This has been a busy and demanding week for all sorts of reasons and lack of sleep hasn't helped the gaff, so the idea of a whole day of 'pond talk' was a tough one. Staying vertical and open eyed, let alone attentive was going to be a challenge.
The Pool man in questioned turned out to be Martin Kelly from Fairwater who has been in the business for 30 yrs+ and trained with Anthony Archer-Wills. Not someone I have heard of but then this learning curve is steep and the research hardly begun!
At break neck speed he took us through the basics of: fountains, pools with chemicals (no plants, no fish), ponds (plants and fish but no chemicals), lakes (big ponds with bank eroding waves), natural swimming pools(eco swimming holes and jolly cold in the UK), reed beds (eco & almost free cleaning systems for ponds and pools), construction materials (75mm neoprene anyone?) some construction do's and don'ts (!), pumps and more.
Hardly had time to blink let alone sleep. So enthused is he about his subject that lunch break (1pm) arrived in no time and the end of class (3.30pm) just after that.
Great images of his work went along with plenty of entertaining anecdotal evidence to back up theories and practices.
It is always great to listen to an expert who clearly enjoys their work and of course who has a depth of knowledge and experience to answer detailed and sometimes unexpected questions.
D was recording him for the distance learning course that OCGD is planning to offer soon and of course for us to listen to again and extract all the detail we missed first time round.
I left knowing that whilst using a firm like this will add to a budget, that the expense will be well worth it!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Building begins
We had our first set of lectures on the nitty gritty of building and plans for contractors. Led by the John Heather, who is also Dad of the principal!. We went methodically through site survey requirements and level taking and recording. It reminds me again that this business is likely to be as much about good and clear communication with all parties as it is about good design. It also reinforces how much we will rely on good contractors to implement.
In the afternoon we headed off for the picturesque village in which the house for our second design project is located. Levels was the order of the day and after splitting into small groups we went through the main types of level measuring kit. A theodolite & rod (traditional level, a laser level and zip level. We all of course thoroughly agreed that the zip level was by far the best option for a level should we buy one (£750 smackers!)
Taking the site survey in a small group was good fun and much more organised. I was impressed with the neat and accurate drawings of my team mates and am resolved to practice making mine better before the course is up. Having only one set of figures was not ideal but we're learning, project 3 will no doubt be perfect!
It took about an hour and a half to get the first set of rudimentary 3D models done in Sketch Up. Getting faster all the time
In the afternoon we headed off for the picturesque village in which the house for our second design project is located. Levels was the order of the day and after splitting into small groups we went through the main types of level measuring kit. A theodolite & rod (traditional level, a laser level and zip level. We all of course thoroughly agreed that the zip level was by far the best option for a level should we buy one (£750 smackers!)
Taking the site survey in a small group was good fun and much more organised. I was impressed with the neat and accurate drawings of my team mates and am resolved to practice making mine better before the course is up. Having only one set of figures was not ideal but we're learning, project 3 will no doubt be perfect!
It took about an hour and a half to get the first set of rudimentary 3D models done in Sketch Up. Getting faster all the time
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| From My Pictures |
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Vectorworks 2010 Training days
2 very intense days of VectorWorks training with Tamsin Slatter of Vectorworks Training. FANTASTIC.
This is the first time I have used a CAD type package, well Sketch Up I suppose but this is really in a different league (as promised by TS!). Learning the whole thing from scratch is always daunting but it was a fascinating tour through the basics and a good level of repetition and trawling through functionality.
I feel fortunate to be in a group with 3 CAD experts, 2 interior designers and a Landscaper all of whom brought clarity to various elements, be it explanations of functions in AutoCAD through to the basics of real life wall building (a 101 for dummies like me!). Being with a group who are much better at something than I am makes me take a step up and try and match them. I love that!
TS sailed us through the exercises and knowledge with aplomb, not in the least phased by the vargaries of hardware, user foibles, OS's or anything else for that matter. She even helped me change my memory cards (from Crucial.com) in record time. I am now loving he double speed action of my new 4gb RAM.
Exhausting all this learning but very satisfying, now for the 30 mins a day to build the real foundations to work from.
And of course saving pennies for that iMac with 27" screen... totally green with envy over that
This is the first time I have used a CAD type package, well Sketch Up I suppose but this is really in a different league (as promised by TS!). Learning the whole thing from scratch is always daunting but it was a fascinating tour through the basics and a good level of repetition and trawling through functionality.
I feel fortunate to be in a group with 3 CAD experts, 2 interior designers and a Landscaper all of whom brought clarity to various elements, be it explanations of functions in AutoCAD through to the basics of real life wall building (a 101 for dummies like me!). Being with a group who are much better at something than I am makes me take a step up and try and match them. I love that!
TS sailed us through the exercises and knowledge with aplomb, not in the least phased by the vargaries of hardware, user foibles, OS's or anything else for that matter. She even helped me change my memory cards (from Crucial.com) in record time. I am now loving he double speed action of my new 4gb RAM.
Exhausting all this learning but very satisfying, now for the 30 mins a day to build the real foundations to work from.
And of course saving pennies for that iMac with 27" screen... totally green with envy over that
Monday, November 16, 2009
Timeline 18th thru 20th Century
Not due quite yet but given the next weeks are chokker with more design work we have been advised to complete this piece of work this week.
It's been fun and interesting to complete. There have been some eye openers for me too, who knew it took Rodin so long to complete the Gates of Hell or that he was still working when Picasso was in his Blue period. Or that so many fabulous works of art were done in 1937 (Picasso, Nicholson, Dali and more all producing) That the 20th Century had almost 1 war, or more, a decade, that Gertude Jekyll's gardens are listed no-where on the net - books maybe but not on the net - or that so much of what we consider 'modern' now was actually being done in the 20's, 30's and 40's by visionary artists and designers. I have even begun a 21st century set to see what I would chose for this first decade in categories, Garden, Art, Architecture and Socio economic. A tough one.
Main text initially was Landscape of Man but after wading through the 18th Century I gave up. Jellicoe may be a landscape visionary but in the art of effective communication he is not.
18th Century
19th Century
20thCentury
It's been fun and interesting to complete. There have been some eye openers for me too, who knew it took Rodin so long to complete the Gates of Hell or that he was still working when Picasso was in his Blue period. Or that so many fabulous works of art were done in 1937 (Picasso, Nicholson, Dali and more all producing) That the 20th Century had almost 1 war, or more, a decade, that Gertude Jekyll's gardens are listed no-where on the net - books maybe but not on the net - or that so much of what we consider 'modern' now was actually being done in the 20's, 30's and 40's by visionary artists and designers. I have even begun a 21st century set to see what I would chose for this first decade in categories, Garden, Art, Architecture and Socio economic. A tough one.
Main text initially was Landscape of Man but after wading through the 18th Century I gave up. Jellicoe may be a landscape visionary but in the art of effective communication he is not.
18th Century
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| From 2009-11-16 |
19th Century
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| From 2009-11-16 |
20thCentury
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| From 2009-11-16 |
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Vectorworks 2010 downloaded...FINALLY
After about 2 weeks of faffing about I have finally downloaded and installed the treasured package Vectorworks 2010.
Upon opening it it has decided to ask for more updates to be installed. Oh PLEASE!
After all that palaver, you think I am going to risk losing it with updates and file name changes and re-activations... I don't think so!
Also feeling a little smug about extending my Windows partition. I know small potatoes to most techies but a first for me. Gotta love Ubuntu Live CD - 8.10 Intrepid Ibex from which I resized... Windows itself makes the resize much harder.
Back to the Garden History timeline...
Upon opening it it has decided to ask for more updates to be installed. Oh PLEASE!
After all that palaver, you think I am going to risk losing it with updates and file name changes and re-activations... I don't think so!
Also feeling a little smug about extending my Windows partition. I know small potatoes to most techies but a first for me. Gotta love Ubuntu Live CD - 8.10 Intrepid Ibex from which I resized... Windows itself makes the resize much harder.
Back to the Garden History timeline...
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