517: Imagine Making That Much Art

0:00Well, you were just making a noise that I don't want you to make on the show because it was yeah, okay. Thank you I was going on trumpet things again. Oh, that's what that was. That was trying to practice Thank you for not doing that on the show. I appreciate it. How's it going? Oh, things are good today It feels like Today it feels like it's gonna warm up my entire property's covered with a sheet of ice In fact, my housekeeper left yesterday and she left out the back driveway and then she called me about five minutes later And as soon as I saw her call as like she crashed into the gate She said, uh, I just crashed into your gate. I'm very sorry, but it's a little messed up When you go out my back driveway you go down a small hill and then you got to make a semi tight left turn And when it's icy out all the water runoff goes right across that part of the driveway It's icy. So if it rains the water will run and then it gets cold

1:02So the minute you come over the bump you momentum is to just keep sliding off Track and she did that and drove into my gate, which is totally fine I mean, so it's totally fixable. She cracked her her grill and so I went and got my My small truck and I parked it there so nobody comes in around because if the UPS guys come and then they lose momentum They go into the woods She said she the whole accident happened that like one mile per hour, which I totally believe her because it's happened to me but So I'm really looking forward all that to say I'm really looking forward to this to wash away today It's a little warmer and it's a little rainy so hopefully we get to see the gravel in the driveway again one day One day So I have my anti ice cleats that I've been walking around the property with and it's to the point now where if I don't have them I can't walk around so I have to have them on Every time I walk around Wow Yeah, it's tough and I walk pretty far. I walk at least 10,000 steps a day going to and from the shop

2:07So you so you've been using for a couple weeks now? Yeah, are they perfect as this any improvements that could be made? Occasionally I catch myself walking on my heels and I get a little slippity dipty on my heels So if I was going to make them again or making another set I probably would add a piece of the heel So it would be the whole bottom of the foot Because as I walk I'm walking on the balls of my feet So I'm like bouncing around on the front of my feet But sometimes I forget and I'll take a wider step onto something and then your heel hits first naturally And then I do a split and then I get up and I do a pair of wet and then I Compose myself and walk away. I can picture. That's why you should always have a camera running Yeah They usually it's funny. This is another funny story. So my friend who lives up here called me and said He'd never calls me when we don't talk there frequently He's he's an acquaintance and he's not he's not a close friend, but we're friends And I was in the city the other night for five minutes to go visit my friend Mike

3:09So I drove down to the city in a 10 o'clock. I see a phone call from my friend And I was like, why is he calling me something must be wrong So hey, what's up, dude? He goes, are you home? I go, no, why is everything all right? He goes I'm pulled over by the state troopers right in front of your house and I had a couple of drinks He's questioning me and he might let me go because I told him I could park my car and hang out at your house I said I happen to not be home at the moment But go be my guest because yeah, he wants to make sure that I really know who lives here. So he wants to talk to you and With that I open my camera and I could see the whole incident happening on the side street in my house Because I got cameras pointed in every direction And I was like I was with my other buddy. I go look. This is what I'm talking about my buddies pulled over on the side of the road and so a Ryan happened to be nearby so Ryan came over and talked to the cops and and My buddy he he was not over the legal limit He did have to do a test and blow right there on the street

4:12But he was under the legal limit. He only had one of two drinks and wasn't enough to consider being drunk legally and the cop had to let him go So he hung out at my house for a little while I didn't see him by the time I got home he was gone but Technology's funny. This little incident was happening near my house I opened up my cameras and share his hell there He was on the side of the road talking and And then another they all came in the back driveway where it's icy And I could see that camera looking at that camera. They were all standing at talking to two guys in the cop But modern technology. That was 150 miles away watching the incident That's pretty well Funny But that's right that it's snowy there But I was just looking at the weather here and it's gonna be 80 degrees tomorrow. Oh my goodness You lucky It's been consistently called but today I believe it's Smart for 37 so it's only gonna get warmer today. So that's great It's just treacherous out there. This is kind of almost worse when it's this icy

5:16And then it starts to melt and it gets icy with a little bit of water on top That's when you really have to be careful. It's when you really need your cleats Huh But besides that I've just been working on clay all week. I was telling you guys before we got started I've been really experimenting with clay. My patrons got to see some of it And I'm not really filming any of it. I'm not filming any of it What I'll probably do is there's one or two processes that I might do for video next week that involve the CNC and so I've been really experimenting and Running tests. So when I do that video, I'll just do an overview of what I've been working on But not necessarily filming any of it until I'm Confident that it's gonna work on camera So it's been a real education and I I dug in I really started playing around with pottery in 2021 And I have clay sitting around that's still soft, but I don't have any notes on it I don't know what is what is what so this morning I was joking before we started I now I know what clay is cone six and what clay is cone oh six because I put it all in the same kiln at the same temperature

6:18And some of it is burnt like cookies Burnt like chocolate chip cookies, which is it's all tests. So it's nothing critical. I didn't break or lose anything severe But it's just the education and the chemistry and the science behind The clays the potteries and the glazes are becoming a little bit more clearer to me and That's what this pottery class that I've been taking every Friday morning is really helping me with so when I'm alone Of that stuff or anything uh, you know, I take a lot of pictures So it's funny this morning when I realized when I did wrong Well, when I realized what clay was what I went back and I looked and then a little bit of chat GPT some screen grabs and You know the difference between low fire clay medium ranges and high ranges You know, I've people here people say a little time I didn't know what any of that means now I do with a little bit more clarity and I went and bought clay the other day and My teacher and his whole class everything is all cone 10 So I'm gonna start experimenting with cone 10 so I can kind of be on the same level with him So I want both cone 10 clay. I bought some cone 10 glazes. Some of them's coming in the mail

7:22but It's it's exciting to see when you hit it on the mark So I open the kill in this morning and I sent you guys a picture two of like the seven or eight things hit the mark And it's really nice to see like oh, okay now I know How and what to do and what to expect So I'll probably be doing another firing in the next day or so And I'm just experimented. I don't have a pottery wheel yet, but I'm experimenting with a lot of hand-building So I've been making a few things and just experimenting with that and I saw my patrons and the people who use clay are gonna Understand what I'm talking about There is a little breakthrough that happened for me this week It's when you do hand-building, which is basically just hand-making anything out of clay and you're not using the wheel I always had a very difficult time using clay because it's too soft It doesn't push back enough. I really Preferred a carve versus Squishing things together which some people that's all they know how to do and they do it really beautifully. Well I was never good at

8:22Focusing an object or a shape when it's super soft But I'm sorry to realize there's the trim phase where you make something on the wheel you let it dry for a day Or at least you let it dry slowly for a day and still damn, but it's hard enough to be able to carve and then it cars like soap And in that stage, which I come to realize is really really fun That's where I really like that stage where you sculpt something let it dry until it becomes hard like soap And it's certainly not ready to be Killed dried at all, but it's certainly ready to be shaped And I'm really having a lot of fun in that stage and when I first started playing with clay year 20 in the year 2021-22 I didn't know enough to let clay do that. I just was trying to work in that super soft squishy stage And it was too frustrating And I didn't know enough and I was trying to create finished objects in that squishy shapey gooey stage, and I just couldn't do it and so that's the main reason I just said I can't do this. I'm not good at it And I didn't quite I didn't learn the wheel yet the way I know now

9:24I don't have my own, but I use it at the studio my teacher studio and I'm getting I'm getting past the mump, which is nice where you know every time I put something on there I'm gonna get something that I'll at least be okay with So anyway, that's been my experience since it's been a lot of breakthroughs And the only way you can get the breakthroughs is to just tinker and experiment And keep the camera off some cases You enjoying the camera being off Yeah, yeah, because I'm not worrying about it And I have a pair of metas, so when I go to class and I've been filming stuff at the class just because she's a total transformation And I also film on the wheel, which which I don't have an opportunity to use here yet and But when I get home my metas have like thumb prints goo all over the button and my camera's all gooeyed up with claked thumb prints and stuff how How are you at Both of you actually at

10:24Retaining new information as you get older, you know because when we're younger, it's easier to learn things as your brain is still Forming and as you get older, it gets a little harder and I have totally noticed this in myself Yeah, yeah, I have I have a very specific thing that I have to remind myself maybe there's a poster here or bumper sticker I didn't know it at all when I first did it And I got through it So this happens to me all the time with with machines and CNCs and things that I haven't used in a long time I remind myself I knew nothing about it the day I got it And I was able to get results with that experience somewhere in the vault and a new Access to the machine or at least I have to pull it out of storage and get it going again And remember the the software and the procedures It always comes back to me even if I haven't kept it in the front of my brain It's there because I always remind myself I knew nothing about it and I was successful

11:24Now I have that experience and I'm going at it again I could pretend I know nothing about it and still be successful So that makes sense Yeah, it totally does It's just how you approach it It's interesting that you asked that because I was reading something this morning about Reading and about how and I don't remember the four steps but there were four Four steps of reading something and it was like the first time you read it You see it and you hear it and you don't really Keep any of it, you know for the most part if it's something new or something deep that you need to like think through the second time You begin to get repeated things that you remember you're like oh, yeah, I remember that from last time Like that is something did stick this little word here or this thought here or this whatever and then the third time You can go through and like I said, I don't know what these four things actually are. I'm just making them up The fourth the third time is like you get meaning out of it and then the fifth time or the fourth time

12:29You walk away from it going like oh, how did that thing affect me? What did I take with me from reading it but the point being Instead of doing something one time and then being disappointed that you didn't get out of it or hold on to what you wanted to hold on to You intentionally do something Four times in a row the same you read the same thing four times in a row or within a day So that you get the chance to go through those progressions and so in reading that and thinking about it I was applying that to like what we do and doing things for the first time skill wise and say yeah, oftentimes I will do something on camera and then you know The video is over and then I don't do it again for six months or a year or whatever or ever And it got me thinking about well, what if I were to shoot a video learn how to do a thing on camera And then turn the camera off but then spend the rest of the day just redoing that thing Not not to redo the final product but the process, you know like What if I were to weld more because I don't need to but because it teaches me that repetition

13:34and Do that thing multiple times for the next day or so so that I can get different things out of it I can hold on to different parts of it longer and so That's actually been on my mind and I was thinking about how to implement that I mean, that's exactly how a Brand identity works, you know, it's it's that you're getting familiar with something you see something over and over again and then there's this perceived Oh Value to to to that because you've seen it multiple times and I've heard you know The gurus will say you know when making YouTube videos that person might not subscribe the first time they see you But then they come across you again and then that third time They're they get to know you and they'll they'll subscribe and so I don't know what I I think I would just be totally lost as a human being without the internet Because I'm constantly referencing stuff that I should already know especially like software stuff

14:36um like every time Ah Well, that's the convenience the convenience of the internet has forced us not to remember phone numbers and not and maybe that's it Maybe I wouldn't always remember Yeah, yeah, yeah Remember 20 phone numbers now I can't even remember one I was gonna say yeah, I think it creates its own problems in a way, you know because you I don't know this like probably a whole topic in and of itself But I don't think our brains are made to be able to have access to all of the things the amount of information And the amount of the immediacy of everything that we actually have now It's great and we use it for all sorts of stuff But I don't think that's what we're made to be able to handle so You know, we're creating a problem by giving too much input and then sometimes We we get disappointed in ourselves because we can't handle all the input. I'm like I don't know Anyway, that's a whole thing Yeah, um, but yeah, I think to your original question for me I do have a harder time at this point in life

15:38remembering the The really small details the numbers around like what setting should this thing be at or whatever and I don't know that that's because I'm older and it's harder to remember numbers. I think it's because As you get older for me anyway You start to prioritize like where do I care enough about something to remember and where have I learned that I don't actually have to remember this thing I can go look it up. I can figure it out again or whatever And so I think that phone numbers are the same or a good example of that like your brain says I don't need to remember that because it's so easy to get it again That I you know, so I think I do that with a lot of like software things Tools that I don't ever use you know, it's like I know that I can find it again. So I don't have to Yeah, I will I will constantly say okay I need to remember this and then I don't it's like You know like oh, I'm gonna set my keys on the coffee table

16:40I'm gonna remember that I set my keys and then the next day I can't find my keys. That's a very typical thing The hacks for me is if I say something Out loud like I need to use this Setting for this particular task and I have to say it out loud or write it down and if I do one of those things It's for some reason it just sticks Yeah, I take a lot of pictures. It was I'm remembering now was with the old plasma table Even the new one but not as much, but the old plasma table had a lot of procedures It was like ticking off in an airplane There was a lot of procedures to remember and every time I would come up to it and I'd use it Every day for a week And then I would use it for 10 months and then I come up to it after 10 months and be like hmm what That's when I say you did it the last time And you didn't remember it then To remind myself and encourage myself to Slowly figured out again and the new machine isn't isn't quite as complicated and there isn't as many procedures to get going

17:45But it still comes up and I used to have that also all the time with the torment which I ended up given to a friend He's gonna use it in his shop But the torment which it's a reason why I didn't use it as much as I probably should have Which is a it was a machining CNC machining device, but more metal machining Every time you come up to it there's there's literally a pre-flight procedure that is just impossible So many subtle things to remember off sets and this and that and and Oh, I was like I forget it. I'll just go use my other CNC machine You know Yeah, that's that's why I started carving aluminum and brass in the other machines Because they're just so much easy to get to and it's the same thing about I was gonna cut steel I would probably just change my project to something that could work without steel That's a lot of time we talked about when you come up against the material choice in a machine and you're like Uh, that's another topic Yeah, I remember we talked about this a couple months ago and we talked about

18:48having a kind of a I don't know pre-check pre-flight checklist kind of thing at tools, you know And there were a few people and I don't remember the details of their emails But we had a few people email through patreon about that topic and saying like yeah at work, you know Under these machines there is a clipboard there with everything you need to know That you don't remember to come back and use that tool safely or whatever Um, and that is certainly a good idea I think it would be something that I I still would like to implement Around the shop originally I was thinking having a notebook with all of that stuff in it You know, so that this page was this tool, but I actually think that is another friction point for me Which is why I never moved on it I think those need to be At the tool they need to be in your way before you even can use the tool so that you're confronted with here's what you don't remember You know, it's right here and then you see it and then then you can move on to the thing Oh, David is sliding back and pulling something off the wall

19:50So I've been I use a lot of blank playing cards for my notes And I really wish I could print on these cards because My notes kind of get messy and they're not If I if I see a sticky note on the wall, it doesn't Registered to me as like a thing that I should read it just registers as like that was a scribble that I made a while ago and so I have been printing on Shipping labels and then sticking them to these to these blank playing cards and then it that I was gonna suggest a puncture a hole in there And then I've got a board I just threw it. I got a board behind me where I hang them on those are all future projects And I want to do this throughout the shop on the tools as like that little pre-flight thing so Investors rich people people with lots of money come up with some sort of printer that just prints little

20:55Playing card sizes. Yeah, well, okay, so there is a thing That we got my daughter for Christmas and and it may not be exactly the same thing But it's a small printer that's maybe maybe three inches square or something And it comes with an app for your phone and basically it prints out little stickers And the stickers I think are maybe two inches square or something like that So there's probably something similar to that that prints out posted sized sticky things That would kind of accomplish the same thing. So there's probably if there's that then there's probably a Yeah playing card printer somewhere You know, that's my guess, but Yeah, that's cool. That's a good idea Um, David what have you been working on we've been doing I've been making a mess like a huge mess So I got a couple of Cookies walnut cookies that are oh when you stand upright they're almost my head just barely peaks over So they're like four and a half feet tall

21:57And it takes two people to move them because they're like six seven inches thick Um, they were they were given to me for some some art projects, but they're They're all rough cut Chainsaw or some sort of very rough mill And way too big for my CNC to flatten them So I made a slab flattening jig with linear guide rails and I did the And I thought about you Bob. I did the thing where I didn't do a lot of research in What it takes to make it I saw glad I'm glad that people think of me in that That's in a good way though because it's awesome, but But it's such a good thing to do because you You learned so much more instead of just following step-by-step instructions And so I saw a couple photos and like oh yeah, it makes sense I need linear guide rails that go this way and then I need two guide rails that go this way and it's a big extra sketch

23:01And so I made it and I ran into some issues I filmed it and and everything and I figured out what the issues were everything was pretty Solvable except for dust collection still working on that um, and I can now flatten huge huge slabs And so we finally got it Diled in yesterday and we flattened the first one And man it makes such a mess because we're We're flattening end grain and look if it was long grain It would create little little chips running around over but end grain is is dust only And so I've got dust collection on there, but it was not very good And so we did that just covered the entire shop with walnut dust everywhere But it works really good. I'm really really happy with it and um

24:01And I thought I was done with the video, but now I'm kind of like working on some upgrades to make it even better And I think that will make the video even better So yeah, that's what I'm doing Awesome So are you going to talk about what these cookies are going to be used for yet or is that future art? Um, I have a uh I have a couple ideas. They're not concrete. So one um The one it's it's oval shaped for the most part And I am thinking it's got the you know, it's it's got a live edge all the way around it and I'm thinking if I just do an offset of that By maybe three or four inches and how will that out? I haven't figured out how to do that Maybe a salsa. I don't know if it can cut five six inches deep Maybe that's a question. I'll ask you guys a little bit later, but um basically Offset the outside

25:02Remove the middle that middle piece is going to be used in a future project and then Pretty I want to get a piece of metal that fills in the inside and shape it hammer it in some sort of way And then have that croned by a local Plating place and then make a big metal base for it. So it is it will be like a human size sculpture like five six feet tall Um, and that's what I'm envisioning for that And then the other one Beum sculptures made a video a couple weeks ago If you guys familiar with that channel. No, no man. Uh, he just makes these Wood and epoxy sculptures. We were on uh, we were on the show together. Uh, make it. Oh, that's yeah He's so good He made this walnut table that looks like it has a little mountain coming out of one side of it So he just took a basically like a cookie, but then Laminator walnut on there from flooring

26:02And then carved a mountain into it and then the rest of it was a table when I saw that I was like Oh, but wouldn't it be cool if that mountain was actually a waterfall and then where he had a table was actually the lake The waterfall went into and so that's it and so the The piece that I cut out of the first one will be used to make that waterfall into into the second one And of course, I'll I'll reference him and And say this is where the inspiration came from But I haven't done any kind of like epoxy river table type thing But I thought this would be cool if I can make it look like a waterfall going into a into a lake So that's what I that's what I'm thinking like McFarlane Lake is that something I should look like no Blake Blake McFarlane B.m. Oh Blake McFarlane I thought you said Lake. Yeah, I'm like is that a famous lake that's the water. I don't know. Yeah, no Blake was on making it With me he didn't win, but he he made it far and we got to be friends and he's

27:03Naturally talented sculptor who sculpts animals And figurines and resin and wood sculptures Hmm Funny thing about his last video. He's using an arbor tech Uh power chisel and I have the arbor tech like Turbo planes and a couple other attachments for for their whole system And but he's using a power chisel and I was like, oh I need one of those and I like it was one of those like I stopped the video. I ordered the power chisel went back to the video And in my Two videos ago I did a like Cleaning the shop getting rid of tools. I don't need and I got rid of two angle grinders that I didn't Need anymore and I thought I was just ordering the power chisel attachment for the angle grinder I actually ended up ordering the power chisel with another angle grinder. So It's better to have it dedicated anyway. You'll use it really it really is. I'll have so when I'm doing these power carvings

28:04I'll have one with the chisel and on it and another one with like the turbo planer or some other Some other attachment. So it'll make life easier Yeah, yeah, cool. I'm looking at him. Just go out carving the mountain that you mentioned Yeah, it's I actually paused the video took a screenshot and and sent it to a friend. I'm like I want to do this, but a waterfall. Yeah, yeah, very good. I'm gonna have to watch it later because the thumbnail is is pretty killer on that Um Well, let's see for me. I've been working on the building. It's we've had a lot of rain. So I've kind of been on and off out there, but um I added gutters and downspouts to the pool house Which was Way easy like I don't know. I don't know. I'm not sure what I expected. I didn't expect it to be hard or anything But I just didn't know anything about it. I had only looked at the gutters and downspouts on my house and that was like my research It was like oh, yeah, it's made of those pieces. So I just ordered those pieces and I got pretty close

29:06I had to buy a few extra things, but um, it was actually really Easy to put up and they drain well and it runs off in the right way and you know, I don't know. It looks nice and so I should hire you because whoever did our gutters a couple years ago didn't get some of the angles right Oh really, yeah, well, I mean I was doing one piece across one face, you know So I can imagine that if you have if you're going around things and making corners and stuff like that Maybe it's more difficult, but Basic gutters are easy. I'll say that. I'm about that. Okay My gutters are like 30 feet long. You cannot hire me to come to your gutters because I won't do it I say my gutters are like flower boxes like 30 feet long on each side of the house. No, yeah Full of weeds, but anyway that that was pretty cool. Just it's like a finishing it feels like a A finishing touch kind of you know on the building and then I added a light over the door which I haven't tried yet because There's no electrical going into the building so I don't have anything to plug it to

30:07I think I might end up just Like temporarily wiring it to an extension cord and plugging it in because I want to see what it looks like lit up You know on the front of the building Um, but those were done and then the third thing in that video is gonna be um building a cedar Slatted screen to go in front of where the pull equipment is when you look at the front of the building The short roof is over the pull equipment on the side of the building and so the whole idea has been to have a screen on the front to hide that stuff And then on the side of the building around the corner. I may end up putting a screen Door at the same stuff, but some sort of sliding panels or door or something so you really can't see it But for the video, I'm just gonna do something across the front So that's the plan this afternoon if it will stop raining because it is still raining Um, yeah, so I've been working on those things And I've got a several different video like really cool opportunities coming up with um, I'm doing some stuff with Autodesk and

31:15A few other companies and they're kind of extra videos extra content Then what I normally the schedule that I normally put out and they're good things that I want to do So I've taken them on but now I'm looking at the next two months and going like oh I got mmm. I have a lot of extra stuff to do It's all good. It's not hard. It's just extra, you know And so I'm trying to figure out how to schedule that stuff for myself Um, I figure out how to fit it all in and do it You know on the deadlines and all that stuff So that's been New because I've just you know, I keep my own schedule for so long and so when I have outside things like that to fit in It's just something to figure out Um My second fusion plug-in got released this week. So it is Thank you. It's in Autodesk App Store. It's called default parameters. Okay, somebody wants to check it out It lets you set There's a little window that will pop up in fusion now when you install it

32:16And you can create parameters that you use all the time and then it will automatically add those to every new file that you open So if you always have the same material thicknesses or radius or Clarence's or whatever, you know, you can just Always have them there without having to recreate them or import them every time and You look like you're about to make a joke. Jim. Make go ahead No, no, no Oh, you had this look on your face like Here comes. I'm just waiting for him to stop talking so I know Believe it out my buddy is texting me and the taxes coming across the computer screen. So I'm just reading that. Oh, got you It's being silly Anyway, so that plug-in is out now, which is really cool. I like that one. I think it's useful. It'll be useful for me I hope it's useful for other people, but um that and then So this is a this you're talking about doing things off camera and you're doing a creative thing off camera Which is cool. I was working on a not creative, but useful thing off camera

33:19for my aquariums. So I'll try to shorten this because it's not terribly interesting, but it was interesting um when you have when you have aquariums the Hardness of the water plays a lot into what animals can survive well in the water what plants do well how they grow and so you know you a lot of times we'll have to change the parameters the chemistry of the water to make it ideal for certain animals and plants we have really hard water here and It works fine. I've always just used water out of the tap and conditioned it and then just kind of The plants and animals usually adapt over time and it's not a big deal Well, I started this small tank A while back and has it has shrimp in it these cherry red shrimp With the idea of I want these shrimp to breed and I want I just I've always wanted to have this little tank where the shrimp Just create shrimp all the time and there's these cool little it's a cool little ecosystem

34:21Well turns out that they will not breed if the water has a certain TDS which is generally the hardness it's not exactly the hardness, but don't yell at me chemists generally. It's the hardness So they need around like 150 to 200 TDS Okay, which doesn't mean anything didn't mean anything to me either until I ordered a little tester and tested the water Turns out my water has like well over 400 TDS So it's surprising that the shrimp are even alive They're definitely not going to breed So that led me down this path of like well, how do I combat that without going and buying You know bottles of distilled water and using bottles of distilled water to fill my fish tanks because that would be one solution And the solution is reverse osmosis filters, which is a filter that you hook up to You know a lot of people will use it for drinking water to change the flavor like de-mineralized drinking water So it doesn't taste a certain way

35:23Anyway, so I did some research found this one that has In researching them I found that the water you get out of it is a like a There's a proportion of how much good new clear water you get versus how much waste water It's getting rid of with all of the minerals and stuff and a lot of times you're wasting Three four times as much water as you get out of it to do this process, which is wasteful obviously and kind of a drag So anyway, I did all this research. I found one that has a very low waste water Output which you can use to to like water plants and stuff Um, so ordered this thing waited for this to show up and then I got this thing and realized this just creates water And if I want it to put into like the fish tank, I have to put it in a container But if I just put it into like a five gallon bucket It's not going to give me very much and I have to watch it and like

36:25I didn't plan ahead so the last couple days I went and bought a 27 gallon trash can and Built a two by four stand to put the trash can on it and put a spick it on the bottom of the trash can And then had to put a float on the inside of the trash can so it turns itself off when the water gets to a certain height And then I had to move all this down to where the water is and the basement next to a sink So there's a lot of videos and it was like not hard and not I just didn't I was like yeah, I should just get an RO filter That's not a big deal and I ordered it Without thinking about everything else that you have to do after that And so I did all that stuff the other day and now I have a system that I have a garbage can full of water downstairs And so when I want to go do a water change This is also that I can have extra shrimp And These are shrimp you can eat these shrimp are like smaller than the third end of your pinky They are like they're full of shrimp fried rice the ones that are in shrimp fried rice Pretty much they're really really tiny ones

37:26So Anyway, now I have this trash can that fills itself up with De-mineralized water and so when I want to do a water change I can take jugs down and open the spick it fill them up go up and put them into this Into the tanks you know to like lower the TDS and I have to do that over time so that the animals and the plants can adjust to the The water chemistry change Anyway the more and more I've been keeping tanks since I was in middle school, I think But the more and more I've been into it in the last year or so the more I'm finding like oh I never realized that I was not doing this or that I was doing this wrong or I never even thought to test for so and so And now I understand why it matters and And almost all of that has happened off camera and I like that. I like the fact that I have felt zero pressure to try to make Putting a trash can on my basement. Interesting. You know what I mean? It was just like

38:27It's the thing I have to do to get this end result Nobody has to know about it doesn't have to look like anything. It doesn't have to serve another purpose I didn't it's just I'm gonna go do the thing and it's done so Um, I've been worried about that stuff lately. I haven't the reason I haven't really been filming any of it The clay experimentation is because I just want to focus on the learning. I just want to focus on the experience the Just developing experience and knowing what to expect and that's the thing is knowing like just want to open the kill I'm like, okay, why did I get a burnt cookie? Okay, I got a burnt cookie because this is terracotta clay This isn't because I had bags of clay. I don't know what is what I I didn't write notes on anything like an idiot, but Going forward I'll be more studious and more attentive to detail like that because it's obviously important to get good results and That's really the primary is just I don't want to get bogged down with worried about and then The other thing is is I don't want to waste My time filming things when I'm not going to get great results or at least it's just I'm just focusing on the learning when I get to a point where I can

39:34confidently do XYZ The next procedure is XYZ XYZ and then I have results that I can count on Then I can say this took me 10 tries and now I got it here Here's a quick synopsis of photographs of the the failures to get to this point And that'll tell the story and I could still focus on the learning. I definitely do want to do What I started experimenting with this week Is taking a photograph bringing it into vectrix Turning it into the selection on the menu is bitmap to model you take a bitmap and you turn it into a model and then It reads the highs and lows or the larts and darks and turns them into highs and lows and you immediately create a model Of a photograph so you can take a picture of somebody and make it a low relief like like an image on a coin for instance It's a low relief model and Playing with the settings somehow I clicked the button and all of a sudden the image became inverse. So I took a picture of a tombstone

40:36Brought it in it was a gray picture because it wasn't a very high-conscious picture So I got a I got a sketchy Result, but it was just learning. I said let me go through the process and somewhere along the way I clicked and the image that was a positive image to carve became a negative image to carve and I was like oh perfect I'll carve the negative image in MDF push clay into it and then now my clay is a positive image straight away I don't have to go to plaster anything I'm also starting to realize using MDF for molds is a lot like using plaster so I could see and see into MDF and it has the same moisture wicking capacity as some clays I haven't asked about that. I haven't literally poured any slip into it slip is like milk Clay and then it soaks in and then you've emptied out So I haven't really tried any MDF is With the slip but just pushing soft clay into it. It lets it go right away because the moisture gets sucked out of it Some things you stick on clay wet clay like glass and it sticks you try to pull it apart

41:37It won't let go but if you're sticking it into something pours like MDF or plaster It wicks away the wet surface right at the touch and then you're able to pull it away And that's what I'm realizing MDF does so I was able to Take my image With the iPhone bring it into vectrix turn it into a model make the model a negative model See and see it with a really fine tip into MDF stick clay into it pull the clay off have a positive image of what was my photograph 10 seconds ago Well three hours ago And now I have a clay the clay dries I Biscuit which means that you low fire to get it hard then you put the glaze on it then you fire it and now in the kiln the two of those tile experiments And again, they just experiments because my picture was con was not contrasting enough to give me really deep results But I wanted to go through it anyway, and I need to go photograph Refotograph some of these now with this new Technology in mind, so I photographed them with a nice contrast and

42:39And That is going to be my procedure for my next CNC video, but at the same time I get to play with clay But I still want to exploit this concept of Taking the tombstones and turning them into tiles and either the tombstones themselves or really the the predominant imagery on them and And that's what I did this week. So I could say I'll gonna send you guys pictures of some of that stuff but um to me Even after all the stuff we've been exposed to That week this week I had that it had that Feeling of I can't believe that this is possible to take a picture of something Turned it into a 3d model in vectrix with the click of two buttons And then carve it and then you have a 3d image and a piece of material Whereas I remember taking Maya courses in In the 2000s and learning Maya and not even no that was in night in the 90s in the late 90s

43:43I was taking Maya classes 3d modeling and That's something that never sticks with me. That's not the type of thing that I'm like I did it the first time. It was like climbing that Everest. Let me do it again You know what it was like climbing that Everest. I don't want to do it again That's why slowly peered it away from 3d modeling uh, but To be able to To make a 3d image like that so quickly In vectrix which is getting more and more advanced every single time you get a new version of a spire which is the 3d modeling version of vectrix v-car Amazing just it's amazing And that now I'm picking Wow, it's a perfect way to incorporate the CNC machined With with pottery They have a clear crystal image There's a great graveyard nearby. I was gonna walk through the it and take pictures of tombstones I don't have some people are asking me are you gonna do all the tombstones in your Grave the tombstones in my graveyard a lot of them are just tablets with very faint writing on them They're all completely weathered to the point where you can't even read them

44:46So there's just a couple in that one, but I mean it's the idea of just interesting tombstones becoming tiles in general And so I'm gonna go to the southern graveyard and see if I can't get clear pictures of some of the interesting ones there and then See if I can't translate them into a tile with a few clicks of a button And being able to look right away at an image and go okay, that'll translate well. No, that won't translate well. That's too detailed Especially the other thing too is The resolution at the size I'm going for from doing a six inch tile The resolution is dictated by the tip of the cutting head in the and the offset of the overlap of the cut So well and and the the clay has to be able to squish into whatever that yeah, although some details But it's been a learning experience and not having the camera on is really Nice to just breeze through it and just like oh what happens if I do this sometimes it's hard to tell that story of experimentation until you're done

45:48You could talk about your net results first is trying to tell them in the moment So you could always just do a photo montage and a quick recap versus trying to stick up trying to keep up with it each each moment Yeah, it funny you mentioned the taking a photo and using the light and dark to create the the texture We Jimmy and I are doing some sort of CNC. Yep course coming up here fairly soon and my My course is based on taking a photo of a texture and then bringing that texture into Fusion so that you can then create a CNC texture of that So I'm working on that stuff right now. So working off camera for me I get to enjoy the process a little bit more. I get to really slow down and Just Be I'm not performing. I'm not having to think about what to say

46:51I'm not worried about camera angles and stuff and so it here in my office. I'll have a movie up on The second monitor and I've been doing some like acrylic painting So of some weird shapes. So this is just kind of like an abstract painting that I'm working on And it's a it's so nice to just sit here listen to music or watch a movie and just Have fun and I don't know if anybody's ever gonna gonna see that But it's it's like a thing that's just for me. It allows me to Detach from everything all Oh at once. So it is nice to To work without cameras, but I also there's also this little guilt in me like this could be uh this could be a video project You're always looking for smaller quicker video projects. You could do this um But if you did try to make that into a video It wouldn't be a smaller quicker project because you would you would apply all this Yeah, but it has to have this and it has to be this and I have to build out to you know, yeah

47:52Yeah, and then you're then you're like oh What what's the value in this for somebody watching? Oh, I have to add a little bit of this or this to make it more interesting Yeah Yeah, I'm glad you're doing that not with the impulse to I mean not following through any impulse to make it into a video That's good for you as a person as an artist Um to to fight that you know That's cool. I think back to like my granddad who was a dentist and then At some point later in life he picked up painting. I don't know. I don't know how old he was when he started painting He picked up painting and painted Hundreds and hundreds of of paintings most of them landscapes All over the country all sorts of things that were real things that were out of his head and He just just painted Tons of them and as far as I'm aware never sold a single one he would give paintings to anybody that asked

48:53He would just like you know There up in banks around here in churches and all sorts of places in this area where he would just like here Here's a painting. I made this for you. I did this whatever So he started painting and just painted and then at some point along the way he decided to start carving and he carved Uh, at least we know at least 200 birds But we don't know exactly how many because he numbered some of them and these are like Three-dimensional photorealistic painted to match Metal cast feet birds That are just crazy and then at some point along in that process He was like oh, I should do fish too and he did a small like a handful of fish. I think it's it's like under 10 maybe But they are Look like they're dripping wet Every scale is carved and painted realistically Set in actual driftwood from a local lake kind of fish and they are incredible, but he did all of that art For himself for himself. He didn't sell any of it and he gave it to people and it wasn't

49:56Because he wanted to be known for it. It wasn't because he wanted to do art shows, you know like I don't know. It's it's a compulsive hard It's hard for us and for me at least to imagine in this day and age Having something that's that big a part of your life That doesn't do anything for your livelihood Because we are all just in the position of like It's got to serve me. It's got a it's got to like enable me. It's got to pay for itself. It's got a whatever, you know and Like we're on the same place there. It's not a it's just how things are now, but It's hard to imagine somebody spending a great portion of their of their daily life, but a great portion of their life in years Just make an art because they wanted to make art, you know It's awesome about five or six years ago my grandpa Introduced me to a couple of his friends um my grandpa and these two friends have since passed away

50:56but um The the one guy like he took me over to a shop and it was just the most He didn't do woodworking for a living he was retired and this is just something he did at home He turned his pole barn into this amazing beautiful shop and we just make these like Blanket chest and ever just phenomenal. He just made him for himself for uh, I think he gave some to his children and stuff too And you know no Facebook no no YouTube no no social media just And like and he was so good at it and it was just amazing to see and then he takes me over to his other friend's house And he who's also woodworker he made every single piece of furniture in the house his wife did Scrolls all work and so there's all these pieces of artwork of just scrolls like just phenomenal and like There's I know there's a whole world of just absolutely amazing artists right around me that I don't know about and nobody

51:58knows about because they do it for themselves And like he said it's really hard to imagine spending that much time On something that's not part of my my livelihood. Yeah, but at the same time like What What an amazing thing to do for your own life To spend that amount of time on something that is for you not for your livelihood not for the money part of it But for your life like those are different things right yeah like I don't know that's awesome. I think it's so cool for people to to be able to do that I hope I can figure out how to do that. You know, I don't like the pressure of Feeling like I have to justify Wanting to do music, but you know because I can like I can turn it into a thing and I can make a channel out of it or I can make you know whatever it's The three people that I mentioned my grandfather and his two friends They all lived to be you know Very old and I think one of the reasons they lived to be so old is because they always had something to do

53:03They were they were working something they just they didn't retire and then just sit around and do nothing They had they did fulfilling work that that meant something to them and I think that's really important Yeah, so I think when you retire maybe you'll Get back into music and record a whole bunch of albums for yourself that nobody will hear. Yeah, maybe And that feels weird too you think about that like especially with I mean art music are the same in this that it is a It can be a performance medium right like even if you don't make any money on it It's still oftentimes music is made to be performed for other people so that they can enjoy it as well Art is made to be shown for people so they can enjoy it as well And so it is kind of weird to think about Like what if you were to spend time making this performative thing that never got performed You know and and you didn't try to sell it you didn't try to make a streaming thing out of it It was just like it existed While you were doing it And then it was gone forever That's kind of weird to think about but I guess I guess that's how art has been for many many years, you know throughout the world, but

54:11Anyway, um Any thoughts on this and I didn't really have a topic but I'm looking forward to having more time to doing stuff that doesn't involve filming. That's just for me But I mean just like you said, I just I hope I can I hope I can get there because this this Accurately painting that I've been working on actually haven't touched it in about three weeks because they just been so Busy with obligations and I need to unbusy myself and I'm trying to but I just got to get over this little hump Yeah, I mean everything is you know life is made of seasons And there are seasons that are busy and full and there are seasons that are looser and that's when you can find times to Do that art and music and whatever I try to tell myself that because you know with like our kids being involved in a bunch of different things It feels like it's non-stop. It feels like there's always A game to go to or a practice to go to or a person to take to a thing or whatever

55:11But then when you kind of zoom out and look at it there there is a seasonality to how involved things are and how much You know life requires of me in a certain way over time And being aware of that helps you see like oh well This little season of the year or this season of my life is looser And that's when I can take advantage of the fact that I have a little more time to be a certain way to be In music or be in art or be athletic or whatever and It's good to see that because you can't necessarily do that all the time You know, I mean if you try to make music your thing that you do every single I'm speaking for myself I try to do that for myself every single day then it becomes And like work or like not interesting, you know, it needs to happen. Yeah, it's a routine. That's a good way to put it Um, it needs to happen in bursts or in seasons so being aware of of that As a condition of life let's you kind of fill in the gaps with

56:13What you need in any any given time in my book said, but anyway Cool, anything else Hey Well, I want to think our patreon supporters who are awesome and we're really really grateful for all of them um, and for supporting the show for so long Uh, it really does matter and I just want to say big thanks to you all especially the people that go above and beyond That is works by solo the new janky workshop scott a daddy yourself DIY rich at low-end design Pete rondo odon leather goods nick ryan christmachormic chat for man crafting alborswood works And a pretty big deal ink but also people like Terrence archer. There's a lot of people that support us at all different levels and everybody gets the after show Um, which is a separate podcast you hear me talk about it all the time but you all can get through patreon So go to patreon.com slash making it sign up at any level to support us And you get more show after the show. I've got an update on my

57:14Thing that I said in the last show After show about The second engine I've killed In the second vehicle in the last few years. Oh, no, sorry dude. You gotta go and fix it I'll give you the update in the after show. Okay. I'll give you the update Yeah, I got a lot of questions. I'm gonna ask you guys for advice on how to cut this thick piece of wood that I don't know how to cut Hmm, okay Cool. Well, um, yeah go go check out patreon if you're so inclined and Either way, thanks for listening. Do you guys have anything to recommend? I just went through my uh, I'm gonna send it to you now Uh, I talked about this a little bit here and there But one thing I like to listen to in the background a lot is legal briefs and I listen to people talk about For instance, uh When people do arguments in front of the supreme court lowercase lower courts Regional courts and district courts I'd like to listen to these briefs that sometimes an hour long

58:15So you hear the argument from the defense or whatever or the uh whoever and That leads me to a lot of times you hear things and you're like wait, what is that? What is the second article of the fifth amendment and you go and you google it and there's one little channel called civics minute It talks all about the constitution and all the various aspects of the legalese and and they're just a couple minutes long And every once in a while when I'm on a long drive, I'll just play what are the amendments? What are the Billerites or what are all the amendments to the Billerites and so on and These type of channels I think are important because these are the type of things unless you decide to become a lawyer You don't get taught any of this stuff You learn about the constitution nobody reads any parts of it to you Unless you want to become a lawyer and The laws apply to everybody whether you're a lawyer or not. So it's important to know You know What that's all about so occasionally I just have this stuff planned in the background And like I said when you listen to a legal brief or or an argument really like an argument in front of a district court

59:18All these little subtleties come up or subtleties come up and they they reference a lot of case law and they'll be like you know Turnoverse Texas and you like you what the hell's that and you quickly google turnoverse Texas you figure out what that is And uh all these little interesting things so That's my little uh tinfoil hat lawyer life of mine Mine is so in my Make something discord Brad from I'm gonna make recommended a channel that I am going to recommend to you and it's called Marta STL um it's Looks like a fairly young channel and they're just really well-made fun little maker videos and She just needs more attention because seeing her before what's that I've seen her before Yeah, watch one of her videos trying to remember which one it was

1:00:19Cool, I just subscribed Awesome um, let's see for me My brother sent me this right before we started recording this morning And I've only watched about half the video, but it is it looks like a really cool thing Um, it's a new product. I don't even know if it's out yet because I haven't finished the video But it's called log and it's a new lap steel and musical playground. So this is a folded steel lap steel guitar Everybody doesn't know lap steel is like a guitar that you lay across your lap and people play it with a slide And you you'll know the sound of it as soon as you hear it because it's like country music as I always use these Um, but the cool thing about this one is it the pickup in it That picks up the vibration of the strings is movable so you can move the pickup down the neck and play on top of it And you get a variety of sounds and there's one shot where the guy actually picks up the Pick takes the pickup and puts it above the strings and then by hand pushes it and pulls it back

1:01:24Which gives like a swell kind of sound It's one of those instruments it like Well, not really. It's more of a Has like a bow sound to it I don't know. It's one of those instruments now. This looks cool that if I If I did any music at all I would immediately order this because I would be able to play with the sounds of you know getting some interesting sounds at it like 15 years ago I would already have ordered this thing But now I know better and now I'm like I wouldn't actually play it. I'm not actually good So it looks cool. What you could make one. I mean, it's just a simple project It's funny that the the pickup is movable because when I built my last electric guitar I only put one pickup in there Because I only use one pickup in my guitar and I'd never use the tone knob so Uh, and my volume knob I only use it to turn it all the way down or all the way up

1:02:24So the guitar I made just had an on-off switch and one pickup. It's what you got is what you got But while making the guitar I thought what if I could slide the pickup up and down so I could have and I was like This is Bryant I'm a genius and I go and look it up and there's already guitars where the pickup Yeah, it slides up and down. I'm like dang it. That was my signature as soon as you started saying that I started googling to see if that was a thing and it is but Yeah, it's a really cool idea. It would be interesting to play with Huh Um, yeah, so go check that out You guys got anything else for this week? Yeah All right, cool. Thanks for listening everybody and being with us and we'll catch you next time Thank you Bye-bye