Helping Hand
I am constantly refining my process of using three-dimensional printing to create jewelry objects. The road is difficult as I explained in a previous post. I only offer high quality silver work and the three-dimensional printing has not come up to my standards in its ability to withstand the casting process. The dimensional printed silver castings come through the investment process looking terrible.
It is a process all big silver (and gold) cast jewelry makers are using, so it is a viable process with the right technique and investment in equipment. One jeweler in Bellingham, Washington, Jim Binnion (https://mokume-gane.com/about/jim-binnion/) Has a solution using vacuum curing of the resin master.
Jim and I have a very similar background (Navy duty, electronics) and even look the similar in appearance. But Jim is a true professional and teacher of the art and far advance from anything I will ever produce in jewelry. Follow the link (above) and look at the man and his mokume-gane work. I don’t place myself in the same league (or price range) as Jim, but it is clear to me we have the same inquisitive mind about the “why” of the things we do and make.
Jim and I have only briefly communicated. We don’t know each other beyond that. I think he deserves a mention here in KautzCraft Studio.
I am adapting his resin cure process and will be (hopefully) displaying my improved three-dimensional printing results here in KautzCraft Studio. There are Companion Links posted in the left column that will lead to my workshop activities – Dimensional Print and Dimensional Art, Studios.
KautzCraft is now involved in some very nice woodworking projects. My vision of my work is not limited by defined material restraints. I enjoy working with a great variety of base materials. Currently I am working on some carved wood boxes or chests. Chest is a fancy name for a box with a lid. Ha!
Jewelry and silverwork is still one of my hot areas of interest. That will continue for a long time.
However, I can do some very nice woodworking when I put my mind and skills to work. It’s another craft to which many people dedicate their lives. I was fortunate to have had a grandfather that fits that description. I know that he is the reason for my interest and skills.
Woodworking is different than basic construction carpentry. I can do either. I love the skills in construction carpentry as much as fine woodworking. One builds the space where the other one is kept. Occasionally they get joined together in the same project. It’s called finish carpentry. That’s another art form that’s all about the presentation.
Life’s Choices
I suppose I could have gone in that direction as a career, but I was born a boomer at the end of the industrial era. Shop work was a requirement when I was in junior high school, but was thrown out of the high schools when I arrived and moved into their own isolated cast system of separate facilities. All I can say is, “What were they thinking?” Like it or not, trades were soon called the “dummy schools” and the kids that chose or were directed there by so called “Career Councilors” were shunned by their academia peers. It was and still is a cultural disaster. It has taken 50 years to put pride back into making things.
I pursued the “Scientific” curriculum as I found it the most interesting, but I also really wanted to be making tangible things in a work shop.
Educators of the time must have thought it would be in the best interest of both worlds, but in my opinion it was a horrible separation of manual skills and academia. I can’t change the errors made in the past, but I can enjoy working in my own industrial workshop/art studio with the mindset of an scientific techno nerd. Ha!
Back On Track
Education systems eventually realized the error as they discovered Science and Technology advancement wasn’t a purely academic exercise. Some ONE has to make or create the hardware and systems that stem from the ideas and theories of science. In fact, STEM and STEAM are new acronyms for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. STEAM ads Art and Design to the list.
Today, working with your hands and your mind is the most well rounded career path and “making” is the new catch word to spur innovation and a prosperous future for our next generation.
Crafting jewelry with glass enameling is a slow and a bit tedious process but produces wonderful results. It is a beautiful way to add color variation to my silver cast items. Of course glass enameling can be applied to many other metals. I hope I can live long enough to try them all.
That’s not a fatalist statement. I am not on my way out any time soon as far as I know. I am just hinting at all the possibilities with glass enameling. Surely a full lifetime of opportunity exists.
I think what fascinates me as much as the results is the technique. It is a fusing process requiring high enough heat to melt glass. It is a very hot process requiring temperatures (in the process I am using now) of between 1400 to 1500 degrees Fahrenheit (F.) .
When I purchased my kiln, I had the idea if working with melting glass, so I picked one that can create temperatures over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit (F.) if required. I have had it up and over that temperature once. All my needs so far have been around 1300-1450 F. The kiln glows a fuzzy red on the inside at those temperatures. It is a bright yellow-white color above 2000 F.
Both silver casting and glass enameling are high heat process that I love to do. It is creation from heat that makes it something special to experience. At least for me.
I am sure the pottery and glass makers share the same experience of creating with high temperature. It is the wonder and fascination of working with a high heat process and how it differs from the normal temperatures we experience in our daily lives. Maybe bakers and cooks and weldors understand too.
It is the results of a high temperature process that are enjoyed by most people but understanding (and performing) the process is a form of appreciation and enjoyment for me. It fits well with my moto, “Doing what I love for those who love what I do.”
I recently read an intriguing definition of jewelry that called it “wearable art.” I am sure I have heard or read it many times before, but this time it seemed so appropriate after thinking about it for a while. While the word “Jewelry” may infer the use of jewels or gems, I prefer the broader interpretation of “wearable art”.
Jewelry really is an art form displayed on a person’s body. The wearer is making a statement that “I like this” and I want to share my opinion. There is certainly the opportunity of what and how it is worn will create some interaction and hopefully admiration. As with all forms of art, jewelry makes a visual and sometimes tactile statement about the owner.
Yes, jewelry can be used to flaunt wealth and status, and that too is a public statement. But jewelry is always worn for the personal reasons of the person; Sometimes modest and sometimes boldly. Hang it around your neck or poke it through your lip (or elsewhere) if that’s what you want to do.
What I am discussing is simply the fact that it is art on public display in a very personal way. It has some sort of expressional meaning to the wearer. Jewelry design is often symbolic and is worn as an indication of membership or faith. Design can be recognizable or abstract. There are no rules. Jewelry can be changed to alter the message.
This type of body art is wearable and does not impose the permanence of indelible inking. It allows for a change of mind and expression. It is portable and also transferable. It can easily be passed on through generations of human existence. Dread the thought, it can even be recycled.
For me as a creator, the art is in the design and making. Reasons for design are limitless. My enjoyment is in the freedom and expression, creating from raw materials with the durability to last for a very long time.
I look with wonder at discovered treasure. It is often some form of jewelry. It far outlives the original owner, but quietly says a lot about the person who made it and also the person who owned it. That is close to immortality even without a human name. The piece is what remains tangible and speaks for itself.
For what more grand a result can a local artist strive? There’s no harm in imagining…
I just received my “makers mark” 4/21/16 for my jewelry silver work. It is a custom with silver work (and I assume other metals) that the designer/craftsperson mark the work piece created, with a steel identification stamp. The impression design is chosen to be unique to the artist or craftsman.
I designed a stylized KC as shown in the graphic. It of course represents KautzCraft. The “leg” of the K is merged into the lower positioned back of the C. The logo is also used on the website as the favicon (icon) that is seen on the tab of the browser and in the “favorites” listing of most browsers.
Overall the stamp for silver marking is 2mm tall. That is not very much, as the intention is to identify the artist and not be a design feature of the piece. There is another mark I use and that is “.925” which is a recognized symbol for Sterling silver. (containing 92.5% pure silver). It is 1 mm tall.
The marks have a meaning and are intentional and even required when selling silver and calling it Sterling. I am conforming to the long established standards of quality and tradition. I feel it is an honor to leave my mark in this world.
Dan Kautz is an early “Baby Boomer” being born in December, 1946 in Youngstown, Ohio USA. His father, Dan Jr., came home from the war in Europe and almost immediately married and started a family - as many young couples did in that post war era.
Many of Dan’s extended family were craftsmen and some considered as formal artists back in his formative years of the 20th century. The creative desire to make things literally surrounded him. Dan took on many creative and technical hobbies and a love of working with tools and machines.
His main life-career centered on the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) industry. In the last phase of his career before retirement he worked almost 18 years in the buildings environmental energy management field. Dan earned professional credentials as a Certified Energy Manager, a Certified Business Energy Professional and a Certified Sustainable Development Professional. At age 68+ Dan retired from this long running, intensely satisfying, and important career area. Follow Dan’s professional career on Linkedin.
Today Dan has re-solidified his creative desires by establishing KautzCraft studio. His present focus is with Lost Wax Carving and Casting of personal jewelry and other collectable items. Taking earthy raw materials like metals or renewables like natural wood and creating heirloom quality articles is personally satisfying to Dan.
Follow Dan as he explores his artistic heritage and develops offerings for sale or just items of interest here in KautzCraft studio. There will be many interesting and tangible creations yet to come from the mind and hands of Dan Kautz.
Invention and Tangible Art
The KautzCraft Studio was established in 2009 in Frisco, Texas -- a growing community just north of Dallas.
Producing Inventive Arts and Craft creations has been an avocation for (me) owner Dan Kautz all my life. The avocation designation went away on 3/1/2015, as I entered retirement from my major occupation as an energy conservation engineer and large-scale project construction manager. The KautzCraft Studio now receives my daily attention.
A Cottage Industry
I didn’t think of what I am doing as an industry. Then I decided I should look up the published meaning of cottage industry. Actually it fits what I do exactly. Industry can be any size. Ha!
I am Dan Kautz, the one-person artist/craftsman that takes a design from conception to finish. I like to think my creations contain a small part of the creator as well as being a desired possession.
My studio is currently equipped for low volume production of small lost wax castings and the detailed finishing of my product. KautzCraft is not a high volume production studio.
In lost wax, making the wax master is the primary skill required. There are many more processing and finishing skills but the wax master is the most critical.
Most of my casting is in silver, but the process works with gold and many base metals. There is a list here in the website.
Current Processes
I use hand carving with good success. There is a lot of effort and fun in total hand carving and the results will always have a bit of the hand carved look. This is a good thing, so I hand carve because I want to include a little of that handmade look. There are many techniques for making excellent hand carved wax masters. My original instructor, with a lifetime of wax carving, impressed me from the start with her high quality hand carvings and hot wax built up wax application work for the jewelry industry. Hand carving and its many variations is a good process.
I have developed CAD/CAM machine wax carving. With the computer providing the exact moves, I can produce very detailed and exact wax masters. This is my favored way of wax carving for high detail and precision. It is one method of repeat production within my small studio. The process provides for precise duplication but is very slow for that purpose. Today, dimensional wax machining is a very accepted and the most common commercial practice for producing wax masters. (3D printing is also making inroads.)
Inventory
I presently have a very small inventory of finished "standard" items available for immediate sale. That is changing. I have just made an investment in new wax injection equipment that will increase my production volume and speed in precision wax duplication. This will create more available inventory and reduce the customer purchase cost of popular items while allowing time for custom design. It permits making multiple small items like charms and small pendants at a reasonable price. I won't spend as much time making duplicates.
Other Work
As you have read above, my joy is with lost wax carving and casting. However, a a practicing craftsman for over 50 years, I produce many more types of desirable quality items in addition to lost wax silver casting. I have highlighted a few of them at the bottom of this home page. My interests and skills lie within both woodworking and metalcraft and my workshop / studio accommodates many types of material crafting.
This introduction to the Kautzcraft Studio is subtitled Invention and Tangible Art as that is my intention. I “invent” or create uncommon things I find interesting to own or have for the sake of the creation. To me everything I make is a type of artistic expression.
The Future
I am open to any process and my methods will change or be augmented as I continue to explore the many options. If you would like to purchase anything I currently make or have a custom design idea, just send me an email. The link is at the top of the page.
Present activity is dominated with investigations of creative processes and fullfilling custom orders. It's a wonderful time.
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