Robert the Marine, 1991

It's a picture of me on a hilltop in Korea, when I was an active duty Marine.  That's the DMZ behind me, and The Evil Kingdom Of North Korea in the hills beyond.  You can't tell, but I was ironically smoking a cigar in the style of George Peppard.  Because it seemed like the right thing to do.  I still have the boots, but lost the boot knife in a move a long time ago.

We didn't get ammo for our weapons, and in the event of war, we had no plan except "meet up with the Marines from 1st Radio Battalion in Pusan" -- which was hundreds of miles away.  Our unofficial plan was to steal the Navy van and trade it for a boat, then make way for Japan.

This was all during the ground war for the first Gulf War, and if ever there was an opportune time for them to "come south" that was it.  A lot of our guys were in the gulf, the North still had some resources with which to attack (gas, oil, etc.) and it was winter.  So there was a lot of paranoia on our side of the border -- mostly generated by folks who didn't get to go to the actual "current" war and hoping for some fun in our part of the world. :)

Brandon's lunch dessert

This can't be good for you..

Paper, Paper, Paper

Apparently I'm known for doing fun stuff with paper -- I was asked to show up at Studio Bricolage for their Paper night and maybe show some stuff, say some stuff, hang out and be a paper nerd.  Sounds great to me!  So I'm gathering together some of my works to show and/or bring.  I've built literally hundreds of models, so it's tough to pick just a few.

All of the objects on these pages are composed of paper and glue.  No nails, no wood, no tape.  Paper and glue.  (Except the camera, I used real fabric for the bellows..)

Here are a select few:

A nice optical illusion.  Was really tough to glue the parts that defy physics..

A chinese dragon automata, always loved the wood look on this one:
The sandcrawler from Star Wars:
R2-D2, upsized from a model that originally stood about two inches tall.
Doctor Johnson's house, from the post-war Micromodels series from the 50's.

A "Hako" version of the Discovery, from 2001
P-51 lightning.
Actual working bellows camera.  35mm with a pinhole "lens" it actually took some decent pictures for what it was.  If only I could find those.. :)

Alley Cat

For the Kingfield art show, my very first "official" art submission!

Show gallery can be found here.

Valentine's Scissors Fob

Made this for Jill this year.  Quick and easy but not so simple to make on the sly!

Robots get all the girls

Lily and Sophie at the Mall of America after Eli's Legoland birthday party.

And deebs

Zeke the Lolcat

Jellybean machine

This was a fun one - turn the jellybean shaped handle and it dispenses a single jellybean!

Black Eyed Susan

This was a "scrollsaw mosaic" from Frank Droege's book, but the kids convinced me NOT to glue it, and now it is a rather fun puzzle!

Mardi Gras Evite Numbers

I think it's going to be a good one!

Star Wars Puzzle

I made this using a scrolling template for a challenging puzzle.  Like the Unicorn puzzle it was almost impossible to put together before the symbols were painted on it, and remains a tricky little puzzle even with the symbols as contextual hints.

Paper Automata

Swiper, no swiping!

He's my favorite character of the show.   Awwww,  mayyyyaaaaannnn!

Sun halfstitch

It's the cross stitch equivalent of a sitcom.  Not nothing, but not really going to change your life.  But fun!

New Video - Beaver Automata

Collapsible Spork!

We found this in our office.  How cool is this?  A spork you can fold into half it's extended size!  It's pictured in the "midway" state, the handle folds out or in completely to be snapped into place.   Think of the space you can save!*

* (Seriously?  Why do we need this?)

Is That All There Is?

I made this for my sister for her 40th birthday.  It's from a Peggy Lee song, and it kinda summed up major events that come and go with less pain than you think there will be.

Cactus

Can't say much about this yet, as it's a gift and needs to be framed.  But it's based on a pattern at the about.com cross stitching site by Connie Davis. 

Titanic Progress

Obviously I'm catching up on some documentation here while the application I use at work loads.  (Sloooooowly!)  This is my current progress on the stitch I have up at Bear Lake.