This is a sketch I keep revisiting. Creating links. When I first really beginning to try to work with my hands I struggled with the basics. How does this connect to that? I realized I knew very little and discovering I could create a joint with the laser cutter and thread a dowel through them was really exciting.

I’m not entirely sure why I like them so much.  Nevertheless, I keep coming back to it. Some projects, like designing action figures or building guitars, or these links, are in a constant orbit.

In graduate school I would weave laser cut wood shapes with a dowel as I watched TV before bed. In Art Grad school there is a lot of pressure to always be producing work so once my brain was fried and I was done I still managed to make something and that thought made me less stressed.

More recently I thread 3D printed roller joints with binding barrels. If you see a bicycle chain in this that makes sense because I based the design initially off of the roller joint on my bike.

I have done this exercise many times experimenting with the shape of the connection and the layers. Graduate school always asked us to create links and through-lines with our work. ‘Why do you do the things you do?’ was the question. Which became increasingly more difficult as time went on. I would think I knew and then later be unsure. Perhaps I will revisit this post later with a clear connection to the rest of my work. For now, I’m okay with saying, I just like to do them.