Custom Canoe Paddles!

Here are three canoe paddles that were burned as Christmas gifts: a treeline, a turtle inspired by Native artwork, and a Brook Trout! All three have the initials of the recipient burned with a design of crossing arrows. Those who commissioned me for the artwork had each paddle made to size based on the person's height. I was glad I could do my part for these thoughtful gifts!

Best,

Adam Grant
Man of Craft

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Starfleet!

Hey Everyone!

I'm working on some magnetic buttons, and the first to be made is very special: a Starfleet com-badge! Now with a quick tap, I can communicate with the bridge, engineering, or maybe the pizza delivery guy down in the lobby!

Best,

Adam Grant
Man of Craft

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Gifts of My Hands - Gift Show! Pt. 2

Hello, hello!

Back in December, Man of Craft participated in the Gifts Of My Hands gift show. Myself and the First Lady of Craft* had a super time interacting with all of the attendees and vendors.

This was Man of Craft's very first gift show in Toronto, and I was very fortunate to have been invited by organizer and fellow vendor Nici Shipway. Nici found me on Etsy and asked if I would like to participate. Of course!

There were a lot of family and friends that showed up to support me, and I thank you all very much! I was able to showcase my wares to a much larger audience, and I had a great time doing it.

I was able to sell some product, take some orders and get the ol' name out there. Yes!

Here are a few images of myself and the setup from the event. I totally forgot to take pictures, so I've also included some product pics taken from before the show.

*Without whom much of what I do wouldn't be possible. Thank you!

Best,

Adam Grant
Man of Craft

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New Diggs - Getting Set Up

Hiya!

So I've recently moved from Parkdale to the Glen Park area (still Toronto, yeah!), and with that move came a lot of disturbance to the craft 'Force'. The new work area is almost set up and ready to go. I'm looking forward to getting back into it, and the Gifts Of My Hands gift show coming up on December 15th will give me a lot of reason to burn my butt off. :O (not literally!)

Best,

 

Adam Grant

Man of Craft

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Gifts Of My Hands - Gift Show! Pt. 1

Hello MOC followers!!

I will be a vendor at an upcoming gifts show in December, called Gifts Of My Hands. It will be my very first gift show, and will be held on Saturday, December 15th, at the Sorauren Park Fieldhouse!

Although I know that December can be one of the busiest months of the year, I would like to invite you to come to the show, and hope you are able to attend. With all the other talented artists and crafters also present, it would be amazing to have some support by way of seeing your happy faces. :D

If you are intending on attending, please print out THIS FLYER and bring to the event. Not only does it give you all the information you need on when/how to get there, but each one of you that brings one of these flyers to the show will let the organizers know that I've invited you (it has my name in the bottom right hand box). If I bring in the most support the cost of my table at the show will be paid for!

Here is a link to the event page online, so you can take a look through and see who else will be there besides Man of Craft: Gifts of My Hands Vendors

There should be a lot to choose from, and you'll be able to pick up some amazing and unique gifts for the holidays!

WHEN: December 15th 2012 from 11:00 am until 6:00pm
WHERE: Sorauren Park Fieldhouse (50 Wabash Ave) Both floors
CITY: Toronto, ON

I would LOVE to see you there!

Best,

Adam Grant
Man of Craft

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Guitar anyone?

Hey Everybody!

Over the past couple of months, in amongst work and life, I've been trying out a different application for my burning. I was asked by a friend of mine, Jon, who plays guitar in a band called Jo Jo Gun & The Bullets (Myspace) (FB Page) (one of his musical incarnations), to burn a design onto the wooden pick-guard he has for his guitar. I was quite happy to oblige!

The design was drawn from scratch and it went through a few different incarnations before everything seemed right, and the green light was given to burn away! The burning was a little slow-going, as the pre-existing finish had seeped into the grain of the wood. This meant that my pyrography tools had to kind of 'plow' through the finish to get to the burning point.

Here are a few images showing the progression from beginning to end:

After sanding off the existing finish, there's a
nice clean canvas to work with.

Here was the beginning of the first concept.
The latin wording is VERA - Truth,
SPES - Hope, AMOR - Love, ARS - Art.
The text was a little crammed together, so
another version was needed.

This next positioning had the beginnings of
the text taking over the piece, so this one was
scrapped as well. 

And here is the rough draft of the final version,
complete with more focus on the floral design.

Then I used my natural light box (the sun, plus an
open window) to help in inking the final draft.

After the design has been transferred to the
pick-guard.

And now a series of details from the more or less
final burned piece. (before finishing)

Rough approximate lines were added to show
where the volume and tuning knobs were going
to be.

Pre-finished, after burning. The text was added
after this pic was taken.

And the final product! Lovely!

I hope to have some images of the guard on Jon's guitar in the near future. When I get them, make no doubt they'll be posted that very night!

Buoyed from the success of the first one, I did another pick-guard for my very own guitar. This one was a little easier to burn, as the basswood was unfinished to start with. It was also a little smaller, as the guitar is a Les-Paul style. One of the challenges for this project was that the guard I have is plastic, and so a new one needed to be cut and shaped out of some 3/8" basswood. No problem though, using some hand tools and a little patience in cutting and sanding.

I chose a honey bee and honeycomb design 'bee'cause of how awesome honey bees are. I mean, come on... all kinds of amazing.

On the left is the original guard made from plastic. The other
two to its right are made from the same piece of basswood,
although they do look slightly different in colouring.

Bee design transferred onto the wood.

All finished burning. The design always looks
a little darker before it is finished with polyurethane.

And the final piece on the guitar. Whenever I play
now, I feel the mighty power of the honey bee, guiding
me towards unrivalled fret-board mastery! :O

There we go! A couple new projects completed in my pyrographic journey. I keep having a blast doing this, so there will be plenty more to come.

Later, folks!

Best,

Adam Grant

Man of Craft

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Early Pyro

A showcase of early burning.

Buckles

These two buckles were the second and third ones ever made.
The 'hand burned' is pretty straightforward to understand, but
the VSS is in homage to the Varsity Sports Store where I work.
As you can see, the first two images were taken just after the
burning was done, and the last is after stain and finish were applied.

Next, I decided to experiment with acrylic paints, buckles for people I knew, and more complex designs.

Shown here are unfinished versions of four soon-to-be buckles.
Three of these will be discussed in the next photo, but the JoJo
Gun buckle is for a friend's band, called... JoJo Gun and the Bullets.

As you can see, I'm a fan of Toronto sports teams! Good or bad,
I cheer for them every year! While the 'LEAFS' was fairly easy,
the Jays design was more challenging and detailed. I was happy
with how it turned out! (and people often ask me where I got it
from :P) My friend Alex and I are in a band called ALPHABAND!

River City is taken from a sweet video game called River City
Ransom, and was done on Basswood, and acrylic paint was used
as the colour. The 'BOOKSTARS' buckle was done on an African
wood called Bubinga, and is one of the first buckles done on a
wood that I didn't need to stain, as the natural colour is quite nice.
Also, if you don't know the Bookstars, you don't know softball!

My confidence was growing, and I took this opportunity to give to a charity golf tournament that I wasn't able to attend this year. My old friend Dave Waller, passed away in 2008, and each year that passes is a year that is without an amazing person. In lieu of attending, I donated a belt buckle and cufflinks set for their annual fundraising raffle. I was happy to give and I can only hope that the set raised some funds for their causes!

These were my first cufflinks! Miss you, Dave! These were
burned on Bubinga, and finished with a semi-gloss clear coat.

Around this time I attended TCAF here in the City. It was amazing just walking around seeing all the talented comics artists! I was tasked to meet a few of my GF's favourite webcomics while I was there, which was pretty fun, but a little nerve racking for this guy being as shy as I am sometimes.

One of the artists was the talented Erika Moen (of Dar, and Bucko fame to name just two). After a signing mix-up, in which the wrong name was written in one of her books (totally my fault), I came back on day two of the festival and brought her her very own Bucko! belt buckle! (a crowning achievement on my part, I thought). She was wonderfully appreciative, and told me that she'd link my Etsy shop in her blog, which she did! Amazing! Now here's my chance to repay the favour, although she may have a few more blog readers than I do at this point... just a few. :P

Bucko, was burned on Bubinga, has some red acrylic paint
and was finished with a clear matte spray.

Pins

I didn't make too many during this time period, but I'll show you them anyways!

Unstained versions of a Leafs pin and some specs pins. The
writing on the specs pin is 'They're real, and they're SPEC-tacular!'
The 'DAVE' buckle was made for my Bro. 

This dude was made before a friend and I went to a Leafs game
this past season... it didn't help them make the playoffs unfortunately.
An azure coloured stain was applied, and a white acrylic was used inside
the leaf.

Okay! That's enough of the early pyro section. :) Next up, my foray into Etsy!

Best,

Adam Grant

Man of Craft

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