Fellow steampunk fan loves his new Artsmith Craftworks airship
08 Jun
I got an email from a man named Don yesterday, who had purchased one of my airships in The Artisan’s Bench in downtown Brighton, Michigan. (I’ve mentioned them before). Don’s email was very complimentary and I’ve included it with permission below, along with the picture of the airship that he took of it hanging in his creative space. Thanks Don!
“Hi, Stephan: My wife and I were in Brighton yesterday and stopped in to The Artisans Bench. Saw your zeppelin’s and balloons and it was all over. I collect old clockwork toys (planes, tanks, submarines, armored cars), cannon models, dogs, dinosaurs, minerals, and on and on – a regular cabinet of curiosities. Your airships are a perfect match – handmade, vintage vibe, mechanical mojo.
At one time I did a lot of pen and ink drawing (way back in the 80’s). Among the usual sword and sorcery stuff I liked creating fantastic machines. One of my favorite drawings is a man ‘o war hanging under a big zeppelin! Buying your airship might just motivate me to get that one framed so they can hang together. Until then, I’ve got it in the computer room, hanging next to a working steam power motorcycle (I made the hangers from ladder chain and some old erector set pieces).
I’ve attached a picture of your airship in it’s new home. Thanks so much for making these masterpieces.”
Don
Don’s airship in its new home
When I asked Don if I could post his email and photo, he went on to say:
“The very nice people at the Artisan’s Bench told me about your blog and web site and I read them when I got home – really great stuff. I haven’t seen work as well done as yours since I discovered the crabfu website (I think he’s an engineer or something, but he takes radio controlled cars and trucks and turns them into steampunk steam powered insect-like tanks – even a fully articulated steam powered centipede crawler).
I like the repurposed nature of your work, at first glance your pieces look all hand cast – then you start to recognize the forms within – very cool. I collect all the old toy parts I can find – then when building or repairing or setting up dioramas they all come into play.
Keep up the good work.”
Don
Thanks for the compliments, Don!
Stephan J. Smith is the artist and sculptor at Artsmith Craftworks in Swartz Creek, MI. Using recycled and re-purposed materials, Stephan builds a myriad of sculpted wonders, including fantastic and whimsical steampunk airships that have amazed and delighted fans for years. A passion for reusing and up-cycling found items into beautiful and amazing art is what drives Stephan to make art that both teaches and inspires. Stephan also does commissioned work and is available to do talks and classes on re-purposing/up-cycling and may be reached at ArtSmithCraft@yahoo.com or at 810-516-7381.No Comments
Posted in Papier-mâché, Recycled and Re-purposed, Repurposed and Upcycled, Sculpture, Steampunk, Steampunk Victorian Airship
Artsmith Craftworks goes Hollywood (part 4)
06 Feb
The night of the Red Carpet event happens and the airships by Artsmith Craftworks fly high over the crowd of young film makers. The theme of the night being steampunk, many cool decorative items can be seen, setting the mood for the event. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves!
Orange County Film Festival Red Carpet
Diabolus on stage
I’m glad I got the chance to have my work displayed at an event that honors those in the film arts. I anxiously await the call ordering airships for the next big Hollywood steampunk feature!
Stephan J. Smith is the artist and sculptor at Artsmith Craftworks in Swartz Creek, MI. Using recycled and repurposed materials, Stephan builds a myriad of sculpted wonders, including fantastic and whimsical steampunk airships that have amazed and delighted fans for years. A passion for reusing and upcycling found items into beautiful and amazing art is what drives Stephan to make art that both teaches and inspires. Stephan also does commissioned work and is available to do talks and classes on repurposing/upcycling and may be reached at ArtSmithCraft@yahoo.com or by phone at 810-516-7381.
Photo of the Orange County Film Festival Red Carpet Event. Stephan J Smith. Artsmith Craftworks. steampunk airshipNo Comments
Posted in Papier-mâché, Recycled and Re-purposed, Repurposed and Upcycled, Sculpture, Steampunk
Artsmith Craftworks goes Hollywood (part 2)
10 Jan
I got up early on Christmas Eve day and did some calculations for crate sizes based on my airships’ dimensions. I then needed supplies and luckily, my brother was able to help, so off we went to get the necessary lumber. Of course, it was only 10 degrees outside and windy, but we managed to get what we needed…and some of it on sale, and headed back to the barn.
My brother Jason hard at work building crates
We fired up my propane heater and got busy. All day long we worked, measuring, cutting, nailing and joining pieces. The freight company was supposed to be there to pick up the two crates around 5 pm that day, and I was on the phone several times to California for status updates. As we came down to the wire, we were told that the freight company couldn’t get there afterall and it would be the day after Christmas. Well, that was actually good news, because frankly, we weren’t ready.
Diabolus in her crate, ready to be secured with straps
We got to spend Christmas Eve with family, enjoying each other’s company, but for me, there was a lot of work to finish and I was anxious to get it done. I did a little measuring and cutting on Christmas Day, but the day after, I got back out to the barn to finish up since freight was supposed to be there between noon and 5 pm.
The Victorian dual engine, crated and ready to secure
Finally, the job was done and awaiting pick up by the freight company. I was only a little nervous about sending my babies of to California… No, really I was a LOT nervous, but we’d done a good job of securing and protecting the airships.
Sealed crate containing the Victorian airship…labeled and ready for shipping!
And off they go…
Next time…arrival in Orange County…
Stephan J. Smith is the artist and sculptor at Artsmith Craftworks in Swartz Creek, MI. Using recycled and repurposed materials, Stephan builds a myriad of sculpted wonders, including fantastic and whimsical steampunk airships that have amazed and delighted fans for years. A passion for reusing and upcycling found items into beautiful and amazing art is what drives Stephan to make art that both teaches and inspires. Stephan also does commissioned work and is available to do talks and classes on repurposing/upcycling and may be reached at ArtSmithCraft@yahoo.com or by phone at 810-516-7381.No Comments
Posted in Papier-mâché, Recycled and Re-purposed, Repurposed and Upcycled, Sculpture, Steampunk
Artsmith Craftworks goes Hollywood!
07 Jan
I had a really great thing happen just before Christmas…
On the 23rd of December, in the late afternoon, I got a call from California. I almost ignored it because a lot of times, random calls from California or Utah or Nevada, etc wind up being credit card come-ons or something. I answered it anyway…glad I did. It was a girl from the Orange County Film Festival and this year for their Festival, they chose a steampunk theme. They explained that they were looking for airships in particular and had been looking locally and online and couldn’t find anything, and they were getting worried since their Red Carpet Event was being held on January4th. That’s when they found Artsmith Craftworks! They had been looking at the pics I’ve been posting, and they were interested in the Diabolus and the large double engine Victorian.
Airship Diabolus
Victorian double engine
Needless to say, I was happy to help them make their event a big success! This meant, however, that I had to rush to get it out and the timing was a worry. Afterall, this was the Monday before Christmas! So the heat was on…
I got home and at 9pm, I was taking their credit card payment for the two airships and talking about shipping arrangements. They were going to set up the shipping on their end, but I needed to prepare the airships for transport, which meant building crates for them. Now, I’m pretty handy, but I’ve never built a crate before, and certainly not under these time constraints. I also really didn’t have a shed or building to build these crates in, which meant I had to pull things together even faster because, I had to drive to my mother’s place an hour and a half away to use her barn.
So after quickly putting together an extra stand so I had two, and taking seats out of my mini van, I carefully carried each airship out to my van, walking on ice and with snow blowing at midnight… By the time I had gathered all needed tools, supplies and personals, I left, arriving at my mother’s place at 2:30am.
I went immediately to bed, knowing that Christmas Eve day was going to be very, very busy!
More to come…please stay tuned…
Stephan J. Smith is the artist and sculptor at Artsmith Craftworks in Swartz Creek, MI. Using recycled and repurposed materials, Stephan builds a myriad of sculpted wonders, including fantastic and whimsical steampunk airships that have amazed and delighted fans for years. A passion for reusing and upcycling found items into beautiful and amazing art is what drives Stephan to make art that both teaches and inspires. Stephan also does commissioned work and is available to do talks and classes on repurposing/upcycling and may be reached at ArtSmithCraft@yahoo.com or by phone at 810-516-7381.No Comments
Posted in Papier-mâché, Recycled and Re-purposed, Sculpture, Steampunk
My first gallery/art store display!
07 Jun
As a quick post (I know I’m a bit delinquent in posting this past few weeks), I’d like to invite all my interwebs peeps to come and check out my steampunk airship display at The Artisan’s Bench in downtown Brighton, Michigan. This Friday night is their Late Grand Opening and my airships will be flying high over the celebration. Would love to see you there, or drop by any time to take a peek. The airships have been a big hit and the owner of the store was worried that we’d sell out of them before the Grand Opening event!
Artisan’s Bench front window
The first airship to sell!No Comments
Posted in Papier-mâché, Recycled and Re-purposed, Repurposed and Upcycled, Sculpture, Steampunk
Adding the stabilizer fins
07 Feb
In building the stabilizer fins for the steampunk diarama airship, I first had to choose a shape. On other ships, I’ve made them rounded, but I like the feeling of a scalloped fin. I’ve also made different scalloped fins before, with some being a solid fin with ribs and others having a support structure, to which was attached actual cloth sailcloth. For this small zeppelin, I decided on the former for its ease at this relatively small scale. This decided shape I then cut out of an index card stock I had lying around. To give them age and interest, I sponged them with a light brown watercolor (not pictured, sorry!)
Index stock fins cut out
I then had to make the ribs, and to make it simple, yet appealing, I decided to cut these out of a similar stock, but in this case, since they would be painted anyway, I decided to use cereal box cardboard and then paint them to contrast and have interest. Remember, I throw nothing away that may have a raw materials use when reused, repurposed or recycled!
Fin ribs cut from cereal box cardboard
I painted them by spraying a basic green enamel. I did this because a water-based paint would have been repelled by the coating on the cereal box. I then antiqued a patina on with a lighter water-based green acrylic, then applied to the fins.
Finished fins
After finishing the fins, I glued them at top and lower angled positions to the airship body with standard white glue and let them dry. To add another element of interest, I used dimensional paint to “dot” copper rivets on the fin ribs. I forgot to mention that I had done this to the propeller scaffolding as well. (How many of you noticed that?) So here’s the finished attachment…
Attached fins
Next time, I’ll show the process of building the gondola. It’ll be fun too, because it isn’t your run-of-the-mill boat shape!
Stay tuned…in fact, tell all your ‘punk friends to subscribe!No Comments
Posted in Recycled and Re-purposed, Sculpture, Steampunk
Airship nose and propeller shaft
24 Jan
I need to put a nose and tail cone on the diarama airship, so I used the same technique I use for my airship kits, which is to sart with a cut circle of card stock (I use old file folders). I then punch a hole in the center with a standard paper punch and with scissors, I cut about a quarter of the circle away. This then gets formed into a funnel shape, then glued with white glue. To make the nose spire, I used a painted wooden golf tee and pushed that through the nose cone, then attached it. The tail cone was made in the same way, but required a different structure beyond that because the tail also holds the scaffolding for the propeller.
Nose and tail cones in place
Next, I constructed the scaffolding for the propeller by cutting strips of cereal box cardboard, then gluing them into the appropriate shape. (Can you tell that I never throw away anything that might have an artistic use?!). When dry, they were sprayed with copper paint and antiqued with green acrylic paint, (seen in next photo).
Propeller scaffolding
A piece of repurposed plastic tube that used to be the guts of a click-type ball point pen serves as the propeller shaft when painted and attached to the tail cone of the airship. The scaffolding is then attached to the shaft and the sides of the airship body. White glue works fine for most pieces.
Scaffolding attached to the airship
Next time, I’ll show how to build a cool propeller for the zeppelin out of simple repurposed objects. Reusing and recycling can be easy and fun. Try some of these techniques to start a project with your kids. It’s a great way to find common ground with a teenager!5 Comments
Posted in Papier-mâché, Recycled and Re-purposed, Sculpture, Steampunk
Steampunk Airship Diarama
10 Jan
I have done many airships and those of you familiar with my workmay have seen them at World Steam Expo, which is sadly, no more :-(. This project is one that I wanted to approach a little differently. I still wanted to do an airship, but one that was the same style as those in my Airship Kits, but a little larger, more detailed and in a whimsical format that could have a place on a tabletop or a wall. What better way to accomplish that than in a diarama. You remember these from school, but you probably built yours in a cardboard box or an old shoebox. This airship diarama is built in an old dresser drawer that I put a base on and painted just for the occasion!
I started by scaling up my Airship Kit pattern and creating the cone ends of the airship body.
Airship body end pieces
These ends were then put together to form the body or envelope of the airship.
Assembled airship body
With the body assembled, the trim and detailing can begin. I began by using a watercolor wash to add some depth and interest to the surface of the airship body, then trailing on some veining that makes the surface look a little marbly, but fun.
To cover the cone joints, I used strips of cloth tape that I had painted with metallic copper acrylic paint, then applied them carefully and burnished them down.
Then, over the center seam, I used a strip of the same index stock I used to construct the original cones…a great way to reuse, re-purpose and recycle, since this is really old manilla file folder! This strip was then also painted with metallic copper acrylic paint and glued around the center if the body. “Rivets” were added using paint dots and the copper was given a patina with green paint. It’s cool what amazing art you can come up with if you just give it a little thought!
Details added
Next post, I’ll add more details and start building some other structures for the zeppelin.
What projects have you started for the New Year?No Comments
Posted in Recycled and Re-purposed, Sculpture, Steampunk
Airship Anastasia on Recyclart.org!
20 Jun 
Once again, my work has made it on Recyclart.org and I’m as excited as I can be! This site features art that uses upcycled/recycled and repurposed materials as the medium for some really cool things.
I’d love to hear your comments on the site and my work!