Tiki Oasis photos

Jo David posted this fun shot of the booth in full swing on Flickr. Boy that takes me back... now I can't wait for next year.

Check out more of his shots from the event here.
Why don't my photos ever look that good?

Tiki Oasis Prep

Well we survived the move to a new home just in time to start cramming for Tiki Oasis. The booth was pulled out of storage and set up for a test run on Sunday. Joe and Tiny did the honors. They also added a few pins for the umbrella height and to replace the broken pulley system.

We also added some collapsing shelves to hang from the cabinets to increase storage. Those should come in handy this weekend. I will try to take some photos of the booth in various stages at Tiki Oasis.

July Update

The booth has been put on the back burner while we deal with other projects. We can do this because the booth is actually at a stage that can work for the event. If we find some extra time we will return to expanding the cabinets and facade. That all depends on how the rest of this month goes.

Weekend Update

Umbrella: DONE - optional: add some embroidery
Umbrella Frame: DONE - optional: coat of paint, bamboo sleeve
War Club Extensions: DONE - optional: trim and file brass fittings.
Stand: DONE - optional: try to improve epoxy finish

Our focus is now on to the display cases as we work to strip down the bamboo matting so we can trim, re-weave it into one long roll and back it with fabric for stability.

Then we need to create the four cabinet sections for the back part of the booth.

still going

We're halfway thru Sunday and are in the thick of it.

The Dormers have been painted with much help from Troy's talented hands.
The warclub spine extensions are about done except for perhaps a bit of trimming

The whole shebang has been assembled and tested open and closed.
The table top was decorated with a vinyl design to match the umbrella and got a bit of shading from Maya and is now getting an epoxy topcoat from Joe.

Lesson learned: don't allow me around epoxy

The final leg's damage has been cut off and is ready for its wooden prosthetic.

Still Sewing

Spent some evening time this week on sewing for the umbrella. Finished shaping the dormer triangles and added ties to all of them. Next I need to add some straps to the top.

Next up:

• Decorate the table and seal it
  
• Decorate the dormer triangles
  
• find a capitol for the umbrella
  
• Fix the last leg
  
• Add height pin

Then we can move on to the cabinets of the booth.

Another Weekend Push

Well another weekend is over and once again we made some progress. There were a few missteps as well. We're changing directions on a few elements and more than once we measured once... and "cut" a few times.

The recap:

• The Umbrella skin has been sewn, and test fitted, and finished. It looks like washing the fabric did shrink it a bit but I had compensated for that when I cut the seam allowance.
  
• The beam extensions have been cut and dressed and only need support plates and a clear coat for protection if we're up for it.
  
• The table top was designed and after a few hours of work we decided that we were going in the wrong direction. The detail that we had created just wouldn't have worked on such crappy wood. It is much better suited for paint than carving so we're going to cover it in fabric and seal it with epoxy.
  
• One of the two legs that needed to be fixed has been.
  
• I've started working on the dormer panels. Unfortunately my first design was laid out with the shrinkage considered so I will need to do it again. Painting these should be no problem after doing the umbrella top.

If only I had taken photos today

Now I just need to get caught up on all of the graphic design work I need to do.

Momentum!

We had a big push this weekend and quite a bit was done.

The rest of the umbrella panels were laid out on Friday ready for the weekend of progress.

We decided to go with a water based fabric paint commonly used for silk screening. It should remain flexible and was easy to purchase in bulk. Of course it turned out that we didn't need nearly as much paint as I expected so I now have enough left over to do this at least 4 more times.

Maya, Troy and I spent around 7 hours Saturday working on the hardwood floor as we painted the 6 panels.
Sunday Maya and I were joined by Becky for a few hours as we finished the painting. Meanwhile Joe got started on the wood extensions for the umbrella as well as the tabletop for the stand.

Monday involved mostly sleeping and computer work for me while Joe continued on the woodwork.

Next up I need to heat set all of the panels before a final washing and the rest of the sewing and start working on the dormer panels.

We're back baby!

Progress!
The stand was welded this weekend... and yes it looks like it was done by a pack of marmosets, but a pack of marmosets with a grinder and black paint.
Here you can see Entropy working his magic with his Harbor Freight rig. Hopefully no one will notice what a death trap it is. We still need to fix two of the feet (or redesign all 5)

We have also begun the work to decorate the fabric for the umbrella. Sadly the bleach just doesn't have the effect I was hoping for so we will resort to paint. 5 of the 12 panels have been laid out. The 6 dormers still need to be designed but I'm thinking I might use some embroidery on those.

Hopefully we will make better progress now that we have some momentum again.

Massive Delays!

Wow, lost a bit of momentum around here! I spent most of the last two weeks moving stuff around and working on fezzes so little was accomplished on the actual booth. I hope to return to the process soon.

Base Build

The challenge with this is to build it without needing much outside assistance and yet make it look like it was done by someone more evolved than a pack of marmosets.

Note that I did not say a pack of baboons. It is important that one recognizes their limitations.

ohhh, 3D!

so I decided I would mock up the umbrella base in Google Sketch because I was tired of trying to explain what was in my head.

It's the first thing I have actually created in Google Sketch so don't expect much.

The goal here is to have it both extremely stable and portable. So that should be easy

Weekend Plans

We have a bit of a challenge this weekend. It is the annual Grand Prix down here and that means there will be no parking available and the streets will be filled with race fans.

Anyway, that means it is time for us to get out of town. I don't know how much time we will have to work on this but I do hope to at least take photos and layout some artwork for it.

Planning

this past week was set aside for planning. (now that is not entirely true, we expected to do other things but we only accomplished the planning part) We built the current booth and check to see how much room we had to move inside. It will be cozy but the lady in charge of vending says he is happy with it, so who am I to question that?

Hopefully we will soon get to the decorating stage and have more photos to share.

Planning

this past week was set aside for planning. (now that is not entirely true, we expected to do other things but we only accomplished the planning part) We built the current booth and check to see how much room we had to move inside. It will be cozy but the lady in charge of vending says he is happy with it, so who am I to question that?

Hopefully we will soon get to the decorating stage and have more photos to share.

fabric prepped

All of the fabric has been prepped for the next fitting. The top has been sewn into 6 panels and the edges have been finished. The 6 front panels are also hemmed and reinforced. Next up is either a second fitting or surface decoration. It just depends on which I feel like tackling first.

Cuttin' & Sewin'

Started doing the fittings for the roof and came up 2" short of fabric then discovered that I had given myself much more ease than I needed. So after some trimming I think I have the roof worked out.


I'm going to finish only half of the seams so I can dismantle it in the future for decorating. After one more fitting I will focus on the front panels for the umbrella.

Back to Work!

Fabric has been scrounged, The wooden extensions were tested and measurements have been taken!

This week I will pattern out the sections and start cutting the fabric to give this thing some life. Soon we will be able to move on to the additions for the counters.