Modest attempt at tailoring

This is a sport coat I bought at Good Will that was a funny late 80's type cut - 2 button with huge sharp shoulders (think American Psycho). I let out the sleeves, added an additional two buttons and repressed the lapels.

Test of stain and paint for the Record Grotto

This is test piece of the salvaged doug fir that I stained and rubbed with linseed oil.  Next I taped and primed a strip of it then laid out this pattern (this is tile motif used at the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia 670 AD that I found in "Islamic Geometric Patterns" by Eric Broug).  I then began painting it (Rachael helped) with some relatively cheap enamel - Testers brand, the same stuff my brother and I used on model airplanes when we were kids.  It worked very well and I think this is method I will used to finish the Grotto.

The record grotto (in progress)

It is a little hard to see the drawing here (you can zoom to get a better look). Eventually this will be two tall cabinet towers (each with 5 cabinets with doors) set at right angle to each other.  There will he a bench built at a right angle in the corner with a roof over it with lighting built into it.  All built from reclaimed floor joists and bit of salvaged shelving. Here's a picture of the skeleton of the first tower.  As you can see this project has moved into my living room while I am replacing the roof of the porch for my landlord (pictures of that project to come).

Barhal, Turkey - in the Kachkar Mountains in Northeastern Turkey

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 A ruined Christian chapel about an hour's hike up the mountain from a hostel in Barhal - 2005. (If you click on the picture the colors come out better than the thumbnail.)

Cleguerec, Brittany - France

Katherine and I stayed in a caravan outside of this house, which family friends of her's had recently moved into.

I made sure to include the date that was carved into the lintel above the window - 1619.

That bit with the date in the lintil is the NEW construction you can see the old construction to the right.  It is built with the larger stones.  This is from July, 2005.

Drawings from Turkey - Sultanahmet Camii Istanbul

 This is the "Blue Mosque." I spent many Saturdays sitting in the court yard doing this drawing.  People would sit quitly next to me and watch and sometimes talk. I remember I one man - he invited me to stay in his family's apartment in Ankara.  He wrote his name and address there on the back of my notebook. His name was Necati.

I put a little X in pencil (easily washed away) on the exact stone where I would sit and would come back to to continue the drawing.  I liked coming back and finding that little marked - mostly rubbed away week after week.

Boda boda drivers - Drawing From Uganda

Another drawing from Uganda

I was on Veronica's motorbike and found these three guys on the outskirts of Tororo.  They had a battery radio.  I remember Bob Marley came on while I was drawing.

More drawings From Uganda

These are some people in the market in Tororo who make shoes out of tires.  The guy in the middle kept swapping out, with people taking turns posing for that slot because a few different people wanted to be in the drawing.

The first nice thing I ever made

The summer I was 14 my parents let me strip and stain this old desk that had sat in the basement since before I was born.  I think my dad pulled it out of a dumpster in Minneapolis.  I spent what seemed liked the whole summer tapping off squares and sanding and staining.  I've dragged this desk all over the country since. It's a bit beat up, but I think it still looks pretty good for a 14-year-old's first big project.

My Bed (third draft)

Then I decided to take the headboard apart, build in a cubby hole and wire in a reading light and switch.

My Bed (second Draft)

Then I cut it down to size and made a headboard/bookcase

My Bed (first draft)

First it was a loft with bookshelves and lighting built-in underneath it (I also restuffed and made the slip cover for the sofa, which I dragged home from a curb in Cambridge, Mass).  These are the best pictures I have of it - they were taken to show off the sofa.

a line of leaves pinned with thorns about 5 years ago in Arizona

A concert in the river bed

While this is not a thing I made, it is one of my favorite recordings (and looking at pics from the foundry made me a bit nostalgic).  It is something Ben and Sarah Beth made.

Arcosanti Foundry

Scenes from the Arco Foundry, feat. Jim, Ben and Eleanor and picture of me pouring bronze (also feat, Johnny Organic holding onto the cyprus in the background. ) Beware the ides of March

Drawings from Uganda and South Africa

This is Pastor, a motorbike mechanic, and one of his assistants - who might have been his nephew, though I was never clear on that.  I spent a lot of time sitting on a bench in front of his shop chatting, watching goats wander by, sometimes trying to eat a loaf of white bread that he insisted I, as his guest, consume in total.  Also I was occasionally expected to drink an entire 1 liter bottle of Fanta.

Once I watched him straighten a bent strut by laying a bike on it's side (Veronica's) and beating it with a 6 inch steel pipe.

Veronica posted a bunch more of these drawings on her blog

optical illusion end table

 the front porch in Tororo, Uganda

where I spent many days trying to build a bed. I will never  take power tools for granted again.  Eventually I gave up on the bed and turned the pieces into a bookcase (I don't have a pic of that).

I made this end table for Veronica from the scraps.  It's all square, though it's hard to tell in the pictures.

moving to Oregon - made one year ago today