Barry Lee Hands engraved Steve Hoel from the Art Knife Invitational

[Barry Lee Hands]

Steve Hoel Medium Coke Bottle
3 1/8 inch ATS 34 boot blade
Black Jade handle material inlaid with gold
7 1/8 length over all
Engraved by Barry Lee Hands
The elegant black and gold renaissance leaf pattern set with diamonds perfectly complements the black jade inlay on this classic coke bottle.
The renaissance leaf pattern has been widely acclaimed, and to assure exclusivity, this will be the last Steve Hoel presentation folder of the renaissance series.
The T416 stainless frame features heavy relief carved and shaded 24k gold leaves set with 22 diamonds on the front and rear bolsters with a striking “black satin” background.
The black jade is also deeply inlaid with eighteen 24k gold renaissance leaves. “Gold inlaid jade” is a unique process developed by Barry, and this is the first and only appearance of this lavish decoration on black jade.
The bolsters and black jade are surrounded by a generous 1 mm square 24k raised gold border.
Finishing touches include five white diamonds set on the butt and twenty six white diamonds on the front of the frame above the ricasso.
Surrounding and framing the spine and belly is a gold rope border terminating in 4 white sapphires.

To be listed soon at www.knivesoflore.com

 

[Marrinan]

Frist let me say I finely get to be the first to say all the appropriate words. Great design and execution by make and engraver. Now-fantastic, beautiful, wow, awesome, flawless I will leave the rest of the descriptors to others. don't want to horde them all. Wonderful Job Barry-Fred

 

[Southern Custom]

Clean, simple and extremely elegant. Outstanding job but you knew that! I love to see work that I immediately know who did the job.
Layne Zuelke

 

[GTJC460]

A masterpiece if I ever saw one!!

 

[DakotaDocMartin]

Surrounding and framing the spine and belly is a gold rope border terminating in 4 white sapphires.

It's your usual excellent work of course. I was just wondering why you chose to mix a few white sapphires in with the diamonds?

 

[Barry Lee Hands]

Thank folks, I am glad you like it.

It's your usual excellent work of course. I was just wondering why you chose to mix a few white sapphires in with the diamonds?

Doc, I liked the very slight blue tint, so I used them in these almost hidden spots.

 

[jacoby pascal]

superbe,magnifique,travaille de grande qualité merci

 

[Doc Mark]

Barry, again you amaze! I never tire of seeing these wonderful creations. Someday I hope you will give a short tutorial on how you create those marvelous raised gold borders. How can you pound in the soft gold so that it flows into the undercuts and "teeth", without totally flattening the gold. It would seem that you would need to use an inordinate thickness of gold wire and then carefully trim off the "squashed" areas and then file the top flat (or round). What's the secret? "Inquiring minds want to know!"

 

[Barry Lee Hands]

Barry, again you amaze! I never tire of seeing these wonderful creations. Someday I hope you will give a short tutorial on how you create those marvelous raised gold borders. How can you pound in the soft gold so that it flows into the undercuts and "teeth", without totally flattening the gold. It would seem that you would need to use an inordinate thickness of gold wire and then carefully trim off the "squashed" areas and then file the top flat (or round). What's the secret? "Inquiring minds want to know!"

Mark, I use a flat .042 in wide to cut a channel about .015 in deep. Then I use the flat to raise teeth. Then I drag a 2mm round down the channel to roll the edges in.
Next I pound in 1 mm square wire(.039 in), and after it is in, I square it up with a flat on the sides, and sand the top flat.

 

[jetta77]

stunning work Barry, just amazing...

 

[Doc Mark]

Thanks Barry! I never would have thought of using the square wire to start. Very clever! I can't wait to try this on a suitable project. I apparently have been using too great a force to set my gold.

 

[Barry Lee Hands]

stunning work Barry, just amazing...

Thanks Jeff, I saw some of your work on a Rapp at the show- very clean.

 

[Montejano]

Hi Barry:

First my congratulations for your excellent work. Your gold inlay technique is very elegant and refined.:bow::bow::bow:

His works are an important reference.
Now I want to ask a question:
Why you have not used "golden thread" in the black jade? . In his other works, you used gold wire to attach the leaves.

Thanks and my sincere congratulations.

 

[Barry Lee Hands]

Most of the time I layout differently than is ordinarily done, as my designs are based on tessellation and Keplers laws of planetary motion, instead of the usual fractal based layouts used by most engravers.
I began to learn this method by studying MC Escher, who learned it by studying the mosque at Al Hambra in your country, Spain.
The layout is determined by arranging the elements, in a geometric arrangement, without stems, in this case leaves, then, if you want, later the stems fall into place.
The stems are not required, in my layout they come second to the leaf locations.
As in Escher, I like the design elements a lot, and I am getting a little bored with stems.
I like the way the leaves " blow" across the jade, as if moved by an invisible wind.

 

[Montejano]

Most of the time I layout differently than is ordinarily done, as my designs are based on tessellation and Keplers laws of planetary motion, instead of the usual fractal based layouts used by most engravers.
I began to learn this method by studying MC Escher, who learned it by studying the mosque at Al Hambra in your country, Spain.
The layout is determined by arranging the elements, in a geometric arrangement, without stems, in this case leaves, then, if you want, later the stems fall into place.
The stems are not required, in my layout they come second to the leaf locations.
As in Escher, I like the design elements a lot, and I am getting a little bored with stems.
I like the way the leaves " blow" across the jade, as if moved by an invisible wind.

----------------------

I like the way the leaves " blow" across the jade, as if moved by an invisible wind.
Thanks for the reply.
Each artist has their own feelings and motivations as expressed in the work.
I respect the way you express your art.
Best wishes.
Montejano

 

[Jesse Kaufman]

It is perfect.

 

[LVVP]

Barry,
Could you tell us couple words about "tessellation and Keplers laws", please.
Where can I find more information about this one, please

Thank you

By the way, amazing work, thanks

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

What a beauty Barry, the longer I look at it the less I would know how to start to give this a try. Thanks for showing.
Do I see it the right way , is the gold inlay in fact gold overlay? I mean is a higher level than the black jade or does it have a dropshadow?

arnaud

 

[Barry Lee Hands]

Arnaud, the gold on the steel is overlay, the gold in the jade is reverse sculpted inlay.

Barry,
Could you tell us couple words about "tessellation and Keplers laws", please.
Where can I find more information about this one, please

Thank you

By the way, amazing work, thanks

Vlad, you ask, Where can you find more info on this stuff? it is all over, but I figured this out by studying Escher, the mosques of Egypt, Kepler and Isaac Newton, the ruins in Greece and Rome, the Ufizzi and the Vatican museums, until I saw it everywhere, in buildings, in the patterns of cloth and carpet and wallpaper, and almost went mad with it-but in a nutshell:
This is a tessellated deductive layout; that is it is actually designed on a repeating hexagonal pattern and there are no point of origin (that would be fractal).
Instead the leaves prescribe elliptical orbits ( Keplers' laws of planetary motion) around points of gravity in the dark matter. (negative space)
in this case, everything orbits the hidden point of gravity outlined by the orbits forming a small curved triangle in the center:



Here is example of the original drawing, showing a detached tesselational hexagon at the bottom of the drawing:


and some additional experimental tesselational figures, of which the series at the bottom was the start of the previous drawing, and as you can see, no stems (or scrolls) are required:::



"The horror... the horror" - Colonel Kurtz

 

[bram ramon]

Beautiful work Barry!! Thanks for showing and explaining how you come to your ornamental designs! Interesting..