2014 – Caravansary

Caravansary was a loose interpretation of the event, evoking crossroads, desert-dwelling travelers, and Souk (a bazaar). I thought about the theme and came up with about 10 different illustrations, none capturing the essence. So I decided to go a different route as this was a bazaar of sorts, to make a pendant I could trade or gift.

I wanted to keep it core to Burning Man and what it is about. This meant it had to be all-inclusive and core to the principles of BM. I knew the Man had to be true to form and be surrounded by something meaning all-inclusive. That said, I was “unconsciously unaware” of the Black Rock Rangers BM logo…

I came up with a design where the Man was surrounded by an oval shape surrounding the Man. The Man represents Burning Man, and the oval surrounding him represents everything that represents Burning Man. I wanted the arms to reach out into the oval shape to mean embracing and the legs protruding from the oval shape to describe life as an adventure and keep moving forward to find them.

Ironically, 2014 was the year I also bought into a machine shop with water jetting and lasering capability. I spent countless nights learning about both machines and their tolerance limitations. After six prototypes, I finally dialed in the final pendant version. That evening I ran my 500 and moved them to the tumbler for deburring. That morning I received a call from the shop manager asking if I ran all my pendants. I told him I would use the rest of the material to not scrap it. To make a long story short, he said he would finish the job, and I said thank you. I went into the shop that weekend to find 8 boxes of pendants. They had run 5,000 pendants. I had ordered five sheets of hot rolled steel 16 gauge. I was planning to only use one sheet and use the other sheets for future projects.

Later, I posted several pictures of pendants on Facebook. Very quickly, I was informed they looked very much like the Black Rock Rangers logo. So I reached out to the Black Rock Rangers, asking if this was too close to their design, and luckily, I was informed no.

After BM 2014, I took 4000 and started deburring and stringing them. Over the years, I sent 350 off to be chromed, 500 to be power coated, and made about 200 with a metallic inlay. Because I had 4,000, I made them my signature pendant, and in 2020, I finally ran out, but only temporarily. In July 2020, I ran another 5,000.

Designed: November 2013. Production: June 2014 (5,000). Production: July 2020 (5,000).