6

Riusuke Fukahori

Well I though I would share another video today. I found the process of this artist to be pretty amazing. They look so life like. Such a simple process but such a dramatic result. Read the video description below for more information on the artist and his current show.

ICN gallery proudly presents Goldfish Salvation by artist Riusuke Fukahori from 1 Dec 2011 - 11 Jan 2012.

Artist Riusuke Fukahori's London debut exhibition "Goldfish Salvation" transforms ICN gallery into the world of goldfish. When struggling with artistic vision, Fukahori's pet goldfish became his inspiration and ever since his passion and lifelong theme. His unique style of painting uses acrylic on clear resin which is poured into containers, resulting in a three-dimensional appearance and lifelike vitality.

This video gives you a glimpse of his amazing painting process.

Exhibition: 1 December 2011 - 11 January 2012
Opening: 1 Dec from 19:00

Artist will also be painting the gallery window on Dec. 3 between 2:00-3:00pm.

5

POTHOUND

Today I thought I would share a great short video I found. It's called Pothound and it's a story of a stray dog that spends his days wandering around helping people out with various things but gets nothing but rejection from everyone. It's a fun little film with a surprise ending that I hope you like.

It's kind of an updated version of Benji. Maybe I just like it because I like dogs so much.

4

How To Cook A Wolf

One of my Christmas gifts to Carmel was a dinner out to the restaurant How To Cook A Wolf up on top of Queen Anne. It's a restaurant that we have both been wanting to go to but never gotten around to mostly because it's a little pricy so I decided a Christmas gift would be the perfect excuse. They server family style so we decided to get three dishes to share along with a bottle of wine. We started off with a bottle of Giovanna Madonia Sagiovese di Romagna to go along with an appetizer consisting of the Meat Board which included Jamon Serrano, Lomo Iberico, Guanciale, we both decided that Lomo Iberico was our favorite with Jamon Serrano coming up second. We then got the Potato Gnocchi with Cauliflower, Taggiasca Olive, Mint. The Gnocchi was fried a little bit and had a great crisp crust to it, the Cauliflower was also amazing in this dish. After that we got the Beef Short Rib with Parsnip Puree, Bacon, Brussels Sprouts. I have to say this was my favorite and probably one of the best things I have ever eaten in my life. The Beef Short Rib was so tender it literally melted in your mouth. The Brussels Sprouts would have made any Brussels Sprouts hater drool, and the Parsnip Puree was so creamy and delicious. There is only one picture I can think of that puts this meal into perspective.

I wish I could eat like that every day. I wish I could take Carmel out to a meal like that every day but for now it might just have to be a Christmas thing. If you have a chance I would definitely try How To Cook A Wolf.

3

Portlandia

Last Wednesday Carmel and I went to go see Portlandia the Tour. Its basically Fred and Carrie showing off the new season of Portlandia. They showed a few clips from the new season and did some Q&A with the audience which went kind of off track when every drunk person in the place went up and asked questions. They also had Kyle Maclachlan and Dan Savage there. I have to say after seeing the show I'm excited for the new season. They also just posted all the first season episodes on Netflix so I've been watching those. I don't want to give anything away about the new season before you see it for yourself but there is some really funny stuff.

There is one thing I'm concerned about though. They asked the audience if anyone makes jewelry, to which I and a handful of people raised our hands. Then they asked if anyone in the audience knows someone who has started making jewelry, to which almost everyone raised their hand. They then sang this song about people who you know who are making jewelry now. I'm guessing I'm going to be catching a bunch of crap about this, most likely from my sister.

Here is a video clip taken from another show.

Damn it.

You can watch an episode of the new season here: http://www.ifc.com/portlandia/videos/portlandia-one-moore-episode

2

Ring A Day

My plan this year is to make at least one ring each day. I hope this will help me to keep motivate in making my own work and also to keep me consistent in posting items in my etsy shop. Most of the time I will spend a few days and make a few rings then in a week or so I will post them in my etsy shop together all at once. I hope that making and posting a ring each day will draw more traffic to my shop. I find that when I post items it draws more people into my shop. More traffic will hopefully mean more sales and one of my goals for this year it to become more self sufficient on my own work. I also figure that if I can spend at least 1 hour of each day making something then that will really help me to become better at making things. I'm not sure if it will really work or if this will pay off at all but I'm willing to take a chance and put in the effort. Also, I hope to make enough money to visit Carmel in South Africa.

I figure that if I'm going to be posting rings each day and sharing them with you I should probably show you just how I make one of my rings. So earlier today I took pictures as I was making today's ring, I plan on one day to make a video of the process but this will have to do till then. I'll share the pictures and comment along with them.

First I start off with a rough blank cut from stock.This will be an ebony ring.

I then draw out rough guide for the inside of the ring. 

Using a hand drill I put a hole near the line so I can slide my saw blade in. 

I use a jewelers saw to roughly cut out the inside of the ring.

I then use sandpaper to smooth out the inside of the ring and size it before shaping the outside. 

Then I use calipers to first mark a line to cut out a rough shape of the outside

I then make more marks to where I want the finished edges to be. From now on I use my dremel and sandpaper to shape the ring. 

After the outside is close to where I want it I then make the width of the ring to the right size. This ring seemed a little wide so I decided to make it thinner. 

After it is as thick as I want it I then start to shape the ring using more sandpaper. 

I get the shape I want and just keep using finer and finer sandpaper 

Once I have the ring to where I like it then I put some boiled linseed oil on it to help preserve the wood and to bring out its natural beauty

Done

Here you can see from whence it came

Then it's ready for Etsy. 

This ring is for sale now in my Etsy Shop.

1

A New Year

Well here we are in 2012. I have decided that my New Years resolution is to do two things. The first is to blog each day, the second is to make a ring each day.

This is a bold quest for me as I have not been blogging consistently for at least 6 months. I find blogging a great release of things that I gather but wen I don't blog for awhile I find myself at a loss as to how to start up again. I like to blog and share things. I hope that making myself blog every day will force me to seek out and find new things to blog and share about. I think I may bring back a few of my previous formats such as Thrifty Thursday or Settlement Sunday and others. I hope that blogging each day will give me a chance to sit down for a brief time each day and give it some reflection.

My second goal for this year is to make a wood ring each day and post it on my Etsy. I hope to do this as a way to keep me motivated to make things and to help me focus on me making my own work. I'm sure I will also make other things of my own and sometimes make more then one ring each day. I will though have one ring each day that is dedicated to the day and post it as such in my Etsy shop. I have already posted the first ring of the year here.

Well this has been a fairly short post but I just wanted to start out and share just what I hope and plan on doing in the next 12 months. I hope I can stick with it and who knows, maybe after this year I will never want to blog or make a wood ring ever again but we will see.

ps. another resolution I have is to get either a new computer of fix the keypad on this one because the h keeps sticking so if I missed any sorry, the b and 0 are pretty close beind.

Update

 New Sculptures

Well here it has been another long stretch of not blogging. The past few months have been really filled up with work. I've mostly been working on new sculptures for John Grade. Those sculptures can now be seen at Davidson Gallery through this month.

These sculptures were both made out of wood from the Wawona. It was great to work with this wood and get a change to understand it a little more before we start the larger Wawona sculpture. This wood has so many beautiful colors in it that really cant be seen until you cut into the wood. It's fun stuff to work with. Be sure to head down to the gallery this month to check them out in person.