Shop Activities

Well, the concentration is still publishing The Gnomes of New Hope, and in that regard, I am setting up the book binding aspect of that project. I am gathering the tooling for being able to punch binding holes, one full book at a time. If my punch press tooling designs work to do that, it will be a big plus to the production line. I want to be certain we can do that before the product lines are released, since the uniqueness of the books is important for it's overall appeal.

 I have endeavored to rearrange the floor plan of the shop, something I was putting off because of the magnitude of doing that, but it had to be done. I was thinking it through for some time and finally determined to go ahead with that.  I installed shelving to delineate the work areas and get supplies, tools and such off the floor space. Initially, the space was mostly for storage, but since I rather intend on dying here, I concluded that I might as well set it up right. I've set up, an ongoing process, a wood shop (for set construction and furniture restoration), a metal shop with welding (for general fabrication, prototype & animatronic work). I'm still needing a good lathe and milling machine, since I don't have access to our family's machine shop (for reasons I won't go into). But I have been delineating the space for these functions. I have been a Corvair enthusiast since 1970 so I have two work bays with  a '61 Corvair Rampside and a '66 Monza Convertable resident in those work areas. One bay will become a paint booth, for both the cars and the theatre work, the other is for mechanical and other vehicle and other restoration work. I also have a '64 Greenbrier, which I will be converting into a parade float for The Gnomes of New Hope. In addition to the service bays, I am setting up a third bay area that is dedicated to my 1931 Model A Roadster, which right now is in pieces.

There are many other work areas in the shop that are in stasis. The product showroom, the exhibition gallery, the puppet design & fabrication area, a sound stage and sound booth, paint area, lighting and electrical closet, a future control booth for the stage, a peanut gallery with around 80 1930's deco theatre seats (needing restoration). Add to that two motorcycles, both of which are disassemble and need attention. 

So as you see, I've got my hands full and the primary objective above all this (and more) is to generate enough capital to get this done and hire people to work on these projects. In addition to The Gnomes of New Hope, I have other projects that need to be worked on, but everything is pushed aside in lieu of completing The Gnomes and getting that into the marketplace.

One very important goal is to create a remote location for The Theatrical Development Centre and Spiritual Retreat.

 I will likely post more about other work areas, like the back lot and some of the projects taking place there too.

That's all for now. AG

AG