Lankwood's House of Curios

Pigeons throughout literature

2009-09-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

More pigeon-related stuff.
Moby Pigeon, It was a dark and stormy pigeon, Day of the Pigeons, Where the Wild Pigeons Are...

To Do

2009-09-06T05:38:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the long time between postings to all those who don't read my blog.
As I have been hard at work doing things that don't involve making, here is a list of projects for summer.

fix the amplifier in my bike sound system. (I have attempted this already, and there is currently no sound coming out of the speakers. I feel that this is at least halfway from the original mess - where the amp made the sound quieter, not louder - and so therefore a mini victory).
make a pair of hi-top sneakers. This may require the assistance of Jenna, who is far more experienced with sewing things.
design a pigeon image to go on the front of my new/old bike.
record an album over 24 hours in Josh's newly established studio.
write a short graphic novel about an aging circus strong-man named Dynamo Humbolt.

Mr Blue, can you come down?

2009-07-18T06:21:00.000-07:00

Our time at 826 Valencia was filled with many awesome jobs, but my favourite by far was the daily writing workshop, where a class of primary school kids would write a book in two hours, with some help from a typist, an illustrator, a leader, and Mr Blue, the cranky publisher who lived and worked in the attic. Mr Blue, who never ventured out from his office, spent the two hours ranting about children wasting his time, and insisting on ridiculous amounts of writing to be done within ridiculously tight deadlines. It seemed the more Mr Blue insisted that "children simply cannot write stories" the more the kids loved him.

Here is my artistic depiction of an interaction between Mr Blue and a bunch of school children.

Why I need perfect circles

2009-07-06T05:36:00.000-07:00

Jen and I are in the final throes of preparation for the literacy program we are running. Pigeons, as it is called, is a collaborative writing project linking authors with primary school kids through a letter exchange. It has been the focus of our lives for a year, and starts next week.

Among other things, we have had a rubber stamp made for the students to use, making their correspondence official Pigeons mail. We were going to use an old door knob for the stamp handle, but then a small brass pigeon made its way mysteriously to our freezer, of all places. What could be better?

So I have been trying to cut out MDF circles to use as the base. And continue to try.

I'm almost there.

The Perfect Circle

2009-07-05T05:11:00.000-07:00

I have discovered, to my relief, that I am not insane, as I have been unable to cut a perfect circle out of MDF using a jigsaw. According to Mollusk, only people who are clinically insane can do such a thing.

Two things I would like to recreate

2009-07-01T00:37:00.000-07:00

- Boite-en-valise
- Fluxkit

Mix Book

2009-07-01T00:29:00.000-07:00

On the theme of Squidmonkeys, about a year ago I made this MixBook for my girlfriend. It's like a mix tape, although instead of songs, it has excerpts from a bunch of different novels and short stories. It took me ages, both to retype each story, and to bind the book (imposition messes with my mind). I also did a bit of a rush job on it, so it's not very well put together. I would love to redo it, but Jen refuses to let me touch it.

I know this sort of thing must break all sorts of copyright laws. However, if you take into account the number of spelling mistakes that are probably in there, you may find that my versions could possibly be considered entirely new works of writing.

Beware, the terror...

2009-07-01T00:18:00.001-07:00

of the SQUIDMONKEY!

Pigeon Post

2009-06-30T23:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some variations on the common pigeon.

Bones!

2009-06-29T03:08:00.000-07:00

I drew this little museum series during a particularly boring lecture. It's never a good sign, from a teaching point of view, when skeletons of animals dead for millions of years have more life in them than your class does.

And yes, I know, that is one huge gorilla. Perhaps the picture is simply inferring the massive presence of such a noble and terrifying creature.

The Lankwood 2.0

2009-06-28T04:19:00.000-07:00

I don't ride my bike much. Actually, I don't currently own a bike, so I ride it even less. But when I did own it, I was only ever a reluctant cruiser. And I only really enjoyed it when I had music, but wearing headphones freaked me out. So, out of a need, comes a product to fill it. The Lankwood 1.0 was a pair of computer speakers screwed together, attached to a rig that was then velcroed to the handlebars. A pouch dangling off the bottom held my ipod. Instant cycling tunes.

Only problem was the lack of volume. Riding through the park was ok, but traffic drowned it out. So I tried to upgrade, attempting to install an amplifier into it to create the more powerful Lankwood 2.0. But my skills in electronics are rather underdeveloped, and somehow, I don't know how, instead of increasing the volume, the amplifier actually made it quieter than before.

This now sits on my shelf, the tops unscrewed, with bits of wire dangling out of it's insides like the lolling tongue of some dead Hollywood extra.
One day...

Two guitars, seven strings between them

2009-06-28T03:47:00.000-07:00

Some older creations, but two of my favourites.
A couple of years ago, I became fascinated with the possibilities inherent in home-made musical instruments. I stumbled across a website dedicated to cigar box guitars, and set about making one of my own. I found a beautiful box in a second hand junk shop, and used the neck from an old kids acoustic. The result was the Lankwood Fonseca (named for the brand of cigars). It has a very high action, and the bridge is closer than it was on the original guitar, so I took the frets out and made it a slide guitar. Then I set about teaching myself how to play it. I'm still at it, and can play the odd passable tune, or at least something resembling blues.

A year of so later, I picked up a pool cue case from Chapel Street Bazar for 8 bucks. When thinking what I could do with it, I struck on the idea of creating an electric lap steel guitar that was its own case, and built the Lankwood Hustler. I put the process of building it on Instructables.

The Hustler has only three strings, and sounds pretty terrible. It's more of a display peice than an actual instrument.

I then attempted a cigar box dobro, using a strange metal dish with two semi-circle depressions. This one is still sitting on my shelf, half finished.
One day...

Fake Etchings Co.

2009-06-28T03:35:00.000-07:00

While taking part in an internship at 826 Valencia in San Francisco, I got to do heaps of drawing (among 500 other cool things). This website was created as part of a fundraising campaign to save the 826 volunteers from extinction. The original plan for the banner was to use copyright free 18th C. etchings of extinct animals, but since we couldn't find any that were appropriate, I drew them instead. It was quite a challenge to create the effect of etching using a black fine liner, but I think it was pretty successful. My favourite bits are the bottom of the dodo's neck, and the hip of the Tasmanian Tiger.

Pop-Up Pigeon!

2009-06-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

It is little known and littler discussed that pigeons are actually able to fold away into the covers of a fondue cookbook.

I am particularly proud of the hackle feathers, and the way I've captured the cold, dead eye of a pigeon.

Lucha Pulgar

2009-06-28T00:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a guide I wrote to making lucha libre masks for your thumb, adding a new dimension to the ancient and noble sport of thumb wrestling.

The idea came about while I was working on an art project, which eventually morphed into this series of photos. The wrestling ring has a mat made from the plastic cover from an old visual diary, and electrical wires for ropes.

My friend Mollusk and I then used the thumb masks as the basis for a day of art with a class of grade two kids. They designed their own lucha libre masks, first as a collage, then making real felt masks, and finally miniature versions for their thumbs. I think (and we hope) that we may have created the next banned activity for the playground at that school.

Felt-tip tattoo pen

2009-06-27T23:40:00.000-07:00

Eastern European dinner party at Alex's last night.
Too much bigos. Way too many dumplings. Lots of dancing to Russian disco music, but still not enough.

As I was not able to contribute to the cooking, I took it upon myself to be the Russian prison tattoo artist for the night. I made a tattoo pen (a battery and guitar tuning peg attached to a blue Artline with electric tape and the obligatory rubber band), and took along my copy of Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia for people to choose their artwork. Lots of blurry blue images adorned the fingers of my drunken friends. The less inhibited insisted on some of the seedier images inside the book.