"Shattered" - Toy's Journey from SecondLife® Mesh to Real Life Bronze
Toy realizes the importance for art lovers to know as much as possible about the art and artist to establish a greater affinity and love for the art. As such, this page provides interested buyers a history of Toy's journey to creating his first bronze cast statue.
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Over the past three years since 2012 Toy has created several 3D mesh art sculptures as part of the SL Art he has loved to create and offer to the SL art loving community. Many of his sculptured works are infused with either a story or emotion he wanted to capture in 3D form. The popularity of his artworks in the SL community is a humbling confirmation that his sculptures have been expressing their intend story / emotion to their audiences.
Toy enjoy all his works but he will admit that his personal favorite has been his creation of SHATTERED. You see a photo of Shattered in SL as both a 3D sculpture and 2D wall art as it stands in Toy's Art Gallery.
To the left you see how the original 3D model appears within Toy's 3D modeling tool - with its originally envisioned bronze texture and color. This image is at high resolution - something not as possible to attain in SL without impacting the Land Impact costs on the SL grid. Toy had always hoped if a SL sculpture became RL, it would be Shattered.
Toy enjoy all his works but he will admit that his personal favorite has been his creation of SHATTERED. You see a photo of Shattered in SL as both a 3D sculpture and 2D wall art as it stands in Toy's Art Gallery.
To the left you see how the original 3D model appears within Toy's 3D modeling tool - with its originally envisioned bronze texture and color. This image is at high resolution - something not as possible to attain in SL without impacting the Land Impact costs on the SL grid. Toy had always hoped if a SL sculpture became RL, it would be Shattered.
A unique feature Toy has provided with almost all his art is SL since he first opened his art gallery in 2011 was to provide his ARTIST'S COMMENTS notecard as part of each artwork he exhibits. Visitors simply click on the artwork and are handed his notecard for the respective art. It tell the reader what Toy was thinking during its creation, what emotion or story he was trying to express, any unique techniques on how it was created, and finally any credits to other artists who's inputs were possibly used as part of the art. Toy created this Artist Comment for SHATTERED as well. Here are his comments for Shattered:
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Created: September 30, 2012
At some time in each of our lives - if not many times - there have been those moments when a situation or event or incident has taken you to one of your lowest depths of emotions. You could have been taken to this moment for countless reasons as it is a place within you where you feel: broken, or helpless, or fearful of what will happen next, or shocked & devastated from a loss, or scared, or even ashamed of yourself. During those deepest depths of emotional - the worst ones - these SHATTERED feelings manifests physically to where you could either crawl up into a ball or collapse to your knees and place your hands over your head in a vain attempt to hide yourself from the world. I hope for all of you that these darkest of moments are rare. I also suggest that at these darkest times you stand back up off your knees, be strong, and regain control of your emotions to bravely face and tackle what ever triggered you into this darkest state. We all have this in us... its how we each decide to deal with it that is important. |
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Toy never intended for SHATTERED to actually be a popular artwork. "No one will want a depressing statue or wall art in their homes.". He created SHATTERED as a personal challenge to capture in art an expression of a powerful emotion most of us all have experienced in our lives. Since he released SHATTERED in SL and in RL as a 2D canvas, it has become one of Toy's most popular selling artworks! Shattered seems to have an ability to directly relate with and touch the emotions of several that have witnessed it and even purchased it.
Then in the summer of 2014 one of Toy's customers from his DeviantArt profile approached Toy asking if he could get a copy of the SHATTERED model so he could print on his own 3D personal ShopBot printer in ABS plastic. Toy agreed if a free copy was also printed for Toy - the customer agreed. Even though the printer's resolution and printing method are on the lowest end of the printing quality scale, the quality results were beyond Toy's expectations. The printed SHATTERED stood 3.5" tall. It sat perfectly flush on the ground and there were no unexpected deformations that could have come from the model. The image to the right exhibits the first raw ABS printed version of SHATTERED prior to it being smoothed and spray painted. A pen was placed beside the statue to provide size perspective. IT might seem small but its size has proven perfect to sit on tables and desks at work without overwhelming the space or getting in the way. |
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Toy continued to experiment with the plastic model by chemically smoothing it as spray painting it with a paint that might simulate the intended bronze metal finish he had always envisioned. The results - although not close to a sculpture cast in actual bronze - was pretty good. Toy also attempted to make a stand for SHATTERED out of clay. After his project was completed, he created a photo that showed the resulting 3D printed SHATTERED with an insert of the artwork in its virtual world (photo to the left).
The results were personally good for Toy but he wanted much more! He wanted SHATTERED in actual cast metal - preferably in Bronze! I investigated expanding his use of 3D printing by opening up a Storefront on one of the 3D print services - Shapeways. These print services can print 3D models i several materials including bronze, silver, gold, and even platinum. The biggest problem using this method to bring SHATTERED to Toy's customers was the extremely high cost to print models in any materials other than plastic. For example, to print SHATTERED in Bronzed steel would have cost ~ $400. There had to be another way. |
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It was at this time when Toy posted on Twitter about his SHATTERED model available for print Shapeways where fate stepped in again. The owner of one of the oldest and leading fine art metal casting foundry in China noticed Toy's tweet and responded. He suggested Toy collaborate with them to create actual hot poured bronze casts of SHATTERED. Toy researched this foundry and engaged in several conversations with this owner to answer all his technical & logistical questions.
Based on research, Toy felt comfortable enough to proceed. In Spring 2015 he made the commitment to execute his first ever bronze casting of one of his mesh art sculpture. He placed an order for a limited edition first casting run of 13 bronze casts of Shattered based on the demand he received from his art followers. This included both SecondLife® and Real Life individuals... among them the CEO of Linden Lab - owners of SecondLife - Ebbe Altberg. A true honor! |
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The order was formally placed March 1st 2015. On the first of May Toy packaged up and shipped out each bronze cast edition to all his customers. Each owner of one of Toy's bronze cast editions not only received their bronze but also a formal Letter of Authenticity on parchment paper from Toy that was registered to each owner. The response from each of Toy's customers on their satisfaction of humbling and amazing. He was so happy to have provided them with something of personal value.