A good friend of mine and a true craftsman by heart just filmed a movie with the same team from LEHN.STEIN – Pete Schilling & Philip Bruederle. They did a great job again. It shows amazingly the way he works with precious jewels and metals.
Last weekend i had the chance to visit the Wunderkammer in Zürich – what a magic place with so many precious pieces from the past. I had a nice chat with Christian who is a avid collector of rare and special objects from all over the globe. His favorite subject is to find exceptional taxidermies for his collection or for his clients. Definitely highly recommended when you are in Zürich.
I arrived yesterday in Berlin, before heading to the Tempelhof I decided to use the time for the Christoph Schlingensief Exhibition at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. The exhibition will be ended by 19th of January and will then be shown at the MoMA NYC, so now is the time to have a look at his works. The Church of Fear is located outside so I had the chance to already have a look before entering the exhibition. Already I can say, he died too young …
Mendoza Colt Spanish Western ComicGot this great spanish comics from 1958 yesterday. A perfect photo background for the Feinschmuck Western Belt or Longhorn Belt. What I already learned is “Manos Arriba!” which means “hands up”.
If you want to improve your cowboy spanish, I just found out that Mendoza Colt is available to read online here.
Obsidian knifes made in Germany by Michael Hausberg:Exceptional friends have exceptional friends too, so I was aware of meeting some very interesting people on a friends 65th birthday today. I had not even the chance to grab a beer, when I spotted this wonderful handcrafted Obsidian Knife which was one of the presents for the host.
I had the chance to grab the knife and take some images and had a short talk with the guy who crafted this knife. Obsidian is volcanic glass which was formed to a blade and sharpened razorsharp by Michael Hausberg. Since Michael is a avid stone collector, he used a special river stone for it´s handle. If you are interested in his knifes, have a closer look at some other works he did and drop me a mail which I will forward to him.
Robert Crumb – Confessions:
Just a small insight into Robert Crumb the underground cartoonist, very entertaining and witty.
Ancient Viking or Roman dice:
Asked for some ancient time inspiration for Feinschmuck a friend of mine gave me these dice. They are replicas and I could hardly find any fitting proof for it if the Vikings or Romans used dice like this but anyway they are quite unique. You won´t be able to use them in Las Vegas but they work. Let´s see what Manfred from Feinschmuck makes out of it.
Check this reference for a similar piece of a dice and the history of dice.
on the isle of Capri. Famous from the Movie Contempt / le Mepris with Brigitte Bardot.
Zeller art and antiques auctions:
The love for “vintage” stuff might have been influenced a lot by working for Zeller art and antiques auction for about a decade. Surrounded by thousands of objects which move through the auction house every 3 month will not get by unrecognized even by a nerd. Realizing that some stuff is affordable and even quite cheap if you compare the craftsmanship involved in creating those pieces I started to hunt. It is not just the präservation of a (our) heritage it is also a kind of recycling. Bargains on flea markets are hard to find, with ebay being a price guide most sellers have a good reference for the price. Auction houses tend to start low with a price to attract bidders and if you are lucky you might be the only one who bids.
The images above, I took on a visit just give a quick impression “behind the scenes”, some more great stuff is still coming in and to show approx. 3500 – 4500 lots is impossible. Bidding online is possible but visiting a traditional Art Auctioneer like Michael Zeller who does his job since more than 40 years is a thrilling and sometimes entertaining performance.
Dalton M. Ghetti – pencil mine carving art:
Amazing artwork by carving stuff out from the mine of a pen. Luckily I found the name of this artist to figure out more about his artwork. Dalton M. Ghetti my fullest admiration about your patience and skills!
Read his bio here:
Dalton began learning how to handle tools at the young age of 6 when at school in Brazil, he and the other students used either a razor blade or a pocket knife to sharpen their pencils for drawing and writing.
Also, his mother was a seamstress. When Dalton was 8 years old, she taught him how to use a sewing needle to help her with simple projects like hemming and sewing buttons. At the age of 9, his parents gave him a set of metal tools for children, which he used to make his own boxes, toys and go-carts. This is also the age when he began sculpting with knives, chisels and a hammer. Ever since, he has created many objects out of all kinds of materials.
At first, he carved large objects; but in 1986, as a challenge to himself and because of his interest in small living things, like plants (moss) and insects (spiders and ants), he decided to create the smallest possible carvings that he could see with his naked eyes. One day, he picked up a working pencil and started carving it.
His idea is to bring people’s attention to small things. Small is beautiful. Most of the pencils he uses are found on the streets and sidewalks. Dalton’s work is a recycling process. He turns discarded objects into art.
To create his sculpture, he holds the pencil in his hand under a strong light source (table lamp or sunlight) and carves it mostly with a sewing needle and a very sharp, triangular, small, metal blade. He works at very small intervals: 1 to 2 hours maximum per day whenever he gets inspired. He works very slowly by removing specks of graphite at a time. It therefore takes months or sometimes years to complete a sculpture.
For Dalton, sculpting pencils is a hobby and a form of meditation, which requires a lot of patience. His pencil carvings are not for sale. He doesn’t do it for money. He sculpts pencils mostly for himself and his art comes from his heart. He wants to keep it that way.
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