Fix It

Sander

I make a lot of things, and I also make a lot of things that aid me in making a lot of things, so I'm going to blog about them with a new feature I'm calling Friday Fix It. Mostly the posts will be about some jig or tool or retrofit that I came up with to help with what I'm doing.

This first post will be about a sander I put together. Its based off of a spindle sander and is great for cleaning up curved lines that you cut out. Having one would really speed up a lot of the pieces I'm making right now but even at Harbor Freight they cost over $100. So I decided to use what I already have and make one. I have a small drill press which you strap in a drill motor into. I flipped the drill and mount upside down and then took a board and cut out two holes one for the shaft on the drill press and one for the sander. In all it took me about 5 minutes and $6 for the sander. I can either with one hand control the speed of the drill or just use a clamp to hold down the trigger. It works great for rough sanding my pieces into shape.

When I Open My Mouth

Don't Take Me So Seriously 

I'm going to post periodically about the things that come out of my mouth, not loogies, words. Now I say a lot of stupid things that if you don't know me you would probably take at face value mostly because I have such a strait serious face when I say them. Most of my interaction with costumer service people tends to make me mad which tends for me to become sarcastic, only my humor can walk a fine line between sarcasm and something that may well be real. It sometimes gets me into trouble when people don't realize I'm joking so I think I'll share those interactions from time to time so you can laugh with me.

Here is an interaction I had with a checker today while I was at Safeway completing my checkout.

Checker - Would you like to round up your purchase to support Muscular Dystrophy?
Me - Would you like to round down to help support the Ian Gill Foundation?
Checker - (Stares blankly at me with increasingly scowling eyes)
Me - We could really use the help.
Checker - I'll take that as a no.
Me - Me too.

You Should Watch

Kodachrome Test Footage

The people over at Kodak just digitized and uploaded some of the original Kodachrome test footage. Shot in 1922 they are some of the earliest color footage available. There is something about color film that transforms an image from the imaginary to the realistic. Black and white film and photography always seems whimsical and somewhat magical. Its interesting to think that if color film was developed from the start of film capture if black and white would have the same affect on people. Just think of Ansel Adams his work work would hardly have the same affect if they were all color. It's interesting that the lack of technology is what created and advanced a certain genera.

Here is the video.

Unfortunatly Kodachrome was discontinued by Kodak just last year. Sorry Paul Simon.

Save The Dates

Openings

Here are some openings coming up that you should go to.

Suyama Space is having an opening for an installation by Gerri Sayler on Friday, September 17, 5-7pm.
- I helped to hang the cables for this show so at least go and check out my handy work. 

Davidson Galleries is having an opening for John Grade's piece Circuit as well as new works on two nights. A special preview reception on Wednesday September 1, 5-7pm as well as the "First Thursday" opening September 2, 6-8pm. John will also talk about Circuit at noon, Saturday, September 18 at the gallery and also will be giving a talk at the downtown Seattle library Friday, September 10 at 6pm.

In case you haven't seen my Posting on Circuit here is a little glimpse.

This was taken in the pottery studio with the army of volunteers working to press the clay into molds.

This is the video I took late one night when I went crazy from sleep deprivation from working on this piece. You can see, if you look closely enough, all the steps that went into finishing the pieces, from the painting to the netting to the corn based resin to the drying tables to the mochi choco cheese pies.

Here is the video of the piece being installed in New York back in May taken over a three day period.

Here are some pictures of the piece itself.

So come check it out in person.

Bad Movie #1

ZARDOZ

I'm going to start a new periodic post on Mondays called Bad Movie. I watch a lot of movies and I usually just share on here the ones I like, well there are also ones that are so bad that I just need to share them.

For the first Bad Movie post I will share Zardoz. Now just to get it started this movie stars Sean Connery. Just have a look at him.

Ok, let me try and lay out the plot. The year is 2293 Sean Connery who's name is Zed is the leader of the Exterminators, which is the chosen warrior class that scours the countryside killing. They worship the god Zardoz, which is a giant flying head that spits out guns when Zed and his people give it grain. Zardoz's mantra is "The gun is good. The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life to poison the Earth with a plague of men, as once it was, but the gun shoots death, and purifies the Earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth . . . and kill!" Later you find out Zed read The Wizard of Oz which prompted him to hide aboard the giant head to see who is running it. He then finds himself with the Eternals which is a group of people that never die and control the giant head. In the end you learn the Eternals wanted to die which is why they brought Zed in to do the job.

Pretty much this movie was created to have Sean Connery run around in that ridiculous outfit. There is also a lot of random topless women running around, but it was made in the 70's so that pretty normal. Now, one would think seeing this movie that Sean Connery might have agreed to do this out of desperation for work, but this movie was made in the middle of his James Bond years. Maybe he felt James Bond wasn't sexy enough and he needed to take it to the next step. Who Knows.

Here is the trailer.

If you want to give it a look it is available on Netflix instant view, if you dare.

Giveaway #2

Inlay Pendant

 Here are the rules:
If you wish to be entered into the drawing for a chance to win this piece of jewelry just leave a comment on this post, be sure to include some form of identity and not just an anonymous post. You have until the end of Friday August 20th at the stroke of midnight. You may come across this post on other blogs as well, if you leave a comment on that blog your name will be entered again, one entry per blog but no limit on the number of blogs you enter in. After Friday I will gather all names from all blogs and then randomly choose a winner, that winner will then receive this piece of jewelry for free. Good luck.

This second giveaway is for a pendant with a piece of copper that has been textured and given a heat patina then set into a rosewood frame. This was the original design for a series of these I am doing and this is the first of two that I will be giving away.

The reason I am giving them away and not selling them is because of the small crack that formed in the wood as the copper inlay was set into the frame. Either the tolerances were to tight or I just pressed to hard, either way it cracked and I just don't feel comfortable selling it in its condition. I don't believe it will crack any further and the whole piece is pretty solid because I used a strong adhesive to set the copper piece in place which is now acting as sort of a reinforcement.

This piece has two cracks, on at the top left and the other at the bottom right.

The dimensions of this piece are 1" wide by 2" tall by 3/16" thick and hangs from a 20" waxed cotton cord with a hand made sterling s-hook.

Interested in acquiring this little piece for free? Lust leave a comment below.

I went to

A Birthday Party For A House

The current owners of the house my mom grew up in decided to throw a 100 year birthday party for the house. The house is on top of Queen Anne hill at the end of Crockett street over looking Union Lake. It's a very large and impressive house with lots of character and still has a lot of the original styling and fixtures from when it was first built. Over the 100 years there have been 4 owners and it's great none have made any drastic changes to the home over the years, even the original coal furnace is still in the basement. It was great to walk around the house with my mom and hearing all her memories and stories.

Here are some pictures that I took of the house and the incredible view.

What I'm Up To

Bar Top

Here are some pictures of the bar top I made for Jay.

There were two pieces I made, one was a fridge blind and the other is a replacement bar top. The fridge blind is made out of oak boards with maple slats to let the heat from the fridge out. The bar top is made out of scrap guitar body pieces that were milled down into 2, 3, and 4 inch wide pieces of varying lengths then glued together butcher block style. It was then finished with a red mahogany stain and a poly gloss finish.

Here is the before and after shots.

Here are some more picture of the whole process of putting it all together.

Giveaway #1 Winner

And The Winner Is...

Congratulations Sean and Margaret's Big Trip. To the others,better luck next time.

Here is a preview of the next giveaway.