Inventor David Butts has brought his chaboo in.  Formerly known as Walking Chaboo it is now known as Excercise Chaboo.  Apparently the gear ratio did not allow for adequate leverage so David is redesigning and rebuilding.  But for now, we have this REALLY cool Exercise Chaboo.

Check out these custom made gears. Umm-Did you hear what I just said?  He MADE the gears!  And the ratcheting system from scratch.  Crazy man.  Hes got the classic mad scientist look going too- perfect.

photo by Anna Campbell

Nice pic Anna!  Did you vandelize that 25mph sign in the back?  That is classic…

Lisa Kuhnhausen has designed a wonderful postcard for us!  click on image to download PDF

She took some sketches I made when I was explaining my concept for the project long ago and turned them into this bubble like graphic.  She really wanted to use typography like in this version below but I felt the bubble direction was more appropriate for my vision of the project. I want this project to create some positive vibes in these dreary economic times by connecting people and pulling together our collective energies.

I suggested we repeat the names/mediums of the participants and grey it out as a background texture to get some type in there.  We put photos in to warm it up and really emphasize that its about the people.

I edited her original design while my brother did hours of work on the backend to make it actually happen.  Thank goodness for Lisa and my brother Yuji- I literally couldn’t do it without them.  I have ideas and I talk and drink tea.  That’s all I can do…  =P

Thanks for the excellent design work Lisa and for being such a good team player in the dictatorship known as Project Chaboo.  Also, mad props to Yuji for executing all the technical stuff!

Sometimes design thoughts come too quickly and my mind becomes overwhelmed and doesn’t know when to stop. Over the past month I have thought, experimented, sketched, written, researched, talked, and lost direction. Slowly the concepts are starting to come back together, which is a imperative at this stage since production needs to start soon.

The following is a continuation of my process- very sporadic, conceptual, disconnected and hard to understand (even for myself)… but not my end…

previous [final] thought /// integrating shredded string and chaboo… but there was no conceptual basis for this- it wasn’t grounded in reasoning.

next thought /// dressing and undressing… a completely different way to look at the integration of fashion and furniture.

experimentation /// dressing the chaboo and dressing myself with the same piece of fabric.

sketch /// back to shredding… to the point of unraveling. this was taken from the draping of the fabric on the floor and it molding to cover the chaboo or my body.

Done at last!  I finished building the Ship Chaboo for Evan B Harris.

The flag and crows nest are nice touches.  There are three different sizes of masts 3/4″, 7/8″ and 1″ diameter.  This project was very difficult but oh so fun.  Seriously, who gets to go to work and build toy ships?

I had Evan draw out the shapes he wanted for the sails on paper and I handled the rest.  The ship body and upper deck I came up with spontaneously as I built the thing.  It just didn’t look right with the original design. I made some little details where the masts meet the ship body. I spent a lot of time wrestling with the design, not compromising until I was satisfied.

This project reconfirmed to me how important it is to be able to make design decisions in full scale.  I made numerous adjustments to the templates Evan provided for me while I built the ship as I saw fit.

I CANNOT wait to see this thing painted by Evan!  He is such an amazing artist and I trust him completely to take this project into the finish line.  Ive learned through this project that we are similar in our masochistic tendencies to do crazy projects that no one else would ever want to do because it is too much work.

Go hard or go home!-  says Mr. Shark.

APAK has finished their chaboo!   See their page on the project chaboo site. This is my first time working with this wonderful couple and have found that they are so so polite and modest.  She even came bearing gifts- so Japanese!  Im also Japanese but have become more Americanized and thus not as nice. Haha.

Aaron Piland and Ayumi Kajikawa Piland are the fantastical magical duo known as APAK. They are a childlike husband and wife collaborative art group who live among the fury conifer giants in a little cottage on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon. They create artwork together as a way exploring the beauty, mystery, and magic of life as well as expressing their love for life and each other.

I was attracted to their work because of their incredible imagination and ability to create an alternate reality of feeling through art.  I saw some of their work using stains before and I thought that technique would be brilliant for a chaboo because it would still show off the beautiful grain of the bamboo.

Brilliant it is!  Notice the varying transparency of the clouds.  I really like how they let the design of my chaboo dictated their composition. Its very clever how this piece has no front or back and the clouds create a frame of sorts which has no bearing on up or down in “our world”.  I feel this is a great integration of their work and mine.

The photo shoot was action packed as usual.  A homeless guy came barreling up this ramp on his bike towing an engine of some sort.  He yelled at us to get out of the way but lost momentum.  Aaron quickly pushed the cart up the hill.  The homeless guy said “Hey thanks man….. F*@% you!” Ok then….

I love this little dude fishin into the abyss of the chaboo.  They said they really enjoyed painting the chaboo in their living room while sitting at it as it would normally be used.  I can just imagine them sitting across from each other painting in the two different orientations.  Aww.. warm and fuzzy!

Thanks for participating APAK!  I hope to work with you guys on more projects in the future.  Arigato gosaimashita~ korekara mo yoroshiku