Long time, no updates…So, speaking of time: Clocks…..
It has been a while. sorry to leave all 3 of my fans hanging. A lot of work has been done but I will focus on clocks. It has been a while since I discussed this topic.
Repair to several broken clocks: Some were dropped, some were plugged into evil/wrong power supplies, some were dropped then plugged into evil power supplies and thrown into a volcano but it all ended well with working clocks.
Reface several clocks: I changed some of the black faced clocks to have a different less menacing face. Some were new metallic papers (very hard to cut on the laser due to the shiney/ foil) or a new twist, just white (see below).
Setup large display of clocks at the Tracy Park Gallery: Tracy has moved again and gave me a large area for my work. Some large book cases were ordered, built and modified have a goodly power distribution system tucked in the back: a pair of 5 volt, 70 amp power supplies and a ton of wiring. It took several days to get it right but it all worked in time for the big 20 year TPG celebration on August 13th. I am happy with the results. The goal was to present the clocks in an organized manner while minimizing the tangle of cords. The celebration was great, as I was able to see a host of friends that i have made over the years at the gallery, introduce some friends to the gallery, and sold 3 clocks. Two of those were custom orders (i.e. different colors or materials). It is so good to be back where it all started. The astute viewer will spy a few non clock items here as well (lanterns and a wave).
Wall of clocks at the Trach Park Gallery.
Development of a new clock face: Just White. This builds on the black faced clocks but rather than present a black surface, the surface is a blank white. This hides all the letters that are not illuminated and gives a less technical appearance. I am a bit surprised it took me so long to get to this design. I really like it. Others do as well, with 2 of the 3 sales last weekend being of this style. It did take a few attempts to get it right. Rice paper was too thin and the un-illuminated letters were still visible. One type of cardstock I had was too thick and blocked way too much light. But I found the goldilocks paper. Luckily it comes in a roll so size is no object.
“Just White” clock faces in medium and large sizes vs gold face with letters showing.
Development of new clock face 2: metallic. I read about lasering metallic papers and had to give it a try. Mixed results. some worked, others did not as they used actual foil and the laser cannot cut through that. Also struggled with residue that often comes with fancy papers when lasered. I did manage a few: green, blue, copper. I do no like these any more than easier to work with materials so I will probably not be making many more of these.
metallic green on a 4 inch clock (small)
Development of a new clock type: 4 x 16 (wide and short). This seemed like an easy one at fist, just split the 8 x 8 clock at the equator and move the bottom half to the right in a new case. I got there after…..
Wide clock with wood face
Wide clock with “just white” face.
Re-writing the code to deal with the 8 x 32 LED matrix which replaces the 16 x 16 matrix used in the square clocks. This mostly involved remapping all the letter locations in the code. I took advantage of the new layout to add in a few brief messages that appear at select intervals. These include “ IF NOT NOW WHEN” , “YOU ARE LOVE” and “LOVE”.
Addressing what happens at 12:30 as “HALFTWEL VE” is a bit hard to parse. I settled this by making HALF always show up in white.
Designing the exterior to fit on the laser. (my first version had sides hat were too large to cut, dooh).
I got all that worked out and found to my shagreen that it was not so easy to read as the square one (which reads vertically). So, I worked out a way to loop/phase the brightness of the text so that it shows the words in order….
HALF brightens first then fades as
PAST brightens and then fades giving way to
THREE which brightens then fades being replaced by…..(start over)
With all the design work, it was time to crank out a few clocks only I found myself low on just about everything I needed. While I got busy on the laser, my son Nathan got busy with assembly of clock brains. Each one is a study in tedious assembly. He did a run of 25 of them. This is easily twice the largest prior batch. It is good to have him to help me. So, here are a few new clocks. I like the rich blue and minty (the assassin) green.
Other stuff: I did a bunch of development on my LED matrix art and a 2nd kinetic art piece. Each of those deserves a separate writeup so I will save those for another day.