Ahhhh...Choo!!

About once or twice a year (usually once) I get a cold.  It usually only lasts 1-2 days, but it's a doozy.  There's not much to be done but rest, drink lots of liquids and look forward to it being over.
Such was the case this week.  I went down fast.
I kept my sketch book close, and tried to do some work, but my head wasn't in it.
Instead I spent some time thinking about the last year and how much pure joy it's been to be working on the projects I've had the opportunity to work on, and how fun 2012 will be.
I also spent some time going through some photos on cd's that I haven't looked at in years.
It's great to look back and see what was happening 10-15 years ago.
I'd almost convinced myself that this whole attraction to making things at a large scale was a new thing and then I found this.

It's a massive, heavy "throne" I built more than 10-11 years ago for my annual Halloween party.  I had seen an image of a throne built for a Rob Zombie concert and thought it couldn't be too hard to build.  Most of it was made from trim pieces found at the local big box store, with additional items cut on my scroll saw and edges routed.  I used it for a year or two and eventually sold it to a girl who used it as furniture.  I told her, "I'll sell it, but I ain't moving it!"  I wonder what I'd have done then if I'd had a cnc machine?!

Among those old photos, I also found these:

I had a few 9" Star Trek figures (we'll agree not to call them dolls..ok?) and I thought it would be great fun to build a scale model of the bridge from the Starship Enterprise.  Using my new (back then) scroll saw I set to work.  I had some scale drawings from an old Star Trek book and the ability to get artwork printed on film...so much of the model was backlit.  The whole bridge (yeah, the whole thing) was about 6 feet in diameter and each pie slice shaped wedge could be removed.  I had visions back then of doing some stop motion animation. The panels were a booger to make. I dutifully carved each button into some hardened plaster and cast each button with a different color resin...and then a top coat to join them all.  This allowed each panel to be back-lit as well.  The whole thing hit a wall when I realized that I had no idea how to make one of these:

This is the chair seen all over the bridge in the old tv show.  Back then I didn't have a cnc machine, or know about magic sculpt....this chair would be such an easy thing to make a reproduce now...back then it literally stopped the project until I could figure out how to make them.

Sometimes it's nice to spend a little time looking back and realizing how different...and yet similar...things can be after all these years.  Now I'm feeling better and it's time to get back to a promising 2012! Stay warm and stay tuned!