Portals and an Arch

I've done this before.  I can't talk about it though.

One of those dream jobs came along awhile ago from Tony.

"Explore the word 'E______d'.  It's for a new wine, do whatever you want with the word."
"Just do what you do."

You gotta love that.  Complete free rein without having all those learned "no's.... you shouldn't do that" pouncing on every idea you come up with.  Working for the man, commercially, pounds the concepts of capitalism deep deep in the brain.  I find it real hard to shoot, still, without those do's and dont's being attached to everything.  You feel like you have to run things by the do's and dont's first to see if they "sell."

To be free of those self imposed bungie cords is a blessing.  The inside outside project coming up could be another of those Alleluia!  I am Free! events.

So I've done what I've done today before, I just can't talk about it yet.  I think the wine project is dead but until it's for sure buried and with a headstone then the NDA is still in place.

But before getting to that.
The doors are up.....up enough so I can do other things.  I'll finish everything (door stops, locks, handles, anchoring it permanently, caulking, inside glass trim, additional varnish on the outside, finish on the inside) after the big events coming up in Sept.

An interlude.  It's possible by kicking the plane iron one way or the other, you can create tapered shavings.  One edge is thicker than the other.  You can shape edges like this.

Inside looking to the garden.

Life grown here.

The beginning of today was months ago.  Started the arch I'm making for Taylor and Nick.

Blessing the spiraled sheaves with some Palo Santo smoke in the middle.

I've wired canes together before for the word "E_____d" so I'm somewhat conversant in this medium.  It is a bit like working in a velcro factory, everything sticks to each other.   Used rebar wire and the techniques of tying steel together from the Canadian carpentry years.

 Beginning the exploration.

Think I'll stick with a four point pyramid.  I'll build it thicker, more wild, more controlled.  Wired under tension so it looks relaxed.

Next day (today) edit.
This is how far it will go until the weaving together on the day of, above and overlooking the bay.  I'm thinking me and my architect brother can finish it up, adding where something needs adding, taking away what should be gone.
It's wild, just like a marriage should be.
Unconstructed like life is.

Indoor Outdoor

Went to the back building, stepped over a box of tax shit waiting to be organized for last year's taxes (which my accountant is making me do earlier and earlier each year), pushed back some clothing from a rack, moved a roll of leather and pulled out Heinrich Engel's large, beautiful and dense 1964 classic book "The Japanese House, A Tradition for Contemporary Architecture.

Stopped for awhile and talked about why an editor would disallow the use of the future tense in an article concerning the future.

Was going to brush up on concepts of the openness of the indoor and inclusion of the outdoor in traditional Japanese houses.  It got to be too technical and erudite after awhile and anyways why read about something when you're living it already.

The blurring of what is out and what is in when in is out and out is in.  Might be a good topic to rubic's cube it during the Death Valley Trip.  You know twist the cube around and around looking for the final pattern.

Outdoor Indoor.

It's not very often something like this comes.  I'm going to be obtuse about it right now because maybe it's really too soon to say anything about it.  Too soon to say one more twist of the cube and the pattern will be right.  I've done this enough to know just like Firesign Theater's 1974 recording "Everything You Know Is Wrong", everything I think I know about this project will not be the way it ends up.
But that's the creative process, you gotta start somewhere, got to put down one thought, one idea in order to lead to the next.  And that one will lead to another if you let it.  Maybe it leads back to the first or not.  Maybe you end up with the rubic's cube not in pattern but in random because the in, in the out is just better that way.

An empty glass of Mezcal on the way to being full again.

We're going to try and not even mention one particularly dirty aspect of the project....ever.
Maybe.

On a more grounded note.

Further design work on the new weatherstripping model.  Smaller diameter surgical tubing, smaller diameter rod and widening the slot so I can insert a lockable key.  I'll attach by screws in order to remove it later on in case.

Bringing the two sides together

Still have people knocking on the door looking to buy some granite.  Just last week, a man peered in the gate looking for some stone, or so he said, because he also asked for a shot of booze.   I think maybe the stone thing was a ruse just to be able to ask for some alcohol.  Whatever, I opened up a bottle of wine and gave him the bottle along with the cork and he walked away happy.

There was a sculptor in here before, but before him was a granite and marble place.

So there was quite a bit of leftover pieces of marble and granite.  A whole next lot filled with it.
Two pieces I glued around the backdoor and waited until the inspiration arrived on how to bring them together.

Leftover piece of Eucalyptus was finally decided upon.  I didn't put a finish on it.  I slicked it down with a stick of Yew wood I took from the yard I grew up at in Beavercreek, Ohio.  Burnish it with quite a bit of force and speed. It gets so smooth with that method. Bone can be used as well.  It's an old way to work the wood.

I'm using a mortise and loose tenon construction on the big back courtyard doors.  Didn't want to but I didn't have the lengths of wood needed to make the tenons solid.  Waiting to be glued here.

The doors are together, sanded, hinges on.  They're all ready to go.  Waiting for some smaller weatherstripping before I muscle them up to vertical.

10'11" Kanji edge shaving.