Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Robotogami and the Birthday Boy



It’s funny to me that when I ask my son what he’d like for a home cooked birthday dinner, we both know that the answer will be lasagna. But it is a little ritual we go through each time we have the opportunity to celebrate his birthday. Last night we had a late birthday celebration and the fine opportunity to relive Cole’s childhood Transformer days. I do believe that he may have owned every version of Transformer available. It was a passion. In fact I am quite enamored of those small vehicles that become either heroes or villains.

A couple of weeks ago we were at the art market hosted by Tornado Gallery each month. Their current exhibit was of sculpture by Dustin Wallace. He’s a draftsman, machinist by day and an artist by night. Dustin creates these incredible transformer like sculptures with movable parts that have all hand machined gears inside and water jet cut parts. Among these were these little flat copper “Robotogami” pieces. They come flat and are cut from a single sheet of metal with small hinge points so that you can fold them into a 3 dimensional sculpture posed to your own liking. Perfect gift for the transformer loving son.

Cole’s eyes sparkled as he bent the robot into shape, got out my jewelry pliers to refine the hands and other points to his liking. And in that moment we were transported back to his childhood days of endless construction of young dreams. I think it’s the holiday season coming up that is making me so nostalgic. But I do love these magic moments.

10 comments:

Silver Parrot said...

I loved this post - I have a Transformer-loving kid, too. Not to mention that he LOVES the Styx song "Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto" and sings it incessantly. Thanks for making me smile!

Anonymous said...

very freaky looking, but very cool! i'm sure my 8 year old would love them.

sharon said...

Ahhh the memories!! My brother is ten years younger than I am, and every Christmas we still joke of how he got his first transformer, and my father immediately said, DON"T SHOOT IT YET, BUUUUT, too late, guess who got shot in the eye??!! MOI!! We still laugh, and that is why Ralphie is so funny to us, and oh so true. I like the version you bought much better! Talking like this and the memories and just being together is the best part of the holidays.
Hugs to you LeAnn....now I'm going to cry again...

stregata said...

I bet you make a good lasagna, LeAnn! I'm not bad at it myself, as they tell me... the kitchen oven is my magic tool. Now I have to learn to bake with a different oven...

mairedodd said...

what a magical gift you gave your son... your brought his childhood right into young adulthood with a more sophisticated transformer/sculpture... so meaningful... i would have been bawling! yesterday em & i drove past the preschool that she went to (we do this all of the time)... for some reason, seeing the children in the yard got me all welled up - here she is graduating high school this year, and it seems like only yesterday that she was wearing her overalls and berets! she had her own style even then! so glad you shared that special connection...

Marsha of Marsha Neal Studio said...

I love this post!!! Having a little one and one on the way makes me look forward to doing stuff like this with them...

Already, Chloe is picking up on small things and we just take whatever we can to that next level of laughing and enjoyment...

Thanks for sharing!
~Marsha

Vintajia Adornments said...

Happy birthday Cole! and love the art transformer sculpture.

The Joy of Nesting said...

Oye,

The things we remember!! OH but how sad and empty our life would be without our memories!! So dear kindred sister my wish for you tomorrow is to have a most warm and fuzzy wonderful holiday filled with lots of beautiful past and present memories!! :)

Pattie ;)
Mazatlan Mx.

PS. Thank you for your lovely note dear one!! It's nice to know we don't walk alone unless we choose to.

anna maria said...

Nostalgia is such a bitter sweet emotion. I welcome it, even though it can be a bit painful.

Barb Fernald said...

Hey LeAnn! Thanks for including my blog site in your list of blogs that you follow. I'll add you to mine. Fun reading about what you have been doing. I have two sons (age 26 now) who loved Transformers. Great sculpture, and great sentiment for this time of year.
xo Barb