Fire Arts Festival is like a mini Burning Man without all that playa dust. Come play with fire in what is literally a fire carnival, with installations by our good friends Interpretive Arson, Rebecca Anders, Michael Christian, Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito, Wally Glenn’s flaming sands, and way more amazing fire art in a newly expanded area 3x bigger than last year’s.

There will be a Life-Size Mousetrap, the fiery Boiler Bar, The Golden Mean Snail car, The Hand of Man crushing up cars, Alan Rorie’s Neuron Chamber, and on stage Dan Cantrell’s Rootabaga Opera, El Circo, Fire Arts Collective, and many other fiery acts.

Our own Carbon Garden continues its week-long debut after an incredible opening at Sand by the Ton.

Fire Arts Festival in its 10th year of blowing up Oakland every July is Wednesday, July 15 through Saturday July 18 8pm-Midnight

Tickets and directions here: http://www.thecrucible.org/events/fire-arts-festival/157.

Tina Yonas made a documentary about the Flame Tree Workshop and other art studios at Coachella.  Nice job to her, to our own Whit Bissell and the rest of the FPLabs crew who inspired their students to create some really cool copper sculptures.

http://web.me.com/sascheideman/The_Coachella_Art_Studios/Copper.html

…beats PyroCardium!

Come play with PyroCardium at the Coachella Festival this month - April 17, 18, 19 in Indio, CA.

Your heart stokes your body’s inner fire— watch it stoke a spiral fire that blasts into the sky!
Clip on the pulse monitor at this sculpture by False Profit Labs and feel forty fireballs bursting in a gorgeous spiral around you, pulsing to the rhythm of your heart for all to see.

And if you’re inspired to learn some basics about propane fire art (who wouldn’t be), we will be teaching Flame Tree Workshops! The workshops are free for on-site campers and take place Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10am-1pm.

Come make fire art for your own backyard!

Like the rovers hibernating on Mars, PyroCardium has quietly slumbered the winter on the side of the FPLabs workshop, nestled in its layers of tarp. We hadn’t heard a peep and could only wonder, was it dreaming of fiery heartbeats? What new algorithms might emerge in the spring? Was PyroCardium even alive under there?

PyroCardium in its winter tarp

Today we have our answer. 32 of 40 flame effects tested perfectly straight out the gate. And since 8 had broken at Burning Man, they were apparently unaffected by wind, rain and sleet. This is actually amazing since I hadn’t considered the downslope of its winter resting pad, and water was able to come in through an open end of the tarp. The flame effects actually sat in a pool of water for months. But our materials: aluminum, nichrome wire, ceramic block, stainless steel, copper and brass– none of them rust! And apparently Clippard solenoids are pretty well sealed.

Tested functional flame effects bundled in new hanging storage

We had The Hydrogen Economy and PyroCardium steel frames professionally powder coated, but I’ve always wanted try out this process since it produces beautiful, durable results. This holiday season I made some candleholders from iron pipe fittings then powder coated them at home with a kit I bought for $140 and an electric oven.  The shine and vibrant colors really brings the piece together, and they make good gifts for those who appreciate industrial sculptures.

About Powder Coating
Powder Coating is an electrostatic process where a charged pigment dust is sprayed into the air with a handheld gun. The pigment particles become positively charged in the gun and stick to the part which is connected to ground. You see powder coating all over the place: bicycles, motorcycles, park benches, cars. My initial impression was that it looks so good I figured the process would require expensive equipment or some hard-won skill. Turns out neither is really the case–you can powder coat at home with an inexpensive kit and an electric oven.

Powder Coating Video

Full details on Instructables

Powder Coated Iron Pipe Candleholder

We’re very happy to be installed in our new double-wide container in The Shipyard. In case you haven’t heard of The Shipyard, it’s really an incredible facility run by Jim Mason and Jess Hobbs. There are huge machine tools, mini “hardware stores”, ample common areas for building large-scale sculptures, and shipping containers where resident artists can store their wares.

One of the best things about being over there is everyone’s willingness to show us around, show us the quirks and conventions of using a gigantic lathe, or help install a capacitor to get the drill press working. And that’s even after we accidentally busted up a couple projects on move-in day! It seems it’s a constant shuffle moving huge items around. Luckily there’s a forklift that could literally lift a house to manage the work.

We’re in full production for Priceless this July 4 weekend and Fire Arts Festival coming up July 9-12. At Priceless, PyroCardium will be pulsing to heartbeats in its original spiral form. Ben is creating massive colored flame effects in the river for a new project called Toxic Bloom. We’re bringing along “Sputnik”, our custom heat exchanger to power a River Hot Tub. And I’ll be teaching a Flame Tree Workshop.

“Sputnik” heat exchanger on the Ocean Beach flower bloom heating our inflatable hot tub.

Ben tests an accumulator effect for Toxic Bloom.

Flame Tree Workshop participants at Alchemy light up their creations:

photo by broxtronix

I’m teaching a Flame Tree workshop at Alchemy on Saturday, April 26 after the Fashion Show. In this 2-hour construction class, you will get to build your very own propane flame effect. It’s called a propane burner, one of the simplest to create, and produces up to about 25 flames with 4″ tails. You will be provided with all materials and tools, except your own propane which you can pick up at any hardware store.

Here are some pictures of Flame Trees that people made at our first workshop:

Skills you’ll learn include: plumbing gas lines, making a flare fitting, leak checking, hardening and drilling copper tubing. Send mail to brett at false dash profit dot com if you want to sign up. The class is $40 and includes a free Alchemy ticket.