The Parade Guy Chronicles

how many days??

2010-02-21T12:59:00.000-08:00

An ocean of blue mylar for Visa!

The coach is coming to town for the Wells Fargo float.

The Long Life pavilion is on the float and out of our way in the shop!

A crown welded and painted. What else can we do?

Hey lets run a hundred feet of pricey led lighting on the crown. Dude that's sooo cool.

A touch of blue.

A roof being built for the Visa float.

A wall of money being laid up for Visa.

A dragon waiting for a lofty perch.

A dragon fan waiting for mounting to it's float.

A few more corrections and we paint this baby.

Painting in great detail a Bank of the West logo.

12 days

2010-02-16T08:05:00.000-08:00

Well it is now Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year. There will be no break for the crew as that darn clock does not stop for a romantic dinner or a New Years party. Alli fed everyone heart chocolate so it seemed festive.

Mystery grafics just came in . Do any of our venders have something that cost less then a thousand?

tigers for McDonalds please. these cute toys are rearing to go.

Ramps for Southwest Airlines' Money Lord being boxed up today.

roof rafters for Bank of America's pavilion. We put it together and then took it apart to paint.

Oh boy,sometimes Dave should just hit himself in the head with a hammer! He claims this simple design is needed for the Southwest Airlines float. There be a lot of cutting over the next few days.

That simple patern for Southwest Airlines is now being jigsawed out.

Other patterns for the long life pavilion.

Our pavilion is getting primed for a showcoat.

The pavilion roof has a roof !

A little waste left over from cutting coin blanks. How did we get them so perfect ?

Stephanie using a template to carve the coin designs.

A nice traditional Chinese coin layout.

Coins galore. We only need a few hundred.

A crane is waiting to be finished.

Rox ,a new shop person, said she be glad to make a couple of planes and whipped up two beauties. She cut the side off to allow some one to wiggle inside by hollowing the waste out.

Almost ready for flight. Getting prep for a nice tough finish.

A shot across the line reveals the decks are growing and filling out.

15 days

2010-02-12T19:17:00.000-08:00

It Vegas ,Baby. Not really,this is a test pattern for the fan float.

The long life pavilion finally gets the shop master's steely gaze. Those are the pillars now just the sides ,roof and a bat or two.

The deck is started for Comcast.

Our sponsor sent a very heavy plane for our baby to hold so we are reinforcing it's little arm. She is begining to get that beautiful finish our shop is famous for but it burned out three builders in the process.

Sadie and Jamie gossiping while painting bright little tigers

Alli is making a bus!

Alright our little Phoenix is looking pretty smooth so it is test on the float and then paint!

Nice legs ! Dave cut the body off to ease the finish work and it will be rejoined magically to it's legs.

"Just throw up a few cranes" they said . As you can see nothing is simple at this level of art. We had to carve a birds body,then weld some legs just right, then channel those legs into the body,add some counter balance weight and a reinforcement bar inside the body , carve a neck and head ,then sand, coat with a paintable surface, prime and paint to throw it up on a float as soon as we figure out a mounting system.

Some terra cotta warriors stand guard on a float. They left their heads rolling on the floor.

Miguel and Dave holding up a panel on the fan.

Dave is roughing out his little tea house

A glitter pattern by pro Alli for a fan.

Alli whipped up a clever stencil system to make the pattern for the fan.

Tigers galore ! A bright new deck painted for the Comcast float.

The Chinese Chamber of Comerce float is sailing along in rich colors.

19 days

2010-02-10T08:36:00.000-08:00

A beautiful long life deck for Bank of America

The Money pot gets a lofty home

Dave decided the finish was not holding to our little girl on the phoenix (remember the bad foam block way back when?) so he cut her off to ease an epoxy finish on her .

You will see a lot of effort on this baby today. The whole shop will be pulling time on her.

Who Dat?
That is Bank of the West's king tiger mounted to it's awesome (and somewhat overpowering) float. Alli is dwarfted by this beast.

Ai Yi! Our bird needs to stop looking like stryofoam, so it's body filler and muscle power. Four people jump on our beauty with the bird because we want certain areas to be uniquely painted. Those dark areas under the beak will tire out a few biceps today.

Our little time vulture demanding more cosmetic work.

Our happy little Phoenix rider is receiving massive amounts of plastic surgery to prepare her for a glorious paint job. No more nooks, crannies and ripples: things like that got to go with good old fashion hand sanding.

Three hours later, our little baby gets a prime coat and it will still need a morning's worth of detail.

Tiger cut outs for a deck.

20 days

2010-02-07T15:16:00.000-08:00

McDonald's happy meal boxes are growing around every nook and corner of the shop.

Working on a base for the fan

The fan will start getting some skin today.

It was Dave's birthday today and the parade committee gave Dave a.....Cupcake! Thank you Bev who made those tasty treats!

Bev form the parade committee sent a well loved surprise to the crew. The one cupcake left over the shop rat found and even he was happy!

Alli made Dave a creative birthday card with all the usual suspects who claim they are float builders. She even threw a surprise party and Dave love the recycled Johnny Rocket balloons that Alli then took to another event. That Alli is a born recycler.

Alli chortling over new breakable mirrors!

Rob painting Long Life symbols

Thar be gold in them thar decks! Sadie saving the leavings from a glitter project. That is about $50 dollars worth at the local craft store.

Yumi on to another side project for a local movie night.

What a mug, Dave doing the work of two while he solves the fan lay out issues. Any body for engineering as you go?

21 days

2010-02-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

Hurrah!Qqueens float looks more regal today, but not ready for Miss Chinatown yet.

Will we ever finish this deck ? I think we did today as it is now glistening under a beautiful varnish.

You got to love parade people. We lost all power during a major storm and not one peep from the crew. Float builders are like poker players: they just need to know the hand dealt to them and if it is Jokers or Aces they keep moving forward. Unfortunately when the lights came back on about a third of our sodium lights blew out, so it is pretty dark in the most critical work areas.

Here Drake is not letting the Forces of Darkness ruin her project.

Bank of the West's money pot is finally glittered and that means we can move forward to building the float.

Remember the decorative plywood that was jigsawed yesterday ? Today they got a good glittering and feel extra pretty now.

Julio and Dave built the first Happy Meal Box today.

Float master Dave walking to lunch with his son who just brought in our secound load of wood for the day.

Float master's son smiling because he can go home in a few minutes-- "uh... Dad do you have a few 20's?"

If you go back a few days you will find these were hunks of foam. Now two folk tigers are born for the parade.

Rob's project at 10 am.

Rob's project eight hours latter. Great job Rob, you should have this done tomorrow!

The end of the day:

Drake priming a new magic fan unit with a special paint that doesn't come off your skin for a week. Of course, poor Sadie later brushed her cheek against it. How she explained that to her date I will never know.

22 days

2010-02-03T22:41:00.000-08:00

Just a few floats we need to do.

New face Jams skateboarded by and wanted to join us so we gave him a project that he loves.

Five hundred dollars of liquid silver Mylar being laid on a deck. Anybody see my sunglasses?

Miguel hustling on a float to get it ready for a fan dance.

Rob is right on painting the firecracker float.

Sing Tao rep showed up today with cookies! that may look like a piece sign but I think she was saying she wanted two floats!

Guess what this is ? Did you guess glitter? You're right if you said that is a thousand dollars worth of glitter just in today!

The great view of San Fransisco walking out of the float barn at 6 this morning.

One of David 's daughter dutifully brought the glitter he needed this morning. You can tell she does not work in such a "yucky" place.

a happy meal box...sort of.

Dave' daughter and her no good hoodlin boyfriend hugging her like..... waaaay too much.

cutting art for the Comcast float.

Jamie working hard painting a doctor's office floor.

This simple design ate up three days of our time,urrrrh

No screwing around by our community group who were all at work today.

Rob showing off his work.

Dave at 6am smiling before starting a Happy Meal box.

Stephine laying out out a logo by hand

23 days

2010-02-02T22:29:00.000-08:00

Most of the gang getting together to lift a heavy turntable onto another float. I guess we are a sad looking bunch but there are a lot of beautiful thoughts flowing in those heads.

You may think we are clean freaks but truth is we all wash our hands before moving a finished artifact. Nothing is more frustrating then to spend days painting brilliant colors on a Chinese robe only to see a finish of dirty hand prints accumulated in moving the artifact to a float.

Rob laying out a pattern on the firecracker boat. We draw on clear plastic and then reach under to transfer with a pen.

This jungle of stuff will be soon sorted and bolted to the decks to form the building blocks for the Macy's float.

Rob has started the design for the Chinese Chamber of Commerce's firecracker boat.

Alli and helper mount golden Phoenixes up on the queens float.

The Lord of Long Life gets his seat upon Bank of America's Longevity float.

Someone has the Midas touch! Our ingot is now gold.

Sadie glittering golden handles for the money pot. Go easy with that glitter, we are waiting for another 100 pounds to be shipped to the shop! Will we run out?
Yep, and Dave won't let us use a "slightly" different color.

A day of cutting yielded the raw blanks for our long life pagoda's supports.

Yumi setting up another toy tiger for the McDonalds float.

A deck getting primed and ready for new artwork. Some of our decks have over 300 layers of paint from past parades.

Amala starts a tiger for the Comcast show float.

Some more detail touches by Sadie.

Drake is putting a great oil base finish on the court float.

Noise in the Shop! Cutting pillar blanks.

Jamie working on the money pot, shame we ran out of glitter!

24 days

2010-02-01T21:08:00.001-08:00

This fella, thanks to Sadie, is rearing to get to his float. We will build the decks tomorrow.

A little detail on the Lottery money lord:

Dave is doodling again! This tine it is for pagoda pillars for Bank of America's longevity float. Did you know Bank of America is the longest sponsor of the parade?!

Dave's doodle is now a test pattern for an interesting Pagoda pillar. Just need ten of them now!

Robert working on the Wells Fargo magic surprise...

...which we had given up on until we found we could fit a kid in the box after all!

Bank of the west urn handles carved and final coated.

The pattern Alli laid out the other day is now painted and needs just a top coat.

This will be the finale firecracker boat float. Wait till you see the design we dreamed up for this little ship!

Bank of the West's money urn has just about graduated from the creation shop and will soon be glittered.

Remember the toy tigers for McDonald's float ? Here is one of them beginning to take shape. What name would you suggest for it?

Remember that gourd that was too big? Here it is almost ready for a final sanding.

Dear Blog Readers!

2010-01-31T18:39:00.000-08:00

All suggestions are welcome to make this blog more enjoyable for you! Feel free to leave comments at the end of any of the entries, and we'll address them asap!

Thanks for reading!

25 days

2010-01-31T18:27:00.001-08:00

It's Sunday but us hard core builders know that we need to push ahead. With a smaller group we are going to continue a few projects. We will stop around five or so to get our first break of the week.

Alli lays out a pattern on the Macau float

A dragon head detail on Bank of the West money pot.

Carved urn handles almost ready for installation on the money pot.

Amala carves urn handles the one stroke at a time. Some true shop lore is that the shop master Dave trained his body to carve with both hands at the same time. One hand would do detail while the other would remove massive amounts of waste!

Yumi hard at work shaping McDonald's float tiger toy. Ah, I need two of those Yumi.

An hour's worth of waste foam. seems like all we do is fill the dumpster with foam chunks.

Alli laying out cherry blossom patterns on PVC plastic for the Macy's float.

On Lok gets it's backdrop in place. Now we just need a bus,two doctor rooms and a community center.

Yumi making a big mistake go away. We made this way too big for the float the first time. Now it is on a hot wire diet to become a shadow of its former self.

How many community volunteers does it take to cut a 4x4? This a local school group building their float. We love our community groups and this one in particular has been tormenting us for years! A true friend, Herman, finally retired from this group and we sure miss him and his creativity!

Once again new face but old friend of the shop is Paul, the "can do" guy. Paul and David meet in the coffee shop to solve various world and parade problems almost every day. Paul is checking out the blog saying, "that's cool" but thinking, "He can make it better..."

27 days

2010-01-30T19:17:00.000-08:00

Get your sunglasses. Macy just got about 15 pounds of glittered fretwork for trim along the side of their float.

The lottery money man is getting a little color because we had sunshine today.

a trim has been added to ease the edge of the Lottery ingot. Hope you win the big one!

The beginning of Southwest airlines bag of riches. We really plan to fill this up with golden treasures!

Just a detail of Bank of the West's money pot:

More details but this time on the Money Pot urn handles.

Can you see an ancient Chinese dragon head motif ?

A colossal mistake ! We have been whacking at this huge foam gourd for Bank of America's longevity float for the last two days but after checking it out decided it was waaaaay to huge. Tomorrow we will whack off enough foam to float a battleship and reduce this future long life symbol to a third of it's size. Redo anyone?

This is a future Lucky tiger for the McDonald's play land float. The foam looks a little old because a Marina contacted us and we bought an experimental batch of old floatation foam they where replacing. After a few projects we discovered it was very nice high density carving foam that holds great detail. Who would have guess there would be "old growth" foam. Now if Dave can just find that guys telephone number for the other eight trucks of foam he was offered.

We put the Southwest Phoenix in the hospital today and joined it's massive pieces. A few more tests and this baby goes to the beauty shop.

Parade meeting today with a real treat. Bev, one of the main behind the scenes bosses, cook up a batch of fresh noddles. Home cooked meal and working on the parade!

Dave's self portrait at 6am this morning before working on the Longevity gourd. This was before he figured out it was way too big!

28 days

2010-01-30T19:05:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not that is a couple grand in decorative papers that just came in! if we are real careful we will get two of the floats a step closer to the big show. The shop master sometimes muses that it might be cheaper to just staple dollar bills on the side of the float.

Dave the float master started a throne for the Money Lord. He has some crazy ideas for this. It will go to the Flower Festival first and then to the Southwest Airlines float.

Alli stepped in to continue dressing up the Lottery's "big boy"!

Rob looking mighty cute with his cherry blossoms for the Macy's float.

Southwest Airlines got their opened bundle of riches a bit closer today with the building of a big suitcase.

Yumi testing the fit on the new money chair.

Sadie and Stephanie starting with a template and foam to make a huge gourd for Bank of America's Long Life float.

Yumi squawking at the shop master for him breaking the hot wire two times in an hour. She has some voodoo magic way she installs a new wire so it drives her crazy when someone pops the wire.

Jamie getting high on talented glitter application. It is not easy glittering different colors next to each other. It take a lot of skill and patience to not contaminate the two glitters by over spilling the two lines.

After everyone left, Dave and Alli stayed to jump-start projects for the morning, Alli glittered and then helped Dave, who had got quite a bit of the longevity gourd finished. Here Alli is preparing to glue more foam blocks where a little more curvature is needed. This is about $900 dollars worth of foam.

An anecdote

2010-01-27T23:55:00.000-08:00

Something you may have noticed in the pictures is even though the crew has been working days on the parade, we still wear the same clothing. That is actually a good sign, David the master builder says. A unique thing about very creative people is when they go into deep art mode there is no room for distractions (such as what to wear today). A master builder in the grove thinks of nothing but the project, and the simplicity of not making mundane decisions is a necessity.

(For the crew's various Mom's I can guarantee we do wash our work-wear at least once a week!)

We interrupt this blog's photostream to bring you a favorite float-builder story:

Dave went in to a fancy four star restaurant with white linens, shining silverware, gilded ceilings, historical landmark, etc. near the court house in San Jose. The bar was full of "suits." One suit glanced over at Dave's right-out-of-the-barn crumpled look and said, loud enough for all to hear, "This is a great place but they let guys dressed like that in here."

Dave confronted the well-dressed man and said he agreed it was a beautiful building, and if the gentleman would just give him a moment, he would leave.

Dave then turned around to the owner of the business and said: "Hey, can I get the rent? You're late this month."

The business owner paid the rent, and Dave left his own building.

29 days

2010-01-27T20:55:00.000-08:00

Well, that's it, we have less then 30 days now and there is pressure in the barn!
There are a lot of pictures today because we had a lot to do and we are a bit behind where we like to be on the 29 day mark. The crew is seasoning in and we expect some real gains over the next few days and we might even get some warmer temperatures!

Battleship David (any one who drives a full size van in San Francisco knows what that means) is loaded to the gills with fresh plunder from the hardware store. Dave had to hit the brakes a little hard on the way back and the load slid forward crushing one of the seats like a paper cup. That's a $1000 dollars worth of supplies for just the morning jobs

Here is Dave, one of the first customers in the store at 6:45am, dragging 45 pounds of plywood off the high rack. Only 6 more to go Dave.

Remember the ball project ? It is now a bright red and gonna be ship out to our Texas buckaroos for a lion dance team.

Alli listening to Dave's endless checklists of the daily tasks that need to keep us on track.

Amala carving a dragon head for the Bank of the West money pot. I bet she will be dragoning afterward.

Cartoon for a dragon head carving

Rob got his girl ready for the event. Almost done, just needs a good steel wool sand and then a few trim colors.

Yumi is almost finished with her bird.

Yumi doing her best to not get behind in her work.

The tiger has a thorn in it's paw. Actually we drilled big holes to run pipe into the body to keep our tiger in it's place during the parade.

Alli says a final good bye to a glorious float. Late at night you can hear the show and dance routines these queens had on them.

Remember this photo, In a few weeks everything will have grown up.

The whole crew had to lift this wild ivory carving on to the deck of the Macau float. We made this 3000 piece monster last year but the parade director wanted it for an encore. There are over 30 carved figures among the clouds and temples of this float. You will never see them all but we know they are there!

Cleaning up the Ivory traesure for its float.

Dave saw this ingot prototype for a master mold he made and decided to make it a money throne. Do you see it yet?

Hard at work cutting urn handles for the money pot.

The money urn's first handle

You want what?

Robert smiling after a job well done!

Jamie glittered all day today, and the Lottery guy is looking like a million bucks!

30 days

2010-01-26T23:01:00.000-08:00

Drake is busy framing herself in while working on Wells Fargo's float. Better hurry, the stage coach is coming into town and it rests on top of this wall!

Rob is on detail painting, These fun kids will grace the new Money Lord booth at the flower festival.

Money pot is still being adorned by Alli who is getting a handle on it.

Alli laying out money pot embellishment. Going to be some tricky cutting.

Hello Baby! The Lottery's Money lord is growing some hair. Jamie's mask is protecting...nothing but the top of her head from glitter. Alli is hiding because she is terminally shy.

Alli, the second in comand trying to hide the holes in her beloved but tormented overalls. Her pants have more duct tape then a handyman's toolbox!

New face but old shop friend Grant is overviewing a welding project, The Magic Fan. He will need every skill from his race car mechanic days to force cold steel into a graceful fan full of girls. Grant does hit some home runs on his projects and left with a wad of Dave's money to buy a truck load of metal in the morning.
That bundle of plastic is a full size template drawn by shop master Dave to see if the fan could even fit within the parade height limitations.

The dance team needs to practice this weekend Grant!

31 days

2010-01-25T19:50:00.000-08:00

Remember the cut out tigers? Here they are getting a color job.

Here is a hunk of foam with some wings hidden inside. Just clean off the extra Yumi.

New wing for the Phoenix. This was just a hunk of foam yesterday.

painting up a few New Year kids

Don't ask me why Jamie got in such an uncomfortable position, but she can slop paint with the best of them.

A test fit of body to tail feathers. Humm, how are we gonna suport that thing?
Are we missing some wings?

The Money urn getting some top moldings. Will it ever get on the float?

Stephanie carving detail for the money ingot. That mask protects her forehead.

33 days

2010-01-24T12:41:00.000-08:00

Alli brought back this common toy from her China visit. We decided to make two huge ones for McDonald's' float.

Remember our Money Lord for the Lottery float? Here he is after a final sanding and prep-coated for painting. Our prep coat may take a few days to dry before you can see this guy in new colors!

Watch out, there is a tiger loose in the shop! This plain plywood cut out will be painted and installed on the Chinese Chamber Fireworks finale float.

Here is a raw layout that will be cut out and carved to adorn the Lottery giant gold ingot. We do not have to do this, but since original imperial Chinese artists hated bare spaces, we decided to honor this. There are thick books of "diaper patterns" just to fill in the blank spots!

Bank of the West's money pot is still needing more art so we will be on that soon...

Our Southwest Airline bird has some exquisite tail feathers. Tomorrow we will join the two pieces for a test view. Dave has already said he thinks two more long feathers should be added. Dave gave Yumi kudos for her finding such interesting feathers in that block of foam. Yumi claims it was Dave's ghost sitting beside her saying "Lazy artist never finds great art." A little shop history is that Dave taught Yumi to carve. It was a wonder either of them survived!

Dave and Rob 's doodle to refine an idea for Visa's float.

Dave got a treat today. Jamie and Alli both asked if they could learn how to build walls. Nothing pleases Dave more then training the next generation. By the time we got done the two women where right on the money laying out their first pony wall in record time. Tomorrow this will be the base for the Wells Fargo stage coach. One day, Alli and Jamie are going to make someone a great husband!

Dave's napkin doodle from dinner showing a platform idea of longevity signs and five bat motif with the Lord of longevity standing this opulent stand. Better put the ad for help in the paper again as this is a few weeks of extra work to embellish the Bank of America float.

34 days

2010-01-22T19:41:00.000-08:00

Today Dave was in meetings with sponsors and parade staff, who will be reviewing pictures of many of the 25 floats he will be building in the next 34 days.

Dave needs a cool molding to run around the top of Bank of the West's money pot and will not wait two weeks for a local company to produce it. Here a crude screed has been cut out of plywood, and runners were built to allow strips of foam to be sanded down to the shape we want. Yes, it is a lot of "work" but we like to think it is a lot of art. A normal spectator may not know if we do not take these extra steps but the crew likes the challenge of mastering these unique problems.

Here is Alli who built this rig and now is screeding moldings into a nice custom shape. Only one more to do Alli!

The queens float went from two floats to one float and then got changed back to two!
Here we are blocking up the court float that the contestants ride on.

Macy's float got some big pieces today. An arch and bridge are now in place.

Yumi has been quietly carving the Phoenix's tail feathers. Even Dave was amazed at her artistic twisting of these twelve foot long feathers, carved out of a single block of foam!

A shot a few hours latter of these fantastic tail feathers.

35 days

2010-01-21T22:13:00.000-08:00

We know why our paint never dries, it is darn cold in the barn! We have only 6 inches of concrete between us and the Pacific Ocean. You can just feel the waves! (And then there was the time a dead whale got stuck under the pier . Is that seafood for lunch?)

Guess who got their Sunday suit today! Bank of the West's tiger is now waiting for his ramp to be built before becoming the king of the parade!

This is Rob, very pleased with himself after catching the shop master about to make a layout error. Rob, as you can see, savors the little moments in life with great relish.

This is Sadie doing a terrific job power-sanding the lottery's Lord of Wealth.

This is why no one wants us in their home after a hard day of carving. Poor Drake whittled up the trims on Bank of the West's money pot and paid the price of the ever tenuous little foam specks. Notice in the back ground we have covered finished art so that "The Foam Storm" won't get them too!

36 days

2010-01-20T21:56:00.000-08:00

Dave noticed today that the phoenix rider was a little heavy. Master carver Yumi just sliced 6 inches off the back! Problem solved.

The money jar gets its sides!

Master float-builder Dave thinks,

and measures.

Lucky's float is looking top-notch after some nifty installations by Jamie.

Lucky's brilliant colors are going to be a sure hit. There is just something magical when you mix red velvet with gold glitter.

(Jamie loves her job)

After blocking out the Queen float, we've decided it needed to start from scratch. Robert and Miguel do some heavy lifting to clear off the float bed.

Here's what a float looks like before the magic happens:

That white tiger got some color today. We are almost out of gold glitter, but I'm sure Alli, Sadie and Elizabeth have a few pounds of it in their hair.

37 days

2010-01-19T22:37:00.000-08:00

Stephanie jigsawing a future fretwork for Lucky's

float.

This handsome guy is David, the big boss himself,

as he fusses making a template. David claims float

building is a tough business: he is only 29 years

old but look what the stress did to him!

Alli is working on tiger stripes. You can see our

inspirational model on the tiger's back. We will

use about two pounds of black glitter on the

stripes.

Remember that fret work? Shop Trick-Alli slops

yellow paint to act as a binder for the gold glitter.

Here it is being glittered:

38 days

2010-01-19T00:20:00.000-08:00

A little side project Dave whipped up for a Lion dance team

in Texas. Those crazy guys walk this thing over a seesaw!
Actually they got the trick from Dave who had a popular

lion dance team that mastered the difficult ball-walk-over-a-

seesaw during the 1980's and taught the show to other teams.

This lion dance team got hold of one of Dave's original circus

balls but it broke when it dropped off a truck. While they had

fruitlessly tried to find a replacement ball all over the US,

Dave remembered he still had that 20 year old mold in the

basement!

This is the bottom of a huge money pot. Tomorrow we

hope the pot will be roughed out by building the sides.

Dave has some wild ideas for the legs!

Here is the start of a design for Lucky's backdrop.

Dave and Alli want a rich background with the "Luck"

character. All these designs will be cut with a jigsaw

(then we count our fingers)!

Alli been busy cutting designs for Lucky. We are

pretty excited about where this idea could go...

40 days

2010-01-17T18:14:00.000-08:00

It's hard to sleep well when the countdown is

running all the time. Sadie's been dreaming about

float deadlines all week!

Wow, tomorrow is in the 30's! I'd better write up

a bigger checklist! Twenty five floats due in 39

days. Time to zoom zoom zoom!

Our Queens float went from two floats to one this year. Today

we played with big building blocks to get "Da Look" for the

Queen and her court, which Dave is still not happy with. He's

talking about a new throne chair!

One of Dave's early projects the adorable "New Year Kids"

being placed on the Wu Yee float. Each statue has over 40

different colors. That's why a scraped artifact is a shop disaster.

One of our tricks is to paint the deck a bright color and then

varnish it. This ensures that it will wear well and stay good-as

-new after performers walk on the decks. I am pretty sure that

ninja is Elizabeth.

Right out of Dave's head: one of his famous doodles. Dave

does this kind of stuff all the time on napkins, paper bags,

scraps of wood (and sometimes even the occasional toilet

paper doodle). This is the start of a huge money pot for

Bank of the West.

Wells Fargo's cute little piggy bank is now 8 days old!

Tiger just got it's stripes today and is resting before

getting installed in a week or two on it's float. Good Job

Stephanie, what an animal painter you are!

I wish float building was all art, however we need

to have platforms! Here is Thunder Valley getting

new sides. Who would guess it would take five

hours per side to bolt hinges on. Maybe Monday we

will be able to start a float step on this deck.

Another day of carving and Yumi is guessing

that one of the blocks of Styrofoam is chemically

a bad batch. The individual beads are too big and

too loosely bonded to each other. That means it's

like carving dry sand. Detail on poor foam does not

hold up and can ruin a great statue. We are not sure

if we can get the detail we need, or if we will have

to remove the bad block. Too much love is going

into this unit to cut corners. (foam carving joke)

2010-01-15T14:49:00.000-08:00

Our research and development office:

Yumi hard at work again, the phoenix rider is coming along! (see previous R+D photo)

One big money ingot being carved for the lottery float. Wish it were real, 'cause I'd take it home!

Oh the pain. Making a float just for Thunder Valley. Real float guys know it is all about the hardware and this float is getting new sides and a deck.The old engine died years ago so it was removed and will see Dr David (our master float builder) this summer for a transplant.

Another happy dumpster diver, "I'll take a little foam"

So what do we do with the cool old stuff from past parades ? Sadie put an add on Craigslist and all kinds of crazy people come by to get stuff. This sweet mom is building a school play set right in our very own dumpster ! No hugs please! (We'd love to know who took the eight foot tall banana lady.)

Dave-the-float-master's brainstorm for a large Chinese fan. This was hard to conceive, so Sadie whipped up a scale paper model. Please ignore the European dragon on the model instead of a Chinese style dragon (oops!).

The Magic Fan model opens up to change colors and have some hot glamor girls inside. This is why Dave is a master float builder.

Raw set up on Lucky's float, This lets our sponsor see if thier folks like the view point. Wish that guy had not eaten so much!

A shoutout...

2010-01-13T21:44:00.001-08:00

...to this lovely lady, who spends her days with a portable hotwire,

breathing in styrofoam fumes. She is a magnificent carver and in

record time. Just check out the symmetry in some of these pieces!

Thanks Yumi!

This was a shapeless mass of foam chunks this past weekend. What a

turnaround!

Of course, twin tigers for the Chinese New Year.

The soon-to-be phoenix, started this morning. Updates coming!

And We're Live

2010-01-12T23:16:00.000-08:00

Greetings from the team at East-West Float Company!

We're working quickly to get the ball rolling on San Francisco's

Chinese New Year parade!

The parade is February 27th, 2010. Stay posted as we continue to

prep, prime and prototype this year's floats.

For more information or to get yourself in on the float action,

please email blueparadeart@yahoo.com.

For now, some pictures of the crew hard at work...

Yumi laying out the foam for the phoenix:

Robert happily moving things from float to float. Yeah heavy lifting!

Amalla (R) and Stephanie (L) painstakingly rounding out the inside of

the new bowl. I guess the tunes and the taurine sweatshirt keep them

pumped for the task?