josh winkler cabin

 

Yesterday I helped Josh Winkler with some CNC woodcuts. Josh is a recent hire to AppState in the Art Department and so it's been good to get to know him a bit better these last few days of our residency. Yesterday at lunch I was asking Josh about the area he grew up in Indiana. He's originally from the area around Shelbyville, IN but has lived in Minnesota for the last several years. He mentioned to me that he has a cabin in Indiana that he built. So he showed me the photos above from his website. He said this took him fifteen years to build as he would work on it a few weeks out of each summer as he camped on site and built it. The rock he used was from the site except for the lintels and the wood was from ash that needed to cut and the local Amish milled it for him in return for some of the wood. I am in complete awe of this. Inspiring. Speechless...

chicago style

 

Eric sent this to me a couple days ago. I've been making Chicago style pizza's for last couple years. Jill's family used to own a pizza place in Illinois and that's what I base my Chicago style pizza on. Before that it was Papa Dells in Champaign that met my Chicago style pizza needs. Ian and I would ride down and pick up 2 slices a piece wrapped in aluminum foil and then ride back to the studio to have lunch there. We'd have one slice for lunch and save the second for dinner. 

staystack week 2: day

 

Monday was a productive day in the studio. I cut the two halves of my wheel pattern in mdf and started sealing the wood in preparation for the sand mold. I worked on spruing and investing some file handle molds for lost wax/3D print casting. And I worked on spruing two amphora pieces that I am going to attempt to investment cast. I felt super confident of everything and it was a good day. Tuesday was a different story though... to be continued...

detroit style pizza

I've been on this quest to make the best Detroit style pizza at home, since going to Detroit and having some amazing pizza there. It's been a work in progress, but I think I'm getting close. These are a few of the pizzas from the last few weeks. Sunday I made the cast iron pan one and the one above. We destoyed the first one and saved the cast iron pan one for later. I had part of it for leftovers last night and the crust was the best I've made yet. We've been making pizza as a family for a long time, but I have literally thrown out everything I normally do to make this style of pizza. I've changed the crust, sauce, and cheese and I'm zeroing in on a pizza that I would eat over any other restaurant. I'm close, but not quite there. It's all about the pursuit...well and eating good pizza.