Luckily, DIane noticed that my drivers licence was expiring on my birthday next week. I’d actually applied for a renewal by mail, but had forgotten to enclose a check (d-oh !) .. That emant I had to go to teh DMV in person just as they opened to get my new license.   That can often mean a long wait.. but I was lucky.. I was able to walk right up to the desk. I recognized the woman working there.. I thanked her for all the donate life signs that were in the DMV.. She remembered  me and the samstones and had one on her desk. ..   She said she loved sam. I gave her another samstone to share.. It was a nice way to start my day

It was a busy day at work.. Though Crawford, Kristine and I took an hour over lunch to hike between South 40 and D2.. We are trying to find a route that would allow BETA folks to walk between building (with landowner permission of course !)

It was a good mucky wa;lk.. very pretty.. we found some parts that might be right for a futre trail.. but  it still needs a lot of thought

It was fun gettign to hang out with my freinds !

 

AFter lunch I went back to North hanger to work with my new freind Bobby on a project.. He’s really fun to work with.. and a very good programmer 

I also got to work with freind Cullen, Sam and Alex.. Turns out Alex does electric wood burning like Max. CHeckl this out !

Beautiful work !  

Speaking of beautiful work.. diane surprised me when I got home with a freshly repaired buddha incense holder. I’ve had that thing with me since high school.. and  the other day it broke 🙁 .. I’d been meaning to glue it back together… but hadnt done it yet

Turns out that our freind Jne… who’s an excellent potter.. was learnign the art of Kitsugi 

which is an ancient Japonese method of repairing broken pottery  with gold.  Wikipedia tells me that Kitsugi is  ” a philosophy, (that) treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise”

Jens katsugi is made of epoxy and mica flakes.. but it sure looks like gold. 
I am so happy to have my little freind back in one piece !

THank you jen and diane for making this happen !

nite all, nite sam

-me

We started the day with a quick hike up Bamforth.. We didnt have time to go to the window because I had a meetign I had to get to.. It was a beutiful, frosty day !

After work, DIane, Rebar and I met up at Elliott’s shop to do our first round of casting. Elliott had been working on the molde we made the other day. 

First step was to assemble the two sides of the mold “we’d “made..  I say “we’d made” because elliott had made most of it to include the filling sprue holes and vents. He’d also used low sulfer clay to smooth out the cavity.  We actually had 2 moleds.. one of a stylized Alia airplane  which Ben had 3d printed for me.. and one was a samstone

Next we waited for the pewter to melt.. Elliott gae it a little torch assist. The melting point of this lead-free pewter is about 500 degrees fahrenheit. 

Then it was time to pour the hot metal. I believe the crucible held about 6 lbs of the molten metal. My job was to pour it in the mols as quickly and safely as possible. I poured both molds. The speed is necessary to make sure the metal; spreads evenly through the mold Liquid metal is sooooo beautiful !

Voila.. the molds filled well (I thought) 

Then it was time for the metal to cool. In about 30 minutes the mold was still hot.. but not too hot to handle. We pulled the molds apart. The alia mold was hard to get out because of the complicated pattern of sprues we needed to fill in the ssmall parts. It took some muscle and some cutting to be able to free the cast of the plane. Elliott is a master of this stuff.. 

FInally the plane was free. Pretty good !.. THere was one part of the tail that didnt get filled.. but we have plenty of metal.. and anything thats not great we can re-melt !

The samstone came out perfectly.. It actually had a golden cast due to the baby powder we used a releasing agent. 

THis was a great first try .. and so much fun. Huge thanks to Elliott for teaching us about casting. He’s such a wonderful guy.. its really an honor to get to work with him !

Nite all, nite sam

-me

THere are still signs of Lochie all over the place.. the mood is still quite. I thought this bucket of tissues that were still out said alot.

Tonight was Yoga and soup night potluck  at home. I love these gatherings.. especially during the winters.  

Great yoga, great food and great company. 
nite all, nite sam

-me

It was a pretty quiet day today.. People at work were still taking in the impact of memorial services for Lochie and CP the day before. THe mood was very quiet and thoughtful.. 

The pictures from Lochies gathering were still up in the Hanger and in other parts of the building .. I found one of the pictures I shared among all the others. This is when Lochie had the samsone with him as he was about to land in Bentonville.

It’s goign to take a good while before things seem normal again around here. 

Nite all,, nite sam

-me