A little old fashioned stitchwork

[David Sandidge]

Check out this project that I'm finally getting finished. It has taken up about 4 months of my time. I shipped most of it here to Hong Kong in a wooden crate and am assembling it now to be ready for the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland. This piece stands 32" tall. Some of you have said that you don't like doing stitchwork. I hope that I don't have to do another one of these for awhile. The price is $50K and we expect to sell it.


http://www.artistinglass.com/castle%20gallery.htm

[Julian]

Wow... thats awesome.
Amazing. NOW, I wish I'd listened when Homer Hoyt was trying to tell me how to make birds nests!

[Vapor Glass]

wow that its nutz!!!! dedication!

[Glassbackwards]

Amazing

[jusbag]

very cool! best use of stitchwork I have ever seen :).

[3 rip min]

wow... you have mad skills... your gallery is awesome....

[Greymatter Glass]

.....wow....

[NUBBLET]

Stitch work ? Is it the same as crocheting ? Take a rod and loop it continuously 0_0_0_ , but the loops touch .

Very sweet no matter what , crochet is hard ass work . I at six , at the Oregon State Fair , saw my first glassblower , he was making a crochet 18 wheeler , with turning wheels and removable trailor ... , I watched for hours , even didnt hear the paging system , just enthralled , they were starting to close all the exits off and go through and search for me , then I realized I was alone . Samething happened to me at Disneyland , when I saw the tree house , I went straight for it , that time they found me before I realized I was "lost" .

[Monkythrowpoop]

Amazing, David. I can't imagine the time and effort that must have gone into that thing. Great work.

Ben

[gypsea]

totally awesome work david.....did you ever know Richard (Dick) McCleary? he taught me glass.....and he made 2 similar giant castles for disneyland and disney world back in the late 70's. i was just beginning learning, and he let me make one of the small turrets, it was so cool to be able to be a small part of something so colossal.....

[David Sandidge]

Thanks for the compliments. Making this castle took a lot of dedication. I have to give some credit to Miguel Arribas Jr. and Marc Deli who helped me. Miguel made some parts that I didn't have time to finish before I left Florida in April, and Marc began this project by making a plastic model from the castle plans. This being my first casle of this size, I learned a lot about engineering such a piece. Most of the walls are doulbe layered and the towers all have a support stucture built within. The whole castle assembles in 9 different pieces. It can be repackaged and shipped then reassemled elsewhere except for the finials and flags which would have to be reattached on site. I guess I would just have to travel with it.
Arribas has had other artists make big castles. I don't personally know all of them. Miguel Bonia of Tecate Mexico made the largest one for Tokyo Disneyland 15 years ago. We will be making another for our Crystal Arts shop in Disney World Florida. We just sold that shops castle a month ago for $25K.
There are very few places where you can still go and find large stitched pieces done well. This technique is just not done or taught in the U.S. anymore. It is quite difficult to master. Many glassblowers have expressed a dislike for this type of work. Although I find it to be repetitious, it is very challenging to make a structure like this uniform, straight, and strong. I began my career doing stitchwork making pianos and other such production items and although I really don't do much of it anymore, after making this piece I rather enjoy it all over again. I look forward to working on other castles and perhaps other complicated structures.
If anyone is interested in more information on this and many other stitching techniques, I would be glad to help.

[steven p selchow]

damn..that is big. I've done five or six castles, but not that big. The stich work looks tight from a distance. I just did a lace sailboat using boro sheet glass for the sails, one compliments the other, especially if you add a stipe of sandblast on the sail or somewhere else. After doing ten thousand pianos for jerry hall, I hear ya, but its still fun if you can do it good.

congrats David...

Steve

[onion]

ive never eve heard of this, would you possibly post some sort of informative links, or maybe a bit more eye candy :D

[Breed]

There is a good chapter on it in Homer Hoyt's book.

[onion]

lol to bad im sooo broke

[vetropod]

Wow. That is nuts!

[Mr. Smiley]

Shazam!

Very nice David. I'm out by Disney too. I'm the guy you met at Ron Jr's a while back. I've seen the big castle out at the Crystal shop... very cool that it sold. I wish I could see this one in real life, but I don't think I'm leaving the country to do it- LOL

Take care!

[David Sandidge]

I remember you Brent. Lets get together for a beer sometime after I return home in Sept. It's been a long trip since April 1st. I've been in 7 countries and blown glass in 6. It's been a great experience, I've met a lot of people and made a lot of friends, I've seen first had many other cultures and custums and today I even saw the inside of a Chinese police station. No trouble for me although those people make me nervous. I have to say, there's nothing like life in the US. We shouldn't take it for granted. We've really got it better than most. I also would like to say that all chinese glass factories are not the hell holes that everyone thinks they are. I went to the beach today with about 40 chinese glass blowers and they are some of the happiest factory workers I've ever seen. The factory owners paid for everything including hotel and food. These young people all come from very poor regions of china and are given a room, food, skill, and are able to save money to send home to their poor families. The factory was clean, safe, and they make no pipes or dilys. They make merchandise that American workers don't want to and they have better attitudes and work ethics than any American factory workers I've ever seen and they do it for a fraction of the cost. They're simply happy to have the jobs. The American market wants cheaper goods and they want quality products. I'm sorry to say to some of you that some of the chinese manufacturors can and do provide just that. I don't know what the answer is for those of you that have a beef with china other than to say that if you want to compete, you must innovate at a cheaper price.