GreenPeace

It's been a while since I've done anything creative, despite the fact that I have shop this semester. Most of the work there has been studies in joints and working drawings. However, I am taking a writing class, and we've been tasked with creating a "visual argument," such as an advocacy ad, for the organization of our choice. I chose GreenPeace and created this little drawing:



Now it's onto the 3-page paper that accompanies it, arguing why GreenPeace should use this as an advertisement for their cause. Yay.

Up & Running

KateSteib.com is up and running! Check it out and let me know what you think. I welcome any and all critiques.

M.I.A

Been away for a while, but for good reason. I've finally purchased my domain name, woo! I've been working on my online portfolio, but until it's ready for public eyes, I've got a very fancy construction page for you to look at:

Ta-da!

Picnic

Spent all day finishing up the desk–applying the patina and waxing the finish. Finally got it set up in the Kemper Gallery. Here it is!

More Patina

I've got some pictures for you, my lovelies. I've put patina on one of the bronze end pieces of the Morton Desk. Because that's all we had of the patina stuff, sadly. So I'm going to be a little late to the gallery opening, but fashionably late. About a pint comes in tomorrow, and I'm worried that it won't be enough, but I guess I'll just have to make do. (You can see the original bronze piece on the right, all speckled with black because the patina mixture is in a spray bottle, but the difference between the two is amazing.)



Check out the light burnishing I put on the edges with a brillo pad. It really adds a lot.



Anyway, I should get the other piece done and both waxed by early afternoon, so I'll take my camera and get a few snaps of it in the gallery.

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.

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.

Lotsa Cute

It figures that I would want to work on the schoolwork that's due very last this semester. But at least it's another item crossed off my to do list.


[Original Print 17" x 22"]

Shiny!

I've been dividing my time up pretty evenly between shop, studio, and programming. I turned in my Trupan pieces to be cast yesterday and decided on bronze instead of aluminum, mostly because Rick thought bronze would be better, but also because the pieces will be slightly heavier with a tad more strength. I've talked to Rick a few times about the process, asking if I could be present for the casting. Not only can I be there, but he told me that I can pour the metal!!! My shop geek status just went up about 10 points.

In studio, I've completed my floor plan and am rendering it in Photoshop. And since the odds of my turning this in for the competition are slim, I've decided to reward you with a glimpse at the unrendered plan. Since it's "underground," all walls are concrete and the rockwork walls are shotcrete. The plan's not going to be very informative at this point, without crazy explanation, but my project is based mostly on the story and the products and plan that create that story:

A meteor has entered the earth’s atmosphere and crash landed, creating an enormous crater. However, instead of resting in the center of this giant crater, the meteor has broken through the earth’s surface, revealing a previously undiscovered series of caverns. In order to study the meteor, scientists have set up a laboratory at the site.
You are invited to be a part of this new and exciting expedition.

The WOW factor / twist: The meteor has brought with it microorganisms and small creatures that have begun to call these caverns their home.

The Second WOW factor / twist: The organisms might not be as "micro" as originally thought.



What's left for me is pretty much taking my product sketches (about 8 of them or so), turning them into line drawings in Illustrator and rendering them in Photoshop.

As far as programming goes, the book is on its way. Ideally, I'll be spending all weekend on it and order it before Thanksgiving break. I've been working on my poster for the project and in the process have created a vector image of the VW Bug, which I'm showing here in a multitude of colors:



If you look closely, you can see that the headlights look sort of like eyes and that the center grill looks like a little smiley face. So I was thinking of playing that up a little bit for the poster, but I'm still not sure. It's not due until finals week, so I'm going to worry about it then.

But now it's time to take a break and go see Role Models with my homeboy, Josh.

Impact

I've been working on studio so much lately that I had yet another dream about riding a roller coaster. And this time, it was mine! Except there was no theming built on yet... and I was wearing my high school uniform... and then I went to a job interview... wearing six-inch hooker boots. The roller coaster part was fun. The six-inch hooker boots not so much.

Anyway, I've come up with a logo for my attraction, which required me to come up with a name for the coaster. I settled on "Impact":



Then I started to look at it and realized it was a bit simple, so I added some fancy texturing:



This is just about all I can show right now of what I've been working on. I've got a floor plan for the ride building, which I will show in the final presentation, but since I'm in "Product Design Studio," I figured I should, you know, focus on the products that will be in the attraction, i.e. ride car, creature habitats, cash wrap, merchandise, shelving, everything.

And this translates to very little sleep over the next few weeks. But so long as there are Scrubs re-runs, I will be just fine.

Double Dare

So very much Bud Light and sangria went into the making of this photograph. But my hangover is your hilarity. Enjoy! (Just scroll down after the link.)

News and Such

It has been another extremely quick and busy week here in Manhappenin'. And, of course, I've got news and such. The much awaited internship poster display has been put up all over Seaton, where students from Landscape, Architecture, and Interiors can show off what they did last semester while playing hookie. Here's my submission:



I decided to do something a little different than a standard poster. It's more like a "map fold" poster, if that makes any sense. I've thought about using this format for mini portfolios to mail out to firms and thought I'd test it out with the internship poster. Here's what it looks like folded up:



Also, in the good news category, I won a few little inner-college competitions in the last week. The first is the t-shirt design for the Landscape Architecture Department. So yay! Free t-shirt!

Second is the metal casting competition for Eligius Bronze located in Kansas City, Missouri. Take a look at their stuff, I'm totally impressed. I especially love the Meadow River Dining Table. Anything minimal makes my heart swoon. I'm currently in the process of making the Trupan prototype for the cast metal pieces. From there, Eligius will take it and create a mold and then use that mold to cast the metal pieces. Then they'll weld and finish it, and I get the finished pieces, which I'll use to measure my wooden table top insert. The most awesome part is that I can at least be present if not participate in the casting process! I'm a geeky shop nerd, so that's like a Christmas present for me.

This weekend is going to be extremely busy. I've got some pretty fun stuff going on with studio, as I'm starting to get down to the tiny details of my coaster. It's still got an insane amount of work to be done on it, but that's how it goes. I'm also hoping to finalize the layout for my book on cute. I guess we'll see.