namesake

Beyond utility, I couldn't have put it better myself.

how inventive

For those of you unfamiliar with the previous content of this blog, I wittered on quite a bit about building a ceramic computer that actually worked. When I did my masters in ceramics years ago, I made sculptures of computers and TVs. Since then I have been working in ICT and not making anything in clay.

I happened to, ::cough::, aquire the internals of an old laptop and thought that I might make a clay case for them last year. Not having a kiln or a suitable workspace has kind of hampered my plans somewhat, but, that's ok. This piece has been as much about the case (hardware) as what the machine should be for (software). So I have been working on the software side of things (playing with linux distros and general research) and doing a little painting in the garage.

I was looking at the strange laptop designs here just now, and it occured to me that I would quite like someone else to do the design and execution of the case. Hmmm....

want one...

Who wouldn't want one of these when wthe fuel consumption claims to be a whopping 157MPG! Just a thought, it's turbo diesel, so it would run on biodiesel. Would it need a conversion to run on veg oil? Maybe now would be a good time for the designers to think of pre installing a veg oil conversion kit.

do over

I thought I would start over with the blog. I feel like I am gearing up for a big new project and I just wanted the virtual equivalent of a shiny new notebook. I had been thinking that I was going to be making a ceramic computer, but I have put that on the backburner for the time being.

The clay has been wedged and sits in black plastic in the garage. Some progress has been made. I did aquire the butt end of a roll on plastic wrap. It's like a heavy duty cling film used for keeping stuff on pallets. I like to use it to protect the surface of the clay while I construct things out of slabs. I like to roll the clay out into flat sheets, decorate with slips (liquid coloured clay), allow it to dry out, cover with plastic, cut to size and then assemble.

There are a couple more things that I need next. I still haven't managed to scrounge a plaster batt, and I am going to need a few sheets of ply to roll my slabs onto, but I'm in no hurry. It's too cold to work with clay in an unheated garage. I will wait untill it warms up.

In the meantime I have been starting to hawk my 'big idea' around. I will probably start writing about this sometime soon, but not today.