Holistic Forge Works

American Museum of Alaskan Entrepreneurship

Virtual Tour The World's Smallest Museum!


Do It Yourself Inventions Utility Art Products for Everyday Citizens

Belly-button Bush Birdhouse!
DIY Belly-button Bush Birdhouse!
  1. Birdhouse Closeup
  2. Installed in Bush

If you ever find yourself the owner of a giant bush it can be a bothersome thing. What do you do with it? For the most part it just sits there filling up valuable yard space which could be farmed in a victory garden. No sir there is only one thing to do with that worthless bush. Turn it into a massive bird habitat with my latest invention: THE BELLYBUTTON BUSH BIRDHOUSE!


Chalkodox - Icon for Iconoclasts
DIY Religious Chalkboard Icon for Iconoclasts
  1. Religious Chalkboard Icon for Iconoclasts

The religious version of the last inside page of Mad Magazine where you see one illustration, fold it and then see the punch line. Kind of the same thing, but with doors.


Montessori Electronic Educational Lesson
DIY Montessori Electronic Educational Lesson
  1. Key = Conductor
  2. Void != Conductor
  3. Volcanic Glass != Conductor

Teach your children about electricity! This fun experiment lets curious minds test different materials for scientific evidence of electrical conductivity.


Vertical Victory Garden, DIY
DIY Victory! Garden for Small Spaces
  1. Peas! HFW Victory Garden
  2. Small Space Gardening, Tacoma 1941 Track Home
  3. Hanging Basket Tomato Garden
  4. Hanging Basket Tomato Garden 2
  5. DIY Raised Bed Potato Garden
  6. Stepped Kitchen Garden: Super Structure Complete
  7. Stepped Garden Box Construction
  8. Drilling Drain Holes
  9. Test Positioning (to be mounted on super-structure)
  10. Victory Garden! Rasied Beds Mounted

Victory! gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, are vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences in Tacoma during the WORLD CREDIBILITY CRISIS to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by PEAK OIL. These gardens are also considered a civil "morale booster" - in that gardeners can feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. Today making victory gardens has become a part of daily life at the Holistic Forge Works.


DIY Gardening/Potting Station
  1. Open Folding Surface
  2. Closed Folding Surface
  3. Parts
  4. Tacoma ReStore Design Challenge!

Gardener's Planting Station bench dedicated to filling pots, repotting flats, transplanting etc. Folding work surface with a small shelf raised above to hold hand tools or planting seeds.
See Also: Tacoma ReStore Challenge Winners


Grow Tomatoes Upside-down!
The PosiGrav™ Tomato Planter System

Tomato plant vines sprawl as they grow, requiring time and attention to keep them properly staked above ground. These ingenious planters, which look nothing like bundt cake pans, take the toil out of growing tomatoes by elevating the planting bed and allowing your vines to grow downward from a hole in the bottom. The hanging vines need almost no attention and ensure that tomatoes ripen in the air where they won't rot. Thus you don't have to worry about tomato cages or stakes because the plants grow upside down with our PosiGrav™ gravity system. These compact planters can fit in any space with maximum sunlight, weed free.
See Also: Growth Update: Upside-down Tomato Planters


Bell X9000 Robot™
Bell X9000 Robot™

Originally designed to answer NATO's call for an automated minesweeper technology, this fast & maneuverable, light armored robot (the size of a hubcap) was developed upon a modified remote control Tyco® Fast Traxx™ chassis
See Also: Developing Robot's AI | Robot's Discharge | Robot Traxx


Kitten with a Moog™ Theremin
Moog™ Etherwave® Theremin Kit

Listen to Holistic Forge Works' own MC Ra-Ether in these original 1936 Theremin performances (see below).
Listen to: Dance of the Saucer Maidens 600K | Penguin Lust, 1.6MB


1998 Mercury Tracer, Shark Mouth
Shark Mouth Mercury Tracer Automobile Club

This green 1998 Mercury Tracer aka "Zippy the Tracer Head" is the original Merc that started the shark mouthed Tracer phenomenon sweeping America.
See Also: The Tireless Merc | Ms. Shark-Mouth Merc Tracer 1998


HFW Atomic Dustbin, Robot Friend
HFW Atomic Dustbin Robot Friend

With its smooth curves and contemporary design, HFW Atomic Dustbin Robot Friend brings style into the most functional of would-be household robot garbage cans. Polypropylene in matte finish. 16 ¼ gallon capacity. 14 ½ dia 35"
See Also: Heathkit® Oscilloscopes


Opaque Projector, and Other Amazing Inventions
Opaque Projector, and Other Amazing Inventions

Hand forged aluminum opaque projector, projects ghostly apparitions in dim environments. Scare your mom or your friends!
See Also: Projected "Ghost" Pliers | Nintendo: Lamp Mod


Fun Corner Labs Experimental Web Design as Art

Uncle RR's HTML Fun Corner (H-Labs)

Mini Experimental CSS Experiences

  1. TV Tacoma All-Stars: HAUL-0-FAME the AMALGAMATION™ Trading Cards
  2. 100th Turtle Party - Disengagement from Tacoma Artist Networking
  3. CSS Madlibs - Governor Gregoire's 2008 Washington State of the State Address
  4. Virtual SolaRichard® - Genuine Tacoma Personality Online
  5. Tacoma Art at Work Month Feedback Survey
  6. Holistic Forge Works Online v1.0
  7. Terrible Web Design: An Educational Working Example
  8. American Museum of Alaskan Entrepreneurship
  9. Tacoma's Cultural Arts Specialist for Hire
  10. Choose Your Own Tacoma Adventure!

Holistic Forge Works version 8.1

Welcome to the speedy new HFW 6.0 website, we're glad you made it! We hope your experience is a pleasant one. Please note that you're not interacting with dumb XHTML & CSS, You're interacting with a man. As the one of countless web design companies in the Pacific Northwest we want to reveal to you our underlying idealistic intention of HFW's MODERN THINKING™ philosophy, of which this site and all her content embodies--that may be a joke, but we doubt it.

What is "The Internet(s)?"

The Internet is a nebulous sea of information with many competitors and we realize you want to run an excellent and profitable website with functionality that provides usability to the largest market/traffic possible. Properly facilitated with CSS, The right XHTML website addresses and uplifts the heart and holds high values. In the right hands XHTML can make people feel good and want to associate with you. How the Internet Works Diagram


Do-It-YourselfBackyard Gas Foundry & Forge

Practical Blacksmithing techniques, Backyard Propane Foundry Work(s) Of the four elements, air, earth, water, and fire, man stole only one from the Great Winged Turtle. Fire. And with it, man forged his will upon the world... ~ Dr. Fronzel Neekburn 1891, Founder

These statements underscore our reasons for implementation of this unique web-based resource. The techniques and tools illustrated (below) and their application to the handmade object are as valuable to the modern foundryman as they were to his "Holistic" forefathers of the late 1800s. Founding as a craft had a rapid demise when industrialization, mass production, and collective modern technology set in, yet it didn't die. Rather, it lingered, as did the aroma of propane. Today this mysterious gas is once again being helped into brightly lit flames as like-minded craftsmen take up the foundry as a hobby, as an art form, and as a spiritual endeavor for all variety of reasons and satisfactions.


Forge/Foundry Blue Prints & Schematics

The following images chart the Do-It-Yourselfer's progression from forge design to practical forge application.

Other Dangerous Activity Plans


Metalwork Portfolio

Bronze Egyptian Cat
Egyptian Cat for Darcy

Ancient Egyptian design inspired traditional good luck gift. Bronze with Hardwood Base.
See Also: Uglipod Skull Mount | Flying Turtle Casting | Flying Turtle Casting Revisited


Dodo Bird, Bust Statuette
Bronze Bust Statuettes

Sculpture series cast in scrap bronze using the lost foam method as described above.
See Also: Duck Head | Metal Salmon (View 1) & Metal Salmon (View 2)


Fishtail Dagger
Fishtail Dagger(s)

Cable Damascus blade forged welded by Dr. Crapo, bronze hilt and pommel by HFW
See Also: Cable Damascus Weld Close-up


More HFW Inventions

  1. Art, Technology & Inventions I
  2. Art, Technology & Inventions II
  3. Secrets Revealed + Other Amazing Inventions
  4. Secrets Revealed + Other Amazing Inventions II
  5. Tacoma Handyman Inventor's Shop of Wonders

Sparking the Divine Fire

With a steadfast commitment to quality, HFW has set molding industry standards for the past 117 years. Remember that the materials and methods described here are from another era. Reproduce at your own peril.

Resource Forge/Foundry Links