Christmas is the Season...

...for MOVIES!

First off, Yes Man. I love Jim Carrey. He can do no wrong. Even when he does weird roles, like the Grinch. He is a comedy GOD! So, naturally, I'm excited about his most recent movie:



I'm also a die hard fan of disaster movies. I'd call it a guilty pleasure, because I don't think I've ever seen a truly fantastic disaster movie. But this trailer for 2012 gives me goosebumps. Could this be the one? (It doesn't come out until July 2009, but I'm including it anyway.)



It stars John Cusack, of which I am also a big fan. I just watched Martian Child and War, Inc. and he did both very well, even though the movies themselves weren't all that spectacular, so at least we'll be looking at a well acted movie? Maybe? I don't know. I pretty much only go to these movies to see the death and destruction via special effects. Good lord, what does that say about me?

Also on the disaster movies front, Knowing comes out in March of 09. It stars Nicholas Cage, of which I'm not the biggest fan. But it doesn't matter because I'll see it anyway. Just like I'll see The Day the Earth Stood Still, with Keanu Reeves, who is my absolute least favorite actor. I have no choice. Here's the trailer for Knowing.



I must admit, the story is pretty cool. And finally, one of the most anticipated movies of the Christmas season, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I am so excited for it because I know it's probably going to be one of the last original movie ideas for a while, considering that the economic crisis is foretelling horrible sequels and feel-good movies.



Get excited!

Big Wheels!

Who's up for this when I get back to St. Louis?

Shoots and Boots

So the petina didn't come until this morning, which wouldn't have been enough time to apply it, so I got pictures taken without. But it's alright because our facilities for pictures are severely lacking. But it was fun to see all the shop professors taking picture after picture of every single detail of the desk. And Troyer was really interested in the recipe and process for the soap finish I used on the birch. So many people kept asking me what I was doing as I was applying the soap, and I was surprised to realize that barely anyone, not even most of my professors, had heard of the soap finish before. So I felt all knowledgeable and such. It was nice.



In other news, I need boots! These chucks aren't cutting it. 5 inches of snow magically fell in the three hours between when I fell asleep and when I was jolted awake by my alarm clock. One question: when did it become winter?

More Final Projects

I gave my final presentation on the IMPACT coaster last Friday. I'm sad to see the project go, especially since I know there's a lot more that can be done with it, but I'm afraid it would be too much for me to continue on with for the competition. It's more important that I focus on my concentration for next semester. But it was definitely a fun project. Here's the final rendered floor plan:

Patina

I've been working non-stop the last three days on shop, since it's due Tuesday. Yesterday, I completed the soap finish on the wood piece. Then I spent a nervous few minutes putting the bronze pieces back on, hoping the wood hadn't warped:



A detail where the wood meets the bronze.



Today, I put the black patina finish on the bronze. And then pictures on Tuesday.

So Weet.

The cast pieces arrived today around 3pm. I'm cutting it severely close, but I think I'm probably closer to finished than about half my class, so it's all relative. Plus, it's just about as far beyond my control as I can get.

I add insult to injury, I made quite the booboo that I didn't realize I'd made until today: I planed my big, pretty birch board about 1/4 inch too far. Luckily, there were some spare birch and maple pieces laying around, so I spent this whole afternoon and part of the evening planing them down to 1/4 inch and getting them ready to glue on the bottom of my desk top. Also luckily, you won't really be able to tell I made the booboo unless you're looking at the underside of my desk, which will never really happen. Anyway, on with the photos!

How they arrived:



And a sort of side view:



And a nice little close-up at the top, where the wood slots in:



I moved them away from the sharp metal saw blade pretty quickly, out to the hallway. They looked so much more golden out there, in the sunlight.



And they weigh about 50 pounds! Each! And I'd say my birchle (hybrid of birch and maple) piece weighs nearly that much, so this is going to be one mother of a desk. So much for "easy disassembly."

Spectroscope

So I finally started using that Bamboo Wacom thingy I bought back when I got my MacBook, and just in time, too. There's no way I could do this with a teeny tiny track pad:


This is the "spectroscope." I don't know if something of the name already exists or not, but it's pretty much just a formality, so that the critiquers don't say, "That thing you made that looks like a backwards telescope," when they're talking about my project.

Anyway, the spectroscope is one of the products that visitors see when walking through the queue of "Impact." It's a way to see the micro-organisms that are beginning to inhabit the caverns. A few people can take a look at the monitor (at the big end), and one person can move the thing up and down and swivel it left and right to view different organisms.

All of my products are heavy and industrial-looking, to fit with the heaviness of the caverns. And all products further along the storyline of the ride–that you are exploring a newly discovered series of caverns.

Coroflot

The other night I had this, "Oh my god, what am I doing with my life?!" spell, and I could only be calmed by creating an account on Coroflot. It's a handy little site for creative-types to keep their portfolio, chat with other designers, and most importantly, get jobs.

I've found a few furniture-related places that look interesting, so I'm focusing a bit more on that work. I know you've seen all this stuff before, but check it out if you feel so inclined.

Biscuits!

Steve came in on Saturday, to let us catch up on shop work. I decided to glue up my recently acquired birch pieces. But since they are at their exact thickness, I had to make sure that the glue up was as precise as it could be. So I used biscuits.

And what better way to make biscuit holes than by using the biscuit cutter!



And a nice close up:



And this is it all glued up. This is the underside, since the grain varies a bit too much. I promise its really pretty on the other side.



But oh my god, it's heavy. And when I went to do the casting, the pieces they had already done were also really heavy. I can just hear the third years cursing me as they try to rearrange everyone's piece for Open House.

Can't Buy Me Love

I'm starting to feel more like a graphic design student nowadays, with all the posters they're making us do. The design of the actual piece of furniture took about a fraction of the time as this puppy:



The desk had been called the workgroup desk, but for no real reason. So I changed it to Morton, short for Mort(is & Ten)on, which happens to be the only joint used on my piece. The tagline sort of came from Steve, who told me that when the desk is done, he's sure that it'll hold anything and that he'd be able to dance on top of it–. And if that happens, you'll be the first to see the youtube video, followed closely by the rest of free world.

OH MY GOD, I AM SO COOL!

Today goes down in history as one of the most awesome days ever. I arrived at Eligius Bronze around 10am and was taken to their foundry, where Steve was talking to Jeff, the guy who would be showing us how to pour the mold. First, he showed us how to create the negative mold out of sand, hence, sand-casting. He put the pieces I made out of Trupan in the bottom of the molding plate, and covered it with a fine layer of sand. The sand they use is actually from the river bed just outside of the city.



After packing the sand in to the brim, I helped him turn over the plate. This is what it looks like at the bottom of the plate. The white powder is actually a resin, although I'm not quite sure what it does.



Then he attached another molding plate and again packed it full of sand.



When he was done, we took the top off and removed the Trupan pieces. Then he created little grooves in the sand as pathways for the liquid metal to travel through.



Then Jeff and Steve put the plates back together again, with the mold-shaped void in the center.



After securing the two plates and placing them on the floor, they were ready for molding!



Here I am, pouring 2200 degree liquid bronze into the mold. It was like harnessing the sun and making it do my bidding.



I also did a couple other pieces of mine.



After only a half hour, even though they were still smoldering, they were ready to be taken out and looked over. Perfect!



Rick says that after grinding the pieces down, welding them together, and sanding them, I get to take over and finish them how I like. I'm thinking of blackening the metal with a petina.

While I was in Kansas City, I stopped by Schutte Lumber and picked up wood for the desk. I had planned on genuine mahogany, but didn't realize that I'd have to fork over a kidney and my first born for it, so I went with birch instead. It's a pretty birch, though. A "glad I have both kidneys and my hypothetical child" kind of birch.

Tour de Bronze

I leave in about an hour for Kansas City. I'm pouring my mold today! I'll be sure to take my camera along and get some sweet pictures (if that's allowed, of course).

I've also finished all but the index of my "OMG Cute!" book and will be sending it out to print on Friday. I'm spending this evening putting my Powerpoint/PDF together for my presentation on Friday.

Stay tuned.

Holy De La Hoya!

I have my final programming presentation this Friday on "The Science of Cute." I'm already kind of nervous. But I've resolved myself to finishing the book first and creating the presentation from the book, so everything else is on hold.

Here are a few choice pages from the book. It's currently only in Illustrator format. After I finish that, it's dividing each spread into two individual pages via Photoshop, then turning them into jpg files and uploading them to Blurb's Booksmart software. Get excited!







(P.S. Captions are just place markers, and page numbers are all kinds of not right.) The layout is super simple–hopefully people focus more on the photos than the layout. Not all spreads will have text. A few pages will simply be photos with captions. But the page count is getting up there.

More when I can. Maybe I can figure out my MobileMe account and get a pdf of the book up here when I'm done.