First Thursday tonight!

Wow, I cant believe tonight is First Thursday again; it seems like we just moved everthing over to Foxtrot like last week, & it's been a full month already!!! I'll be attending this evening all by myself; Mom's out of town, Kevin is working, Dads gone, so I guess it's just going to be me wandering about....oh well; makes me talk to more people that way.... Tonight, I will get some pics of the torches lit up (if my fuel arrives today, that is...) Hope to post pics tonight!

More later....

Amber

Custom wall piece

So, this was a rush job for an interior designer that I've worked with before....I think the pieces came out great! They were made for a huge construction company, here in Boise, Id. Anyway, there were a lot of last minute details; I had a week to finish all three pieces, & then about 4 hours to add a bit more to each of the side panels; all in all, I think it turned out great!!

Beings how this was for a construction co; I added a bit of rebar, & a concrete core as accents on the main piece; I think othe overall look turned out awesome; very happy!!!

Here's a couple pics of the lobby, & a piece I made about a month ago to go there....



This, being only my second post on blogger; if you would like to see previous posts, please visit http://blog.refinerii.com or see my website at www.refinerii.com or if you are a spacer; visit myspace at www.myspace.com/refinerii
Will write more later; must sleep now......
Amber

I just got a prize!!

OK, so this is my first post on Blogger; if you'd like to see my previous blog, please visit www.blog.refinerii.com To catch everyone up; I am a metal sculptor, living & working from Nampa, Idaho. I use this blog to document the progression of my work; projects in process, new pieces, gallery shows, events, thoughts & ideas, etc....

To start off on a positive note; I just got a prize for best Recycled Content Design at the Chair Affair; an annual event through the Interior Designers of Idaho. Very exciting; as I feel like a bit of an outsider (although, I guess I am!) I got a cute little trophy & everything!!

Although we didn't attend the Gala, I'm glad I finally got something in the competition...& to win something is a bonus! The table is back at Foxtrot now, with the trophy on top...it's been a very popular item; everyone seems to like it. See the pic--it's made from steel, steel rods with bronze accents make the wine rack, & it's topped with a piece of granite that we rescued from a gravel pit, & wood from a construction site. Notice the wine bottles; they seem to be mysteriously disappearing....hmmmm, I think somebody has been enjoying an after hours glass or two.....'=

New work...

Just hung this one down at Foxtrot; it look awesome in person; the pics dont do it justice. The swoopy sharp peices are cutouts from my public art project, & the round thing is a concrete cutting blade. The clock face has Austrian crystals & aluminum hands....it's about 4 1/2 feet tall.

Well, thats all for now; getting tired; will post more later....

Amber

Creating GMO's that produce fuel from CO2: A Craig Venter project.

(UPDATED CONTENT)

Craig Venter, one of the most famous geneticists alive, is working on a Genetically Modified microbe that will be able to metabolize atmospheric CO2 to octane. Although this type of micro-organisms already exist in nature, they do not produce enough fuel for commercial use. That is where Genetics Engineering kicks in. Check out the links.

Article1

Article2

A couple of TED talks from him. In the first one he also mentions his plans for producing clean energy from engineered species

Talk 1

Talk 2

And a link for Craig Venters institute:

http://www.jcvi.org/

Self-healing rubber bounces back

Interesting and possibly sustainable development from Ludwik Leibler, at the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution in Paris. Its a new technology rubber, made by molecules that link with hydrogen bonds. If the bonds break, they can be regenerated by simply pushing the broken parts back together. The time of immortal rubbers is close...

http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080220/full/news.2008.611.html

The Air Car

Forget about Hydrogen, electric, hybrid and all the rest, how about just plain old air - compressed that is. Just came across this on BBC News.com and it sounds very interesting.

The BBC reports that:

The OneCAT will be a five-seater with a glass fibre body, weighing just 350kg and could cost just over £2,500.

It also reports that while a 'breakthrough' has been talked about for over a decade, the inventor, Guy Negre has recently struck his first manufacturing deal with Tata in India to produce the car.

What is interesting beyond simply the idea and technology, is that Guy Negre is trying to build sustainability into the business model by encouraging local production and sourcing of materials.

Overall a very interesting concept and one which sounds like it's well positioned to become a commercial reality.


More info:
http://www.theaircar.com/acf/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4
http://business.theage.com.au/air-car-to-call-melbourne-home/20071202-1ee6.html (especially relevant for me being a Melbournian, great news! :))

HighTech-LowCost Lithium Batteries coupled with UltraCapacitors in hybrid cars

Very interesting development for the hybrid car industry and the electricity storage in general:
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10601407

and for more details on the car:
http://www.afstrinity.net/Jan08-AFSTrinity-XH150-Presentation.pdf
and
http://www.afstrinity.net/afstrinity-xh150-pressrelease.pdf