Over the last couple of days I’ve been trying to change my website to something more simplistic, a page where my work is the main content and fills the viewers attention.
I believe I’ve got the right balance here, it still requires a few more tweaks to tighten the loose screws in the code, but as my first go at basic Javascript I don’t think it is that bad.
If anyone knows any javascript or other such code and wouldn’t mind getting in touch or it looks weird to you please write in the comments.
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, ate loads of food, and more importantly had a good time with friends and family.
Now that most people have received my Christmas cards, (I know some are yet to receive them, might be a bit late I know) I thought I’d put them up here. It was very tight sending them out, I landed back in the UK late on the 22nd, a day to sand make envelopes and send them out, some lucky people got them on the 24th so I’m happy.
As some will know I’m not a huge fan of ‘normal’ Christmas cards, so each year I try and produce something creative, that hopefully people enjoy assembling, rather than just opening them.
This year’s seems to have gone down pretty well, and I’m glad those who received them enjoy them.
I’m already starting to get plans for next years card…
All that’s left to say is have a eventful 2012 and enjoy tonight’s celebrations whatever you may be doing!
Some people find it odd that I seem to always have the latest technology, but they become baffled when I get out my phone, yes it’s a 4 years old Nokia, but it does the job, what’s wrong with that? I digress…
I have a new phone though! Huzzah! A GPO (General Post Office) 8746 Rotary Phone from 1983!
Good clean up, a new info dial, it’s as close to the original I could make, and here it is.
Now to convert it to be used for Skype!
Now to fill it…
Undecided on whether the legs should be restrained a darker colour or leave as is?
(I’m still waiting on the glass top, before it’s truly finished)
A type draw and some desk legs. Everything here has been cleaned up all the brass joiners are now shiny and most of the sections have been cleaned.
Can you guess what it’s going to be? There’ll be another post in a few days time.
This morning I decided to set myself the challenge of creating a small coffee table from a log I acquired last summer, it’s been sitting in the garage drying for the year, it’s much lighter than it was when I carried through the woods to the car!
Here is the result of seven hours work including a trip to trusty B&Q. It still needs a bit more work thats for sure, but it’s not too shabby if I do say so myself. There’s a touch of 1970s in there somewhere…
For a while now a piano has sat in our garage, quite a few parts have been taken away, I have already used the keys and the hammers in a pieces of artwork already, Eds and I have been wondering for a while what to do with the main casing of the piano, in the end we decided to produce a small piece of work to fit into the garden.
You see we do keep a lot of quirky things in the garden, it started as random old toys in the pond and has expanded to old walking boots and tires with flowers growing through them and old (used in railways) railway sleepers. The idea is grow flowers and possible a few vegetables, sweet peas would look awesome growing through the strings.
We’re not entirely sure where we are going with it, I will keep posting images on here, hopefully it will look good once it has weathered into the garden fully.
Also, we keep finding random construction dates, the oldest we have found is shown in the images, 6/10/1917! Strange to think this is so old, some may scoff at us putting it into our garden however…
You can not beat a slice of cake and a nice cup of tea in the garden at the end of a sunny day.
Victoria Sponge, Strawberry Jam and Buttercream.
Anglepoise, for me one of the most significant pieces of 20th Century Design, and a few days I decided to finally took the plunge and bid for one on eBay, I’m excited to say that I had the winning bid for a pre 1950s Herbert Terry of Redditch 1227 two tier version and the most exciting part is the fact it has the original Crabtree Bakelite switch (how sad is it to be excited by a switch?). This will be the second Anglepoise I now own, alongside a newer Type 75.
It was my original intention of buying to restore, now after receiving the lamp I’ve come to a dilemma, to leave it in the current state or to restore. The lamp isn’t in the best of conditions, but can this be constituted as character that isn’t worth losing?
At nearly 60 years old each mark and dent is a symbol of every owner, to restore would be like erasing, admitially tiny, part of the past. On the other hand, restoring would bring the Anglepoise back to it’s former glory, just as it came fresh out of the box, while allowing me to do something I enjoy. Unfortunately because of the extent of the damage, a touch of under-paint rust and scratches, a simple touch-up is not possible, the whole thing will need to be sanded back to bare metal and resprayed, sympathetic to the original colour of course.
After some research about restoring Anglepoise(s?) I am under the impression that it is frowned upon to remove any paint even if badly damaged; it’s always better to keep all the original. The thing is I have no intention to resell the lamp after restoration, if it all goes to plan, I intend to keep this Anglepoise as long as possible, here’s to another 60 years!
I could go into how people have created this emotional link with an inmate object because they believe it is the link to past generations, which I do completely agree with and often find myself staring at objects because of this very reason but I’ll be writing for hours, maybe another post?
I’m going to leave it few days to consider my options before taking the jump, either way it’ll have to be rewired with new flex and actually connect the earth wire to it (I really hope the previous owner hadn’t used it without it, could have been in for a shock!)
In between writing and publishing this post I visited an ‘antique’ fair at the Lincoln Show Ground, I went with my parents, it was my intention to try and finally sell them there, but alas, no one would have them.
Being at the antiques fair was like being a child again bouncing around like there is no tomorrow, looking at the shiny and not so shiny objects, and I must admit there is an extremely fine line between complete tat and so called antiques. There were lots of restoration pieces to be had at a fairly reasonable price, although I didn’t purchase anything as space is a major issue, and buying one thing would lead to another. What most caught my eye was the amount of grandfather clocks that were being sold, both restored and with wear and tear damage I’m very tempted to get one now maybe a 21st Birthday present??
Another construction project from my Summer to-do list this one is a bed side table, produced from Kerto (I have to use the stack of it somehow). The table was originally intended for me to take back to University in September, it will however now stay here, it was designed for the slightly higher than normal bed that I have and not suitable for the beds at University, a shorter table will be produced at some point to take back with me.
I’m still unsure about the final finish, I plan was to spray the sides, the none layered side, in a colour, possibly even a plain white and varnishing the layered sides with clear varnish, any thoughts how I could do it? In any case it’s going to be left for a few weeks while I get on and finish the website that seems to be taking years to complete.
First, the images before the wax;
After the wax;
Eventually the amp at the top will be moved to the left stem when the CD player is upgraded, the new CD player will be of the same size and shape as the amp and therefore sit to the right of the amp.
I think it turned out pretty well, now on to that bedside table…
One of the largest jobs on the Summer list, was building in the Hifi rack, although not quite finished (I’m writing this as I wait for the glue to dry downstairs) I’m going to post some pictures.
This version is a prototype, the final rack will be produced from oak at some point, who knows when, it will get done eventually. This version is produced from Kerto which I’ve mention on here a few times, it’s a manufactured wood produced by Finnforest, Dad works for the company and managed to salvage off cuts, which would have otherwise been scrapped, so in that aspect it’s slightly helping the environment.
The technical drawings were created in AutoCAD;
Above; Right, Front and Back views
Above; Top View
The original intention was to photograph all of the processes, but like always I got consumed by it and took very few, here are those few that were actually taken;
It’s important to note that although my design is a variation, all credit for the original design must go to Simon Little, have a gander at his website here.
The final product pictures will be up in a few days time.
I’m aware that there has been many people that produced there own DIY CNC machines, but this is one of the latest ones I’ve seen.
Yet again I see myself considering what was said at the Autonomatic lecture, if people are able to produce such machines from scratch, then surely they can be mass produced at a much cheaper cost? Imagine if everyone had one in their home, much in the way people have normal inkjet printers, I don’t see it happening any time soon, simply because of the size each one takes up, but sometime in the not so distance future.
If everyone had access to such a machine, it would completely change the way we receive our products; for example a designer could be based in the United States or anywhere in the world, and the client could be sent a document similar to a pdf in England and simply hit “print”, to get a final product. This would cut out all the processes in between, which would obviously reduce carbon emissions and what have you, but the thing to note is that the designer now has the flexibility to produce products for individually clients, and the client has the ability to get the product they want customised.
What if consumers didn’t purchase generic products from the likes of Ikea, but rather products that are to the specification they order, this is all being researched by the Autonomic team and looks very possible. The nerd inside me can’t help but imagine the replicaters in Star Trek, but at it’s current stage I think it is a ambitious comparison, one can wish though! All they need now is one that will produce decent food from nothing…
Nick Santillan’s Website
Well thats Christmas come and gone for another year, it was a nice few days with Grandma and the family, even if I was ill but I won’t go into that. I hope everyone had a really good day and received everything they hoped for.
This year as with the previous few years I produced my own Christmas cards rather than buying them, mainly to save on the expense, but more importantly, because I feel every designer in any trade should produce they’re own cards, even if it’s hand drawn in Biro, it will be a huge improvement over the boring generic cards you see in shops!
Here are the ones I made, they did require self assembly by the recipient, which is part of the fun, particularly for me to see how people struggle to assemble them, the thing is though it got people talking about it, and hopefully getting more enjoyment out of a card than they have done previously with generic cards, which is the reason I make them every year.
This year I hoped to make a lot more but because of the amount of work I had to get through from University I simply couldn’t find time, so if you still want one just write a comment with your email address and I’ll send you a pdf of the net.
