bronze casting, part 2

This is the 'gating' and 'venting' part. I took a paper cup and dripped melted red wax into the bottom, then stuck a fat piece of red wax into that puddle of melted wax. The cup and wax nub make up the 'gate.' As you can see I got a new piece of the base wax in the second photo, because the first piece was dangerously tapered and didn't support the dog very well. Using thinner rods of red wax for the vents, I attached them to the ears and tail - any place where air bubbles are likely to get trapped and might not fill up with bronze. In retrospect I should have attached the other way - gating through the stomach and venting the feet, but the teacher didn't say this would be a huge issue. Hopefully it won't.

bronze casting, part 1

For the past few weeks in my metal sculpture class we have been working on our final bronze casting project using the 'lost-wax' process. The very first task is to model a figure out of wax - the wax we use is called micro-crystalline wax, which is softer and much easier to work with than paraffin/beeswax. The form can be made using an additive or subtractive method - I used the additive method to form the Westie's body and fur, but carved away as I saw needed for the detailing. We were given two class periods to work on our figures, and the third class was dedicated to gating and venting them, which I will describe in the next installment.

hell week 1, done.

This past week of working almost nonstop on my thesis paper (which at the end, stood alone fine somewhat but I probably could have worked out a few more things) and preparing for an adequate but disappointing pin-up today, has finally reached an end. So tired. I have a headache that was full-on raging during the afternoon but has now lessened to a dull throb. I just paid my credit card bill online and tomorrow morning I will feel poor... it doesn't help that I gave away my shifts all last week.

It's okay. The wall of work has been torn down. It's rebuilding itself as the minutes tick by, but I'll be ready for the next wave.

rainy/blustery

After the rain last night today was incredibly windy! I wore my big army field jacket though so it didn't bother me too much until I was on my bike! Brr... Today was an unexpectedly awesome Monday because I figured out that my paper isn't due this Friday but next Monday. But I will continue to follow the strict schedule I wrote for myself for the week because in the end, getting all that work done ahead of time will pay off. So some redemption there. Time to get to work now!

showers inspire

Something about taking a shower puts one in a unique state, physically and mentally. Aside from the obvious physical sensation of being bare and cleansing oneself, something happens mentally as well. Perhaps we fall into a relaxed state from the warm water, the steam, the pounding of water droplets and essentially being immersed in a column of falling water, shedding an old self and re-emerging refreshed. I accomplish much of my best thinking in the shower - perhaps I should start up showering twice a day again, or just on the days I'm extra stressed, bothered, or in need of a jolt.

calm at the moment

Work today was a nice, pleasant blur. 4 am, little paper cups of coffee, grocery aisle, cut-up finger skin, shift giveaways, failed baking and yumminess. I ran some errands once I got off - turtle wax for the car, fill-up on gas and lunching on leftovers. After that I met up with my mom and sister at Sweet & Savory where I got a red velvet cupcake and a non-menu Arnold Palmer, mmm.

Almost done reading the foundation book for my thesis paper. I say that in optimistically hoping my idea will further piece itself together and finishing the book will facilitate writing the first few introductory pages of the paper. Thus far I have notes notes notes and key words and phrases and when I space out at them something blurry begins to emerge like those Magic Eye books. Not as clear as I'd like but I'm obviously a little crazy right now likening the beginning of this project to a funny novelty children's book series. What am I saying now? I just need a respite and I'm not even a fraction of the way into my work.

Full-steam ahead!

upboats

Behold my new Reddit alien flashdrive! Its head pops off and it can hold 4 GB of stuff. I'm geeking out over this little guy. Time to SLEEP now because I have work in 6 hours.

cine-kodak royal magazine

My pop found this and, knowing I collect old cameras brought it over for me! It's been sitting around collecting dust for a few decades I suspect. I think he had a few home movies of the golf course that were taken with this which is pretty craaazy. I need to get my hands on some film so I can shoot some home movies FILMS (making fun of myself here) of my own. I'd been wanting to get a super 16 but wouldn't have any idea what to do so if this one works I'm excited at the thought of shooting with it!

instead of working I was...

Typing a letter...

... and reminiscing.

I found a letter from my great friend Manny up in the Bay this morning! (Did that sentence make any sense?) Such a divine way to start the week, to start a MONDAY. Inevitably it elevated my mood which carried on throughout the day. The power of a letter! So tonight after dinner I started my response, which is typewritten on one side, handwritten on the reverse and full of doodles in-between.

Also last week unbelievably I attended three shows, which, after probably half a year of barely seeing any live music, was a tidal wave of such! Jonsi, Russian Circles, and Sufjan Stevens. All amazing and powerful, though for Russian Circles I cut out early.

I made myself a second cup of tea and now am going to put on some soothing/lively music and read for a few hours. I really need to crack down on my thesis stuff!

happy halloween!

Happy Halloween! I found this photobooth picture I took when the Halloween stickers came out at TJ's. I'm doing absolutely nothing for Halloween this year, apart from homework. I was going to watch a live feed of AMC's The Walking Dead, but I don't think I'll get back in town in time. For those who are celebrating, have fun, be safe, stay spooky!

almost halloween!

Someone left these butcher paper jack-o-lanterns all over the fine arts and architecture building yesterday! So cute, there were was even one on the mirror in the girl's bathroom. They made me smile. Sadly I am not doing anything for Halloween this year; no time or motivation but that's cause for an even crazier handful of Halloweens to come!

enid & edgar + joe

Tonight I went to a wonderful little vintage store with a sweet array of clothing, accessories, a giant OWL wall, a stage, and a side room where trees grow like it's the outdoors, drawings hang on the wall and feathers hang from the ceiling. The shop is called Enid & Edgar, and my friend Joe played an acoustic set there tonight, along with two other acts. It was the tiniest place for a show, almost like Joe was playing in his living room for a small group of friends. Very intimate and raw, and with all eyes on the lone performer it must have been terrifying/exhilarating. Joe stayed on pitch, never missed a beat, and even entertained a little to the audience which was super. This was an evening well-spent.

strange days

Why do I always feel compelled to blog during the middle of charrette? First image is a quick, basic rendering study, second is an interior view with a material map/texture added on. I just realized kind of looks like that orange safety/construction mesh, SHIT, but I guess it has potential to be...memorable. At least the last image looks semi-cool, amIright? Need to do a few more renderings now, and the rest of the night/morning will be devoted to cranking out diagrams.

tea, my current best friend

After feeling the onset of a sore throat last night I rushed to the store to pick up hydrogen peroxide, Zicam, and Throat Coat; I came home, made myself a cup of Throat Coat (organic! delicious!), gargled the hydrogen peroxide (2/3 H202, 1/2 H20), and after waiting half an hour, sprayed myself some Zicam. I felt a lot better today, I hope I was able to stave off the sickness...

I had a successful desk crit today, which justified my going to see Jónsi last minute with my sister, now I need to produce produce produce...!

jónsi

Second song, Jónsi on his guitar, a deer running from a wolf in the forest, a slow drumming build, then a sudden BLAST of light and a giant THOOM as the deer jumps and the wolf bounds after it. Instant tears. Thank you sistersaur for winning those tickets and asking me to come with you :).

feeling ghoulish

It's almost Halloween which means time to start not giving a fuck! I don't mean time to stop caring about everything that matters, but rather stop caring about things that really DON'T matter. Isn't it grossly apparent that I've been focused on the shittiest, most negative details of my life at large lately? The ignorant bitch in my sculpture class trying to bring me down (why is it that I often rub other Korean-American girls the wrong way? this calls for later further investigation...), a friend who takes little shots at me either to be funny or to feed his impossibly low self-esteem. Don't let them get to you, grow a rhino hide and let all the shit deflect/flake off and don't even acknowledge it. Start NOW.

(Sorry for the recent negativity/whining. This is a place for an outlet but I still feel like a jerk for spewing negativity and self-centeredness instead of being productive. USE IT AS FUEL!)

Moving on, if you like the Gummy Tummy Penguins from Trader Joe's, try the Ghoulie Gummy Tummies... orange & blackberry pumpkins and spiders. SO delicious (possibly even better than the penguins... that pesky lime!) and addicting. Mmm.

In other recent news, I made a breakthrough with my project IDEA and now have a shitload of stuff I need to produce over the weekend!

shake it off

just let it go

stop looking for things to justify your annoyance

not that it needs justification or you get angry over nothing

but just try to be the bigger person

because clearly, [this person] can't

I can't stress enough how fortunate I am to have an amazing support system of friends, family, loves in my life. In the previous post I was obviously agitated about a few things not going my way, which was wrong of me, but as I'm human I'm prone to this kind of behavior. My mom, my sister, my stepdad, my boyfriend, a handful of SC friends, a trusty handful of pre-college friends, one awesome person at work, my poopies... all keep me from going crazy, granted that they aren't making me crazy at the time. hehe. <3

wrath

I have seriously been losing hope in people. I can't depend on anybody but myself. I am the only constant that I am sure of, and half the time I'm not assured at all. I'm saying all this right now because I am angry, so when I wake up tomorrow and re-read this I will shake my head and say 'How wrong you are...' but at this moment, there is nobody I can trust or love or count on.

(n)ennui

celebrating the fact that I didn't actually break the iSight on my computer. whew!

After working an 8 hour shift today, being subtly cancelled on tonight (though to be fair these plans were never concrete), then eschewing an invitation to go out to write some reading responses in my room instead makes me think I've reached a new nadir of lameness, but I'm strangely okay with that. It's like ennui, but rather than being dissatisfied with my state of being, I am content. non-ennui. non-nui. (n)ennui.

the ORIGINAL shark socks

These socks are proof that my sister really gets me. They were one of a few things she got me for Christmas last year and they feature totally amazing details - check out those fins, eyes and teeth! If you remember from this post this is the first pair of shark socks I've ever had... hopefully the first of many (still at 2 here). Random anecdote, I was talking to my friend Eddie about a game we played when we were studying abroad in Asia - assigning everyone their 'totem' animals. I couldn't remember what mine was and Eddie said "Hana, you remind me of a dinosaur." I couldn't stop laughing; an extinct reptile, roaring/wreaking havoc and whatnot. I'm tired, and so glad it is Friday.

too many insignificant words; no substance; don't read!

The title of this post needs to be a post category...

I'm exhausted. I've been up since 4:30 am and upon getting off work I kind of took it easy for the afternoon, picking at a 1500 word essay that I should have turned in on Monday but have yet to e-mail off. I will by the end of tomorrow, which is what I said today. There's a slew of things I wanted to finish today but because of my wonderfully bi-polar work ethic that didn't happen. Too much happening - prolonged anger and aggression at one person, brought to a head through the most passive aggressive means possible, then resolved but as a consequence I'm wary of this person and I think I've lost a level of trust in said person; surprise at the expectations of one person and with it not being realized, panic at the seemingly-lost rationale in said person, which was mostly a lot of things being unsaid thus I overreacted scenario. Aren't these vague drawn-out blurbs about instances in my life with others fascinating? In retrospect they really irritate me but at the time I type them I find it really cathartic. It's that time of month again, and what with the weather freaking out at 113ºF then cooling to the 50s-60s and it raining I feel like the weather is reflecting my state of being too! (Because it's all about me, right? hah.)

Good things: I thought after slightly denting a corner of my laptop that I'd knocked out the video/webcam wiring but somehow it came back. I don't even know how. I think my boyfriend magically did it because he sent me a v-chat invitation and it just worked. So granted that it stays this way I'm saving a bunch of money in not having to fix the entire top portion of my MBP. fingers crossed. I'm going to attempt to finish this reading I need to have done for tomorrow, but if not I'll fall asleep reading it then rise early to finish it and REALLY get some shit done.

a short history of america - r. crumb

How typical that I as an architecture student am posting this image but with ideas of (new?) improved infrastructure being pounded through my brain, along with the thought of multi-functional infrastructures that break the traditional mono-functional modes, looking at the detailed lines, lovingly rendered by R. Crumb, is soothing... even with the sad realization that infrastructure in America has been so clumsily wrought that planners engineers and architects have nearly single-handedly destroyed the landscape. Here's to revising that model - slowly and hopefully, hopefully eventually.

cactus & frog

I'm hoping the internet connection doesn't crap out as I type this. It's been rough having the connection go out every 20 minutes; with this modern day and age it's so easy to take Internet connection speeds for granted so when it's spotty it can make people crazy! Lately I can't string together coherent sentences or thoughts and I blame school. Too much thinking with the brain equals stunted functions in other areas. The Lithops cactus is one that my mom got for me after she killed my other one (she gave it water when I told her not to!) I made the bespectacled frog in metal class. It's lame because I didn't weld anything but at the time I made it I was very excited. The glasses need work.

Today was extremely productive in that I spent time with my sister through running errands (always fun!) and after we spent a ton of money on living necessities we also went to spend some money on clothing necessities. I was in desperate need of more jeans and we were both just in a clothing funk so we searched and chose and spent wisely so it's all good. Sorry for the rambling. Even though I'm doing this to unwind myself a little it isn't working so I'm just going to work for a few more hours before I call it a night. Happy autumn by the way, even with the onset of this massive heat wave. 105ºF on Monday?! Holy moly...

hey hey

This is my friend Joe Gil. For the past few weeks he's been touring the west coast from Seattle down to San Francisco with fellow singer-songwriter Allen Stone. Tonight was Joe's cd release show in Los Angeles and it was awesome! Joe was backed by some talented musicians tonight and they took great care to let his vocals shine through and it was wonderful. I have big hopes for Joe, and I think his talent and energy are evidence enough that he will continue to move forward.