Esinem Designs

Back at Metro I made some friendships with some good folks. Each has gone their separate way to figure out their career and I got a call from one of them just the other day. Jed has been doing a lot of projects out of his garage in order to get started. Furniture, custom work, bar’s and more. “And more” is something you may want to explore on his site… some of it is pretty funny.

Esinem sounds like S and M… so when you see “Paddles” on his site you may get an idea what I’m talking about. The cool thing about Jed is that he is open to anything. When he was looking for costume stuff with his wife for a 1920’s Gangster party they were having he found his way into a vintage shop. He found some wooden… toys. and was surprised at the quality of craftsmanship and when approached by the shop owner he found himself in a new line of work. Two weeks later he was producing paddles for the shop and to this day they have been a success! It is a fun story that you would expect from him even if you could have never guessed it.

Recently Jed has been making some custom pieces and was commissioned for a Magicians table. Something portable, something antique, something cool… When I got a call from him he asked if I would come take a few photos of it. It is a very cool piece and the Magician was very impressed as well. I’ve been horribly busy, so I unfortunately didn’t have enough battery power to keep shooting all the details, but you’ll get the idea.

Check out some photos and check out his site when you have a chance. http://esinemdesigns.com/

Magicians Table

Magicians Table

Magicians Table

Magicians Table

The Golden Super Cruise May edition

Each year we try to make it out to the Golden Super Cruise. It is just a huge gathering of people with their car that they have been slaving over for years. This year we got out to this first cruise with beautiful weather and of course with a full belly since it was also the 3rd annual Crawfish Broil at my friend Andrea’s house. Anyhow, there isn’t much to say about this one, so check out some photos from the day.

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Be sure to check out photos from Last years Super Cruises here too (click here for a link to 2010)

Air Show!

Ok, so, first, I’ll confess, as much as I do love seeing how things are made, how things work and just the incredible innovations that there are in the world of mechanics, I just haven’t ever really been that into air shows. I like the idea, I like to see all the parts to airplanes and I like to see them fly, but every air show seems as though you stand in 200 degree weather staring into the sun as a plane does its tricks. Without ever being in one of these aircraft it is tough to realize exactly what is going on with the pilot so the danger doesn’t seem quite as real.

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With that being said, I got an email from a friend who works at the airport. He told me to come on out the Friday before the show and I could check it out without all the crowds. Well, that seems reasonable, so I headed out there and it turns out this is basically the full show, just in “practice” mode. Each of the planes went up and did their piece, the jets flew around at amazing speeds and I got a chance to walk around in a B24 liberator. The sun was hot, but it seemed to duck behind the clouds at just when you couldn’t take it anymore.

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We got a chance to see a group of Yak planes flying in formation for several passes. There was an F18 displaying its power and maneuverability. An F16 was making passes at crazy speeds a Jet car raced a prop plane and stunt planes were defying all types of laws of aerodynamics as they tumbled through the sky.

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I left that day and the following day was the show. I didn’t attend the show, but after work I had a nice evening on the patio at my friends place watching the jets buzz his house at crazy speeds and at the end of the night after we saw the liberator fly by we watched the fireworks fire off from the front patio of their house as well. Overall, it was a fun experience. Check it out when you have a chance!

Hells Belles at the Fox

It has been several years now that I have shot Hells Belles. It started off with a simple phone call and after I showed them my first shots I have been shooting many of their local shows ever since. I like the challenge of using the “natural” light of a venue. Some venues are definitely more of a challenge than others and some lighting tech’s are more challenging than others.

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The Belles are always good fun to shoot and they really do put on a great show! I hadn’t shot them for about 2 years when I finally got a new camera recently and figured it was time to stretch its legs! So how about we see what I got!

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Check out that guy smiling…kinda seems out of place doesn’t he?

Anyhow, The new camera is great, sharp pix. I find it to seem a bit less sensitive than my old camera, so I find that I have to shoot a bit lower shutter speed. I also think it really soaks up the reds a lot. so I may have to adjust a bit to that, overall i’m fairly satisfied with the results.

Here are a few favorites from the past several years with the old 1DMKII
Jamie

Jamie

Jamie

Adrian

Jamie

Adrian

Adrian

Anyhow, if you have never seen the Belles, check them out. They put on an amazing show and it is always worth the price of admission! Hells Belles Website

Lakewood Cultural Center: Furniture show

About a month ago I received a call about a chair I made a year ago. The call was asking whether or not I would be interested in putting my chair in a furniture show. OF COURSE! I would love to was my response! So lets talk about the chair.

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I started this project for an “Intro to Woodworking” class at Metro. Chase Deforest was the professor for the class and she was encouraging people to make small tables for a final project. I was set on a chair. Not only that, but I like mixing media so I wanted to incorporate some aluminum with the project. So I started working on some sketches. The chair developed quickly with a large heavy footprint and a light open seating area. I choose Hard Maple, Aluminum and 1/2 inch clear acrylic for my materials list.

The construction went fairly smooth. Large exposed joints came together to form the legs and the arm rails. Hours in the machine shop passed by as I machined the standoffs and the acrylic…well, I ordered that.

When I designed the standoffs I did so with the intention of learning how to make them. Every part I design at this point I do in order to learn how to make it. When I approached John, a good friend of mine, about the project he said “no problem!” So he showed me the Radius tool that he has and how to use it. I machined all the pieces pretty quickly.

Machine shop, radius tool
Machine shop, radius tool

Construction went smoothly and the chair came together quickly. The standoffs turned out perfect!

Completed standoff
Completed standoff

After assembling the chair the next challenge was to actually sit on it. What happens if it breaks! It is a bit disconcerting to sit on a clear acrylic seat for the first time, but I sat down and was pleasently surprised. It worked! In fact it worked very well.

Completed chair
Completed chair

The chair is currently in the Lakewood Cultural center. A reception was held earlier this month to allow artists to talk to visitors about the pieces.

Lakewood cultural center
Lakewood cultural center

Now I am working on a few new projects, hopefully I will be able to make time to get them done too!