A Side Of Cooked Hard Drive

Just when I thought things are going well – my hard drive died. I was able to get some stuff off, but not all. My current research project is mostly intact. Some things were lost, others saved. Luckily, the bulk of the project was saved in multiple locations. Always have a backup. Always save things in multiple locations. Always say Always, only because I’ve now done it 4 times.

Research

I’m super excited about my current project. I’ve hit 5 or 6 bumps in the road along the way, but it’s all well worth it. It’s a bit of a history project where everything is new to me. I’ve needed to research historical paper types, inks, writing utensils, grammar, and a feeble attempt at being an artist. While that artist part will never achieve the levels I will like it to for this project, I push forward. I will be visiting a museum in the next 2 weeks to get some more info for my project. While the internet is good to look at pictures, I am looking beyond what a picture can tell. What does the ink look like on the page? How faded is it? How much did the page absorb the ink? Was there bleeding of the ink? How has it lasted the test of time? I guess what I’m saying is – don’t expect a small project to be short or easy, you might geed fooled by something looking simple.

Back On Track

I have some exciting things in the works. I’ve spent the last few weeks totally engulfed in research for my upcoming reveal. I still have a long way to go, but it will be worth the wait. I’m usually vague simply so others don’t take my idea and run woth it before I do. This time is no different. I’ve put a lot of work into this and would hate to have someone come along with a crappy inferior product before my really good one gets done.

I have also made some boxes. I’ll take some pictures over the next few days to show. They will be for sale soon, but the first batch is going to family and friends.

My “Skill Set” Involves Not Using The Term “Skill Set”

This will likely be the one and only time I use this board to gripe and complain. I put it here because it happened at the Long Beach Comic Con, and that indirectly relates to this website.

I live in Long Beach. This is part of southern California – the land of fruits and nuts. This always needs to be remembered when dealing with anyone from Southern California. I’m a transplant, so I’m immune ๐Ÿ™‚ I was at the convention and there was a non-profit group there that is restoring a great piece of tv history. I go to inquire about what can be done to help. I like most people don’t have gobs of money to be giving away, but I do have time, and I do know lots of people that would be willing to give their talents to help make something like this work. After asking what (aside from money) can be done to help, the person I was talking to started talking to me like she was at an interview. She told me that her Skill Set involves restoring this or that. We have people working on whatnot, and we really don’t need anything from you except your money.

For those of you in other parts of the world, southern California and in particular Los Angeles is very much a – What can you do for me – city. Where I come from – the midwest US – when asked how one can help, an answer would go like the following…

We are currently restoring this part of the set. We are looking for shops that might be able to do this as a charitable contribution as a tax write off. After that we are needing reupholstering, metalwork, woodworkers for this doohickey, and an electrician. We need to make a lighter spitting image of this piece, because it weighs 500 pounds and is too heavy, so we could use someone that’s qualified to do that. When everything is done, we’ll need drivers, people to turn wrenches to set things up. If you, or anyone you know could help, here’s our card. We are looking for professionals, as we need this project done right.

So to the lady who is part of restoring the set of one of my favorite shows, please learn how to talk to people that want to help. You never know who you’re talking to, or who they know that have all kinds of talent, and would love to be a part of your project.

In the end, I’m glad I walked away without offering help of my own or telling any of the talented people I know anything about the project. My first rule is treat me like a person, not anything else. Unfortunately that comes with living out here. If you’re not deemed to be important, you’re looked through, literally, like you don’t exist.

I miss the midwest.

Solved Panel

I broke down and bought some better equipment so I may make bigger and better things. Here is one of those bigger and better things.ย This is a solved puzzle box panel made of .010 inch brass and just a bit lager than 4 inches.
Solved Panel

Panels Are A Comin’

So I managed to damage all my stencils and have been unable to make any panels for a while. I spent some quality time going over the artwork and remaking the stencils and am ready to go. Aside from the regular box panles, I will also be making the Solved Box panel configuration. I just have a few kinks to work out, but that is on the way soon. I will likely be making some other things available also. I just need to do some resizing. I know it’s vague, but that’s part of the fun. Right?

Fun New Stuff On The Horizon

You all have my girlfriend to thank. She’s convinced me to once again start making panels, and a few other things as well. I will update this page as new things come out.

New section on Arduino coming soon. One on my irons in the fire involves the Arduino. I’ve been spending lots of time trying to figure this thing out. I know what I want it to do, now I’m trying to figure out if I can make it do what I want. Nice and cryptic huh? ๐Ÿ™‚

145 days until Comic Con.

Updates On A Few Things

I’m thinking of taking out the hit counter. It looks nice, but I’m getting a lot of spam comments, and it’s not showing an accurate count of actual people that show up for Hellraiser things.

I’ve been accepted as a volunteer for this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego. Super excited!

Tutorial news – the script is entirely done. I have hours of video and a few hundred pictures that have been cut, divided, and edited that need to make their way to the right place into the script. It’s about 20 minutes long and covers artwork preparation, stencil making, how to use photoresist, exposure, developing, and etching, as well as some other things along the way. No date set yet as to when it’ll be done. I’ll let you know.

Poor Timing On My Part

It turns out I chose the wrong time to stop producing panels. For me it was a pet project that I enjoyed doing, and was never intended to be a long term thing. That being said, my timing sucks as it didn’t dawn on me that some people might want these as Christmas presents. So to Sara and others, I will make a few more sets in the next week or so. I ship as soon as the payment clears and it usually arrives within 4 days. Stay tuned.

No Longer Producing Panels

I’ve decided to no longer make Helraiser panels. If someone is able to find me through Etsy or therpf.com and request, I will make a set here or there, but will no longer have any stock to sell. I have been kicking around the idea of making a full tutorial on how to etch your own Hellraiser panels freely available both here and on Youtube. If I decide to do that, it will be sometime in the beginning of 2013. There are lots of videos on how to etch brass out there, but they are incomplete as far as making Hellraiser panels go, or any other full etch-through design is concerned. The reason for my no longer producing the panels at this time is to focus on the bigger project that I have going on. There’s just too much work involved in the big project to focus so much time on just the panels.