Pancuts (old pans + water jet cutter)

 In progress - will be updated when finished. 

I made my first set of pancuts while still in college.  The project started with a sketch and a cabinet full of very beat-up frying pans.  They were useless for cooking, which was why I had the thought of using them as blank canvases.

After scanning and vectorizing my sketch, I was able to use the school's water jet cutter to slice the design into the pans.  The final product turned out great, and for a few years I didn't pursue the idea further. (These first pancuts are now in storage, but a rendering of the design is here.)

In 2009, I had another thought: what about cutting a pan to make it look like a clock face?  This idea expanded out to the twenty designs shown to the right, with many more on the drawing board.

The bad news is that I'm not sure how much longer this will be an in-progress project.  I've made a few visits to second-hand stores and stocked up on old pans, but getting a new full-time job has put a damper on side projects.  Additionally, finding a local job shop with the right equipment and an interest in doing art parts has been surprisingly hard.

I'm planning to sell these once they are made, so I'm very interested in knowing if anyone out there would consider buying something like this.  Please let me know if you want to reserve a copy of one of the designs shown and/or would like to request some other design and/or have any other thoughts on the subject.  You can either write direct or use the contact form found here.  

Simple Heritage Chart

 In progress. 

A quick layout showing four generations for each half of a recently married couple.  A little too simple or basic to stand alone, but I'm not sure what I'll do to complete it.  Maybe add ancestor pictures, maybe add a map, maybe add another generation... Note that the names are not blurred on the original.

Family Reunion Invitation

An invitation printed two-to-a-page for a biennial reunion, with a "historic photo" of the root family at the top.  In the original photo, the family was arranged in more of a tall pyramid shape, so it took some masking and cloning work to get the result shown.

Also including a screen capture from within the program used to make the invite (Fireworks CS4), to give an idea of the number of elements used to create the finished product.

  

Vacation Picture Collages

San Diego!  I didn't take all the photos, but did do all the mixing and matching into the groupings shown (and just to be clear, all the photos did come from our one-week trip to California).  There are a few more collages after the break; all told about half of the sets made for the post-trip family show and tell.

  

Monthly Newsletter

This is an ongoing volunteer effort that I produce for the ward (the congregation) where I attend church.  Each issue contains:

• A short message from the leadership of the ward.
• Photos and spotlights for at least seven youth and adults.
• Updates from the dozen or so locals that are serving as missionaries around the world.

I do not do all the writing or photography, but I do take care of all the coordination and bring all the elements together to produce a finished product (this includes making adjustments to the photos and doing all the editing, layout, and formatting).  We print 150 copies of each issue and one copy is distributed to each household in the ward.

Family Calendar, etc.

Tabloid-sized print with all birthday information on one side and a montage of all family members on the other.  I also produced a single-sheet summary of all family contact info as part of the project.

This was commissioned for a great-grandmother with 17 biological and adopted children and nearly three dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Copies were sent to all the adult children in the family.

Completing the project required extensive collaboration in order to collect and organize four generations worth of names, dates, and photos.

This Site

After deciding that an online portfolio was a must,  I sketched out my ideal all-singing all-dancing solution, but realized that it was beyond my programming capacity and well beyond my budget.  I also researched the ready-made template options without finding any that fit my needs.

So I've done the next best thing by customizing an existing template.   Some of the adaptations in place or planned:

• Many modifications to the standard layout and CSS.
• Hosting at a custom domain.
• Live header links allowing for sorting by topic.
• Google Docs integration (here).
• Google Analytics integration.
• Customized version of Lightbox integration (planned).
• In-blog storefront with Google Checkout (planned).

First, second, and third versions of the header graphic (colors and copyright date updated each January).