Science and Religion

The past couple weeks have been stressful with the sheer volume of work that has been coming at us, and I think I can look forward to another crazy week coming up soon. So, I'm taking the weekend to recharge my batteries and remember some of the projects that really had me excited.

The Buddha sat 14 inches from the lotus flower base to the top of his head. The bronzed wood box added about another 5 inches. The whole statue is made of modeling chocolate, brushed with edible  powder pigment to get a bronzed effect. The wood box is in fact a huge block of Rice Crispies. Time taken: approx. 18-20 hours.

This order was for a group of geneticists who study fruit flies. I actually had the rare opportunity to meet the clients who ordered this cake. When they told me what they had in mind, I let them know there would be fighting amongst the sculptors to get to make this one. Its sciencey, its anatomical, its creepy, cute, and gross (all at once,) and it freaked out the decorators, so I loved every second of this project. The little hairs are bits of floral wire. The same wire runs through the legs are the silhouette of one of the wings. The rest of it is solid white chocolate. Time taken: Approx. 16 hours.

Happy Birthday Spiderman

 The season finally of Cake Boss finally aired, so I can post these pictures now. I have to say, this cake had to be one of the funnest to work on. We had to put in extra hours to get all the characters done, but no one complained because we all wanted to do it. We even added some bonus characters that hadn't been asked for.

Kraven the Hunter, getting punched in the face.

Flail-Spidey on a string. He's gonna jump from a ledge and web-sling into action!

 

Venom! Oh, hey, and me back there... behind the blind guy.

A little blue sheen added to the skin to make him pop. (Mary Jane and Spidey making out in the background.)

Everybody's butts look so nice!

Mary Jane and Spiderman sharing a moment. I love how the whole idea of the cake was to tell a story. These two get placed on an actuator and rise up out of the mini subway and rubble. Seriously: The funnest cake ever.

Crouching Leopard, sparkly shoe

I thought this one turned our pretty cool. This leopard was about 10 inches long from tail to shoe. Sometimes... we get some really cool cake orders.

Fancy Nancy was complicated. There were so many details, she has about 5 dozen different outfits, CRAZY hair, and a giant head, but it turned out almost exactly how I wanted.

This is the most common type of order: a portrait piece, usually incorporating the customer's favorite thing, or something that represents them. We get photos of what they look like and what they're supposed to be wearing, and we sculpt them about 6 inches tall. I thought this one turned out especially nice.

Finally, its safe.

The season finally of Cake Boss and The Next Great Baker are finally over, so I can share some pictures of my favorite sculptures from last year that might have been seen on TV.

check out the concept art in the back.

All the guys couldn't stop staring at my bunny... not sure why.

I don't think this was ever shown, but the bunny was meant to go on a sample cake for NGB.

I've been working on a lot of exciting stuff for the bakery, but most of it I'm wary of putting up online until after its been delivered to the clients or aired on TV. So a lot of this stuff is old. Its also property of Carlo's Bake Shop. The new exciting stuff will just have to wait until I have permission to share.

The reference photo and the concept art behind the final sculpt

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A lot of our customers love to include their favorite team with their own special event.

A themed wedding cake. I only did the bride and groom dressed as their favorite superheros. Juan made the orange lantern.

An Overdue Update

Its been a while since I posted anything here. I keep forgetting that this is for all of my art projects, not just My Clementine, which has been put on hold while I pursue some potentially paying projects. My Clementine is not dead! Its just going to have to wait.  I should probably bring this page up to date.

Ok. Here's what I'm doing for pay right now:

These are just a few of the sculptures I've been making at Carlo's Bakery over the past two and a half years. They're made of modeling chocolate and edible pigment, and yes, except for the armature wire, they are entirely edible.

Iwo Jima monument

My own version of Max, from Where the Wild Things Are.

A giant, two foot tall, pink, glittery sparkle-donkey jumping over the rainbow.

another sparkle-donkey, only smaller, white, incandescent, and jumping over a puffy cloud.

Outside of work, I've been working with an author on a graphic novel called The Adventures  of Punch MacBolt and the Pirate Lovers. The first few sample pages and more info on the project can be seen on my other blog: http://punchmacbolt.blogspot.com/

Recondeconstruct

The graphic Novel, formerly called Choke,
is being renamed the My Clementine to avoid confusion with Chuck Palanuik's novel Choke which has a main character of the same name. David and I think this is a good change; it ties in with the theme of the story a lot better. Victor, the main character has gone through some severe changes as well in appearance; from the Tim Burton looking type of artist to maybe a bit more Hipster.... Hopefully he stays a likable character.

The plan is to publish the story as a short series with several books. Short teaser stories will precede the main story hopefully to help advertise and promote interest in publishers. A more formal website will be constructed later this year where you'll be able to view these samplers. (I hope)