Travels

Just back from a week of trade shows and seminars for work.

It was the annual screen printing wing ding and this year they held it in New Orleans.

It was my first time in the city and although I didn't have a lot of free time I did get a chance to walk around the city a bit and get a sense of the place.

The city is steeped in History and features the oldest church in the United states, built in 1727. I saw a good number of boarded up storefronts, but for the most part it seems the downtown area is back on its feet after Katrina.

One of the highlights of my trip was meeting an online buddy Jeffery Roche aka Ubatuber.

Had a great pow wow about all things stop motion and he even brought his Jenny Greenteeth puppet. Let me tell you it looks incredible in person.

"That one eye just lookin' at ya."

Great stuff. I am really looking forward to seeing it animated.

We got to do that again Jeffery!

Jack gets some toys

The time sure does get away from me some times, never intended to go this long without a post.

but anyway...

I am building a Jack in the box puppet for a short animation bit I have planned.

Part of the set will be some kids style wooden blocks.

I have been messing around with a laser cutter we have at work and found it does a pretty nice job of engraving wood as well as just cutting parts. I really like the raised letter form of old kids blocks and it seemed a perfect match.

I am using some baltic birch plywood and cutting it up, putting a bevel on the edges and glueing it up to make little blocks.

Then its off the the laser for some engraving, light sanding and painting.

Here are some progress shots along with a sample side panel that will be used for the bigger jack in the box.