Something I Saw Today

Today as I opened up my front door to go to work and hovering there two feet in front of me at eye level was a hummingbird. He just hovered there looking at me for 2 seconds then he flew up to the top of the stairs and looked a me again for a second before flying off. It was a good start to the day.

These Are The Songs Of My Life

I have a lot of rotating favorite songs I listen to. Some I go back and listen to again and other I just seem to forget about. I am always looking for that next great song that I will not only like right here at this moment in my life but will continue to like for years to come.

I heard this song for the first time today on the radio, its from Rocky Votolato's new album.



This song really speaks to me in my life right now. Will it in a few years? I don't know. I use to have a lucky coin that I would always carry with me but I acidentially gave it to a homeless man outside of Dicks one night. He probably won the lottery or something. But I think I have found a new lucky "coin". Its one of my dad's brass work tags that I found on the sidewalk by SPU. I don't know how long it had been there, or why it was there. I carry it with me now so hopefully its good luck.

Here are some other songs that have lasted the test of time with me.

This might be my favorite song of all time.



This is one of my new favorites that I just can't seem to hear enough of. I always crank the volume up super loud and sing along with this one.



Theres not much music from the 80's that I listen to over and over again, but this song it the exception. I think its the harpsichord that I love the most.



Then there is Johnny Cash's cover of the Nine Inch Nails song Hurt. I want this song played at my funeral.



So many more songs I could list, I guess this is just a small glimpse into the music I love.

Something I Saw Today

So I think I am going to start sharing certain things I see throughout the day. This wont be a daily thing, just a thing I will do when I see something I want to share. Sometimes there will be pictures other times not. My first Something I saw Today post will start off with something I saw a few months ago.

So a few months back I was walking to John Grade's studio in the international district when I saw a truck drive by towing a boat trailer. On that boat trailer was a giant coke bottle made up of aluminum coke cans flattened and randomly placed. I thought it was a strange thing to see at the time. I wondered where it was going and what it was for. That was until today when I was walking to Pottery Northwest to help out John on his new project. As I walked by key arena I saw this through the window.

I am fairly certain this it the same thing I saw on the trailer. I was just surprised to come around a corner and there it was hanging there. I can't find any information about it online so I don't know if this was a commissioned piece or who made it. Its obviously an advertisement display but I still love the pattern of the coke cans placed together. So maybe this is not a great "Something I Saw Today" post, but I was just surprised to see this thing again.

Thrifty #3

I found a Canon Ae-1 at Value Village about 6 months ago. It has been fun learning how to shoot with it and getting back to the basics of film photography. This is a super simple camera to use and it built like a tank. I have no doubt this camera will outlast my Canon T1i. I have developed a few rolls of film which you can see here, but I have about 3 more rolls I need to develop.

The camera was in perfect working order but the only thing missing was the battery cover, but a piece of tape serves that purpose well.

It came with a canon FD 50mm 1:1.8 lens. Which is a great walk around camera as well a a great portrait camera. This seems to be the most popular fd lens for canon. I seem to see this lens at the goodwill all the time. I have not found many any other lens with a fd mount. I have never seen another canon lens besides this one. I figure people are still using them. I did find a Vivitar 3x Telephoto converter with a fd mount about a month ago. That turns my 50mm into a 150mm. It even came with a nice leather caring case.

Then yeterday at goodwill I found a Soligor 1 : 4.5 250mm lens with a fd mount. Its a huge heavy lens that defiantly needs a tripod to get a clear shot.

So then I combined the Vivitar telephoto converter with this Soligor lens and that now gives me a 750mm lens. And it looks like this.

Eleven inches of cold hard aluminum and glass. To give you some perspective of what you see through the viewfinder I took this picture just holding the lens up to my Canon T1i.

The picture on top is with the 750mm and the one on the bottom is with my best ef lens which is a 135mm. Its a bit grainy and blurry because it was hand held and the iso was set at 3200. I hope to get a fd to ef lens adapter so I can mount this on my t1i so I can take some great shots.

Canon Ae1 I think it was $10 - $15
Vivitar Tele converter with case $3.99
Soligor 250mm lens $9.99

You can see more pictures of this camera here.

Cat Boutique

Here are the top 10 keyword search results for this week from the Google Analytics I have set up for my Etsy shop. These are the keywords people type into search engines that brings up a link and directs them to my shop. Still not so sure why some of these searches would bring them to my shop.

1. japanese chainmail cube (good)
2. etsy ian gill (good)
3. bracelet leaf linked (not really sure)
4. buy cameos cabochons (what?)
5. cat boutique (umm wtf?)
6. flying heart with wings necklace (?)
7. hanging kitchen towels' (no)
8. ian gill sculpture (good)
9. irish chainmail (good)
10. mercury jane designs (who?)

Maybe Google is trying to tell me what I should start making. The Google is wise, maybe I should obey the google and open up a cat boutique.

Production Preview

So I am about to go into production of some pieces for my Etsy shop.

Etsy Buy Handmade IanGill

I love creating one off unique pieces but I need to start making some money. I have decided to create easily producible yet individually unique pieces. I don't like the idea of creating exact copies and selling then over and over again, so these will be limited series each with its own number. I would like each of these pieces to range from $20 to $30.

So here you can see some varying shapes of my dream window design. You can see how each window is unique because of the random pattern when the wire is strung. I have settled on the bottom right design. The tall skinny one started to bow in the middle, as you can see, which was a little concerning. I'm still trying to come up with a simple solution for the hook which also serves the purpose of covering up the knots at the end of the wire. But you can see below that I have already cut out some blanks and I'm ready to start production.

I think I will continue to create some unique pieces of this design varying the shape and size of the window.

I have also started working on a new design that I hope to go in to production with. It will involve the same dark rosewood frame and it will show off a small textured piece of metal. I have not finished the first piece but I hope to create some small metal pieces that are based off of my copper plate series. You can see the carved window space where the metal piece will be inlaid as well as some blanks ready to be carved.

Let me know what you think, how do you feel about production series in general? I still feel that each one will be unique in its own right even though they are the same design. How do you feel about these designs? Any questions, comments?

John Smith

I just watched This American Life season 2 episode 6: John Smith. Wow, just wow. It has been a while when something has captured and pulled me in as much as this episode did. You are following the story of several individuals who's only similarity is their name, John Smith. Ranging in age from a few months to 80 years old. I love the way the blend the story so as if you are looking at one life and each John Smith is talking about that moment in their life. If you have never see this episode, go watch it now. If you have never seen or heard This American Life, get on it.

"The story of one life, told through the lives of people from all over the country, all named John Smith. Baby John Smith is 11 weeks old, in South Carolina, and his parents are still reeling from the sonograms that all predicted he would be a girl. By the time he's 23, John Smith in Laramie, Wyoming, has made some mistakes and is appearing in front of a judge. At 46, he's in Texas, welcoming his oldest son back from Iraq. In-depth portraits of people growing up, growing old, and figuring out how to be fathers, husbands, and men in America today." thislife.org

Here is the trailer for season 2 of This American Life on TV

Uwajimystery #2

So for this weeks Uwajimystery I found a tasty Grass Jelly Drink. At first I was a little unsure if it was something I had to prepare or all you did was open the pop can top of the thick steel can and drink. The picture displays a thick jelly filled glass, yet it also has a straw.

So it was mostly liquid inside and then towards then end of pouring it into a glass all sorts of little chunky bits started plopping out. Very appetizing. The chunky bits seemed to become clogged in the narrow opening of the can. I tried to get most of it out but there was still some that refused to leave and I was more then happy to let them be.

I bought the Lychee flavor because I have had lychee before and I sort of like it. The first wiff of this stuff did not smell too much like lychee. It smelled more like the juice that is left over in a can of black olives. It sort of looks like the juice that is lift over in a can of black olives. More so it even tastes like the juice that is left over in a can of black olives, but with little floaty chunky bits of flavorless gelatin. I guess there is some small trace of a mint flavor to the jelly, not much else though. I guess if you like to chew what you drink this might be the beverage for you, otherwise I would avoid.

Mmmmm, just look at all those tasty floaty bits. I'm going to go barf now.

Rooftops

I spent some time on the roofs of some buildings today. At work I decided to go up on the roof because it was just such a beautiful day I wanted to take some pictures of the mountains.

You could almost see John's studio from the roof.

I would love to go up on this roof sometime later and do some night shots. You get great views of where I-90 and I-5 meet with the West Seattle bridge in the background. It could make for some great rivers of light. It is also directly under the flight path for Sea-Tac so you could get some great streaks in the sky. So many possibilities. I just hope the owner is ok with all this.

Later in the day we met at my grandmothers to celebrate her 84th birthday. She lives at Bayview Manner on Queen Ann. Her building literally has the best view of Seattle, better then Kerry park. We had dinner up on the 10th floor and I got there just after the sun had set.

You can see more pictures here.

Thrifty #2

I found a Brownie Hawkeye Camera in the original box at Goodwill.

I love the Art-Deco styling of this camera. Its a mass produced super simple functioning camera made from molded plastic. There is one aperture setting, one set shutter speed, and one focal length. Its basically a stylized pinhole camera with one simple lens. You are able to take long exposure shots but there is no place to fasten a tripod and no remote shutter control.

Its built for 620 film but they don't make that anymore. So I think I am going to try and convert it to 35mm film. I will have to make some new spools and tape up the seems, I think this thing bleeds a lot of light.

I love the view finder of this camera, that's where it gets the hawkeye name. You can easily view what you shooting even holding the camera at waste level, although it is reversed.

Great find at only $3.99. More pictures here.

What I'm up to.

I have been working on a sculpture for Lead Pencil Studio since November, and will probably be for the next few months. It similar to their Bellevue College piece which I helped build last summer and you can see a video of here. The form we are building this time is the negative space of a Billboard. This piece will be placed at the new border crossing that will be built up at Blaine. It will be located in sort of a no mans land between the border crossing and at first you will approach it head on and the idea is that you will visualize the sky as being the Billboard. So in this sense it will continuously be changing. The road will curve around this piece so you will get to see the piece at varying angels. The only way to really see this piece will be to go through the border crossing because you will not be able to walk up to it.

Here is a picture of one of their sketches.

It's a little hard to tell scale from the picture but the rough dimensions are 40feet wide by 30 feet high and 3 feet thick. The section I have been making for the past few months in the one in the center where you can see the outline of the columns for the billboard. The entire structure is made up of the same diameter stainless steel rod at varying lengths. The outline of the columns and walkway are achieved by building up a plain of rods giving the impression of an object.

Here are some pictures of that piece.

You can see we build it in this "mold" to make it easier to keep everything flat on the sides. You can also see the outline for the walkway for the build board. There are hundreds of hours of work on just this section alone, and we still have the two larger side sections to build.



This picture lets you see just how thick it is, plus you can see the outline of one of the columns. I'll will keep posting updates on this piece as we finish each section. It's scheduled to be installed up at Blaine sometime in September 2010.

Duets

I'm liking the song Crystalised by The XX more and more every time I hear it.


I think its because I really like duets. In most songs you have to imagine who their singing to but in duets their singing back and forth to each other. So I'm not sure if I like this song because its a good song or just because I like duets.

Here are some more duets I love to listen to all the time

One of my favorite songs/underrated bands of all time.


And of course how can you go wrong with this paring.

Paris, Texas

Paris, Texas

This is another movie I started watching not knowing anything about it. The opening scene is of a man wandering through the desert. Throughout the progression of the film you slowly learn why this man has been wandering for 4 years. I loved the styling of this movie, it's often wide shots of barren Texas or sprawling Los Angeles. I think this movie really captures the time it was filmed, its very dated but in a good way. I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a film with good dialog and doesn't get board easily with a film. I don't want to share to much about it, I would love for you to watch this with no knowledge of what will unfold. I find this is a much more enjoyable way to watch a movie for the first time.

Also this movie has Dean Stockwell in it. Remember Al from Quantum leap? Remember Quantum Leap? And like in Quantum Leap he always seems to be smoking in every scene. I wonder if he had some sort of contract with big tobacco.

Here is the opening scene to the movie.


Here is another great clip from the movie, from a completely random scene.



Now go and watch this film.

Uwajimystery #1

For the first Uwajimystery I am going to write about an item I found a few months back. Collon, yes Collon.

Collon comes in four choices of flavors, Green Tea Collon, Strawberry Collon, Cream Filled Collon, and Chocolate Collon. I only tried the Green Tea Collon and the Strawberry Collon, I thought Strawberry Collon was fairly good. I bet Chocolate Collon is really good. They are bacially a crispy wafer with a cream filling.

How they came up with the name I'm not sure. Don't these companies have some sort of representative checking to see if the name of their product is too close to something you would not want to associate with a tasty treat.

I guess you could enjoy your Collon with some Asse and and finish it off with a Plopp.

Some things remind me of other things.

I'm really liking the song I saw the light, and this new album from Spoon.



The second half of this song when the piano solo starts reminds me of every 70's or early 80's movie I have ever seen. Movies like Bad Boys, Benji, Rocky, or Warriors. I think it reminds me of those moments in the movie where it breaks away to a video montage of people playing in a park or someone riding on a subway. I'm not really sure why it reminds me of this.

Featured: BLOOM: THE ELEPHANT BED

This is John Grade's instillation up at the new Whatcom Museum in Bellingham running through April. You can see the video I made of the instillation of this piece.

Bloom: The Elephant Bed Install from Ian Gill on Vimeo.

"For the Whatcom Museum, John Grade will suspend a forest of bell-shaped sculptures from the Lightcatcher’s new twenty-six-foot-high gallery. Visitors can walk through and explore these dynamic forms that will change over time. During the course of the exhibition, several sculptures will be lowered into a pool of inky-black water where they will slowly dissolve. Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 10. This is when the remaining pieces will be cast into the Bellingham Bay after a public procession." Whatcom Museum

I would recommend that anyone go see this show. Seeing the pictures of this piece is one thing, but actually being in that space and surrounded by the towering structures completely changes what you think of them. Just be sure you don't walk into the pool of black ink.

Thrifty #1

I found a old school projector at value village last week. Its a School Master 300 series with remote, that about all I know about it. I could not find to much info online about it. Everything still works great and it even came with its own storage box. You have to load each slide individually, this is not a carousel slide projector. Also you can load a film strip and with each press of the button it pulls the film through to the next slide. I'm not sure you can even order slide film this way anymore. I put some of my slides and film strips through and it works quite well. I love old machines like this, there is something about the simplicity of design and also the quality of its construction. I doubt any slide projector built today will last as long as this one has. I'm going to try and come up with some creative ideas I can use this for. I think it was a great find for only $11.99

You can see some more photos of this find here.

Post about Posts

I have decided to create themed posts for each day of the week. I got the idea of this from other blogs I’ve seen. I think it will keep me blogging more often by setting a format for each day on just what I am going to blog about. I sometimes find it hard to figure out just what to blog about, what to share and what not to. I would like to post something every day if I could so hopefully this format will keep me in check. So, I have a few ideas for the days of the week and hopefully I will be able to fill the rest.

Sundays - not sure yet.

Mondays - Uwajimystery Monday. This will be about mystery items I find at Uwajimaya. Items that have no English on them or ones that you just can’t tell what it is or you just wander why it would exist at all. I not sure I will be able to do this every week because I will not always get a chance to go to Uwajimaya all the time.

Tuesdays - Talkie Tuesdays. I will borrow this from a friend’s blog rumination reading room, she use to do this every week. I will share moves I have watched or movies I want to watch.

Wednesdays - What I’m up to Wednesdays. I will share what I’m up to either with my own work or work I am doing for other artist.

Thursdays - Thrifty Thursdays. I share items I have found in thrift shops. I love going to the goodwill or value village at least once a week. I always seem to find some amazing things. I will post pictures of what I found and how much they were.

Fridays – Featured Friday. I will feature an artist, etsy shop, video, site or any other amazing thing I might find throughout the week.

Saturdays – Hmmm, any ideas?

Currently Reading

I'm currently reading "Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv. Here is a short blurb about it from the internets.

"In this influential work about the staggering divide between children and the outdoors, child-advocacy expert Richard Louv directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today’s wired generation—he calls it nature-deficit disorder—to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, including the rises in obesity, attention disorders, and depression." - the internets.

I love how this book is written. It's not done in a text book fashion just listing data after data, it includes stories from interviews he did from people all over the country. It was interesting to hear a wide range of stories and memories from people young and old about growing up around and in nature. Its also interesting to hear the interviews he did of school children and how they feel about nature. Some of my favorite parts were when someone stated that if a kid back a few decades ago never left his house to play outside was considered the weird kid. Nowadays a kid is most likely considered weird if he wants to go outside and play rather then play video games. My favorite quote from the book is by a fourth-grader that says, “I like to play indoors better ‘cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.” I haven't finished this book yet but it has already opened my eyes to just how far we have distanced ourselves from nature. I need to go hiking more.

I Wish This Was My American Life

I loved the episode of This American Life this week the one about the house on loon lake. I would love to discover something like that. I would love to explore and figure out a mystery like that. There are probably not many abandoned places like that anymore. I love forgotten places and things. I love discovering something that has been overlooked and left behind.

Its true that someones trash is another mans treasure. Some people only care about the new the next thing, they easily discard perfectly good things. I love collecting those old things that might be old, but they still work well and will probably last longer then anything made today. Things today are made to be replaced, there are not many things that are built to last.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. I loved the mystery of this episode. I love radio stories like this. Its so much better to just hear the sound and create your own image then just watching something unravel on a screen. Its so much more interesting unraveling in my own mind. I wish there were more radio programs like this, but I know its a dying medium, which is sad.

Here are some pictures of the things they found in the house.

Vintage Salt and Pepper Ducks

I set up Google Analytics for my etsy shop, it’s actually a pretty amazing program. With it I receive info on how many visitor I have to my shop, where they are from, what they’re looking at and for how long. It also lets me know how people are finding my stuff whether it be through etsy or a referral through another site or a search engine. Also it lets me know what keywords searches through search engines bring people to my stuff, but for some reason my top keywords don’t seem to relevant to my stuff.

Here are my Top 6 keywords.

1. Irish chainmail
2. Mobiles kids
3. Quarter bracelet + etsy
4. Seattle shop chainmail
5. Stud iphone case
6. Vintage salt and pepper ducks

Some of these just don’t make sense, vintage salt and pepper ducks? Why the hell would any of my stuff come up in that search?

Greatest Opening Ever

This is what I consider to be the greatest opening to any movie ever of all time.



When I first discovered this move it was one of those that I had no idea what it was about and I had never heard of it before. I think I was hooked within the first second, and it only got better.

Perfect Timing

So I spent the weekend up on Whidbey Island in a little beach house on Mutiny Bay. Sarah and Jay had rented this place when the final signing on their house was delayed for a few days when they already had everything they owned packed up. This was kind of perfect timing for me because it had been awhile since I had spent time away from the city and it was starting to get to me. So the whole weekend was pretty much spent lounging around eating and drinking watching the water, putting together a puzzle, watching a few movies, and just enjoying the quietness and slow pace of that area. I remember sitting on the deck and just listening to the quietest quiet I had heard in a long time.

We also took a little trip to Fort Casey and explored around a bit. They had refinished the concrete on one side of the fort, it looked almost new but I like the look of the aged concrete and rust and decay. I love the textures that the decay and time create. They also seemed to have more opened up and there were a few things I had never seen before so that was pretty cool. It had been over a year since I had been up to Casey which I think I need to make a point of getting up there more often, I love it there.

Later in the night I was playing around with some glow sticks I had found earlier at the drug store in Freeland. It was too light out to get some real dramatic affects plus I was a little drunk to set things up perfectly but I still got some great shots.

Anyway it was an awesome weekend and I think it was just what I needed, perfect timing.