Sandwiches

Today, a bit more on shaping the brass feet for our new base system. We still have no video camera (plus we like animated .gifs) so after the jump just a simple animation of a bit of the process of cutting a taper on a CNC lathe. Here, at left, is the lathe in full-spin and at right is a line-up of the larger of the two versions of the feet. These will be the feet for the dining tables we're making as part of the new line for the DAM show opening July 27—after just one more step (shaping the other, rounded end) we're good to go.

To follow up on yesterday's post, here's the business end of all that speedy vise work: drilling holes into brass. The holes will ultimately be tapped (meaning we'll cut threads into them to accept threaded rod) allowing us to connect these brass feet to the clusters which will be the central hub of the whole base system. Confusing? Maybe, but that's just because this is a teaser, an appetizer, not the meaty main course. For a pretty animated gif of the whole drilling business, click through to read more. And check back in for more partially illuminating posts on our upcoming show of new work at the DAM.

Sometimes it's hard to say where an idea came from but this is not one of those times. For the Design Lab show at the DAM this summer we were initially planning a new line based on tools and machines for material handling—you know, tables and case goods and what not based on dollies and hand trucks and gantry cranes and the like—and we were hitting shops and salvage yards around town looking at examples. When we stopped by our friend Steve Scott's place we happened to notice this vise handle and the plan changed. It struck us as a good model for a modular base system, with legs and arms radiating off a central hub or cluster, easily disassembling and reassembling, strong and rigid and widely adaptable. Game on. More info on this particular handle after the jump and more on our version in upcoming posts.

Alright, so we've been a little busy. A long winter of steady orders eased into a long spring of steady orders. And now, just as we were getting ready to stumble into a leisurely summer kicking back poolside at Camp Tillman, more orders. Sure, the adults among us are thrilled that our business has become bona fide, that the thing seems to be working, for real. But seriously, the adults among us are a bunch of kill-joy douches. They expect us to stay focused and on task. Even if we've made the thing a hundred times. Even on a Saturday. Even in May in Denver (which has been crushingly lovely, by the way). Enough already. It's time to make something new. Thankfully, we've got a good reason (beyond creeping boredom) to make it—a show at the DAM. Specifically, we've got a third of Design Lab: Three Studios, pulled together by curator Darrin Alfred and set to run in the Martin and McCormick Gallery on level two of the Hamilton Building (that thing in the photo above) from July 27 through September 2, 2012. The other two studios in the show are MATTER and tres birds workshop—worth the price of admission all by themselves. In case you just can't wait, we'll be filling up the Sandwiches section of the site with show teasers and miscellany over the coming months.

What good is a series called "Low-Tech Tillman Lightshow" without a little pyromania? Cavemen and cavewomen, all, they love their fire. Looks like Clovis dug this bit out of the photo archives (we've upgraded the fire pit at the shop compound), but what the hell? It's still fun. Watch it with a dance track and those fools in the background get a little groove on.

From Clovis Tillman, a another night-light shot, this time from the River North neighborhood, looking across the tracks from the Coors Field overflow parking lot behind the Silver Square lofts on Blake and 33rd.

It may not be Central Park but it'll do. Again from Cheesman Park here in Denver, again from Clovis Tillman, again a shot we've warmed to since it was sent through yesterday. We got another one in the same vein—from the dark outdoors looking in to a lighted room—but that one was closer: a single window with a lone man visible inside watching the World Series. Gave off too strong an odor of Creep. Not that the dude watching the tube was especially creepy (the room was a bit sad, maybe), but creepy Clovis creeping up on someone's front steps and peeping for a shot? Creepy, no doubt. This shot here makes the point well enough—our lives move indoors during the Long Dark, for better or worse.

Another night-is-beautiful shot from Clovis Tillman, this time from 7th Avenue just south of Cheesman Park. This one took us a minute to warm to but we've warmed. That yellow is dominating the evenings lately—if the foliage weren't enough Denver's amber streetlights are pushing the whole city over the golden edge. Plus that tree trunk looming in the foreground brings just enough menace to the scene. And last, the long-exposure streak of headlights in the background on the westbound side of 7th gives the shot some lively movement. It feels true, not spectacular, like a typical night in the city. Another shot tomorrow presuming Clovis sends one along.