Category: Entreprenuership

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Wowflute inspiration by Native Artists

 

Back in the mid 90’s, I learned how to play the Native American Flute (NAF).  I took the time to figure out where the different sounds were and organized it in my mind.  The NAF is very intuitive and easy to play and is most easily played by ear.  I spent countless hours listening to NAF on my Sony Walkman compact disk player and felt inspiration to create.  It was and is my thinking music.  Some folks find it relaxing enough to sleep to, but it wakes me up to new ideas and inspiration.

Album Cover for Burning Sky: Creation
Burning Sky: Creation Album Cover

The sound of the Wowflute its inspiration from many of the great Native American Flute players that are famous in the desert southwest of the USA.  The sounds that I heard from listening to their albums were sounds I wanted to make with my own creation.  I have always enjoyed the kind of music that is played on the NAF with deep feeling and I have several favorite Native musicians that have influenced me over the years.  The group Burning Sky is by far my favorite group and has had a tremendous influence in my life and the creation of my instruments.   Another great musician that I must give credit to is Mary Youngblood with her unique and inspiring music.  R. Carlos Nakai is also favorite.

Mary Youngblood: Dance with the Wind Album Cover
Mary Youngblood: Dance with the Wind Album Cover

2015 - Fingering Chart

The Wowflute has been created to make it easy to play intuitively like the NAF it draws its inspiration from.  I created the Wowflute to make the NAF sound, more accessible to everyone.  The fingering chart above details how to use the Wowflute and the range that it covers.  Each Handmade Wowflute will differ from the chart slightly and as such may require individual adaptation by the artist playing.  I wanted to create a way for people to be creative and to create their own unique tones and songs.  The ability to be creative is innate in the human race and I believe the Wowflute helps to perpetuate this individual creativity.  I have seen some of the creative ways folks use the Wowflute.  I have had people buy them specifically for the colorful swirls; something to hang on their rear-view mirror.  Some buy a Wowflute to create music from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.  Others buy it for creating their own unique music wherever they are.  The Wowflute is versatile and allows for playing almost anywhere.  Its small size makes it easy to be worn around the neck and under clothes for an indiscreet musical instrument.  It is perfect for hiking as it only weighs 1/2 ounce.

I hope the Wowflute will be an inspiration to others to create just as the Native American Flute inspired me to create.  If you have a Wowflute, take a moment to learn to play it in some quite environment – whether it be the hills, the desert, or your own backyard. The Wowflute has the potential to make beautiful music when you take the time to develop your own intuitive sounds.  If you are just coming across the Wowflute for the first time, feel free to comment with any questions below.

 

 

 

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My take on Millenials

 

Little Salt Lake, Parowan, UT
Little Salt Lake, Parowan, UT
 
I have read several articles as of late trying to describe the millennial demographic. I find many of these articles rather informative, but still lacking on at least how I understand my generation. The millennial generation is a tough one to figure out because it is ripened for change. The apples are falling off and rolling a long way before coming to rest and roots.  
Millennials are labeled as wanting more out of life than just a 9 to 5 grind. They want more from a company or they will leave. It is not just about loving their work or about pay or benefits or company culture. It is more than having a job. Millennials are about freedom – freedom from structure built by others, freedom to act and think and do in their own way. As a millennial myself I think it is not the way that we were raised per se, but more about the opportunities that now abound with ease through global communication. Back in the day to start a business meant to have a brick and mortar store and to basically only be able to access local markets. This changed a bit with mail order catalogs, but it was still clunky and tiresome – there is lots of hard (busy) work associated with doing a mail order business and getting word out.  This has changed drastically with the advent of the computer and the internet. Now there are modern ecommerce solutions that are basically plug and play, drag and drop. The opportunity to reach a target global market is accessible to individuals on a minimal budget. Millennials are at the forefront of this technology and as such they recognize the opportunity to make a change of lifestyle. Millennials recognize they can build their own structure to operate and excel within. It is a microcosm of independently owned and operated self-businesses or business selfs. Building a brand has turned inward to find meaning and to define the why. This is necessary to differentiate from all the noise that is bombarding devices worldwide. Millennials have a tendency to focus on self more than community because that is how their community interacts – with self profiles. That is how you get to know your customer on a more personal yet removed level. You can know someone without knowing them. That is the world we live in and we need to embrace it – not fear it.  
Living has never been so visible and public. Life is mobile. With an increasingly mobile society, everything is becoming more mobile. Many millennials are looking to make their lives more and more mobile as well. This includes ditching a day job where they can feel stuck or suffocated and finding work that is meaningful to them and others. Not because the work may be unimportant to them, or the company culture is disagreeable, but more because it lacks the freedom to move and experience the world like the Internet offers.  

When we have computers and other electronics available that make a business on the move possible, why are we still required to be at a desk job from 9 to 5? I mean seriously, this doesn’t make sense. The only reason I can think of is employers want to basically babysit their employees. My goal as a millennial has been to separate my time from my money. I think this is a worthwhile effort and goal because it allows for more and more freedom. Freedom to spend quality time with the family, freedom to pursue hobbies, freedom to have more open time to help others in need. I feel that being a millennial is not some stuck up self righteous, arrogant ideal, but a chance to start realizing the potential to do good that is within us. That change is good and we should welcome it. So many millennials quit.  

I quit.

I quit that job. I quit that rut. I quit that cul de sac. I quit that turning in circles. I quit that insanity of doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. I quit working entirely for money. I quit things that aren’t progressing my life to where I want it to be. I quit to progress. I quit early and I quit with obtained knowledge to guide my road ahead. Without ruts to keep you in a certain path the world is open – freedom at last.

And that’s a good thing.

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Recognizing Opportunities

Walle finds 100 Grand

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.  – Napolean Hill 

Last week I celebrated my 31st birthday.  My lovely and loving wife bought me the Lego Walle set that I have had my eyes on since I learned of its existence.

I spent several fun hours with this build and am happy with the result.  I really do like the Pixar film Walle and I feel there is much to learn from it.  For example, Walle has awakened to a realization that life on his deserted planet is somewhat drab.  He continues to work hard going through the motions and striving to collect and crush garbage – but he has started to notice intricate and worthwhile finds while digging trash and junk.

He has quite the collection of intricate items that caught his eye and made him think.  He then finds the plant which is very different from all his other finds and because he collects it – his hobby – it soon opens wondrous doors of opportunity.

He takes action.  When Eva shows up Walle is terrified at first, but is curios and excited to see something that moves so gracefully.  He takes charge of fear and almost gets blown to smithereens.  I like the fact that he faces change head on and realizes he does not want to petal backwards to curbing junk anymore.  He moves forward by making a split second decision to grab on to the rocket and hold on for dear life!

At the moment it Walle was not thinking about how stupid it is to ride a rocket.  His goal was to see Eva again, and not be left alone.

Change has a tendency to happen quickly.  So does opportunity.

So how does one learn to recognize opportunity?  This has been a question at the forefront of my mind.  I love this quote by Henry David Thoreau – I think I have shared it recently,  but it’s worth sharing again;

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”

The way to recognize opportunity is to start doing things.  I read a great book entitled The Power of Starting Something Stupid, by Richie Norton.  He goes into details about how opportunities start to abound when you start.  The power of starting is real.  If you feel like you are not going where you want to go, if you feel like you aren’t living the life you thought you would have, start something new.

Opportunities certainly do abound right where you are.  Just learn how to start doing and stop talking about doing.  There is power in taking action and making decisions quickly.  When you do decide to act, change can and will happen fast.  That is why opportunity can be so elusive at times – it is always changing. When you decide to act, then opportunities line up in front of you.

Think about the blessings you have, be grateful.  Gratitude is a key to recognizing opportunities.  When you are grateful you have a tendency to look at each situation differently – with an eye of optimism.  Optimism is the secret to recognizing opportunity.  Where others will miss it because of pessimism and disbelief, you can be optimistic and take the action steps required to make it happen.  Being optimistic dispels notions of fear.  You will still feel fear, but instead of being debilitating, this fear will lead you to action.

Action coupled with optimism leads to great opportunity.

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That Can Do Attitude

 

Ernie Sorts Wires
Ernie Sorts Wires

…it doesn’t make sense, it’s not logical, it is a gut feeling! I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. I only know what I can do. – Captain Kirk, Star Trek

Doing has a lot to do with attitude.  If you do something with a bad attitude it can get done but to what end?  Doing with a can do attitude is key to making things happen, and enjoying the time it takes to get there.  I have been thinking a lot lately about what I can do and the simple word “Do”.

This simple word – Do, has so much power in it.  There is also another simple word that goes along with Do and that is Be.

Do and Be both have a profound impact on the ability to be an effective leader.  Doing what is right and following your “gut” is important.  Doing means taking action and making decisions when no one else will.  It is stepping up to the plate during times of confusion and offering solutions.  It means keeping your ears open more and your mouth shut more often.  Leadership requires not only a listening ear but also charity.

I like to look at charity as the great law of potential.  Many of you have probably heard of the book The Secret.  It speaks of the Law of Attraction and how to attract positive things into your life.  I liken this law of attraction to faith.  A simple definition of faith can be found in the Book of Mormon.  It explains that when you have faith you hope for things which are not seen which are true.  As a leader you must act in faith and do many things where you do not know the end.  As a leader, look to others and recognize not what they are, but what they can become.  Everyone has the potential to be great.  It is up to a leader to recognize and bring out that potential.

Doing and being are separate but at the same time inseparable.  Separate as we are not what we do, but inseparable because what we repeatedly do we become.

Taking action is required for leadership.  Stepping outside our comfort zone is required for our growth and the growth of others.

This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.  There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.  Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.  Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.  Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.  It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Be the anybody.  Anybody can lead if they will make up their minds quickly.  Fail quickly, succeed quickly.  Leaders act many times on instinct and make quick split second decisions.  If they make the wrong one then they correct course and keep plugging away forward.

As you look for others to lead find their potential.  Find their talents.  Delegate, not jobs you do not want, but delegate according to talent.  Find out what people would do without pay and get them excited to do just that and get paid for it.  This instills a desire to create and to excel towards ones potential.  That can do attitude will be ever present as you lead through applying people’s potential to doing and being and reaching it.

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Uncommon Common Sense

300 miles, no water - desert common sense
Common sense (which, in truth, is very uncommon) is the best sense I know of: abide by it; it will counsel you best.- Lord Chesterfield

What is common sense?

The official definition is native intelligence; Sound, practical intelligence that is independent of specialized knowledge or training.  Some people call it following your gut.  Some people call it just knowing and doing what is right.

It is uncommon.  Too few people today follow their gut.  They feel they should be doing something else with their life, but instead of changing they continue to go through the motions of habit.  Habit is an interesting part of life.  There are good habits and bad habits.  We really are somewhat like sheep when following a habit because we are used to it.

Let’s talk about some good habits that should be common sense.

1) Sleep.

With the advent of the modern world of technology and electricity it is easy to stay up late and sleep in.  It is easy to limit our needed sleep to only a few hours.  Our bodies need time to recharge and organize the experiences of the previous day.  I have recently changed my schedule.  I used to work on making Wowflutes in the evenings before bed.  I would generally start a batch around 8 or 9 pm.  I would finish after midnight and get up around 5:30am to get ready for my day job.  This took its toll.  I felt like I was putting my passion and what I loved on the backburner.  Leaving it till the last minute everyday made it seem unimportant, and it was easy to not want to do it.

I switched it up.  I now get to bed in the evenings around 9:30-10:30pm and get up at 4 am.  It has made a huge difference.  Now I feel I am working on my goals first thing instead of last.  I have several hours to think to myself with no interruptions.  It is wonderful!  I really did not know what I was missing.  The old adage by Benjamin Franklin goes “early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”.  You would think this would be common sense, but it is uncommon.

2) Working on your talents

People love to work on their talents. They love to feel like they are good at something.  Many folks feel they don’t have any talents though…  Just because their talents may not be as visible as others.  It is common sense to work on your talents, but how many people do?  It is easy to say you do not have time to develop them, but your gut tells you differently.  I know folks who work a job they don’t like and go home and worry about their job and their boring life and go to sleep and go on to the job, day after day after day.  Why?  Because it is the sheep mentality of just following a habit.  Instead of worrying – set goals and time aside for working on something you enjoy, your talent.  Something that you would do for free.

I have found that this is a secret to managing employees and helping them enjoy their work.  For example, I was the general manager of a mining company – Alpine Gems, for a short time from 2013-2014.  It was my grandfathers company and he had built it from the ground up.  When he passed on in 2011 the company was split between his sons and daughters.  No one was actively participating in the business on a daily basis and it was faltering.  The company had never had employees and I was bent on changing this.

The first person I hired was a great guy named Kasey.  He was a hard worker and could easily manage working in stone.  I made him my warehouse manager and we spent a lot of time planning and discussing the goals for the business.  I found out that he had been a theater major and was interested in making movies.  He had a talent in production and directing.  So I decided to focus many hours of our days in producing marketing content to spread online.  Kasey was exuberant and went above and beyond what I asked for.  It was because it was his passion – something that he would do even if he didn’t get paid.  He worked extra hours on story boarding and editing in his spare time at home.  We created a lot of content that was helpful in securing new business and growing the company’s non-existent presence online.

Our sales in the first six months were double the previous year.  People knew we were having fun and working hard – especially our customers.  Unfortunately there were too many cooks in the kitchen that thought we were having too much fun and not working.  I resigned when we realized our hard work was in vain.

I still get to work with Kasey as he helps me create more great content for Wowflute!

If you want to change things up develop the habit of working and developing your talents.  An easy measuring stick is to find what you would be willing to do for free.

3) Elevate those around you.

This is a habit that has far reaching potential.  When you choose to elevate others you are also elevating yourself.  Elevating others is making them feel good about themselves.  When you speak to an old friend or a new acquaintance make sure to get them talking about themselves.  Learn about what they love and what makes them tick.  People love to talk about themselves – it is just human nature.  An excellent read that has inspired this habit is the book by Dale Carnegie, How to win friends and influence people.  A common theme throughout the book is simple common sense to treat others how you would want to be treated.

4) Smile.

The easiest way to help folks feel good is to smile more.  Smiling is contagious.  People look better when they smile. They look more healthy and attractive.  When you smile folks want to be around you more; they want to know what makes you happy and why you are smiling.  Make it a habit to smile wherever you go and be interested in others. This habit will make you good connections that will grow your network and improve every aspect of your life.  It is easy.  It is common sense, that unfortunately, is not that common.

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Focus on Everything – How to Ace the Product Design Process

ET Highway
Extra Terrestrial Highway, Nevada, USA

Focus.  What does it mean?  I like to find the origins of words because it really helps in gaining a deeper understanding of the meaning.

Focus is a point of convergence.  Like the Extra Terrestrial Highway in Nevada almost goes to a point in the distance.   In Latin it literally means “Hearth, Fireplace“.  Which possibly stems from focusing the sun in a lens to a point hot enough to create a flame.  So how does this definition of focus apply to the design process?  A focus is knowing your end goal and aligning all aspects of the process to get you there.

Product design is a process.  I love product design.  I love to see and buy products that have good design.  I absolutely hate a poor design, especially when it would not have been that hard to make it great.  This is even harder to understand when you look at examples like the Ford Pinto Case.  The executives making decisions in this example actually valued human life as an expense that they could afford when compared to fixing a simple design flaw.  I know this is kind of the extreme, but to see a finished product that went through all the stages of the ideas and concepts, to engineering and development, through prototyping and manufacturing, to marketing and distribution, and to still have a poor design… that, my friends is infuriating to me.  How many eyes and hands did that poor design pass through?  How many people could have spoken up and put in their two cents and made a change?  How does this happen?

I think the answer lies in the process.  It is complex.  It is time oriented.  It deals with people from many walks of life.  Sometimes those people lose their focus, or maybe they are focusing on the wrong end.

Taking a road-trip is like this process.  One time I went on a road-trip through Rachel, Nevada. I felt the trip was long and rather boring.  I missed a lot of the tourist traps and other unique locations that can make for a better, more memorable experience.  I do not even remember why it took so long or where our final destination was.  Just like you may miss a great unique experience that you really needed to see (the A-Le-Inn in Rachel, NV is a great example), it is really in where your focus lies.  Bringing a product to market is very similar.  As it comes down to crunch time people tend to start accepting more and more of what they otherwise would change – they start to focus on just the end rather than the process.

This is where our focus should be – in the process.  Just like when you are on a road-trip, the fun happens when you focus on all the parts of the trip along the way rather than just getting somewhere as quickly as possible.  A friend and mentor of mine, Nelson Boren, once told me to “Focus on everything”.  I was not sure what he meant by this because in my mind it was the opposite of what focus means.  If you focus on everything in reality you are not focused on anything.  It was not till many years later that I finally understood what he meant.  I finally realized that it is possible to focus on everything with the proper team in place with a proper leader that defines the vision.  Each member of that team can focus on doing their job in line with the overall vision.  All these jobs and tasks can then be focused towards the vision.

In product design, there is always a better design.  Even if you think you have arrived, a product can always be improved.

A cousin of mine is a horse fanatic.  She loves everything about horses.  She has studied them, ridden them, has action figures, pictures, blankets, clothing, you name it.  She told me that when you are riding a horse (especially a trained horse), they will move in the direction you look.  The horse can sense the slightest movements and therefore it is important to look where you want the horse to go – not just pull the reigns in that direction.  You need a definite focus.

Back when I was in high school taking a Drivers Ed class, we practiced on what looked like glorified washing machines.  There was an overhead screen that displayed a rather boring simulator movie from a laser disk.  You turned your steering wheel when the car on screen started to turn or a red light would come on.  My drivers ed Teacher was also the German teacher, Herr Corry was his name.  His commentary was the best aspect of the class and is what I remember most.  He told us that “…when passing cars on the freeway and especially semi trucks, DO NOT LOOK AT THEM!”  “Oh wow, look at the size of those tires!?” “When driving always keep your focus on the road ahead of you.”  It is simple to get distracted when passing.  He went on to explain that when you look at a semi truck when passing, devastating history has taught us that you move towards it.

You move towards it.  Whatever you focus on you move towards.  Easy.  Or is it?  How does one determine the focus for a product?  Or a company?  Or a project?

It is simple:  Focus on Quality.

This is the answer to how to focus on everything.  By focusing on quality – it is no longer about the product or the design or the company.  IT is about quality.  Quality in every step of the process.  Quality in concept, quality in engineering, quality in manufacturing, quality in marketing, it all leads to a quality end product design to be proud of.  When you focus on quality the road-trip, though long, will be enjoyable. You will not want it to end.  You will find ways to always improve your process and product which will equal greater success and more opportunity.

Everything will align and fall into place if you make quality your overall goal and focus.

 

 

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What is education?

baymax in forest
Summer is winding down as we enter the coming school year.  We are getting our kiddos prepared for school by reading a bunch of books to them.  Each morning we read where they repeat us to help them with speech.  My oldest boy Craig is getting ready to start Kindergarten and boy is he excited!

I have been thinking about what education and schooling is all about.  The definition I found and agree with most is that the word educate means “from within”.  When you think about it, all education really does start within our minds, mixing with our past experiences and our talents and abilities.  In my research I also found a great article on Forbes.com.  It seems that there are many definitions depending on context.  Context here is key.  The article above talks about basically to be educated means to be smart.

Smart in what way though?  Many folks that consider themselves dumb are actually extremely smart. They have just been measured according to a set standard or measuring stick that does not apply to their personal traits. They may not be educated in the sense of schooling but their experiences have given them an education that is specific to them.

This little comic is a fantastic representation of trying to “fit” everyone into a certain mold.


The monkey here will excel on the test and will be looked at as smart. Everyone else will feel different levels of dumb, and look at themselves as not very smart. Especially that goldfish. If the test was to swim the fish, penguin, and seal would excel.

I would not write yourself off as not very smart. I am sure your experiences in life have taught you many things that others do not know. You will excel as you take what you are smart in and run with it.

Henry Ford was thought to be dumb because he only had an eighth grade education. In fact many newspapers wanted to show how dumb he was so they setup a meeting where they would interview Ford and they put together some difficult questions and asked if he would be willing to answer them. He said sure. During the interview when they asked Ford a question he did not know he called someone who did know it. His belief was why fill my mind with all this information if others already have it. He focused on what he was good at and he excelled.

Life is about finding out what talents you have been blessed with and how you can make the world a better place using them.

I have been blessed with a talent when it comes to thinking 3-dimensionally.  I enjoy 3D puzzles like Rubiks Cube, and working with clay through sculpting.  These talents have led me to make the Wowflute and have led to this blog.  I enjoy creativity and I believe it is the key to enjoying your work and education.  Learning is an ongoing process that continually happens throughout life.  I am glad for the opportunity to be a father and to see my children develop and grow in their learning and talents.

The Wowflute is an excellent little flute that is perfect for learning music wherever you may be.  I have found that having a portable instrument I practice much more consistently.  I can currently play over 100 songs that I have memorized on any Wowflute product.  I believe that learning an instrument should be intuitive.  This is why I have designed the Wowflute in a particular fashion.  It is not designed to a standard musical notation because I feel this can impede the creative process.

So rather than the standardized ocarina fingering system I have developed a unique system based loosely on the Native American Flute.  This makes it easier to play by ear.

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New Turquoise Tritan Wowflute

I am thoroughly enjoying the new colors that the Tritan Wowflute is now made in. This transparent turquoise is a favorite.

I designed the Tritan Wowflute over the course of two years and it is nice to finally have a product that works well and is very durable.

The Tritan Wowflute is currently made down at a place called R & R Engineering in Leeds, Utah.  The folks there are down to earth and are great to work with.  They strive for quality.  I am grateful I found them in my backyard (quite literally)!

The Tritan Wowflute was designed with the outdoors in mind.  After I sat on and broke a few of my favorite Swirl Wowflutes I wanted something that would last.  This has been a goal for me to focus on quality rather than quantity.  A few years ago I had produced a bunch of my Wowflute mugs out of water based clay and had fired them and glazed them.  I had ten Wowflute mugs ready for market.  As I was hauling them to my vendor booth I tripped and dropped the box.  Even though they were wrapped and packed well, all but one were either chipped or shattered.   This experience led me to look for a stronger material that would still have the quality without being fragile.

When hiking I use a Nalgene water bottle.  These bottles were extremely tough and would take a beating.  I could drop it on sharp lava rocks and it would be fine.  That is what I wanted my products to do.  I did some research and after much deliberation I chose Tritan copolyesther by Eastman as the base material  for the Tritan Wowflute because it is virtually indestructible.  The Tritan Wowflute can even be driven over (not that you drive over musical instruments on a regular basis).

The name Tritan Wowflute sounds tough as well.  It is currently available in Turquoise, Tangerine, and Emerald.  Listen to a sample:

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Honk if parts fall off – Engineered Obsolescence

farm truck bokeh

I was thinking today about how many products seem to be designed with an expiration date.  Engineered obsolescence.

It is good to think about the life cycle of your product when designing, and is very important when it comes down to sourcing materials and marketing the end product.

What I do not like is when a product is purposefully designed to fail when it could perfectly function for far longer if the design were modified.  Popular Mechanics has some good examples in their technology article on the subject.

Whenever something fails I think of how it could have been designed differently.  I am reminded of my first truck in high school.  It was a faded yellow ’77 Toyota Pickup.  I had created an antenna from a coat hanger and was able to pick up hundreds of messy AM stations on the built in am radio.  I had a bumper sticker on the back stating “Honk if parts fall off”.   Ironically I actually lost that half of my bumper while exploring the west desert of Utah.

The truck was perfect for me because it worked just enough to keep me busy fixing it, but not too much of a problem that I would be eager to get rid of it.  This truck was a junker but still worked quite well.  Whenever I think of Toyota I think of a perfect model company to follow in practice and design.  They make their product useful indefinitely through sound and applied engineering.  They focus on quality as their business plan.

I think the direction where most of our economy is headed now is towards more quality and less junk.  The sharing economy has to have products that are designed well to last a lifetime and possibly generations.

There are many products that do require obsolescence – take electronics for instance.  Especially computers.  They need to be updated to match modern technology which doubles every two years.

But when all is said and done the best business plan really is quality.

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Building Lego is Work we Love


As a kid I thoroughly enjoyed building Lego.  I would work hard doing random things to try and make some extra spending money – which generally went to Lego sets.

I spent many summers traveling out to the mine with my grandfather.  We would ride the backhoe up some haphazard switchbacks he had scraped in the side of a steep colluvial fan.  Sometimes my grandfather would have us switch sides and basically use us as ballast so the backhoe would not slip.

I spent many long hours on a ladder leaned against the cliffs.  I would carry a three foot hammer drill up as high as I could get it and spend 20-45 minutes per drilled hole.  The difficult thing was the cliff was only a foot away.  In order to hold the hammer drill I would have to lean back two feet and hold that position while trying to maintain some kind of pressure.

Once we had made Swiss cheese of the cliff face we would then stuff each hole with dynamite and C4 detonation cord.  My grandfather carried a blasting cap inside his pocket – tinkling with his Wriggleys gum and prospector lens.  He really was an old-time character.  He would take a stick of dynamite and break it in half over his knee.  Then he would dig out the sawdust and nitroglycerin innards with his trusty old timer pocket knife.  He would then tape a blasting cap on the end of the detonation cord and shove it into the hole.  Electrical tape it right and use the end of a broken shovel to ram it down into the hole.

I just imagined how if the cliff blew, I would only hear a slight muffle and then there would be complete and utter blackness.

I mention mining with my grandpa because it was an adventure (We mined Alabaster).  It was a way to truly feel alive.  And that’s how I earned a lot of my spending money that went to Lego.  I loved how each set was created out of so many pieces that had the possibility to be anything I could imagine.  The possibilities were endless…  And so were the options I created to make money. From mining to selling cherries with my dog, there was always something to get me a few bucks in my pocket.

I have since looked back on my childhood and I realized that my days were full of work I enjoyed.  It was fun, creative, and hard.  But it never really felt like work.  I know have boys of my own and I have introduced them to the addiction of building Lego.  Lego is a toy I’ll gladly buy for them (and myself).  I have had many odd jobs from inventory to switch gear design over the past fifteen years but my favorite has been the hardest work that does not feel like work.

I have spent the past fifteen years designing and growing my Wowflutes until it has become my main focus.  I am passionate about making products that can be enjoyed, and ones that never get old.  Like Lego.

My goal with Wowflutes is to show that you can love what you do and be successful to.  I feel that too many folks are focused on earning money as their primary goal.  This is not a bad thing, but what they do not know is that the most successful individuals are those who are doing what they love.  The work does not feel like work but rather play, just like those long hours spent in my childhood working, playing and building Lego.

(see more of my Toy Photography)

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Ideas are Things

This Blog is devoted to awesomely designed toys.  I define toys rather loosely to include dual-functionality products that have a fun aspect to them and could be considered toys for the bigger kids (myself).

I absolutely love to inspect and admire well designed products.  I also really enjoy toys.  They make life fun for everyone.  Who does not have a toy that they played with and remember most from childhood?  My favorite toy growing up was Lego because of all the possibilities from just a simple set of snapping bricks.

Some folks think that when you grow up you should not play with toys anymore because they are for children…  Well, to be brutally honest, they can go be sad grownups who work their lives away hoping to save for some kind of retirement so they can enjoy toys again.

Toys do not just appear out of nowhere.  They are being designed and created and tested and manufactured using highly detailed engineering techniques and practices which include various high-tech technologies in manufacturing and design.  It never ceases to amaze me when I look at a clever toy such as an action figure or puzzle that has numerous joints and detailed parts.  Each one of those parts were thought of and sketched out then taken through the conceptual design phase.  Then being created individually inside an injection mold and assembled with skill to achieve the proper movements and quality.

Through my experiences as a product designer I have learned every aspect of this process.  My own cool toy – the Swirl Wowflute has been such an enjoyable experience to work on.  It has been in the research and development phase for nearly fifteen years and may not ever leave this phase – there are always ways to improve upon an existing design.  I find it rather interesting when I compare some of my year old handmade Swirl Wowflutes with newer ones I made last week.  They are completely different!?  I did not intentionally change the design, but it gradually morphed into what works better and better.

I finally decided to make a manufactured version of the Swirl Wowflute in 2012 as part of a University capstone project.  I spent many long hours attempting to use Autodesk Inventor to make a digital replica of my popular handmade flutes.  I look at the design process as a form of art – even when you are designing a manufactured product.  That product was a concept, an idea – that suddenly becomes tangible in the real world.  This is the purpose of art, is it not?  Producing some kind of physical product from an idea.

I got to use the $10,000 3D printer on my project to print out prototypes for testing.  In this capstone project I was not able to produce a working prototype that was tuned because the time was limited in class.  I did get a functional prototype that whistled though and played it as part of a presentation.  It was not enough for me to just make something that was just there.  I like interaction, and dual-functionality.  I wanted an end product that would build on someones creativity.

Onward and upward.  After I graduated college I had the desire to make this manufactured Wowflute a reality.  I could see the prototypes that were once just simple ideas in my hand – it gave me a sense of excitement and awe.  Ideas truly are things!  It was an ah-ha moment I will not easily forget and it’s worth repeating – Ideas are things.

During my final semester at Southern Utah University I had decided to throw out all my required classes and took what I wanted to learn about.  I took a marketing class from a talented Professor Ellen Treanor who knew how to make a subject interesting and exciting.  I always looked forward to her classes.  One class she introduced us to a website called Kickstarter.  The opportunites I saw almost made my head explode!  I saw the potential to make the manufactured Wowflute a reality in a simple project based platform.  After graduation I took a boring job to make ends meet all the while selling my handmade Swirl Wowflutes on the side.  I soon felt the urgency to quit my well paying salaried + commission job and pursue the dream of bring my Wowflutes to a much larger audience.

I acquired some investments from an awesome friend of mine and started on the process in making a quality manufactured version.  I spent the next five months finding a manufacturer and a product designer who knew how to design for injection molds.  I created a high resolution prototype using the SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) method and tried it out.  It worked well but was way out of tune.  I asked my designer to make the walls thicker and the holes 25% larger.  This would effectively reduce the chamber size and increase the change between holes.  I had another SLS prototype made and to my great astonishment – it sounded better than expected!  It was in tune perfectly.  The many years of making the handmade Wowflute (30,000 of them) had paid off.

I then took that prototype and ran with it on kickstarter.  My kickstarter project was a success and the Tritan Wowflute was brought to life.  This did not appease my appetite – for I had tasted it, Ideas are Things!

So as you pa-ruse my website, know that I am passionate about design in general and I beleive in making ideas reality.  Optimism is key in anything great.  You will always have the naysayers and the haters who are really just jealous.  You can feel sorry for them.  You can use their negative energy to instill what I call “the Oh Yeah Factor”.  The “You wanna make a bet?”  The “I’ll show him”, this is powerful stuff.  I use it all the time.

Thanks for taking the time to read to this point.  Now I will reward you with some pictures of awesomely designed toys that I like:

The Creepy Face Woody Doll:

woody - ebe whistle wide

The loveable, babylike Baymax:

Endurance is patience concentrated. – Thomas Carlyle 

A photo posted by Joseph Cowlishaw (@joecow) on

Pixar’s Carl Fredricksen from UP:  

Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind, the stronger the trees. – Thomas S. Monson A photo posted by Joseph Cowlishaw (@joecow) on

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Jump off the Cliff already

calf-creek-falls-cliff

“Jump off the cliff, and build your wings on the way down.” – Ray Bradbury

This morning I came across this quote by Ray Bradbury.  I have read many of his books but I have never heard this saying of his.  I completely agree with it.  There is no good time to start until you start.  Jumping off a cliff is a great metaphor because it is something that we as humans have an innate fear of.  I remember my first time repelling as a boy scout.  The anticipation of the repel was the worst.  Hiking up around the backside of the hill knowing that I would be dangling 60-80 feet in the air was exciting, exhilarating, and terrifying at the same time.  I was with experienced individuals that knew what they were doing but they were not the one making the decisions as they told me to put my back to the edge of the cliff and lean out into the void nothingness.  My heart skipped and thumped wildly at the prospect of depending on a small rounded nylon cord for my life and enjoyment.

At the edge of the cliff, the fears come flowing all at once – everything you have ever been told about falling to your death, screams squelched inside.  Then you take that leap of faith and lean into the strength of the rope and become horizontal with the wall of the cliff.  It’s an amazing experience.  The cliff wall then becomes your stomping ground.  Once you have breached the threshold all the fear dissipates.  The fear wasn’t real, it was just there to stop you from acting.  Now that you have done it the fear has failed in it’s purpose to hold you back.

I am in no way suggesting you jump off the cliff without a thorough knowledge and understanding of the pros and cons.  But in reality, one learns the most through doing.  Jump off the cliff, and build your wings on the way down.  We all are at different points in our life, and I think we reach many cliff edges all the time.  Mini fears that keep us from achieving awesomeness.  I would say eighty percent of the time people shirk because of the fear.  The mere twenty percent that take the plunge find out they weren’t at all prepared, but they are better for doing it.

I was never prepared to leave a good paying job to pursue my desires of making my ideas and ideals a reality.  I was never prepared to have to depend on others so much.  I was never prepared to jump off the cliff, and I don’t think anyone is.  But the reality of knowing what I know now and being what I am now has convinced me that I will jump every time in a split second.

Become a backer of my Kickstarter – The Relic Wowflute today!

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Designing Dual-Functionality

 

I was thinking about how the design process works when dealing with a new product.  This is my favorite part of the design process is figuring out how something works or why it works.  I think this is how every discovery is made.  First you think about something and say  “wouldn’t it be cool if it had this feature…?”.

I have been working in my new ceramic studio for the past couple of weeks designing and refining new products for my business Wowflutes. The concept of Wowflutes is built on the idea of dual-functionality in each creation.  I try to think of something somewhat mundane, like a mug for instance, and make it into a new product with a musical twist.  I have been working on refining my design of the Wowflute Mug.  I first throw a simple cylinder on the wheel, cut it off and let it dry to leatherhard.

Then I take my trimming tools and trim it like a standard mug.  After trimming I take a needle tool and cut in half about 2/3rds from the top.  I then fashion the flute mechanisms into the bottom part of the mug and using knitting needles I create an airflow channel through the top 2/3rds of the mug and make this the mouthpiece.  I then cutout a traced circle of the mug piece and add a flattened mid-section that serves as a false bottom to the mug and a top for my closed vessel whistle that is in the bottom portion.

Then it is on to tuning the mug by putting the proper amount and size of holes in relation to the size of the chamber.  After it is tuned to play the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly with the proper fingering to match my tableture notation it is ready for a handle!

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Relic Wowflutes

Rough Polished Relic Wowflute

Our new Relic Wowflute Ocarina will be coming soon!  We are still in the development stage and are working on producing a Kickstarter campaign!  Keep your eyes peeled.

UPDATE:

We have launched our Kickstarter Campaign and with the first day we have gotten over 20% funded!  Yay!  The Relic Wowflute is a very in-depth process.  We first start out with a powdered metal.  We used Hadar’s Clay because it seemed less commercialized.  Hadar’s Clay was a great choice because it allowed for much more versatility and control over the consistency of the clay.

Metal clay is quite interesting to work with.  As I was shaping a Relic, the water would flow towards gravity and would pool there.  The top would dry out quickly but the bottom would still be wet.  It definitely will be a  learning curve that I am willing to take the time to develop!

Mirror Finish Relic Wowflute

In the Kiln

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Prototypes

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I truly enjoy a good prototype. There is something that makes experimenting with new ideas a feast for the mind. This is one of the new prototypes for the Precious Metal Wowflute. I’ve been wanting to try this new material for some time. I finally had the time to test it out. I used Hadar’s Clay in powdered form to make three Wowflutes. I attempted to try the Mokume-Gane method for mixing Copper, Bronze, and Steel to create a colorful swirl pattern similar to my current handmade Wowflutes that are swirled in polymer clay. My fingers were not used to the new weight of the clay! I found the clay was quite malleable when mixed properly but could also turn into something similar to silly putty with too much water. This new material will take some time to get used to. My hands and fingers are trained to the thickness of my polymer clay flutes. I believe I will need to get the wall thickness of the metal wowflutes much thinner and more refined. In order to do this though the clay must be more dry to hold shape – which poses a problem when it comes to drying out and cracking. I will need to make these flutes much quicker when forming to minimize cracks. I think I may be able to use cracks to my advantage and use them for inlay of a different material once the flutes are fired and finished. Quite the new process working in metal! Stay tuned, I will be uploading more pictures of the process soon.