are done on a one to one scale (with 7% for shrinkage) based on his mini figure series. The NYCC exclusive Mr. Head paint masters will retail for $199.99 and go on sale 4PM at the MINDstyle booth #1313 on Friday, April 18th. Limit one per customer.

A second NYCC Copper version paint master from the highly anticipated Mechtorians mini figure series will be available to Art Toys Society members only. ATS members will be able to reserve their copy of Stephen LePod through the 1045 Showroom for shipment or pick up their reserved copy at MINDstyle booth #1313. A confirmation will be sent to the members with detailed instructions. As the edition is limited to 10, orders will be randomly selected from ATS members wishing to make a purchase even if not attending NYCC.

In addition, Platinum ATS members will be able to purchase one of five ultra rare original version resin paint masters. The original blue paint master is based on Doktor A’s Explorer figure from his upcoming MINDstyle series. The NYCC exclusive Stephen LePod resin paint masters will retail for $199.99. If you’re wondering, solicitations will be made directly by email to ATS members. Clearly, an ATS membership has its privileges.

So is the studio finished I hear you ask.

No. It’s not.

Well the room was finished but that was just a blank canvas. I have to fill the canvas and make it a useable place before I can move in. This mean furniture. Yes I know I could just go to Ikea and kit it out with all I need to get things rolling. But if I did that with the intention of sorting it out nicely some time when I have enough time, then I know it would never happen. You get blind to dodgy furniture and space use shortcomings and muddle on. I figured that as all that time was spent doing the structure of the room right I should continue in that mindset and do the furniture right too. Oh sure I have the odd bit of nice furniture I have picked up over the last few years but not enough and not stuff which would work well in the space.
So.
Start from scratch…
(Yeah your right I don’t do things the easy way… Where is the fun in doing things the easy way.. No challenge.)

I had the good fortune a couple of years ago to discover an old (Early 20th century) sloped desk at the back of a furniture clearance center in Huddersfield. It looked (from the kipple that was still in it’s drawers) to have last been used at a Taylors or possibly in a cloth cutting department in a Mill back in the early Eighties. It is a huge old sloped work surface with three drawers beneath in style of a campaign cabinet. And a spin at only £20.. Once I had spend a couple of days scrubbing it, cleaning off the old laquer and re oiling and waxing it, it would have fetched several hundred pounds in an antique centre.
I have had it cluttering up several rooms stood up on its end ever since, knowing one day I would have a suitable room for it.. And this is that room.. Except it has no legs…
Luckily for me on a recent trip to the most splendid Beamish living Museum ( http://www.beamish.co.uk ) I had seen a desk very like this as it would have been in situ at the time of it’s construction. So I now knew what it would have looked like originally. After an exhaustive hunt for old table legs which would be suitable I gave up on finding anything reclaimed and turned to reproductions. I hunted down a place online which did wood turning and purchased three legs from them in a style very similar to the ones I had seen. I then decided that the remaining framework should be built using traditional woodworking joints in the Arts & Crafts tradition in which I am refurbishing the house.. So I had to master a few basic woodworking skills like cutting in a straight line and using a Chisel tolerably. I constructed a support frame with these budding skills using some new wood and some reclaimed pieces from an old dining table. I figured some new wood was ok as I was going to have to stain the new legs to match the colour of the desk anyway..

This to my surprise went pretty well any gave me a stable work space..
I then took a month or more painting pictures of Mechtorians on this workspace for an upcoming solo show at Rivet in June.
Last week I returned to the job of finishing the studio. So the support frame was stained and oiled and waxed and all worked splendidly..

I then turned my attention to storage.. I constructed a wide shelf for one end wall of the room from some of the floorboards I had removed from the room. I cut out the bad parts and sanded and oiled them and fixed them up to the wall using a couple of cast iron Victorian toilet systern  brackets I got from Ebay (Once I stripped the old paint off, wire brushed the rust down and recoated with a suitable brass enamel paint they looked pretty good… I would have preferred to leave them the bare polished metal but the rust damage was too deep to make that work..)

I then set about constructing a shelving unit to run the length of the room which could have a large storage space under the eaves behind it for all that stuff that one usually keep in an attic..
I drew up plans to make best use of the odd sloping space beneath one of the beams and started in..This unit is mostly intended to house books of varous sizes, other storage media and canvases and prints (slid back into the eves space through the tall opening at the far right..
It will ultimately be closed in with an end wall to the left and a door to access the storage crawlspace..

This is the main construction.

Since this pic was taken I have finished the shelves to the point of staining and have also designed and built another smaller unit of shelves and a large display cabinet to house a sizable chunk of my toy collection… More info and pics of that in the next blog..
I figure at this point I have about one more weeks work before I can start unpacking boxes…..

Just a pre-note to say I am changing my mailing list over to a new server and so anyone already on the email list should get a verification request which you will have to comply with if you want to get newsletters in the future. Sorry it’s a pain but the list is just getting too large for me to handle manually any more.

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Hello and welcome to the March 2008 edition of Doktor A’s newsletter.
There has been a lot happening in the first few months of this year. And it’s all a prelude to the mountains of stuff happening later this year.
So lets get the ball rolling…….

Mechtorians ( http://www.mechtorians.com ) ( http://www.mindstyle.com )
Since the last newsletter the big news of Doktor A’s first proper production toy line has hit the interweb.
Mechtorians are Victroian-Futurist style robots from a distant neverwhen world, capturing the Doktor’s shabby rivited vintage style. Here is a little summing up of all the blogging that’s out there.

“If any art toy made a lot of noise at New York Toy Fair 2008, it was none other than MINDstyle’s Mechtorians by Doktor A. The combination of one of the leading art toy companies and one of the best toy customizers certainly has fans worldwide buzzing about the amazing series.
Here’s what we know so far… a special SDCC exclusive figure will be available at San Diego Comic Con with Series I launching this fall. The first series of six figures are window boxed with exclusives and limited color versions available from the MINDstyle premium retailers. But wait, there are rumblings of an ultra limited and exclusive advance figure available to only Art Toy Society members, and if that’s not enough… there’s even something special for only ATS premium members. Wonder what that could be? So, if you’re not already an ATS member, you still have a chance to join.”
Info about the ATS club here : http://www.1045showroom.com/ats.html

The first wave will be out toward the end of 2008. And there are lots of secret versions and other characters in the works to keep your toy collecting muscles busy over the coming years. The prototypes will be on show at the new York Comic Con ( April 18th – 20th).
Watch the websites and your favorite toy blogs for updates.

Speakerdog ( http://www.bentheillustrator.com/speakerdog_index.html )
Speakerdog is a popular print-it-yourself downloadable paper toy. Series five of the little brute has just gone live on their website for the world to enjoy and Doktor A has created one of the new designs.
So if you have a wet Sunday afternoon to fill. Drop by the website and download a little paper friend.

Upcoming shows :

Multiple Personalities Show ( http://www.liftfootwear.com )
LiFT Designer Toys, in Royal Oak, MI, will be having a group show entitled Multiple Personalities beginning March 29th. The opening reception will start at 7PM. This will be the first show at their new larger location. It’s an open platform show featuring custom toys of all sorts, skate decks, and original paintings from a number of today’s top designers and underground artists. Doktor A will have a customised Treeson and a Rupture bust sculpture available at the show.
LiFT Detroit
228 W. 4th St.
Royal Oak, MI 48067
March 29th

The Soopa Show ( http://www.esctoy.com/soopa.htm )
Concrete Jungle New York hosts a group show of customised “Soopa Coin Op Bros” toys from ESC Toys, opening April 19th. You may have read about Doktor A’s “Pac Gentleman” custom of this toy recently. Hopefully that work will be on show at the exhibition along with a new Doktor A piece ans works by other artists and designers from around the world. So if you are in town for the Comic Con get over to Concrete Jungle and check out all the video game cabinet styled goodness.
Concrete Jungle
70 – 15 Austin Street, Forest Hills
NYC 11375
April 19th

Ok folks that’s all for now. But there are lots more treats in store. Its going to be a busy year.

I have work in two shows soon..

“This Time It’s Personal”
at Rivet Gallery in Columbus Ohio, USA
Opens March 1st to the 16th
Collectors show their art stash.
(Exhibition only, though I do have other works available for sale at this gallery..)

“Speakerdogs”
at Cafe Pause Tokyo, Japan
Opens March 17th to the 23rd.
Group show of Paper Speakerdog toys.
Every Speakerdog ever designed will be in the show. All 5 series.
And if you havnt guessed yet Doktor A is in the brand new series 5 due for release to the public on March 3rd from :
www.bentheillustrator.com

I have just received a large box containing the resin prototypes of my upcoming toy range with MINDstyle .
It’s rather surreal an experience looking at your own characters sitting looking back at you.

I am a tad freaked out right now.

Its exciting and a little intimidating at the same time.
I have designed toys before but its either been platform toys or toys based on someone elses ideas, or toys sculpted to someone elses designs.
This is the first time its all been from my head alone. I hope they go down well.
The company making them is putting a lot of trust and time and money into me and this range.
I really hope people like them..

I wish i could show you them but I am not allowed to right now for obvious reasons..
Soon you will see..
They really do break new ground in the market at which they are aimed..

Ooh Blimey!

I have been spending most of this dark and chilly (and very very wet) January working on the studio conversion in the hopes of having it finished by the end of the month.

Mostly this has included painting.
Which took longer than expected due to all the fiddly bits along the edges of all the beams.
And three coats required plus the plaster primer.. But that was all done in the end.

Then the radiators were fitted and warmth was returned..
The radiators were cast up specially for us from a French design dating to the very early 20th century. They are real cast iron (not steel like modern radiators) from molds taken from the originals. They are insanely heavy. It took two men to just about move one..

After they went in the skirting boards were cut to size, stained, oiled and waxed.. That took a few days as there was about 30 meters of the stuff. Of course there is not a right angle or a straight wall in the place so there was a lot of jiggery pockery to get them to fit.
Then the floors all got a second coat of traditional Hard-Wax oil.. Great stuff. But damn stinky.. After a few hours of it you feel like your head is filled with washing up liquid.

Whilst the floors dried for a few days I worked on the two doors for the room. The small seperating door had been purchased for the job and was pre stripped. The one at the bottom of the stairs was taken away and stripped for us. Then I cleaned them up, rubbed them down, oiled them with Boiled Linseed Oil and waxed them..
The small door was cut and fitted with new handles purchased as a set from Ebay. Hand turned Teak I think. All the dooors in the house will  match when I am done. They were fitted with antiqued Brass furniture. A pressed Brass finger plate was also fitted to each side of the door. These too were an Ebay find. They are reproductions of an Arts & Crafts Movement design. The polished Brass looks great with the pocked and gnarly wood of the door.

The stair door had an original Victorian Rim Lock. There are only two left in the house. I needed to remove it from the door and clean it up by hand.

There were six layers of paint on it. But it works now. As its steel and rather scratched I re-enamelled it on the black areas before fitting it back on the door. I dont have photos of that door yet as I hung it on a different day to the small door. I will get pics of everything when its all done.

The light switches and elecrical sockets all got their plates fitted now too. But by now you probably realise I cant leave anything alone and had to tinker with them. We went for Toggle switches with minimalist backplates (no visible screws). These are modern fixings which come in a highly polished Brass. New polished Brass looks nasty to me. Like cheap gold. But being solid Brass I was able to clean off all the clear laquer coat and age them in a little acid bath I had made up. Then they are waxed to set the desired finish. I dipped and polished each plate and switch three or four times to build up an interesting patina. Some before and after pics…

So that is the guest room completed. The work to fit all the furniture into the Studio has begun. I now have the task of turning a nice empty room into a functioning space..

More to come……