Mudstone

Preparing for the Next Firing

It’s time again to fire the big anagama kiln. We’ve got another good group together and we’ve been going up on weekends working on wood. Lots of cabinet off-cuts to cut down, big wood to split and pots to make.It is lots of work but come unloading day it will all seem worth it (at least we hope so!). Here are some pics of the last firing.  We will light the kiln around Feb 12 and fire for 5 days, working in shifts, stoking continuously. It is a smaller group, so more work for everyone but it keeps it intimate, we get more pots per person in and get to take some chances.  I’m worried about getting enough pots made but I always do and somehow we always manage to fill it up.

Food

I love to cook, or in some cases, cook with out cooking. Mary has posted to Flickr some pics of some of my best creations over the past two years. We’ve been getting into raw food (nothing is heated over around 115 deg F) so many of the dishes in that photo set are raw.  All the dishes are vegan. We have been eating mostly vegan for a while and at some point we decided to make it official.  Rather than being limiting, instead it has opened up many new realms to explore, has pushed me to experiment, try new things and discover a whole new world of flavors and enjoyment in preparing and eating food.

Hoop Jaming

We’ve been going to a weekly “hoop jam” and this month we took it indoors for the winter. Its a dance studio in the Health and Wellness Care Center. Mary took up hooping (yes that is with a hula hoop, but adult size and weight) this spring and has really had a blast with it. She took lessons from Crissy (theinfinitehoop).
I’ve started going to the hoop jams too so I can practice my staff spinning. She’s got me hooping a bit too. At the end of the hoop jam we turn out the lights and hoop with LED hoops. Really beautiful and makes some amazing photos, especially with the mirrors. Check them out on flickr: pics from the jams on Sept 23 and Sept 30.

LED Hooping in the park

Saturday night Mary, Crissy (theinfinitehoop) and I went to a park close by to do some LED hooping, I wanted to try out the ogg hoop mod I’ve been working on. I attached some oogs (got he oogs at flowtoys) to the outside of the hoop. I’ts an LED hoop that is more like a fire hoop. It worked great. LED hoops ROCK and we had a blast! Mary and Crissy hooped with their ProdMod LED hoops too and I pulled out my LED “fire” staff.

We had some fun taking pics too… there is a flickr set of the coolest pictures.
If your interested we have regular hoop jams on Tuesdays, check my twitter for the lowdown I usually get the location posted on the day of.

Babbages Difference Engine #2

What a treat to see a working Babbage Difference Engine, shown at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View this weekend.

The “engine” was never built in Victorian times, but now there are two of them one in London and the other, known as #2, is, for now, in Mountain View to be on display for the next year. They’ll run it twice a week, for visitors to watch its elegant workings.

Checkout my Difference Engine pictures on Flickr.

Maker Faire 2008

My teenage nephew and his friend came down from Seattle for the Maker Faire. I probably embarrassed him good by going in costume, Steampunk, Scottish style - kilt, gaiters, pith helmet (hey, I wasn’t the only one). Whether it was the costume or just being at the fair I saw him for all of about 3 seconds once we got in the doors. Zoom! He was gone. I hope he & his buddy had a blast. We gave them 4 rules:

(1) don’t blow any thing up
(2) don’t get hurt
(3) don’t get arrested
(4) don’t be late (it’s a long walk home)

The faire was a blast! Just some highlights:
Hung out in the Steampunk area & explored the Neverwas Haul
Mary fan-girl’ed Abney Park’s (link sound warning) Captain Robert and Nathaniel
We made a LED hula hoop from a ProdMod kit with help from the Maker himself
Got to pet a Techno Giraffe & talked to its creators
Fire art!
Kinetic sculptures by Nemo Gould
and Tesla coils, laser harps, a life size mouse trap, ….. This event is huge and getting bigger every year. I love the DIY community. People building things that industry can’t, won’t or doesn’t see a market for, and most likely never will. And then sharing that with everyone else.

While I was leaving a reporter for the Wall Street Journal asked me a question: If I could build One Thing what would that be? He was looking for a canned answer, like a bat powered bicycle, or some thing like that. My answer was simple, I told him I would build something that was fun and that I would enjoy making. That is the essence of DIY.

My Maker Faire Pics (on Flickr)
Maker Faire Group Pool Pictures (on Flickr)

Web 2.0 Expo

The buzz word on every one’s lips this year was Cloud computing. Go on look it up, it will mess with your brain.
One of my favorite talks was by Clay Shirky, about Cognitive Surplus. You gotta follow the link to the short video of his talk. The after parties were numerous and fun. I got to go to Yahoo’s brick house, the Engine yard, and a party at HOT
The folks at HOT were really supper nice, interesting and fun. I like the focus of their company. Not to mention their space is fab!

It was great to network and learn about cutting edge concepts and other people’s experiences building web stuff, so I can learn from the mistakes and successes of others.

Best schwag from the Expo: getting my laptop laser etched at the Instructables Booth.

The Crucible’s Firebird

The Crucible did it again, another great Fire Ballet! This year it was appropriately “Firebird.” But much more than a ballet. I’ll just summarize the highlights, think of it as Cliff Notes for a fire ballet

The Firebird in a flaming tutu (with real fire)
The Firebird dancing on stage with a stunt motorcycle??!?!!?!
Blow-torch fire fingers on the villain.
Traditional ballet fused with B-boy dancing -Iron Monkey is crazy
Flaming metal trees and flowers
A real Pontiac Firebird “flying” onto the stage, with flames coming out of the hood, neon lights underneath and the firebird in the driver’s seat
Women who know how to fight
Flaming trapeze performances
Wow.
I don’t have any pictures, no photography was allowed unless you had a press pass. But here are some links
The official Crucible Firebird Ballet page
Eric Gillet’s Flickr set Firebird L’oiseau de feu (an outstanding set of photos)

The Crucible in Oakland is a nonprofit space that teaches, supports and encourages all the fire arts- blacksmithing, glass blowing, flame working fire dancing, forging and casting, jewelery, kinetic arts and many more. They also sponsor out reach programs for schools in the fire arts and support local artists by giving grants to help fund specific fire oriented projects. My kinda place. Every year they host a number of events that are really fun to go to. The next event is the Fire Arts Festival. If fire art really cranks your tractor, then consider taking a class or joining as a member you won’t regret it.

Yuri’s Night 2008

This was a one really fun event. It was this cool, weird mix of burning man, sci fi, space-geek, ravers, raw foodies, and NASA brainiacs. Oh, and Fire! What more could you want? View Photos.

This was the first time I got to go and see the hangers on Moffet field from anywhere closer than the interstate at 70 mph. Not only did it have art and performances by Zoe Keating, Bad Unkl Sista, The Flaming Lotus Girls, and Capacitor, there was also a massive list of DJ’s in the “house” hanger, and an impressive list of cool performances on the other main stage. We even caught a very entertaining talk by famous game designer Will Wright on the history of the Russian space program, which is much more colorful than our own! How come our astronauts don’t get to carry guns and vodka on every mission?

There were a lot people in costumes and generally having a good time. I got to wear my Utilikilt out for the first time, That took my friend Ursa by surprise. I kinda enjoy that moment of comprehension on people’s faces when they see you in a kilt for the first time.

I think my favorite piece was the waves of the interactive wall, that worked by measuring your silhouette on a huge screen and then creating wave patterns based on your motions. Comrades Matt and Isa of Clay Planet showed up with Yosuke, from Japan, a rep for the clay equipment company Shimpo. Yosuke used to work in Shigaraki as a potter and was in town giving a demo. His throwing is amazing (by throwing I mean on a potter’s wheel). Pretty sure he had a good time, but I think, the angel with glowing, moving wings was to much for him.

Yuri’s night don’t miss it next year, comrade!

A New Mudstone

It had to go, that old static site has been tossed in the fire, it is no more. I’m starting fresh with this site. I’ve become much more interested in the fluid open web, CMS’s, CSS and Java script tool kits and less interested in Flash driven static, skip intro type of sites. They have their place, just not my focus.
When I was working on this site I started messing around with Drupal and after a lot of work and time I decided to go with WordPress instead. I’ll be back to Drupal for another project. It was overkill for what I needed. I want to keep it simple (you know KISS, keep it simple, stupid). WordPress is a better fit for my vision for Mudstone. What is my vision? That it be a sort of sketch book. A place for me to post ideas and thoughts that are fun and interesting and may be important later.