New Basket Kit, Newsletter, Godzilla

2017/01/312017/01/316 Comments

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A-tisket, a-tasket, a new basket kit! Shown here in base white, how many of you will want to make yours green and yellow? This one is open, round, a little shorter than the lidded basket (9/16 x 1¼ inches, 14 x 32 mm) and with a/n optional handle. It works well for knitting, fresh produce or catch-all.

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The kit instructions include an explanatory diagram for the first time! I’m finishing up the photography and bits later; the kit’ll be available over at MMS+S tomorrow, individually and as a 3-pack.

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The February issue of Cut, Fold + Make goes out tonight at midnight, so you still have a few hours to sign up (link in upper right column) for a monthly dosage of creative provocation and exclusive content. Hint: boxen!

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Godzilla wants to show you his new lovey — an iridescent vert comme un lutin (leprechaun) named Verti. The two are inseparable, and it’s heartwarming to see the monster so happy-go-lucky.

New +Sundries

2017/01/262017/01/269 Comments

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We’ve been engrossed in producing things around here, and the studio is a mess. Piles of papers and things on every surface. The answer is miniature file folders, in many colors, including classic manila.

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They’re available now over at MMS+S, part of a new line of miniature office supplies.

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The precut folders are packaged in a “kit” of ~~a dozen~~ 13 — all you do is fold on the score line :) They will also be available packaged in a custom box, (which will also also be available as a kit) along with some other boxes and sundries. Because good studios and offices need them, to be tidy studios and offices.

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Figuring out box design dimensions, assembly, and cut and score lines. Getting more proficient at drawing in ways that translate well to SVG. Really appreciate the scoring tool feature of the Cricut machine.

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Model building, instruction writing, label design, photography and kitting are all in various stages of completion. (For the Toto basket, too! And delightful hen-and-chicks succulents.) I am closing my eyes and tapping my heels together three times. And thinking to myself …

Basket Kit Listed

2017/01/162017/01/1613 Comments

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The first woven paper basket kit is up on Modern Miniature Succulents + Sundries ! Starting with a pre-cut kit takes all the tedium out of miniature basket weaving.

(Vocabulary enrichment moment: When looking for a nicer word than ‘tedium’, I encountered longueur, and this reflection by Francine Prose:
“I find myself using this word more often than I probably should, to describe those boring stretches of a novel or play during which your attention drifts … I would probably use it even more frequently were it not so difficult to spell. What I like is how the sound of it suggests a combination of languor and length — the languor produced by something that is unduly long — though I have learned that its derivation has to do with length rather than lassitude.”)

I stuck with tedium. Anyway, some outtakes from the instructions:

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Just color, weave and glue :)

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Voilà!

Basket Kit Progress, Bobo Fun

2017/01/062017/01/0614 Comments

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This was my desk, late last night, working away on the paper basket kits. After many pattern iterations, file conversion aberrations and test cuts, I had the basket itself fairly well worked out. I was thinking about basket lids — if, how and why — when I had an idea. I was too tired to implement it, but scrawled some notes.

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This morning I drew the pattern and did a test cut.

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And yay! It works swell! (Also, chilly in the studio this morning! My poor fingers.)

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It’s a simple construction, very open to customization.

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I’m thinking about handles now. But enough! I want to get these kits out.

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For those who saw the item in the January newsletter referencing my delight with the typeface Bobo — designed by Jean-Baptiste Morizot in 2016 and published by Indian Type Foundry — I put together this logo. Each character in the all-caps font has at least three variations. So fun, even as an example of expanding your notions of what makes a thing a thing. (And it’s available from Fontshop right now for half price.) Check it out!

New Echeveria Kit in Development

2016/11/302016/11/307 Comments

ec01_color_113016 Experimenting with color for a new echeveria kit for the shop. This is two shades of green and an orange on white stock.

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Shaping with a fine point stylus.

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Trying out construction techniques and build sequences. This succulent is wonderfully small, just a half-inch (13 mm) in diameter.

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The first issue of my newsletter, Cut, Fold + Make, goes out tonight! Look for it in your inbox on the first of each month. Included is a free pattern to make these iconic, and very versatile little paper houses.

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And possibly most exciting of all the things: this just arrived. Let’s get started.

New Kit

2016/11/27Leave a comment

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Listed another kit in the Etsy shop, a larger, more-specimeny succulent that pairs nicely with SV01. Continued heartfelt gratitude and thanks for your warm wishes and interest. I wish I had like a whole line plan to lay out — and I do! In my head! — instead of this kit-by-kit piecemeal showing. And soon, on offer, completed specimens, in some of the most wonderful containers I’ve ever seen! However. I am learning by doing, and this is bootstrap crafty business making. Rhetorical question: would we have it any other way?

First Listing

2016/11/262016/11/2612 Comments

So pleased to announce the first kit is available over at MMS+S. I expect I’ll be making editing tweaks for a while, in between assembling and listing new kits. Potted specimen succulents and sundries coming real soon. Heartfelt thank yous to all who showed interest. Happy making!

Legs, Mortised

2016/11/102016/11/104 Comments

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Here’s an above view of my four table legs, with rough half-inch mortises routed. The legs are 17 inches (43 cm) tall and 1.75 (4.75 cm) inches square. Look at that beautiful end grain! Note my steel-toed safety ballet flats! What I am proudest of is that I set up the routing machine by myself (after watching an experienced woodworker, again, and checking my setup with our instructor). Also I learned some counter-intuitive things. Wood smoking? Go faster!

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Here are my table legs in casual disarray. Observe the authentic surface of the high school woodshop tabletop, my trusty Moleskine notebook, and clipboard of important shop papers! Missing only is a true carpenter’s pencil.

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First thing this morning there was line upon line of big waves visible from our window, more than I think I’ve ever seen before. We quickly dressed and brought our coffees down to Esplanade Beach. Here you can see Brian partway down the trail to the (currently nonexistent) beach, with waves washing the riprap and cliff base. The sun is just clearing the houses on the cliff, illuminating a 15- or 20-foot wave. We watched for close to an hour from various vantage points, with a view from Pedro Point, to Mussel Rock, and the Marin headlands in the far distance. Recommend as a good way to start this particular day.

November

2016/10/262016/11/0310 Comments

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For no particular reason, I’m ready to move on to November. I woke this morning directly from a dream to this view of rapidly moving clouds and shadows cast on the ocean. This (next) month’s splash screen caption is a lyric from the band Real Estate’s 2014 song “Had to Hear”. (The full line being, “I don’t need the horizon to tell me where the sky ends —
It’s a subtle landscape where I come from.”) It’s not a great photo, but totally captures my mood, as enhanced by the song. You’re welcome.

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Tonight in Wood Skills adult ed class at at Westmoor High School, I noticed this display on one of the machines. We just don’t see enough graphic design as clean and untroubled as this any more. When I reached up to touch the opening between 200 and 300, the metal cleanly sliced my finger tip open. Powermatic!

Nope.

2016/09/192016/09/2012 Comments

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I am not going to meet the HBS bloggers build deadline for September 26, 2016, and I am using cute kitten photos to distract from my mingled sense of failure, regret and self loathing.

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