Sunday, August 23, 2015

water plains: coppers vs steel fleet

We have established the beginnings of two forces:
the steel fleet 
and
the coppers.

the youngest help set rivets and prepare the boats.
water plain attack: steel fleet coming in from open waters
 the copper already had a great patina on them. being exposed to the element should make for some excellent texturing!
water plain defend: the coppers are ready to repel

the steel fleet comes in from open waters to attach in the coppers waters.

clouds: two layers of anxiety

Trouble is rarely ever simple:
two layers to this anxiety.


better run.

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Rock displaying on the "water plain"

When we go out hiking or camping we are VERY likely to come back with a rock or two.
these rocks act as sort of a souvenir of the trip, so it seems fitting that we should have a way to present them (at least until they get lost in our landscape). This would also give me a location to organize our collection of "keepers". my other initial goal with this project is to teach the boys about the elements of composition in 3D.

in summary our project is a sort of simplified residential back yard version of a Japanese contemplation rock garden.
the idea is simple: create a large plain of smaller rock that will act as a body of water and then position smaller rocks that will function as small islands.
our scale is very small so i opted for sand as the water. the sand is also easier for picking out debris because it just sits on top versus getting in between the larger pebbles.

to add to the fun, we are making little boats to really help them along in the transition of imaging a large sandbox as a body of water.

back yard rock display with boats
 copper boats vs steel boats, working on our scale
my next step in this project is to see how we can also turn it into a sort of Battle Ship game.
i think a small armada on each side with catapults, like our indoor Crush the Castle game.
back yard rock display with boats

backyard rock display with boats
 the steel from this boat is the binding for railroad tie bails
other materials are bamboo skewers and some scrap cedar.
making boats for backyard rock display
a quick plug for these Milwaukee Markers. these are really holding up well. very good for marking on abused surfaces, metal and wood.