Back in Action

Well its been about 3 months since my last post.

Which means I'm about due for another series to be out soon.
Alot has happened in the last 3 months:

• Enfu attended the Akimatsuri in early September. Got to meet lots of great people. I noticed a lot more people responded and reacted to my pieces in comparison to the crowds at the Comicon. Also the first time Enfu accepted credit cards at a convention.
• We worked very hard and finally shipped our game Halo 3 and partied like never before. Best Buy at midnight on September 24th. 3 busloads of fellow coworkers went to sign stuff and thank the fans.

• I really wish I would've gotten to sit and talk with Bill Gates but it was not the place nor time so I just had my friend take a picture of me posing like an ass.
• Went on a month long vacation to Hawaii and Japan to recoop. Took a massive amount of pictures, and had a lot of fun with my Lomo camera taking panoramic pictures.

• Also while in Japan I got to meet a true Bizen Potter who had his own Noborigama (slanted fire kiln) built on his own hill. He was an apprentice of Bizen Yaki pottery. They do not add coloring before they fire the items, but color using natural age old techniques of placing wood or different types of grass, using different temperatures etc. When we visited he was on his second straight week (24/7) of tending the fire! It was almost at 1000 degrees C. I really was inspired by seeing a true craftsman practicing his trade.

So now I am back in Seattle and Enfu is on the up and up. Sales are doing surprisingly well and Enfu will have its first show at Kobo in Summer 08. Emerald City Comicon this year will also be a blast which is in May 08. They are moving to the Washington State Convention Center this year, which is a much bigger venue. A bunch of coworkers will also be with me so I am super excited for it.

So now that I am really motivated for producing alot of new work I'm doing a lot of R&D for possible materials to print on.

1. I was thinking of printing on bamboo veneer but I am currently looking for a good supplier. Calling around and looking for stores which carry what I am looking for is like a very slow treasure hunt.
2. Also printing on thicker pieces of wood with a thick layer of resin would also look sweet. So I went to Home Depot, got Lowes to saw the pieces cause Home Depot wouldn't do it, sanded, primed, and sanded some more. I created a silicon mold in which I will have to pour the resin in but I need to paint the wood to test it before I pour it.

R&D always takes up a lot of time and alot of time discovering ways not to do things. But every time I spend time doing this kind of thing I learn a ton about the process and it is very rewarding.

As for the next piece I have not decided on what to do next so I'll keep that for my next post.