caodesign

caodesign,
originally uploaded by wolfiebites.

project light sculpture

objective: refer to may 4, 06 posting!

wah! i had thought of something just like this! they beat me to it, and a very nice job indeed. i was in the tribeca grand hotel waiting to go into their club when, at the corner of my eye, noticed this nice light sculpture glowing at me! never mind the hot chicks checking me out (why you laugh?), but i was too busy checking out this light sculpture. c’mon, i had wanted to do something just like this! this one had thin platforms along with boxed in lights projecting out from a main stem. this is so much nicer, and perhaps more easy to build, than the one i had imagined up.

challenges/procedure: n/a

features:
i noticed the low wattage lights in each box gave a very subtle glow to each platform.

summary:
i'm so jealous! this is awesome!

project bike rack

the show off

objective:
it was my first nyc bike tour in 2002, and joe, nuno, and i decided to take upon the 42 miles route through all the boroughs of nyc. but we also wanted to just bring one car with all of our bikes. joe had a bike rack that holds 2. not good enough. so i decided to make a bike rack that’ll hold not 2, not 3, but 4! i figured, since my car is a 4 seater, then my bike rack should be a 4 seater too! other spare tire mounts easily costs over $100. take a wild guess as to how much i'd like to spend? (hint = $0).

challenges/procedure:
do it in 1 night! then mount it, then test it, then haul my @ss (with the bikes) to nuno’s place in staten island at a decent time of the night so as we can wake up the next morning at 6am to start the expedition.
i had it all thought out, how i wanted it to look, where it’ll mount to, etc. luckily, there were plenty of left over steel in the concrete lab from a recent bridge building competition. the main body of the bike rack will mount tightly to the spare wheel. the part that juts out and actually holds the bikes will be removable. hence, it’ll need a connection. hence, it’ll take time to do connections. other connections are the clamping seats made out of steel angles that actually clamps and holds down the bikes. connections! they’re great, but they cost a lot, in time, and in money! i spent 80% of the time with these detailed connections!
once all parts were cut, drilled, temporarily laid out and clamped down, i went to town with the welding. oh, the fumes just get me high. (if you know me, it’ll explain a lot of things….alot).

features:
it can hold up to 4 bikes, though, i’ve really only went up to 3. and that was only once! i decided recently to cut off the last two, and just make it a 2 seater. the long jutting arm makes it a head hitting hazard. in fact, it has happened. (that’ll further explain a lot of things also). and poor jennie hit her head pretty hard just recently also.
most connections features nuts and bolts of 1 size so that you don’t have to use too many tools.

summary:
it served it’s job of carrying the 3 bikes for that one day. i’ve used it often since, but only for up to 2 bikes. so i’m going to cut it down. also, during mounting and clamping down the bikes, i need to use tools to screw down the nuts, washer, and lock washers. too many parts! i gotta use wing nuts or something. things could be a lot simpler.
project bike rack: to be further improved!

project leg lamp

objective:
it was xmas ’04, and we had all just came back from copake the week prior. My friends and I participate in a secret santa gift exchange. I was the santa to Vicki. Not really knowing what she would want, but having a hunch that a leg lamp would totally be a great idea being that we all had just watched “a christmas story” while we were up at copake, ny, I decided to make one.

challenges:
there was a challenge around every bend. The first and foremost was trying to get a 5” stiletto…and I only needed one. I sent out mass emails to all my friends, but not trying to say much cos I didn’t want to give anything away. I only received harsh replies in return, accusing me of being wrong. Then, I decided to hit up some vintage shops all around manhattan. One owner in the village gave me a funny look when I asked him, “sir, would you happen to have any 5” stilettos?” After a small smirk with a flirting eye, he replies, “at home I might.” Hmmm…yea, thanks, but no thanks.
My second challenge was to get a leg, and hopefully not look like I have some sick fetish. This actually was not hard at all, since I work in the heart of the fashion district, things like this are a norm. I walked in the store, said I want that leg, and they had them all in stock. It just felt a little funny carrying it back to work. I had it double bagged.
I had 5 days to do it, and a tight budget, which I pretty much blew away on the leg alone. So everything from this point on was to salvage any junk in my basement, and also $1 stores.

procedures:
got all the leg wear at $1 stores. Reached deep into the feminine side of me and got tanned shade leggings, and also fish net stockings. What a turn on!
Salvaged old lamps in my basement and tore them apart for parts. I was able to salvage a pedestal, some wire, and all of the hardware. I also purchased a 3-way switch from a hardware store.
A cookie can served as the base pedestal and housed all the wires and the on/off switch.
The lamp shade was probably the next costliest thing, but was less than $10. I just couldn’t find anything that looked “gypsy” enough anywhere, so I had to just splurge.
I never found a 5” stiletto, so I just scraped the footwear altogether.
Heck, I’m running out of time!!!
Ok, so, run the wire through the leg, drill a hole thru the feet, run it thru that and into the cookie can. Wire it to the 3-way switch. Spray the cookie can, sprinkle with glitter for some flamboyant effects. Place the bulb inside the leg. Another one on top of the leg. Place the lamp shade holder, then finally, the lamp shade atop all.

features:
the most awesome feature is the 3-way switch. Click once for the leg to turn on. Click again for that to turn off, and the lamp shade to turn on. Click again, then both turns on. Awesome, eh?

summary:
the reveal says it all. It was our xmas dinner where the gifts were to be exchanged. We were in a restaurant, and when my gift was revealed, heads were turned to our table. We plugged it in, and the first switch brought on a wave of “oooh”. the 2nd switch had the crowd going, “ahhhh”. Then the 3rd switch just exploded into a mixture of laughs and applause. Vicki was happy. The table was happy. And the crowd well entertained.
Project leg lamp: pass!

psychedelic fans

psychedelic fans

objective:
it was a killer summer, and we needed fans. i had these two in storage, thus, it had a thick layer of dust everywhere. since i was going to take them apart anyways, i did what i always wanted to do to its insides....paint them!

challenges/procedure:
not hard at all. twirl lightly, and spray. if you twirl too strong (which i did of course) then the paint will just blow back at you.

features:
when turned on, you really only see the thicker bands of color, so it wasn't really worth getting all detailed on it.

summary:
cool fans cooled me down!
project psychedelic fans: pass!