What I'm Up To

Squares²

Well I've been cutting out a bunch of squares the past I can't remember how many days. I decided to document myself cutting out a few so you could share in the process. I filmed it from every possible angle so you get the whole idea.

It just goes on and on. Then once they are cut out they are sanded true, but that's another time lapse for another day. You tend to get into a trance and just go on auto pilot. I guess it's kind of dangerous getting into a trance with the band saw right there but I still have all my fingers and thumbs, I think, yep still there. The day can go by pretty quick if you have some good music or an audio book to listen to. There is still a bunch more of these squares that need to be cut out so hopefully I don't go crazy before I finish.

I Made This

Ebony Looking Glass

This past weekend my family and I celebrated my mom's birthday and I decided to make her something. I decided to make something special seeing how it was her 97th birthday. I came up with a new design based off of my looking glasses but instead of having a metal backing it's a solid wood frame.

I took pictures at most steps while I was making it.

Here is the rough blank of ebony that I started out with. Kind of looks like a brownie.

I then roughly drew out the shape and drilled a center hole before I sawed the piece in half.

Once it was cut in half I used the hole I drilled earlier as my guide when carving out the cavity for the lens. So now when I put the two pieces back together the wood grains should line up close together.

After the piece was glued and clamped together I redrew the design for the pendant.

Then I roughly cut it out.

And then started to shape it.

And then after sanding, sanding, sanding, and then sanding it some more I started to get this.

And the final result was this. I drilled a hole through the top and hung it with a sterling chain.

Here's looking through the looking glass.

And looking closely you can see the seam where the two pieces of wood were glued together.

This was a fun little piece to put together. You may even see some pieces like this in my Etsy shop in the not to distant future.

Settlement Sunday #10

This weeks Settlement Sunday recipe is a simple old timey one, Soft Molasses Cookies. It goes together fairly easily, it probably goes together really easy if you have a mixer. I don't have a mixer and as you can see in the video when I creamed the butter I actually snapped one of my spatulas. So it's good to have a strong spatula or a mixer, and I'm assuming most people have mixers. I would also recommend using plenty of flour when kneading and rolling out the dough, it's really soft and sticky because of the molasses. Here's how it went together for me.

The cookies are really soft and have a nice subtle taste of molasses. It's almost like a mild gingerbread cookie. The icing is really good as well, the cookies are also great just plain. Like I said before, these are probably really easy to make if you have a mixer. It's a great recipe if you have a bunch of molasses that you want to use up, that's kind of why I picked it. I had a big bottle that I bought for a previous recipe but only used a few tablespoons. Either if you need to use up some molasses or just want to try something new you should defiantly try these out sometime.

 

Previous Settlement Sundays

1. Peanut Butter Cup Cakes

2. Dimpes Dampes

3. Mulligatawny Soup

4. Hot Bacon and Peanut Butter Sandwiches
5. Date Bars

6. Chop Suey

7. Eggs a la Columbus

8. Baked Sausage

 9. Beer Soup

What I'm Up To

Squares and Beams

The past few weeks I've spent a lot of time working on a few of John Grade's newest projects. One which involves making and placing hundreds and hundreds of small wood squares. The other involves cutting up massive wood beams.

Here are some pictures of the squares after they have been taped on both sides and then individually hot glued onto the form. Once we finish placing all the squares the gap between each will be filled with resin

It takes quite awhile to place all the little squares. For the most part it's been done by me and one of John's other assistants, Helen. Here is a picture of Helen hard at work. She's a hot gluing machine. Don't mess with her, she'll hot glue your face off.

Last week I finished up with the process of cutting up the large wood frame pieces from the Wawona. With each beam we were usually able to get three pieces that were 4 inches thick, roughly 10 inches tall and a number of varying lengths. Some of the beams were taller then 5 feet which made them pretty hard to handle on the band saw. Here is a time lapse of myself pushing through some of the medium size beams.

Each beam was like a little surprise when we cut into it, some beams had some very unpleasant smells while others had some very pleasant ones. Every beam had amazing colors to it and they all varies slightly, no two beams were alike.  Here is a picture of one beam that was cut into three pieces.

You can see the great color and grain of the wood, as well as the trunnels that are throughout all of the beams. For now all the pieces I cut up are drying for the next few months but I will have more pictures later on of all the carving that will go into each of these sections. I'll also have more pictures every week of all the other projects I'm working on.

Want To Watch

Werner Hertzog

I've been watching a lot of documentaries lately by Werner Hertzog. If you have never seen any of his work, you need to check it out. His films explore the boundaries of what is possible.

There is a great documentary about Werner Hertzog making one of his films. It's amazing to see just what goes into making one of his films. Here is the trailer for the documentary. I think it's pretty funny that Hertzog is making a movie about a man because of the crazy things he tried to do when in makeing the film Hertzog is trying to do the same things.

One of my favorite films I discovery from him is Encounters at the end of the World. It is a documentary about the people living and working down in Antarctica. You meet a number of people, learn their stories and what they are working on. Some of the footage is like from another world. Here is the trailer, I highly recommend you watch this whole movie.

It just so happens that he has a new movie coming out soon. It's called Cave of Forgotten Dreams. It looks amazing, even though it's in 3D.

Well this is only a small taste of Hertzog, he is defiantly someone to add to your list of films to watch.

Uwajimystery #22

Kasugai Peanut & You

This weeks Uwajimystery is Kasugai Peanut & You.

Wait, wait what? You? You mean me? What do you want with me?

I'm guessing the me in this equation is suppose to eat that. I don't remember agreeing to this and your assumptions are a bit rude and forthcoming.

It can't look that strange on the inside right? Oh wait, it does.

Even picking out the sardines and shrimp cakes I'm not really sure I want to dive into the rest of it. I feel a little cheated by the way too, only three shrimp cakes and maybe 5 and a half sardines? Come on. Where is the rest of that one sardine, there's only a head left.

Would I recommend you try this? Hey, if what you see makes your mouth water have at it. I thought it looked, smelled, and tasted a bit to fishy for my liking.

Previous Uwajimysteries

1. Collon 

2. Grass Jelly Drink

3. Peanuts With Soup

4. Pocari Sweat

5. Super Titi

6. Fish Sausage

7. Dog Poop

8. Cheese Pie

9. Cheetos

10. Rice and Peanut's Drink

11. Kit Kat

12. Boss First Class

13. Tako Chips

14. Durrian Chips

15. Durrian Flavor Wafer

16. Green Tea Aero

17. Big Popcorn

18. All Purpose Sauce

19. Seductive Monkey Cookies 

20. World's Fanciest Chips 

21. Shrimp Sandwich Pocket

Settlement Sunday #9

This weeks Settlement Sunday is Beer Soup. Just in time for St. Patrick's Day. I decided to use Guinness Extra Stout in my soup. I was not really sure how it would turn out or even what it would look like when it did. Here is how it went together.

I think I made it right, I drank some of the extra ingredients. I'm guessing the beaten egg whites are suppose to look like the head of a beer in the soup. The consistency is a little strange in the soup. I was actually surprised at the flavor of the soup, it tasted similar to beef stalk. It would be a great soup on a cold night. I'm sure different beers will give different results so it may take some experimenting to come up with the perfect beer soup but I'm ready to take the time and years of hard work necessary to find it.

I stocked up on some Guinness for this recipe, I don't think it will last until St. Patrick's day though.

I even have one of the mini bottles and pint glasses they make for the Leprechaun in Ireland.

St. Patrick's day is on a Thursday this year, so some beer soup might be the thing you can bring to work for lunch to help you get through the day.

Previous Settlement Sundays

1. Peanut Butter Cup Cakes

2. Dimpes Dampes

3. Mulligatawny Soup

4. Hot Bacon and Peanut Butter Sandwiches
5. Date Bars

6. Chop Suey

7. Eggs a la Columbus

8. Baked Sausage

Uwajimystery #21

Shrimp Sandwich Pocket

This weeks Uwajimystery is one that almost killed me. I had plans to film myself eating this weeks item until I discovered something about it just before I dug in. Before we get to that lets start with an introduction.

 

Yep, shrimp sandwich pocket, ready to eat.

I thought it looked innocent enough and I was even prepared to eat it until I glanced at the expiration date. See that up there? EXP 2010 07 29 Yea, this is March of 2011 right? I thought so. I found this item sitting on top of the bread shelf in what even at the time I though seemed like an odd place. Now I'm starting to wonder if someone maybe back in July was carting the box of these off to the dumpster when they became distracted, set the box on top of the shelf and forgot about them. Needless to say I just threw it away. Sorry you weren't able to watch me eat this weeks Uwajimystery but thank god I dodged this bullet, who knows what would have happened if I had eaten six month old expired shrimp.

Previous Uwajimysteries

1. Collon 

2. Grass Jelly Drink

3. Peanuts With Soup

4. Pocari Sweat

5. Super Titi

6. Fish Sausage

7. Dog Poop

8. Cheese Pie

9. Cheetos

10. Rice and Peanut's Drink

11. Kit Kat

12. Boss First Class

13. Tako Chips

14. Durrian Chips

15. Durrian Flavor Wafer

16. Green Tea Aero

17. Big Popcorn

18. All Purpose Sauce

19. Seductive Monkey Cookies 

20. World's Fanciest Chips

Settlement Sunday #8

 For this weeks Settlement Sunday I decided to go with something easy because I had a pretty tiring weekend. I choose to make the recipe for Baked Sausage because it really looks simple and really good. I thought it would go pretty quick and making it did go fast but baking it took quite a while. The recipe is not really clear on what size dish you should use. I basically chose my dish based on the size of the dough when I patted it down to 1/2 an inch think like it said. If I make this again I will use a dish about twice the size, or bake it at a lower temperature and for longer. When I followed the recipe and checked it at 15 minutes, the top had a nice brown to it but the dough and sausage was still pretty raw inside. I then covered it and placed it back in the oven at 350 degrees for another 40 minutes or so until it was clearly done. It still came out tasting really great, it just took longer then I expected.

Here's how it went together

. 

I served it up with some leftover homemade mashed potatoes with kale that I had. The sausage I used was some chicken with pineapple and soy sauce that I got from whole foods. It has really great flavor where it meets the biscuit and where it crisped a little bit on the sides of the dish. This is a really simple recipe and the biscuit dough is a lot simpler to make then you would think. Over all it took me less then 20 minutes to prepare. If you are going to make this dish just remember to either use a larger baking dish or bake at a lower temperature for longer. It does go great with mashed potatoes as well.

Previous Settlement Sundays

1. Peanut Butter Cup Cakes

2. Dimpes Dampes

3. Mulligatawny Soup

4. Hot Bacon and Peanut Butter Sandwiches
5. Date Bars

6. Chop Suey

7. Eggs a la Columbus

Wawona Wood Update

Wood Stacking

A few days ago I started processing all the frame sections of the Wawona to get them ready for the drying process. The frame sections are roughly 10 inches by 13 inches and vary in length. I'm cutting them into sections with a band saw so we end up with three pieces that are 4 inches thick by 10 inches wide. They are then stacked so they can dry out for the next few months. We have a lot of wood that needs to be stacked so were trying to make the best use of space that we can. In the end most of the kitchen space will be filled with wood. Here is one wall that is already full.

What I'm Up To

Etsy Packaging

I've created a uniform package for most of my etsy items. It's a simple and cheap but also unique and feels intimate to the buyer. Usually when I sold something on etsy I would just throw something together before I ship it. Now I have everything set and ready to go. My basic ingredients for my packaging are a simple brown recycled paper box, white tissue paper, wax cotton cord, and a rubber stamp.

 

The rubber stamp is one that I recently designed and had custom made. Which is pretty cool because now I'm the first person in my family to own a stamp. It's a simple stamp with "Ian Gill Designs" below my "logo", I guess, which is my name written in all one character. I use the stamp on the bottom of the box as well as on a piece of crinkled tissue paper wedged into the lid. I like the simplicity and cleanness of it all.

 

I have a few different size boxes, some for small rings some for large rings and pendants. Whatever the item may be, it is placed on a cotton bedding covered with more crinkled tissue paper. The item itself is folded up in another piece of crinkled tissue paper, creating a trifecta of crinkled tissue paper. Crinkled tissue paper if you are wondering is tissue paper that has been crinkled, I usually just role it into a tight ball then unroll it but your crinkling technique may differ. I think crinkling it gives it a more softer characteristic and unique qualities.

 

The boxes are then held closed with some black waxed cotton cord tied with a simple bow. 

Eventually I'll post some packaging pictures with my etsy items, I just need to get around to doing it. This system will work for about 90% of my etsy items. The rest I will probably just create a custom packaging like I did with this item I sold.

What say you? Do you like my packaging? Any tips on ways to improve it? Am I crinkling to much, or not enough?

Watch This

Enter The Void

Every so often I watch a film that totally blows my mind. Enter The Void is one such film. It is like nothing I have ever seen before. I had never even heard of this movie before I saw it on netflix and even then I spent some time browsing past it. The description for the film on netflix does not do it justice. Before I go on talking about this film you should get some context by watching the trailer.

You start off the film viewing the world through Oscar's eyes, literally through his eyes. You see what he sees, you hear what he thinks, you even see what he sees when he closes his eyes. There is no scene cut for the first 20min of the film, all the way up to his death. After he is killed you watch the world through Oscars soul. You watch as he visits certain people, relives past events, and wanders through the city. It really is to hard to describe what each of the scenes are like, it just nothing I've ever seen before.

I'm pretty sure this film is not for every one. It's probably a film you are either going to love or hate. It's fairly slow, it more of a visual film then filled with great dialog or acting. Maybe like me you will sit with you jaw dropped the whole time or maybe you will cringe over and over again. I still think you should check it out. It's available to view on netflix streaming. Let me know what you think of this film, or if you have any suggestions for films like this that I should also check out.

This will probably become the new movie I will regularly start watching late at the night, most likely drunk, and fall asleep to. 

Uwajimystery #20

ワインに合うスナック

This weeks Uwajimystery is a special one seeing how it is my 20th post. To celebrate I went ahead and splurged and bought the World's Fanciest Chips. That's right, step aside bugles.

Now your first reaction might be the same as mine, what the hell is it? Then you find yourself looking for something familiar, like English. That's when you notice Frito Lay up there in the corner. Now you're asking just what kind of strange Fritos are these? Judging by the picture its garlic bread and cheese fondue. But, maybe like me, the thing you notice and the thing that ultimately commands you to buy this bag of chips is this little guy here.

He will give you no answers on what you are getting, but he does open up a world of possibilities. After I bought these I tried doing some research on them by looking up for some sort of reference to them which all lead to dead ends. It was not until I started to try and translate some of the Japanese words did I full understand what a strange new world I had just entered. Here are the pieces I was able to translate.

Under the picture of the little man:
第8回世界最優秀ソムリエコンクール優勝
田崎真也プロデュース 
which translates to:
Masaru Masaru 8th World Best sommelier contest
Produced by Shinya Tasaki Makoto

The bold words on front:
ワインに合うスナック
Which translates to:
Wine and Snacks Meet

Below that:
チーズフォンデュ味&ガーリックトースト味 
Which translates to:
Fondue taste and garlic toast flavor


From what I can gather, what we have here is a chip to go along with your wine. You heard me. Because who out there has not felt the anger and disgust when the chips you are eating just don't match and flavor complexity and bouquet of that glass of wine you are enjoying. Well like everything the Japanese are a step ahead of us. If I could translate more I could probably tell you what it says would be the perfect wine to go along with Garlic Bread and Cheese Fondue chips, but I can't so I'll just show you the chips instead. 

As you can see there are two kinds of chips in the bag. The one on the left that looks like a sun chip is the cheese fondue, and the other dorito looking thing is the garlic bread. They do in fact taste almost nothing like cheese fondue or garlic bread. They don't taste bad at all, just not like the real thing. Maybe I just had to high of an expectation going in to this whole thing. I was expecting something fancy, something elegant and classy. Maybe it's because I don't have any wine to go along with my chips, that must be it.


Anyway, I would defiantly give these chips a try, they have a pretty good flavor. Also if you are having some sort of fancy party just grab a bag of these chips and you will have yourself an instant plate of the fanciest hors d'oeuvres from a bag ever. 

Previous Uwajimysteries

1. Collon 

2. Grass Jelly Drink

3. Peanuts With Soup

4. Pocari Sweat

5. Super Titi

6. Fish Sausage

7. Dog Poop

8. Cheese Pie

9. Cheetos

10. Rice and Peanut's Drink

11. Kit Kat

12. Boss First Class

13. Tako Chips

14. Durrian Chips

15. Durrian Flavor Wafer

16. Green Tea Aero

17. Big Popcorn

18. All Purpose Sauce

19. Seductive Monkey Cookies