~Rajala

Metal works and more.

+Watch Send a Note Give

Profile

[x]

Aaaaughyeah!

Journal Entry: Tue Jan 11, 2011, 10:32 AM

I'd been away for a while and I was just about to quickly check if I had gotten any messages and BAM! Over 1400 waiting. I found out that this Fruit Bowl of mine had been added to daily deviations two days before. I must say that this was a most pleasant surprise. Thanks everyone!

As a gratitude I have three new art projects to display here, each with three pictures. Enjoy!

Broken but Not Hopeless

This head consists of papier mache on top of a steel grid structure. I'm quite fond of it because it displays well my fascination of not hiding hints about used material but instead exposing them as a greater advantage.

Due to the mentioned methods the head is hollow and this, of course with said object, is symbolic enough: on a quick glance you might seem doing alright but on the inside you feel empty and meaningless with heavy mental scars. What I especially want to express here is the hope in this situation. The smile on her face is not intended to hide the broken feeling. On the contrary, she still has a reason to smile though life has been hard on her. She has the will to learn from past mistakes and to carry her scars with dignity.

A Shred of Humanity

Faces have become fascinating to me in art. I particularly like when the used material is cold and lifeless but the face seems to be on the verge of moving and breathing. Well, for a metal artisan like me this approach is also most suitable.

Here I wanted to get a feeling of a frozen movement where steel stripes merge to form a head and maybe then to form a complete human being. A T1000 perhaps, heh!

The Elemental Face

Here I got a bit experimental. This is actually a triptych where in the middle is my self-made steel face in frames and on both sides photos of that said face being exposed to different elements. Yes, in the photos the face is actually frozen and burning. They were a bit tricky to execute but also absolutely fascinating. Yessss, I love to BURN and FREEZE stuff! Maybe next time I'll have an object that is both frozen and burning! Now that'd be tricky.

8 Comments

Listening to: KMFDM

Back Again

by ~Rajala, Oct 10, 2010, 1:10:12 AM
Journals / Personal

Sorry everyone that I haven't replied to your messages. I've been away from DA since my last journal entry in the beginning of Summer. There are a few reasons that I'd like to bring out.

First of all, while working as a blacksmith on the Summer and having seen a lot of people drop by to ask the same questions over and over again I just haven't had the will or the energy to be more social more than is necessary. This means that being social in the Net was out of question.

I've also been damn busy. First in Summer because of blacksmithing and later in August because of two other jobs I got. Through a friend of mine I got a post-production work for a video commercial that was a nice break from frustrating work at the forge. While doing that I also got an offer from the workshop of The Swedish Theater in Turku. The contract lasted a month and was really pleasant time.

The final reason for keeping quiet is the frustration I felt as a blacksmith. I have my limits with how much I can stand crowds. Forging began to feel obnoxious with the same methods being used time and time again. I felt like a factory worker who is being watched and bothered by bypassers. Because of this I've been wondering what I really want to do in the future. Getting a forge of my own doesn't sound too nice at the moment but I must examine my motives better before deciding anything.

Meanwile I've been thinking of an art project that I'd like to do and get on display in a gallery. Different faces done with different methods. Some need forging like the faces on 'Where the Damned Lie' so I won't be abandoning blacksmithing as a whole. I have the first face ready and presenting it here is the reason why I'm writing this. Doing art is inspiring and when I'm inspired I have a lot more motivation to be social here as well.

11 Comments

Listening to: Nitzer Ebb - That Total Age LP

School's Out

by ~Rajala, Jun 9, 2010, 4:19:25 AM
Journals / Personal

Last saturday I finally graduated. Now I'm officially a metal artisan. On this summer I'll be every second week in Kustavi doing traditional forging and on the meantime I'll make more spoons for sale. This could become the best summer in long time.

9 Comments

Mood: Thanks
Listening to: Birds and flies and other country noises

Mangoo music video now in youtube!

by ~Rajala, Nov 3, 2009, 5:38:18 AM
Journals / Personal

Check it out!

Mangoo - Only Silver. Done with a small budget and a small crew but with full devotion. I'm responsible for the lighting and post-production so I'm basically to blame for the visual looks. It took quite some time to finish the video but I fell it was worth it.

Some still images:
[link]
[link]
[link]

(Can't get the pictures or embeding the video to work but I don't care.)

9 Comments

Mood: Thanks
Listening to: Front 242
Eating: Chocolate cookies

A photo session with belly dancers

by ~Rajala, Mar 9, 2009, 6:34:20 AM
Journals / Personal

Mood: Artistic
Listening to: Revolting Cocks

A month ago I had a belly dancer group Elysium in my appartment to be photographed. I turned my living room into a small home studio and it worked well enough.

My sister - of whom I already have a photo in my gallery [link] - is one of those four so that's how I got this honour. They needed nice pictures to their website and for a poster and flyers for a show they're having this Spring. The website is still a bit unfinished like are some photos. I'll be submitting some of them to my gallery as they get ready.

The Elysium homepage (in Finnish): [link]

5 Comments

CNN and Apple of Death

by ~Rajala, Mar 6, 2009, 2:15:37 PM
Journals / Personal

Mood: Confused
Listening to: Sonic Youth

Just came to my attention that 'Apple of Death' was shown on CNN news about a mother being accused of the murder of her baby.

"Probably the most disturbing things are those pictures, those photos of skulls..." (And 'Apple of Death' is shown.)

[link]
(Copy-paste the link or you'll go to the CNN video main page.)

31 Comments

The Summer in Kustavi

by ~Rajala, Aug 11, 2008, 12:53:01 PM
Journals / Personal

Mood: Eager
Listening to: Portishead: Nylon Smile

Tomorrow I'll be back in school so this might be a good point to have an update about my summer activities.

Two of my friends worked in Kustavi (a nice little place on the south-west coast here in Finland) as blacksmiths in a popular place where there were other forms on handcraft as well (clay products, silver jewelry, candles...). I was their replacement on some weekends when they had to be somewhere else. I took my job seriously, as I always do, and worked hard to make various items for sale. Some examples can be seen in my gallery.

I learned a lot about forging while there. I think I understand now better how to manipulate hot iron and my hammering is getting more precise. I worked on some tecniques that were new to me. I'm also finally getting the idea of how to make good nails. At one point I thought forging nails was a real pain in the ass but just last weekend beside other forgings I made more than 30 nails with only couple failures. It is great to feel that I'm getting somewhere with all the effort.

7 Comments

No Rest for the Wicked

by ~Rajala, Jul 21, 2008, 11:12:18 AM
Journals / Personal

Mood: Tired
Listening to: Chastain: Child of Evermore
Eating: Chocolate
Drinking: Water

I had about 70 hours of work last week, my hands are sore from intensive hammering, my feet are tired from constant standing and I have mosquito bites all over my arms. Needless to say I'm dead tired but I actually like this feeling of having little energy left but still managing to continue with work.
I had ten more hours of work today but now I'm sitting comfortably in my living room and eating chocolate. 37 more hours of work before saturday and my first day off for two weeks. We'll be having a great picnic that day with cakes and muffins to eat and good music playing in the background. I'm looking forward to it.

I think it'll feel like a holiday when I get back to school.

6 Comments

Eight facts.

by ~Rajala, Sep 20, 2007, 7:05:15 AM
Journals / Personal

Listening to: Manowar: Blood of My Enemies

Taged by

1. I'm completely addicted to collecting records on both cd and vinyl (I prefer the later if I have a choice). Just in the last two weeks I've bought 19 cd's and 31 vinyls. And I'm out of shelf space already.
2. I've been composing music for about seven years now and during that time I've made numberous songs of various genres. None have ever been published even in the internet. Except for the score I made for a couple of my short movies that were shown at an indie tv channel five and half years ago.
3. A lot of people have told me their opinion about my shoes. Workbuddies and friends have laughed and admired, grannies have been terrified and doormen shown grim face. All this because my shoes - even sandals - have a hell of a lot of spikes and chains on them.
4. All the clothed I use are black except for underwear.

Though lately I've been thinking that a red leather jacked could be a nice investment.
5. Chocolate is one of my greatest passions. I even have soap with cocoa beans and shampoo with chocolate and vanilla.
6. I have a habit of slapping myself when I jawn. I tend to get some weird looks when I do that without warning.
7. My sneezings are really noisy. I've managed to frighten numberous people with those.

8. I've been told that I have some weird movements. Don't ordinary people move like ninjas and while standing collapse to lotus position and then stand up with one foot?

13 Comments

Journal History

Jan 11, 2011 Aaaaughyeah!
Oct 10, 2010 Back Again
Jun 9, 2010 School's Out
Nov 3, 2009 Mangoo music video now in youtube!
Mar 9, 2009 A photo session with belly dancers
Mar 6, 2009 CNN and Apple of Death
Aug 11, 2008 The Summer in Kustavi
Jul 21, 2008 No Rest for the Wicked
Sep 20, 2007 Eight facts.

Advertise | Premium Membership

Etiquette | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Copyright Policy