dylantoymaker.net

Lantern Tower

A big part of my art is site specific lighting installations. I created a new set of cad + waterjet woodcut Lanterns and Light Towers for Astral Harvest. Fun times.

Extending my scope of action is always a fun thing to do, even the painful learning curves (of Adobe Illustrator for example) become satisfying and even enjoyable after the fact. even if it is often takes months.

I had a lot of help from people: Scott Davis did pretty much all of the metal drilling cutting and welding. I’m borrowing a flamethrower from Dancing Wolf. Christy Boulter reminded me of the giant lenses from warehouse HID lighing, available at several re-used building supplies stores. And Austen at Hydrosion has been amazing at turning my vector pictures into finely sliced wood.

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New Years Eve, 2010.  Our community holds an annual gathering for about 5 days to celebrate and reflect on the last year and imagine for the next year.  We call it Intention Alberta, after the much longer running Intention on the west coast of BC.  This year we put a project in motion to test and increase our capacity to assemble off grid shelter.  The Hexayurt was the open-hardware building style we chose to work with.

There are a bunch of pictures and models posted previously; here we have a time lapse movie of the second stage of assembly.  the base was put together the day before.  As you may be able to see: we used a frame, square-edged SIPs (structural insulated panels) and triangular wedges to fill the corner gaps. Our next SIP-a-yurt will have beveled edges on the SIPs and just 2 posts (center+front) and one beam for framing.

Note the sexy bathrobes: this was the Steampod (the group tasked with assembling structures and fires, particularly the steam pod itself) uniform.  These bathrobes had a powerful effect on collaborative will and function.  Highly recommended for any other off-beat construction process.

..d

(the embedded frame disappeared for some reason, if it goes away again,the direct link is here)

yet another hexayurt mashup

the hexathedral is a trip down a possibility in the triangles and rectangles of the classic.  it makes me laugh.  it would make me even more giddy if someone were to build one of these somewhere/how.  i got started on this angle with a variation by kurt klingbell, which got me on the stellated roof concept.

this version didn’t seem as practical as the standard hexayurt, or even necessarily feasible, but it did have an aesthetic appeal, so i turned it into a church.  with a big soundsystem made from the same arrangement of triangles as the roof.  the speaker covers may be the most practical part of this model.

this is (L) copyleft… use freely BUT YOU HAVE TO TELL ME ABOUT IT!!  and send pictures.

model in sketchup version 8 : Download .skp(8)

model in sketchup version 7 : Download .skp7

the hexatent, or tentayurt.  this model is part of a hexayurt mashup adventure i had late at night one day.  it may or may not have any advantages over the traditional hexayurt.  what it does have is the same number of triangles and rectangles as a regular hexayurt in a different form.

suitable to make you think different at the very least.  i’m also looking at the places where there are 8′ edges as locations that can be expanded with more flat panels.

sketchup (8) model : Download .skp(8)

this is a sketchup model that we worked from in building our first Structural Insulated Panel (SIP) hexayurt.  we needed something on the base to level the floor, as the floor was also SIP based (because of winter snow).  for this version we used full, square edged SIPs, with triangular foam to fill the gaps.  We DON’T RECOMMEND THAT.  Bevel your SIP corners instead.  less (fragile) junk to keep track of.

Model here: Download .skp

to see how the situation turned out, check out one of the other hexayurt posts.  the one we built had 4′ walls rather than 6′ pictured here. also not shown in this model is the inside frame, which may be excessive, but we felt that better safe than sorry principal.

commented model of a H13 style hexayurt

i’ve figured out some file serving on the blog here, so now i can offer you a model of the h13 hexayurt i’ve been working on. yay!  let me know if it works for you.

download the sketchup 3d model here: Download .skp

and download the sketchup version 7 here: Download .skp7

if you need the program first, get sketchup (free version) from google here: Sketchup

I’ve been visiting my wife’s family in Newfoundland this past week and a bit.  We go for walks, and i take pictures of rocks.  Microflora and closeups of stones is something of a fascination of mine, so that works out great here on da rock.

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For Intention Alberta,  Arca Tribe commissioned an insulated h13 hexayurt.  so we did it.

The panels were made of a sandwich of two plywood 3/8ths inch panels and one 1 1/2″ (walls) or 2″ (roof) styrofoam panel.  all 4×8′.

I’ll update this post as i get time ;)  pictures below.

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One of the things I get to do is help people make lights.

Last October, my mother organized  a lantern painting workshop for the St. Albert Garden Club (which she has been a member of since approximately forever).  This was fun, as I remember one of my early art experiences going to a flower arrainging workshop run by the Garden Club when I was 7 ish.

The Club wanted a simple, classy project, so we did an airbrush-and-stencil thing onto chinese wire and fabric ball lanterns.  Stencils came from plant material people brought in, and some floral/ foliage stencils in my collection, and some hibiscus and orchid flower patterns  my mother sourced.

People were pretty  happy with the results, but as usual, the best ideas happen after the fact.  So maybe everyone who plans a lantern workshop should plan for two or three?

Here are some of the pictures, taken by my dad.  (thanks dad!)

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welcome.

to dylantoymakerdotnet. this is my vanity page, a place to post the things i like to. and links to people i know. plus links to everything else i do on the interwebs. which feels like way to much sometimes, but that’s not your problem is it?

if there’s not enough eyecandy, comment in the gallery to hassle me to post more ;) works great promise!

lighting up the architectural features in jackie parker park, for winter light