Space Chicken Week 1

Puppet orthos

Briss came in on friday and we talked about the lobster puppet she's working on
for us. She did a great job with the space chicken costumes so I'm looking forward
to what she does with this. This sketch is just the starting point...Briss will add her
own thing to it and eventually we get to the final idea. The arms are seperate so
that the actor can put one of his hands in one to wave it around...and we'll attach
the other one to the barn. Briss is coming in a couple of weeks with a mockup and
then we'll get to the final puppet (this is her first time building a puppet so we need
to work the kinks out before making the final). And then...professor clauu will be here!

Car games for kids

So during the upcoming series (the Kingdom) we're giving a cd for parents to
listen to...it'll have some talking (Kimbo and I) and some music. Along with
the cd the packet will contain some games for the kids to play with. Here
they are:

Lobster

We've started working on a theme that will start in mid april...the "Farmyard".
One of the characters is "professor clauu"...a scottish/english lobster that lives
in the attic of the barn. Yes...barns have attics...well...at least this one will.

So we're far enough out that I can give some sketches to a volunteer and she'll
make a puppet for us. Sweet! No more relying on the internet to find a puppet
that MIGHT fit the look we're going for...

So I'm designing the character right now...will have to make orthos soon so the
volunteer will have something to work off of...ah...orthos...gotta love them.

more monkey

some matthew 18 illustrations

we're telling a story from matthew during one of the space chicken
weeks...here's a few of the pics:

thursday morning meeting notes

i pay attention...honest

If i were in charge of my bio

Every week the volunteers at work receive an email from the Kids Club staff to
keep them up to date on all the happenings, activities and opportunities going
on. Recently Kimbo (coworker who handles the email) asked some of us to
provide bios. The feedback has been positive so Kimbo asked a bunch more
of us to provide one.

Chances are good that my first draft will not make it past the vetting process...but
here it is:

Up Close and Personal with David: Kid's Club Creative Dude
David was raised by a merry band of small woodland creatures after his biological
mother "accidentally" dropped him over a safety rail at Grand Canyon National
Park. The squirrels, woodchucks, and badgers did an outstanding job of teaching
him to burrow, climb trees, and hide from tourists. He lived on roots, berries and
snails until the age of 8. By that time the legend of the "small naked kid" prompted
authorities to do a detailed sweep of the park. David was found laughing hysterically
while holding two pine cones. He was fortunately reunited with his human family
because his father had filed a missing persons report a few weeks earlier.

Every childhood has its bumps along the way and the majority of David's always
had something to do with an inability to restrict his bathroom obligations to
designated facilities. But to be fair, when you view an entire national park as
your personal bathroom...being confined to set rooms can be a bit...well...confining.

"Personal space" was an especially tough concept for David to understand
as some of his guardians at the Grand Canyon were spider monkeys. Spider
monkeys love to pass the day picking bugs out of each others hair. It's how
they show love. Barettes in little girls hair look like bugs. And I know what your
thinking but as surprising as it is...the Grand Canyon has a healthy number of
spider monkeys on the premises.

Hilarious experiences ensued (all too long for this quick email) and 28 years
after birth David finds himself surrounded by a lovely wife and young daughter.
His hobbies include: changing diapers, submitting to authority and skyline chili.

Wood Gear Clock

So about a year ago, Wiseman and myself purchased some plans for a
completely wooden clock...we divided up the pieces that needed to be
made and then started making them. Wiseman finished his pieces in some
ridiculous time frame )like a week)...and I was taking a little longer...along came
my fantastic daughter and for about 5 months I didn't touch the project. Wiseman
hasn't mentioned the project (did he forget? did he think I would never do my pieces?
all will be revealed soon enough)

A decent chunk of my weekend free time lately (6 months) has been putting the
pieces together...figuring out what the guy that sold us the instructions meant (not
what he wrote...what he meant...which are completely different from one another)...
and the long process of sanding a gear here...tweaking a piece there...until finally...
it will run approximately 18 hours.

I'm giving this one to Wiseman so he can stain and polyeurathane as he
wishes...and I'm going to take the original plan and tweak them a little bit for my
own clock.

All the pieces are different thicknesses of baltic birch (a high grade plywood...it's
got something like double or triple the plys compared to typical plywood) which
reduces warping. The main weight is about 6 pounds. The amount of time the clock will
work is based on how high the main weight starts from the floor...If you have lots of
rope and a high ceiling it could probably go for more than a day. If the clock is hung
around eye level you'll have closer to 18 hours. This one loses a minute or two every
hour...which can be due to room temperature...moisture...etc. But for a wood clock
it's not bad.

if you listen hard enough you can hear the tick tock.

It's been a fun project...sometimes mind boggling...but fun

chickens and monkeys

in progress character sketches...

the year of the monkey

it's been a nice two or three week break...a lot of happened..all good..
but i don 't have the time right now (a trend lately) to explain...so...more later...

in the mean time...i think it's going to be the year of the monkey...at least for me.