So far so good

So far so good. It was a little sketch trying to fit everything into Liz's Mazda but we got it all in there thanks to her amazing tetris skills. The trip was great. No traffic from NY. I was shocked to find out that they let us pull our car into the convention center! That definitely didn't happen last time. We set up maybe %60 percent of it last night and we are going to finish up today. I unfortunately left some essentials so I can see at trip to the store in my future. Friday is the big first day for retail. I took a quick look around and I am have to say I am really excited about the searchlight artist's this year. I am also excited to see some old friends and maybe get a chance to have a beer or two.

NEW PIECES/small arms dealer

You guys saw these before but I just made a whole boat load more (laser cut black felt). This time they are all different (handguns, machine guns, etc etc). Something fun. I am well aware that it is very "dude" jewelry. For some reason I just had to make them. When my brother and I were little ones we were SUPER into star wars action figures. I think we had like 50 or 60 of them. Mostly I remember being stoked when we got a figure that came with more than one "accessory" aka blaster or for the nerds BlasTech DH-17 or E-11 blaster rifle. For some reason these remind me of those.

In other news, I am still finishing up a bunch of stuff for ACC. Its getting close to that time..... I will be sending out announcemenst sometime this weekend. If you want to be added to the mailing list please email me: arhash(at)gmail(dot)com

Everything happenes at once

Just when I a was plugging away at the work for ACC Baltimore guess what showed up at the school? Our 3D printer. Of course as you know I can't resist a little technology. Like a moth to a flame I was camped out next to this brand new shinny thing for four days straight! Someone needs to make better directions for this thing (it was worse than IKEA's frownie man). It was little rough at first (mostly small technical problems, our PCs needed updating desperately). I did get some great help from Michael Gayk who sort of works for the manufacturer. Thanks buddy!

Now that it is running I have been experimenting. I think I love this machine. There is no heated lye solution you have to dip your piece into or a large vat of resin that you have to suit up for, or powder to vacuum. You just "print" the part and peel away the support and you are done. No messy clean up.

Check out the two pieces I printed yesterday. Notice the loop within a loop towards the bottom? There is also a screen shot of the software and the location of the peeling cuts. Yes I said peeling cuts. This thing is really a glorified vinyl cutter. It lays down a piece of material on a moving Z table, applies a little masking fluid then a little glue, cuts the layer and repeats the process, building an object layer by layer.

Yes.... I had design for breakfast.

I was just thinking how jealous I am for the people that get to go to any of the premieres of the new documentary Objectified. The Objectified website asks "how many manufactured objects did you touch this morning?" I started thinking about it an my head nearly exploded trying to count all of it. I really need to downsize.

Anyhoo for some reason these newly discovered pieces from Tomas Forsyth (drawing tops from a previous posting) Reminded me of how touch is taken for granted. I mean yeah it would suck not being able to see or hear or even smell (sometimes I wish I had selective smelling) Living without touch.....that would be a little hard.

ACC is slowly pushing along. I will have more photos soon. The good news is that the 3D printer is being delivered today!! Trust me it will be a welcomed distraction.

foundations of design/recycled materials

soooooo. I have been working on a few things. I have always been dedicated to the idea that strong design fundamentals in a piece can make it or break it. Sometimes that comes in the form of symmetry, shape, color or whatever. Sometimes I just try and sit down with a material and work it until I feel comfortable with it and then make a piece from what I have learned. In this case that material is felt. Specifically industrial felt. I just received a large box of scraps from Filzfelt (my new best friends). I know I have talked about them in previous posts but I LOVE the felt they sell. The best part is that it is 3mm thick! This felt is normally used in industry for gaskets, filters or padding. For me it's thickness produces an easy transition from 2D to 3D. Sliced chopped or perforated it has this unique quality that I can't get out of my head. My brain just processes it easier. Its like working with play dough instead of porcelain or cardboard instead of paper. Maybe its just my chubby fingers or my bad eyesight but I love that I can see it. I think it may also be the way that I gorilla fist things sometimes. It just works for me. Also its a second generation raw material and that makes me happy. Now if I can just keep the cats away from it. Anyhoo here are some new brooches I am working on.

stain matrix

Article 2 (for BHO) from Andrew Sloat on Vimeo.

SNOW BIRDS

So I just got my latest ponoko order in. Thought I would share. Just another experiment in a long line of experiments with laser cutting. ACC is coming up fast.

Part three: more

So just some more stuff..... sorry about the blurry photos.

Part two: Walls

Sooooooo just some new developments. I started working on how my booth is going to be set up. I finally came to the conclusion that I am going to have to rent the pipe and drape and also buy the hollow-core doors. They just don't sell that weird y-junction for pipe at Lowes. I remember buying piping for my house that was threaded in 10 foot sections. It would have been perfect if they had that damn junction piece. Oh well I decided to do the doors instead. I reverse hinged them so they are like an accordion. They fold up flat for putting in the car and the stand up by themselves. The next step is to do the vinyl signage. I really want to do white on wood but I don't think it stands out enough. I am going to try and do red maybe. I think I am almost ready I need a few more things. I will post more in part three. I also got in some new postcard/business cards. This is my attempt to streamline my packaging this year, just a card with a brooch on it...... No boxes with batting or tiny zip-loc bags or little stickers. I have decided its a huge waste and generates a lot of trash. This is simple. I will bring a few boxes just in case, but I am going to try not to use them.

Part one: ACC booth testing

So after spending a painful four hours at IKEA Liz and I bought a new table and a pretty nice display case for ACC Baltimore. The case locks which is perfect! I have to admit that it was probably the cheapest IKEA trip I have ever made.
I thought that people might interested in the process of doing an American Craft Council show so I am going to try and document everything. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. I am trying some new things this year. I am working with some new people to gather material (Filzfelt, Ponoko, P&T surplus). I am trying some new processes. Most importantly all of this is a great excuse to get back into the studio and make stuff. I think I spend way too much time on the computer and not enough time in the studio. On top of all this I am teaching two new classes this semester (Rhino and Blogging packaging and Assembly). This should be interesting.

On to the process:

First we tapped off a 10' x 10' space in our kitchen. Then after figuring out which way our booth would be facing we labeled the front and the back. I found out that it costs about $250 to rent the curtains and pipe. That seemed a bit pricey so I thought that I might try to do some kind of accordion style partition walls with some lightweight hollow-core doors from Lowes. The doors cost about $30 each and they are 36" x 96". I figured with a quick coat of poly and some signage with the vinyl cutter it might look really nice. I am going to get a door today and I will report back here in part two.