2011 is here.

The Iron Monkeys are alive and well.

We started the year out showing off some of our art. On New Years Eve we were invited to show 2 Zen Gardens at Tacoma's First Night celebration. Children and adults alike got to play with fire. They seemed to love us (but could have just loved the heat since it was like 30 degrees outside).

We are now working out the details for our project which we hope to take to this coming years Burning Man. We have several designs and ideas so far and will have a final design and concept by the end of January (along with a grant proposal, budget, and the need for a drink). Check back here or on our website.

Burning Man 2010

Burning Man 2010

Burning Man 2010

More fun than a barrel

What are you doing on Saturday night?

As many of you know, the Iron Monkeys have been working hard for the past 5 months building The Crossroads, which is our contribution to Black Rock City this year. The Crossroads is a 40’ steel and fire courtyard, and is by far the largest and most involved project we have undertaken and we are tr...emendously excited to bring it to the playa.

Also, it costs a hell of a lot of money to make.

This coming Saturday night we would like to invite you to come down to the shop for some early evening festivities and a bit of fundraising. We will have the shop up and running so you can see how we make pretty things out of steel. Also, a lot of The Crossroads will be set up out front of the building, so if you missed the fountain at Critical Massive, or want to see how how the project has evolved since then, this is your last chance to sneak a peak before TEITD. We will have the fountain turned on, a couple of columns connected by an archway, and a Zen Fire Garden up and running.

In the interest of supporting the grand diversity of our community, we have a number of ways you can contribute to our fundraising goals:

* We will have a yummy keg of Georgetown brew and just like back in college, we will be accepting donations in exchange for a classic red keg cup which you can reuse throughout the night.
* Cold hard cash or check. Anyone who donates some cashola to the Iron Monkeys will receive a Monkey made scroll pendant. We will be making the darn things right in front of you! Also, if you have already been so kind as to donate to us come on down and let us know. We will hook you up.
* Own a piece of Iron Monkey history! We will be auctioning off one of the three Zen Fire Gardens we are making for The Crossroads. This is a 6-sided steel bowl filled with sand and piped for propane. When on fire, designs can be drawn in the sand creating toasty warm awesomeness. Starting bid is $400. Delivery of the Zen Garden will be after playa. ;-)
* If you can’t make it down but would still like to drop us a few bones you can contribute via Chip-In. http://thecrossroads.chipin.com/the-crossroads
And let us just send a huge THANK YOU to those of you who have already contributed. You = Rock!

Saturday is also the Georgetown Art Walk which means that the whole neighborhood will be full of art, and a number of the other artist in Equinox Studios (where the shop is) will have their doors open. Can your artistic self really afford *not* to attend?

Let’s recap: beer, art, Monkeys, cool power hammer, art, music (yes, we somehow managed to find a DJ), beer, art.

Here is the nitty gritty -
Where: Equinox Studios, 6555 5th Ave S. http://www.equinoxstudios.org/index.html
When: Saturday, August 14th. 5:30pm - 9:30pm
Why: So you can say you saw it first, and that you are a part of The Crossroads

We are excited to open up the shop for ya’all to come take a look. We promise to be filthy and friendly.

Hope to see you Saturday!

The Iron Monkeys -
(2010 Monkey Crew) Tabasco, Alex, T-Bone, Cyra, Kay, Karla, Medic, Kristen, Mark, Steph, Misty, Deanna, Chris, Ryan, Elana, Brian, Gigantic Dave, Just David “Faust”, Cheryl, Scott

Making a finger and then a hand

It was a Busy weekend with 9 people in the shop working like a bunch of bee's.

This included some "tester" monkeys" More Dave is below.

And Just David

Medic using the slip hammer to make some tapers.

Alex is working on making scrolls

Karla is wire brushing a finger getting it ready to add scrolls

Brian is welding on some scrolls for the bone structure

The center line of the bone structure

And the Finger comes together.

another work batch of work photo's

hopefully we will have some great things to show soon, but until then here are pictures of us working.

im blog 6-15-09

working on the egg

The outline for the egg, about 9 1/2' tall

Starting to weld up the frame of the egg. Our current plan is to do it in three pieces, bottom and left and right.

Our first attemp to skin it.... we have since moved on and are trying some new ideas

We have the right idea but not sure we have the best way yet. I will be getting some new steel this week and we will figure it out.....

Work collage from the weekend of May 17th

This weekend we were finalizing the position of the hand using a ring that is close to the size of the egg at the point the hand is grabbing it.

Medic and Cyra are working on some of the rings for the egg

Tapers and scrolls being made for the finger bones
Kirsten, Kay and Alex

Kay and Kirsten making hoops for the egg using the rolling mill

Karla tapering and Ryan working in the back ground

Scape goat (Garwood) working out some measurements for the bone scrolls

Chris Concentrating

New Monkeys trying out the shop

Cyra Grinding

Alex and Cyra doing some forming

Ryan doing some grinding

Alex making large rings for the egg