Grant Diffendaffer |

01 Apr Capitol Theater at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum

Posted at 18:42h in collaborative projects, Five Ton Crane

I'm fresh back from Washington D.C., where I attended several days of festivities for the opening of "No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man." An incredible time was had by all. If you read my last post, you know that my creative colleagues in Five...

16 Feb Craft Processes: Digital Manual Hybrids with Scientific Art Studio

Posted at 12:35h in Digital Modeling & Fabrication

I can't get over these incredible lifelike sculptures made by combining traditional sculpture techniques with digital modeling and prototyping. Artist Rey Hernandez has published a fascinating expose on his techniques. Peek inside Scientific Art Studio and see how they created the Animal Learning Plaza for the San Francisco Zoo. Envisioned as tactile exhibits, photos give scant clues that the sculptures are not living and breathing. [gallery type="rectangular" link="none" ids="2496,2512"] [gallery type="rectangular" link="none" ids="2497,2498,2499"] It may be that not every home needs a 3D printer, but Rey aptly demonstrates the advantages conferred to artists by digital design. After designing in Zbrush, the models are either 3D printed, or cut from foam on CNC machinery, then cast in bronze, concrete, or resin. Note the intermediary clay model: [gallery type="rectangular" link="none" ids="2514,2517,2508"]

01 Apr Rayguns Under Construction

Posted at 12:02h in Sculpture

In 2009 I created two sets of retro styled rayguns. One went to the Fuller Craft Museum and the other was installed in the Raygun Gothic Rocketship. I've posted a gallery of images from the construction process to my new Polymer Clay Beads facebook page...

24 Nov Raygun Gothic Rocketship Media Roundup

Posted at 06:00h in collaborative projects

As the year winds down, I'm reflecting on what an amazing one it has been. With workshops across Europe, a group show in a museum, and the honor to have been involved with the Raygun Gothic Rocketship, it was a summer that will be hard...

04 Aug Relics of the Raygun Gothic

Posted at 11:56h in Grant Diffendaffer Design

I'm back from my teaching trip to Europe and have been buried in the studio producing these retro rayguns. Check out this video and come see them at the Fuller Craft Museum from August 8th to November 18th....

16 Apr Dan Cormier’s Raygun Gothic Childhood

Posted at 10:05h in The Artists of "Polymer Clay Beads"

It was an innocent time when humanity's apparent path of forward progress was most purely symbolized by it's inevitable arc upward and outward to the stars. Sleek and stylish rocketships carried our imaginations in soft force fields of anti-gravity cushioned comfort to a future where...

11 Mar The Raygun Gothic Rocketship…part 1

Posted at 12:11h in collaborative projects

It's that time again folks. The makers that brought you the Steampunk Treehouse have been busy imagineering. An incredible community was built around the construction of this piece of art and now it's time for us to build something new. Something big. Something sleek and...

13 Oct The Cat’s Cradle

Posted at 09:32h in Inspiration

I came across this one night in the middle of the desert. If I hadn't been drawn in by the visual stickiness of it all, then I would have been hypnotized into its trap by the strange audio reverberations surrounding it. People swung and fell,...