One of my customers sent this awesome picture of my squirrel head badge installed on a bicycle. I think it looks awesome!
Tag: headbadge
Bernie Sanders Head Badges!
I am feeling the Bern! So much so that I thought I would make a Bernie Sanders head badge so that bicyclists for Bernie can show their love of this amazing candidate.
The first step was to carve them out of wax.
Then I molded that wax carving into some special high temp silicone. I then cast them in either tin or pewter (each and every one comes out a little different, so far the tin ones seem a bit more shiny). The results have been pretty awesome!
They can be bent to fit on a bike, or left flat if you just want a shiny Bernie Sanders paperweight.
Every one comes out a bit different, but I like that, I might experiment with polishing them, but pewter and tin are very soft metals, and I don’t know if I have anything that delicate.
I am going to be selling them here, 27 dollars of every sale will be donated to the Sanders campaign. Get your own!
Corn Cog Badge Installed
Got these lovely pictures from a client I made a “corn” cog badge for. I really like the way this looks, and am glad that it fits so well on the new bike.
Making A Corn Cog Head Badge
Got this awesome design from a client, I was inspired to try something a little different, a multi-layered riveted design. It turned out better than I would have thought! I also did something different than I normally do and documented the process.
Start with a sheet of 22g brass and the design broken out into the layers.
Using rubber cement I attached the cut out designs on the brass sheet.
After they were cut out I filed and cut out the interior of the design, what you can’t see in this picture (but you can in the following) is where I etched the lines of the design in and filed the kernels of the corn.
the final cut outs with etching and filing.
Dry fitting getting ready for the riveting.
I did the rivets in two layers for strength and also so that they would fit better into the final design. I didn’t want rivets showing on every layer, but also wanted it to be strong, so there are three “hidden” rivets.
Five layers of brass is almost impossible to bend, so I annealed the metal to make it softer.
after a quick bath in the pickle it came out much softer and I was able to hammer it into shape with a plastic mallet. It also however is ugly from the fire scale.
After the initial hand polishing to get all the fire scale off and start the buffing process.
After an hour in the tumbler and some more buffing on a wheel it now has a high shine and glows gloriously in the sun. I really like the way this design came out, and it was fun using rivets instead of solder for a change.
Custom Bianchi Head Badge
Bronze Cat Badge
Hazel-Rah Rabbit Head Badge
Work In The Wild: Green Sugar Skull Headbadge
I made this green sugar skull headbadge a while ago, and finally got some pictures of it installed, rockin!
Custom Silver Star Trek Headbadge
When I got the specs for this I knew it was going to be a larger badge, and the client wanted it in silver, so I was stoked to see a nice big badge with some classy materials. I really like the way it came out, with the layers, and the oxide providing some nice depth. It feels good in your hand like a little shield, and the star trek logo on the front fits well and is centered well. The client designed it, I just fashioned it, but I am stoked the way it came out.
Compass Rose Head Badge Attached
Looks great! I am still super impressed with how this came out. Looks even better on the bike. More here.