Present Joys

Monday morning, I met Jen and Tay at a coffee shop to talk about our One Show 2014 project. We went over different creative concepts and settled on a few solid ideas. Monday afternoon in motion graphics, I made another 2½-D animation, this time from a photo I took of John on our birthday.

Only Ian and I showed up to friendship lunch on tuesday. We had a nice meal and then went on a little trip to check out his work for senior thesis. After that, I worked hard senior ad wrestling on our One Show project. It was an exhausting, idea-heavy work session, but overall worthwhile. I took a test tuesday afternoon in History of 2-d Design. I hadn’t been expecting anything too challenging (I didn’t study), and it was even simpler than I expected—aggravatingly so! I finished up and left within a half hour.

I spent some time in the jewelry lab on wednesday afternoon, doing some tests with resin. So many colors! In motion graphics, we continued the same old project.

Thursday in jewelry, I worked on a personal project—this made for a pleasant and relaxed morning. After that, I met up with Dana for lunch at Katzinger’s, where I ate a delicious sandwich and three pickles. In senior ad, I pitched my thesis to the class, then went out in the hallway with Tay and Jen to keep working on One Show. In History of 2-d, we started a new unit on early modern graphic design and watched a video about the Linotype.

Day 74: thu, 13 feb 2014. At Katzinger’s for a quick lunch with Dana in the midst of a hectic day!

Day 73: wed, 12 feb 2014. If you’ve been injured in a taxi, call the law firm of John Steimle.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a little about my burgeoning senior thesis project. Since then, I’ve purchased a gently-used knitting machine from VonStrohm, a very cool woolen mill and yarn store about 25 miles south of Columbus. On the day I picked up my machine, I spent a few hours in the shop with Toia Rivera-VonStrohm learning the basics of machine knitting and talked with her about the logistics of my project. It’s looking like I’ll be able to purchase yarn from VonStrohm, which they’ll spin and dye especially for me. If that works out, it’d be great.

I brought the machine home and set it up in my work room. It is like an archaic, enigmatic monster. Besides the few hours of lessons at VonStrohm, I’ve been reading a few books about machine knitting (as well as the owner’s manual) and learning what I can from YouTube. I reworked my generic sweater vest pattern for the machine and knit up a quick vest—the first actual garment I’ve made with the machine! It all went okay. But I still have not tried tackling colorwork and that will be a big challenge.

What’s next?

I have a lot of practicing to do until I’m comfortable with the knitting machine. Only when I’m comfortable will I have the knowledge to finalize my garment pattern and start production work.

Besides that, I still need to figure out what else I’m going to make! What is this brand going to be about? What else will I create? I still need to talk to some of the CCAD old-guard and dig through old photos in the Archives. This project has got to be more than a sweatshop! I’d love to document this whole process through video, so I also need to find somebody to help me with that. There is a lot to think about…

Day 72: tue, 11 feb 2014. Visiting Ian in his fine arts studio space, a place I don’t usually set foot in.