When my studio mate Matt (aka @ElboGlass) approached me with this project. He was already in the process of creating a very small body of work inspired by the fashion designs of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Goyard, and Murakami; he was creating one-off functional pieces to be collected alongside the matching designer bags with the same patterns to be released at his pop-up show on Melrose Ave in Los Angeles, California in October of 2018. The show was a success by all metrics, and the pieces were well received by patrons. Just days after the pop-up show, Matt and I attended Takashi Murakami and Virgil Abloh's "America Too" exhibit at the Gagosian in LA and gifted him some of our murrine slices (pics below).
From a technical standpoint, these images were just the right mix of challenge and fun, although I grossly underestimated the amount of problem-solving these images would require to make them absolutely perfect. We spent well over a solid month making the components, pulling the cane down, and polishing the coins, even with some occasional hired help to keep things moving smoothly (shout-out to Pat Taylor and Cooper). The master lesson here: if we knew how to do everything, we wouldn't have learned anything! I learned so much from this project moving forward, and have already found ways to incorporate what I've learned to my next murrine series of 8-bit characters, but I'll save that for another blog.
*Additional shout outs to CalM, Kinda, JoeP, and a few others who were around to make technical suggestions and/or bounce ideas off. Thanks guys!
Murakami Raptor by Elbo Glass and Nathan (N8) Miers, 2018.
Photographed by Boro.Vision
![](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1977/6843/files/IMG_8162_50b2ddd6-1429-48ed-ba1b-77c63d096b5f_large.jpg?v=1541733997)
![](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1977/6843/files/IMG_8164_large.jpg?v=1541734036)
![](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1977/6843/files/IMG_8165_large.jpg?v=1541734056)
Murakami Raptor and Dino-Lock characters, 2018.
Photographed by @THC_Samuel.
![](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1977/6843/files/IMG_1878_large.jpg?v=1541734286)
Elbo x Punty x N8, Murakami Mini Tube, 2018.
Photographed by Boro.Vision
![](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1977/6843/files/Elbo_x_N8_Takashipom_Tube_copy_large.png?v=1541734918)
Here's a pic of Elbo gifting Takashi Murakami some of our murrine at the Gagosian.
![](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1977/6843/files/IMG_1897_large.jpeg?v=1541735599)
And finally some process shots...
![](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1977/6843/files/IMG_1544_large.jpeg?v=1541734991)
![](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1977/6843/files/IMG_1737_large.jpeg?v=1541735012)
![](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1977/6843/files/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_largepv_19fb_grande.jpg?v=1541735327)
Thanks for reading!! <3
-N8-