Rope Lights

The rope lights work! How cool is that?? At Burning Man I'll be using controllers that allow the option of turning these lights on full time, or they can "chase" or I can have them be sound sensitive, pulsing when people talk or to the beat of music - that might be fun.

You can see in the photo that the top portion is shaping up. It's mostly done. It took quite a while to get the proportions right but I think it looks pretty good now. I welded the base drum today. A few more days of smaller tasks and then I can begin sewing the cone and drum covers....

Stay tuned!

Friends Save Artist's Sanity!!

Seems like whenever I get bit overwhelmed with this project someone lends a helping hand! Deedee came over Monday and spent the whole day, painting poles and a wonderfully creative cobra on the generator enclosure. And Carla has finished the cobras that will wrap around the anchor straps - great job Carla! Or someone contributes to the finances and my spirits lift. Deedee says self-doubt is just a normal part of the artistic process: wondering why you put so much time and energy into something, particularly something as ephemeral as Burning Man. But it's that very ephemerality that makes the event so special - blink and it's gone, so plunge in and experience it all, because it will be gone tomorrow.

Above is a picture of Carla with a few of the dozen cobras she sewed and of Deedee painting the generator enclosure.

welding and cutting and brazing - oh my!

Have been so busy welding and cutting and brazing lately that I haven't had time to post a blog entry. Burning Man has the reputation of taking over your life, at least if you do it well, and Vishnu's dream has been no exception.

At this time the top cone sits in the driveway with struts and straps and tubing flailing about. A big challenge was getting everything plumb and leveled so that when it is reassembled on-playa I won't have to take any time  aligning anything - it should all fit together like a pop-up tent and everything will be color coded and numbered which will make reassembly easier.

Welding and brazing have been the biggest tasks to date. Friend Bruce Vaughn helped weld a few weeks ago.  Another friend called Bruce a "tool whore." I thought that was a compliment, after all he has a very cool welding rig that made quick work of the support poles and anchor stakes. Bruce is great for doing male bonding things like creating sparks with tools that can cause explosions or burn down your garage. How cool is that??! Actually Bruce has a little welding shop that he recently built that is as nice as my house. I'm totally jealous...

Assembly of all the parts has been both fun and tedious. Things are fun when you successfully braze together the first tubing socket. Then you realize you have 23 more of these to do! And dozens of other similar tasks.

Hope to finish the cone next weekend then I can try out the camera obscura mechanism and see if the concept actually works!