three foot marathons

"Time, motion and wine cause sleep."

Ovid

As is often the nightly ritual during the weeks leading up to my releasing a new body of work, it is now "Ugh" in the morning and I've only just stumbled exhaustedly out of the studio.

After scraping a thick layer of jewelry polish and metal grindings off my skin, I've poured a nice glass of wine and collapsed into my favorite overstuffed "evil mastermind" chair.

The Cabernet Sauvignon waiting for me, beyond possessing the expected heart-healthy effects, will be playing the incidental role of celebratory nightcap.

Of course, I fully understand that you can't have a victory dance, even one as pathetic as my lying here in a somnolent heap, without a win to celebrate.

Tonight, it's the completion of a marathon about 36 inches long.

Roughly speaking, the distance from one side of my workbench to the other.

Back in my apprenticing days, I picked up an organizational habit from my mentor. In order to keep track of large numbers of projects, he would place all of the pieces he was working on in a pile on the left side of his workbench. Then, without looking, he would choose a piece from the pile, perform a single step in his process and shift the piece to a pile on his right. Then, he'd reverse the process, methodically moving each piece back to his left as he inspected his work.

Left-to-right, do. Right-to-left, check.

It never seemed to matter how large the piles were, or how many times the pieces made the pilgrimage across his workspace. At a glance he knew exactly where things stood, and that whenever everything "crossed the bench" for the last time the work would be done.

In my case, the habit has become a calming meditation. I sit at my workbench, I take a deep breath and I give in to the simple rhythm of moving the pieces from left-to-right, and right-to-left.

Along the way, magic happens. The panic-laden, deadline-stricken, never-ending pile of impossibilities slowly disappears.

Left-to-right,

The impossible becomes possible.

Right-to-left,

The possible becomes beautiful.

Tonight, as the hours whipped by, I ran a bunch of excellent three foot marathons. What began the evening as a large pile of completely raw castings now look suspiciously like the beginnings of fine jewelry.

I'll still be "crossing the bench" for another week or two. Soon after, I'll have some amazing new things to show for the journey.

category: studio
10 / 24 / 2008
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out pro-ing the pros

A while back, I used a little non-fictional science to help create something out of science fiction for a client.

Kevin, aka "the patron of many disguises", sent an email my way which confirmed my suspicions that the work we did together was, in fact, bad-ass.

I happened to go to a small con earlier this month as my Minbari Ranger. I received quite a number of compliments on the outfit. The best thing was, I had this one guy that kept staring at me from across the room. He finally came over and said, "I can't believe how f***ing incredible the badge and the belt look. That is what they should have been if we had had a bigger budget."

It was Dark Hoffman - one of the property masters who actually worked on the Babylon 5 series!!!

Kevin's Blog

category: playing
10 / 24 / 2008
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