Monday, March 22, 2010

Bad Motor-scooter

I have been spending a lot of time outside the studio because of track (I don't know if I have said on here before that I am an assistant track coach, pole vault). I am planning to step that back a bit, though, only coaching a couple days a week. There have been other projects as well, however. The biggest of which is this.

This is the 1982 Honda CM450e that I purchased a couple years ago. Up until three days ago it was the factory maroon in color. This weekend I spent almost two full days sanding it down to the bare metal. I really dig how the bare metal looks, but will be painting it; it doesn't look as good with the seat on it.

The seat covers the back fender too much. So the tank and side covers will be painted olive drab, which goes a bit deeper and a bit brighter with the clear coat on it. There will also be a black star on the side of the tank. Of course I may strip all that off again later if I decide I don't like it. I will do this for sure if I ever get a smaller seat. Obviously this is a project that will be going on for quite some time.


On the clay front I have been pumping out some mugs and such. These were photographed promptly after getting handles, and blogger then just as promptly turned the picture on its side. Why does it do that?

And here is one of a pair of planters (left) and a stack of very small bowls. The bowls were tests to fine tune the form. They each have a tallish trimmed foot that you cannot see due to their stacked nature. As such they remind me of a small set of stacked forms I did in college that had a similar shape...I wonder what ever happened to those.

And now I am off to put one more coat of primer on the bike's tank before I go to bed. More to come in the future. Tschus.

-Rob

post script - along with the motorcycle theme, check out Jesse Irwin's Motorcycle Don't Run Blues. Great stuff.

4 comments:

  1. i have a friend that refurbished the same honda motorcycle... he loves it. nice to see the cups all in a row. before i read the whole paragraph i thought the 3 stacked bowls was on piece.

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  2. your pots f##king kick AZZ buddy :) I love that type of handle too, and was making some the other day and a student asked how and I shared the SECRET of how to make them :)

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  3. Holy Hell, Boy! The bike looks sweet in brushed metal. How are you going to paint it? Have you thought about doing fake rivets or something to further the military/industrial theme? Also, with a smaller seat, how's your old lady gonna ride around town with you?
    The cups look nice, and the planters are cool. Give me a call sometime, I have a hair-brained scheme involving them.

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  4. Thanks all. Yeah, I was really diggin how it looked without paint, but not as much with that seat on. I hate that seat.
    I've got it all painted up now, and I put a new drive chain on yesterday. So now I am ready to roll. I took some pictures tonight but don't really have time to put them up (the wife is on me to do the dishes). Maybe tomorrow.
    Gary, thanks. Those handles have definitely become a favorite of mine. They just have a really nice weight and contour to them.

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