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This page will probably eventually become a blog, an RSS feed or even a Twitter once I can devote the time to working out how to do it. I am also reliably informed that I should have a Facebook page - well, I think I have, but it's dormant. I will sort anon. For now it is a good old traditional news page that I hope to update more often than the old one, assuming I can work out how to use the new content management system ...
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New site ... six months on:
The new site has now been up for about 6 months and the vast majority of the feedback I've had has been very positive. There are still a few glitches to sort out - not least the fact that all the images were optimised on a screen that was far too dark - so all the images originally appeared too pale. I've now upgraded everything and view it all in a very different light - on a 24" iMac. I have darkened most of the important images [homepage, banners etc.] and the rest are being done as and when I have the time.
A few have said that the lightboxes are too large and the close box in the top right hand corner is not accessible. These are the new windows that open with the full size images from the gallery, hovering in front of, and darkening, your main window. Way back when ... when websites had to be designed with an 800 x 600 screen in mind, this certainly would have been a problem. Now most screens are considerably larger [my stats show that the vast majority view at a resolution of at least 1024 x 768] and of course the scaling can easily be adjusted with a single keystroke from within most browsers. I suggest anyone who has this problem [and perhaps it has occurred on other sites, too?] slightly increases their default screen resolution - or adjusts their browser zooming/scaling.
Any feedback is welcome!
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Box Making:
I mentioned in my last update certain delays related to health - these are still ongoing but currently improving slightly.
But computer-related things have rather taken over as the major delaying factor! All stemming from the new website - my faithful 2001 Mac quicksilver [733 MHz running system 9 etc... you get the picture] ... no OS 9 browser was able to display the new site or allow me to use the content management system! So - things had to change ... OS X beckoned. It is a long and boring story so not appropriate for here - but includes the following broad themes ...
Lost data - now recovered despite, not because of, an incompetent [and quite possibly fraudulent] data recovery called Fields Date Recovery. Don't even THINK of using them ...
new computer bought on eBay - never arrived, subject of police investigation with absolutely NO help from eBay ...
All new sofware! All my earlier computers were bought secondhand [or more] at a time when they came packed with all the latest software - so have been using at least 10 year old [but very good versions] of Photoshop, FreeHand, Quark etc. and got extremely used to using those programmes for absolutely everything. It is a huge outlay to get set up with equivalent programmes now, and the cut down 'consumer' versions just are not the same. I HATE photoshop elements ... not to mention the huge amount of time necessary to re-learn software after a comfortable 10 years getting to know and love the old favourites! Anyway - for anyone that's remotely interested I have now managed, after a LOT of messing around, to secure full versions of PhotoShop 7 and Illustrator CS [11], both oldish versions and in fact the earliest versions of both programmes that run in mac OS X, and only as far as 10.4.11. This is allowing me, finally, to do everything I need to.
Huge struggle to migrate everything to OS X - particularly email. I'm sure in many ways Apple Mail is better than Outlook Express - but there are SO many good and user friendly features in OE that are simply not there in AM?! Every time I buy a new phone [not as often as most] I make the mistake of assuming that the few good features from my OLD phone will be there on the new one. But NO - it seems that as soon as they have a good feature, they leave it OFF the next model - I had Nokia's 8/9 years ago that were more user-friendly than anything I've had in the last 3! Software seems to be follow the same pattern! ...
And many other issues along the way ... anyway, enough of a rant - but one way and another most of this year seems to have disappeared in a puff of smoke in front of the computer trying to sort all this out. Most of the time actually without a properly functioning computer or email at all. And once again, customers have been exceptionally patient during all this - thank you again!
One of the few projects I have managed to complete this year is a box for a show in US, 'Boxes and Their Makers', at the Messler Gallery at the Centre for Furniture Craftsmanship in Maine. This has just opened as I write [September 15th, 2009] and is set to tour the US for three years. The organisers are kind enough to credit some of their inspiration to the show Peter Lloyd and I set up in 2001, 'Celebrating Boxes' - and as with ours, there is a book of the same title coming out to accompany the show. But in this case all the boxes are featured in the book, hence the delivery deadline for the work [Jan 2009] being so far in advance of the opening.
The box I did for the US show was the subject of an article called 'Letting the Lava Flow' a few months ago in 'British Woodworking' - Nick Gibbs' excellent magazine. The box is called 'LAVA' - because of the colour of the background veneer and the extraordinary amboyna it's veneered with ...
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Books:
My new book for Stobart Davies is continuing apace but a publication date is still undecided.
It’s now more than 10 years since my last box making book and things have moved on! This new title will be a comprehensive one introducing many new techniques, improving on old ones, and greatly expanding on tried and tested methods. There will be much on methods of decoration, veneering,
I will be adding much more information here as the final format takes shape.
The publisher's patience is much appreciated - please watch this space ...
