crystalica.

I know it has been a while since I have made anything but it's just that I have been a little busy with other projects that I focused my time more on. When summer began, I said to myself that I would make more pieces, the end of summer came along and unfortunately I hadn't made anything. On one of my days off from work, I had nothing to do and all of a sudden I woke up very inspired from my sleep and began sketching right away.

This piece was inspired a lot by crystals and minerals which are always a huge inspiration for me because not only do they go hand in hand with my geometric style, but I am so fascinated with the structure of them and how something that is natural and comes from earth can be so perfectly structured.

Usually before I even begin to sketch a mask, I first think of a shape I want to utilize throughout my piece, simply to challenge myself to make it unique and more interesting. In this case I used only 2x4 inch rhombuses which were made out of two equilateral 60 60 60 triangles. As I began constructing my piece, I thought it would be interesting to incorporate a shape on the face that would draw attention so I decided to make a star that covered the eyes and simply revealed from the nose down.

 

As an add on to this series I also decided to make a neck collar that went with the mask. Overall I am very pleased with the outcome of these pieces and I hope you guys like it!

 

[Neck Collar]

[Final Result]

I'm not a robot but I feel like one.

Living in the present has never really been my thing. There are some people that say that they belong in a different era such as the 70s or some other time period that has already passed, I am kind of the opposite of that. My amusement of how every day we evolve and become a more advanced society in many different aspects is something that continues to grow. I wouldn't necessarily call my self a 'tech-wizard' but I am very much interested in modern objects and novelties. The future intrigues me so much because we all know what happened in the past, we are currently living in the present, but we never know what will happen a day or a year from now.

Having a geometric with a hint of futuristic designing style is what drew me to make my latest pieces. I have always loved fashion and when fashion week comes around I am that guy that wakes up at 4am in order to watch the live stream shows from Milan. Despite my passion for fashion, I cannot sew a zipper onto a piece of clothing to save my life but what I can do is create unique sculptures that catch the eye. For my next pieces I wanted to make something that wouldn't lie on a table or be in the corner of a room. I thought about making something wearable and came up with the idea of making a pair of masks. Since I had made a more basic mask in the past I was a little familiar with how the process worked out.

My mini mask collection is called Anubis, yes like the Egyptian God. Since my inspiration for these pieces came very much from ancient Egyptian structures, I thought it would be the perfect name. When looking through images of ancient Egypt I noticed that they used many different shapes just like I do when constructing a piece. My whole take on these pieces was to create something inspired by a historical era but giving it my very own futuristic take.

The process I go through while creating a mask is quite an elaborate one. One would think that I just start cutting little pieces of material and putting them together randomly, but this is not the case at all. First I seek inspiration from a source that is currently of my interest (in this case it was ancient Egypt). After doing a little research and finding out more about my inspiration, I start sketching and thinking of ways of creating something that exceeds my expectations but at the same time is possible to make. Once I have a rough design made, my geometry kit (such as my compass and protractor) becomes my best friend. My pieces are usually symmetrical therefore I work evenly from one side to the other. In this case the material that I used was a thin cardboard that I purchased at my local craft shop as the base. Despite the fact that most artists fear using hot glue because they believe that it is messy and looks bad, this is what I found to be more efficient while working with this material. Once I have the base of the mask at a finished state, I paint it to the color of my choice and finally put a coat of acrylic gel to give the mask texture and make it more sturdy.

So far I believe that these pieces have been the ones I enjoyed making the most. Despite the long and careful process, I was very pleased with the result and the fact that I turned my sculptures into something wearable. I collaborated with a friend of mine named Alejandro Abarca (who is a fashion designer) in order to shoot an editorial with his dresses and my masks. This just shows how you don't even have to know how to thread a needle in order to be in the fashion scene!

Here are a couple of more photos from the editorial.
Dresses: Alejandro Abarca
Photography: Kenove.
Masks: Kenove.
Models: Alexis, Venecia, & Kenove.

 

my other passion.

You could say that making things out of as many different materials as I can think of is definitely my passion but there is another passion that I have had for several years now which is photography. I was given my first film camera about six years ago and at first I just liked having it because it looked old-school and accessorized very well with my 'look'. I began taking my camera everywhere and when I eventually taught myself how to use it properly by setting up the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc I became obsessed with photographing pretty much everything I saw. A few years later I received an SLR digital camera from my parents as a gift and from that day I became best friends with my Canon Rebel XSI named 'Wallow' (as cheesy as that might sound, its true).

 

When I took a metals class last semester at SDSU, one of our projects was to make a reliquary out of metal that held a very precious object of yours. When I thought about reliquaries, chests and boxes came to my mind immediately (which is what most of my classmates made); I decided to take a different approach on this reliquary. Since photography was one of my passions, I wanted to make something that related to that so I came up with the idea of making a metal camera that held film. 

Making a camera out of metal that actually looked like a camera was not an easy process. I had to learn new metal-working techniques such as scoring and bending which was the most essential since I was working with a geometric figure that involved many straight angles. After I made the camera I wanted a clever way of housing my object so that it would not just be lying inside. I remembered that you are able to see the image of a negative film strip when it is help up against light, so I decided to make a window that let light through into the reliquary and hit the hanging film strip so that one would be able to view the image. Here is a photograph of the reliquary in action. Hope you guys like it!

Ingredients: Studs, Chains, and Metal.

When I was little I used to be a huge fan of this Japanese cartoon called 'Saint Seiya'. It was about a group of warriors that fought against other bad warriors in order to save the world. Each of these warriors wore an armor that represented an astrological sign or a constellation. One would think that while watching this cartoon, a little boy would be drawn to their heroic acts and would want to be a superhero himself. Well in my case I was drawn to something different, their armor.

I recently started working with metal, mainly copper. When we were assigned to make a 'neck-piece' for my metals class I decided to take a completely different approach. One of the techniques used in metalworking is sinking. This technique is one that I learned pretty quickly and to my surprise excelled at. Sinking which is when you anneal metal and then hammer it against a block of wood with a small circular hole to give it the shape of a bowl. I decided that for my 'neck-piece' I wanted to somehow incorporate this technique.

I started off by sinking a sheet of metal into a bowl but accidentally, my skills at this technique had failed and I had made an oval shaped bowl which was not my original idea. When I saw this bowl, it reminded me of some of the armors that the knights of the zodiac wore and I placed it on my shoulder and really liked how it looked. I duplicated this accidental process in order to make a second one and they resulted into two very cool shoulder pads made out of copper!

 [shoulder pads]

After having made these two parts of my piece, I worked more on the design and thought about how I would like my armor to look like if I was a warrior. Since I am very drawn to the whole 'punk look' I decided to incorporate studs and chains into this piece. After having sunk both pads to fit my shoulders, I applied texture using a texture hammer that I really liked and had previously used in my earrings that I made a while back. After giving the piece texture, I symmetrically placed eight small studs on each of the shoulder pads with a larger stud in the center. The smaller studs were studded by simply piercing small holes into the metal with a fine file and then setting them just like you would on fabric. The larger studs were a little trickier to set. Since they were going to lie in the center of each of the shoulder pads, I wanted them stand out from the smaller ones. The technique that I used here was bezel setting. The way I did this was by creating a square shaped bezel that would fit the stud, attach the bezel with solder, and then set the stud by using the bezel setting tools.

The next step was to figure out a way to have these heavy copper shoulder pads actually stay on my shoulders. I decided to use chains to do this. The chains worked out very well because with the help of some jump-rings I made out of copper wire, they held my piece together very securely. Just when I thought I was done with my piece, I saw it and it looked like it still needed something else; something like an emblem or symbol that would personalize the armor as my own. I designed a geometric pendant and decided to incorporate this into the piece by having it hang on the center of my chest.

The final step in the making of this piece was to give the copper a finish. I decided to give the shoulder pads a rustic looking finish. I did this by dipping the piece into the patina bath, which is a solution of chemicals that metalworkers use to change the pigment of their pieces. It only took a few minutes to get it to be the tint I wanted it to be. After this, my shoulder pads were completely finished and I was very pleased with the final result.

[me wearing the shoulder pads]

rings rings rings!

Whenever it comes to jewelry I don't usually even bother to attempt to find something that I like or would actually wear unless I make it. I guess you could say I am really picky about any kind of accessories because I don't really like things that draw people's attention, maybe that's just me. I like keeping my entire look from head to toe as simple yet well put together as I can. Recently I started opening up more and more to the whole idea of wearing more accessories such as watches, necklaces, and even rings.

Asos is currently my favorite online store at the moment after having recently purchased my chelsea boots that I never take off. I decided to browse through the accessories page to see what I found and to my surprise I found these two rings that I immediately fell in love with. The first one was a plain black dimension ring and the other one was a brass color wolf ring. I decided to order these and after a few weeks of waiting patiently I finally got them in the mail today! Can't wait to wear them tonight!!!
Here are a few pics of them:

 [Black Dimension Ring]

 [Wolf Head Ring]

*both rings were purchased at www.asos.com

D.I.Y. Balenciaga Geometric Silver Necklace.

I was browsing through some of my favorite lookbook's a while ago and came across Romain Le Cam's. I have always loved his simple yet unique style and I saw that on one of his looks, he was wearing a Balenciaga geometric necklace. Since I am crazy about geometric pretty much anything and I recently started creating jewelry, I decided to make my own version of this pendant that I will share of how to make!

[Original Balenciaga Pendant Worn by Romain Le Cam.]

 

What you will need:

• 18 gauge galvanized steel wire
• Wire Cutters
• Strong clamp & table
• Electric power drill (optional)
• Any chain of your choice

How to do it:
When one hears the word 'geometric', they automatically think of math and complexity and most times avoid it but this DIY is not complicated at all. Here's how to start:

• Cut two pieces of the wire (the length doesn't matter just make sure its at least longer than one foot)
• Put the two wires in the drill where the drill bit goes
• Clamp the other end of the wires to your table very securely
• Turn on drill and this will braid your wire (you can use more pieces of wire depending on how thick you want the pendant)
• Trim braided wire so that it measures to be one foot long
• Bend wire into the shape of the pendant
• Slip chain into the upper part of the chain
• Wear around your neck and look just as cool as me and Romain! 

Here are my results:

 

[you can also make the pendant out of any metallic material and even spray paint it any color you want since steel takes paint very well!]

manipulating metal.

Last semester I decided to take a jewelry and metals class. I have always been a huge fan of metal and was curious to how people were able to work with such a strong material. Rivets, texture hammers, torches, sinking, and many others were terms I had never even heard of in my entire life. The transition from and cutting cardboard with your x-acto knife to annealing a sheet of metal with a torch was intimidating at first but I was able to get used to it in no time.

Our first official project in that class was to create a series of earrings made out of copper sheet with a concurrent theme. Since my style is very geometric and I like making very sharp things it was a bit of a challenge designing three pairs of earrings that would not stab your neck or severely wound you. I was able to design and create something wearable but at the same time made something I was proud of. Here are some photos of my final product. Hope you like them!!!

[All earrings are available for sale. Contact me via email if interested in purchasing. kenovepd@gmail.com]

exploring the three-dimensional world.

Last year I took a class called three-dimensional design which was one of the general education requirements that I needed for my major (graphic design). The overall purpose of this class was to teach us artists and designers how to think outside of the two-dimensional world and explore the three-dimensional world. Even though most general ed classes tend to be a drag because most of the material that they teach you is useless, I actually enjoyed this one very much. Some introductory projects included building simple boxes and other three-dimensional structures. After having made a few models throughout the course of the class, I discovered that I really loved to make things out of illustration board.

Illustration board is basically a nicer version of thin cardboard. I am obsessed with making things with this material because it is very clean, easy to cut, and work with in general. It also comes in every color imaginable and if you want a custom color, it takes the application of paint very well. Here is a lamp I made for my final project in this class. It was constructed out of solid black sheets of illustration board, white vellum paper, balsa wood sticks to hold the panels together from the inside, and a light kit I purchased at the home depot.

[Lamp]

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collaboration with catwalk.

A little over a year ago when I first started making three-dimensional pieces I was scouted by a group of people that were producing a well known fashion show here in Tijuana called Catwalk Tijuana. The theme that they were going for in this edition of their fashion show was something along the lines of geometry and fashion. I have always been very drawn to the fashion industry myself and when I was approached to collaborate with them I simply had to take the offer.

My task was to create three pieces that would be used as props for their campaign ads. I was asked to make a prop for the background and two accessories; one for a male and one for a female model. Here are a few photos of the result.

[Clutch]

 

[Head-piece]

[Crystal Sculpture]

[Catwalk Ad Campaign]

catwalk photo & ad credit: Mario Aragon.