Support Celestial Mechanica's Final Journey To Burning Man

We are taking Celestial Mechanica out to Burning Man for a 3rd time as an Honoraria grant, and this will probably be the last time for this project at BM. We are hoping to tour it at other venues like EDC, other raves, and festivals. One reason I've not been able to tour her around is because she was sitting in the yard at the Boxshop in San Francisco. Well, we've transported it out of SF, and Celestial Mechanica is now in Doyle, California, very near the Playa, so she's most of the way there already. After BM, I'm planning to store CM at my friend's ranch in Doyle and finally realize another project for BM: a little Viking short ship art car to play music out on and a crazy Norse sculpture with all 9 worlds and the 3 Norns that represent past, present, and future.

Now Burning Man is literally right around the corner. As I write this at the end of July, it's the end of August, and although most of the project is already built, we are adding some stuff that is not done yet. We are taking away the fire effects this year and adding controllable LEDs to replace the Sun's effects. We are also adding a slip ring to the rotating members because there is a technical issue with adding electricity and gases to rotating things. There are purchasable devices for this, but we have 4 driveshafts that would block these devices from working, so we are designing our own custom slip rings from scratch. It's fitting because almost every mechanical and electrical thing on CM is custom designed and fabricated. One other thing we are doing is instead of doing bodywork on sheet metal and repainting it all shiny and new, we're going to capitalize on the rust and damage she has experienced, adding to it and even burning some of the paint to make her look like she fell from orbit and landed on Playa and has been sitting there running and rusting for a hundred years. I'm going to incorporate the Post Apocalyptic look into my performance art I'm planning on doing on Playa and using Celestial Mechanica as lore for the narrative around my band, which I'll get into next.

Another exciting thing happening this year at BM is that I am now playing music in 2 bands and plan to bring that Old School Burning Man performance art back to the Burn. A lot of you veterans know what I'm talking about. I'm going to roam around on my friend's art car and do storytelling, comedy, and music around Playa and plan to stop at Celestial Mechanica, incorporating her into the lore around my performance art. A few of my build crew are in my bands, and I'm planning to pull burners up on stage to perform with us... interactivity, baby, that's what Burning Man is all about. I have my own little startup band I just got together recently but have been working on original music for 8 years. The genre is something completely original I call "Eclectic Viking Folk Punk." It's crazy and weird and wonderful; I think you guys will love it. I also play in a Nick Cave tribute band called Black Crow King, where I play rhythm guitar and backup vocals, so we'll be playing Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, and so many other covers as well. Even requests, I have a talent for learning songs quickly on the spot. It's going to be wild.

So here's the part where the ask comes into play. Burning Man Org did give us some funds to accomplish this task, but they never give you quite what you ask for, and that's stated right in the grant. Because I've been working so hard on this project, I've not been able to work for myself. I've been self-employed as an artistic fabricator the last 15 years and have been paid many times to weld and fabricate other artists' work, but this year it's my art, and my personal income has been compromised, so it's been a challenge balancing the budget for Celestial Mechanica as well as my personal life. I'm asking for donations to help get CM to the Playa and to help me keep afloat doing this. This is why I'm using GoFundMe for this purpose. Our swag has been very popular the last 2 times we brought CM to Playa, and we used Kickstarter for this purpose, but I've had serious issues finding volunteers this year. In the past, I had multi-person teams on each facet of the project, like 4 people just for crowdfunding. This year, I'm the Project Manager, the Main Engineer, the Crowdfunding Organizer, the Project Lead, of course, the Lead Fabricator, of course, and I have building and creating down; that's what I do, but administration... Hahaha LOLZ not so much. I've been let go from 2 admin jobs in the past because I royally suck at it. So this crowdfunding source is mainly to keep my project and me afloat until the Burn. Please help; anything helps, and if you'd like to donate to me directly, I'll add my Zelle, Venmo, and CashApp handles at the end.

Now for the Celestial Mechanica Swag. I still want fans of CM to get their hands on our popular swag. I'm going to run a long Kickstarter campaign, and those funds will not be available until after the Burn, and your swag will not get to you until some time after the Burn as well. This is why I'm running this campaign for immediate needed help with funding to make sure we can get to Playa. We will offer the same kickass t-shirts and hoodies and the same bandana from the previous 2 years we brought Celestial Mechanica to Playa, but this year my amazing engineer Ray, who designed all the gearing and mechanics, is currently cooking up a mini 3D printed Celestial Mechanica that moves the planets around their orbit of the Sun. We'll have LED lighting, and the plastic we use will be translucent, which looks sick as f**k shining through the whirling gears. Ray has been creating amazing geared and LEDed art with his 3D printer, and I'm buying one just like his to print up your mini CMs. I have friends with printers as well, so we can fulfill all of your orders as fast as we can. If you don't get a chance to purchase this swag during the campaign, don't fret. I'm going to create a small business after Burning Man to sell Celestial Mechanica swag and these mini kinetic solar systems. I'll also develop more complex gearing, and soon I'd like to offer a kinetic LED solar system chandelier for the true space nerd. I'm also a fabricator of high-end furniture and lighting for my day job, and I'll learn how to use my 3D printer to print up killer lighting diffusers for custom-built lighting and furniture I'll offer on my business website as well, so keep in touch if you like the work that I do.

Well, that's my Big Ask, and I hope you can donate to my campaign and cause. I'm cooking up some amazing things this next year, and if we can pull off this last Burning Man for Celestial Mechanica, yes, CM is a lot and very complicated, but we've done it twice before, so I'm sure it will go hard without a hitch.

Thank you for your support

Love, Jessika Wrecca :) Burn Hard Baby!

Zelle - Preferred but cannot give out my email here so contact me through GoFundMe and I'll give you my email for Zelle payments. Thank you.

Venmo - @Gescykae-welz

CashApp - $GescykaeWelz