Years can go by startlingly quickly. I was looking over the website and realized our “new” post was already over a year old! That started my current refreshing of the website which culminated in a new homepage! Our homepage now displays current photos, and the three feeds of our blogs: Main Feed, The Adventures of An and John, and my newest blog, Above\Below. I have removed some old features (Esty shop) while adding some new photos and content (hedgehog pics and etched posters) .
We hope you enjoy our new page and our new content as we enter Summer 2022.
Well the years start coming and they don’t stop coming…
WOOD you like to see some new things?
This winter John and I have been busy at work! We updated the Birb Ball amd are ready for spring. I tried my hand at living hinge box work, creating game boxes, knife boxes, nested cylinders and more. Below you will also find our first light fixture, a VW Beetle hanging light!
An-John introduces Laser-Cut Products
What can one create with a laser cutter? The only limit is your imagination. Last year, Ani and I wrote a list of everything we could possibly think of to craft on a laser cutter. That list has about 100 items on it, and grows daily with every new idea born from a mistake. From games and toys, to puzzles and bookmarks, furniture, light fixtures and beyond: Everything is possible! The better question is: What can’t you make? The obvious answer would be 3D shapes… but our cubes, cylinders, and spheres would say otherwise.
This story starts in architecture school with foam-core models, the bane of freshman year and a notoriously difficult material (teachers in later years ban its use altogether). Cutting straight is not the issue, because straight edges and t-squares exist. The problem is cutting perfectly perpendicular through a quarter inch, or more, of foam. Any angle in your cut results in a model with gaps in it’s seams and walls that don’t quite meet at a 90 degree angle. The first few years of school, my models were described “sloppy” at best and often derided by the visiting critics.
Some of my better examples… definitely not foam-core
Then one day something magical happened, it was announced that our studio would be receiving a laser-cutter to assist in our model making process. No longer would my designs suffer from poor models. One could simply send a file to the cutter, and 30 or so minutes later, have all the pieces required to assemble a precise and intricate design. As I glued together my first piece created in this manner, I knew this was a powerful tool and hoped to own one someday. Recently a generous patron made this a reality, for which we are extremely grateful.
In many ways, I would not have succeeded in a traditional architecture education only 30 years ago. Drawing by hand has never been something I could do and as previously mentioned my physical models appeared to have been assembled by a precocious 12 year old. I am grateful for autocad and laser-cutters becoming norm in design schools.
Our new studio setup with laser-cutter
This winter we are focusing our attention on our first few products. Birb Balls are pleasing spheres stuffed with wool and string to be used by birds to build their nests in spring. Biodegradable and sealed with animal friendly tung oil, these are a great present for any bird enthusiast. Birb Balls are available at The Snow Goose in Tulsa, OK The Bird Watchers General Store in Orleans, MA and our online store. Also on the docket are custom bookmarks. Whether you want to represent your favorite book, podcast, animal, etc. we can help you create a design worth remembering. Highly decorated or plain, flexible or rigid, standard or page holding, we are sure to have one that your favorite book lover will enjoy.
We at An-John are extremely excited to begin this new venture. We are constantly trying out new designs and prototypes, so much so that at just under one month old our unit already requires a good cleaning from all the use. We plan on creating at least one prototype for every one of those 100 ideas, so please follow our journey of discovery to see everything on the way. If you have an idea for a product, or want to stump us with an intricate design, please be sure to contact us through our Facebook Page or email us at: info.anjohn@gmail.com
Happy Crafting!
Re-Re-Re-FORMAT!!! (airhorn.wav)
Amoskeag Millyard has been reformatted! Printed on quality paper, this print can be easily framed in two ways. Either a 12”x18” frame, or 16”x20” mat (11”x14” opening) with a 16”x20” frame. Now available in 3 color schemes!
New from the City Skylines series: PARIS
Hi Everyone!
I am pleased to announce that posters are now available for PARIS. I was happy that my CAD file for this city was in much better shape than Berlin allowing me to finish it in a shorter period of time. This one turned out great due to my new mantra of “who’s keeping compass?” which is just something I have to remind myself of every so often. The Paris poster features the facades of Pyramide du L,ouvre, Panthéon, Palais Garnier, Gare de Lyon, Tour Saint-Jacques, Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame within Tour Montparnasse, La Tour de Eiffel, Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, et Église Saint-Sulpice. Among the usual buildings seen while visiting Paris I included Gare de Lyon. This beautiful train station with a clock tower is where I caught my first metro train every morning. I would have to take a bus, metro ligne 4, metro ligne 13, to another bus… But it was a very pleasant sight to start this journey. The poster is available in the two styles of whitespace shown, either with the blue city full bleed, or just the facades of Parisian buildings.
Hope everyone enjoys this new addition, The City of Lights
~John
Productivity!!
Well I am quite pleased to announce I have finished a bunch of new prints! Maps of Tulsa, Boston, and Boston Harbor are now available! These prints are smaller letter sized sheets with 8”x10” artwork. Tulsa in 1920 had already expanded past its original downtown and has implemented a more regular north south grid. Boston in 1838 is at the start of its victorian land reclamation phase with big changes ahead for the Back Bay and South Boston. Boston Harbor is a former tidal estuary with sand flats and salt marshes. This graphic shows Boston’s inter-tidal zone halfway through it victorian phase but before the need for Logan Airport and the South Boston container port. The color gradient really emphasizes the land revealed by low tide.
Another addition to my City Skylines Series is in the final stages of tweaking. We should see PARIS within the next week. The City of Lights is a unique challenge as a majority of the city is quite flat with three notable exceptions.
This burst of productivity has only further energized me and I am excited for everyone to see what I have coming!
Hope everyone is having a swell Wednesday
~John
The new headquarters of An-John.com!!!
We are excited to announce we are settled into our new place. Surrounded by our work and books we each have our own desk to create along with collaborative areas. This live/work environment is where we have been spending most of our free time.
Now that the move is over John is going to start on the second poster of the City Skylines series: Paris. It promises to be a quicker project than Berlin for the CAD file is much cleaner.
Ani is preparing to release the first five of her Alphabet series.
Stay tuned for the next week!
~An-John
First in New Series Release! →
City Scapes Series: BERLIN is now available!
Ani and Johns Presidential Tra-worst
Mt. Madison overnight: Success! 3 day traverse of the presidential range: super fail
Ani and Johns Presidential Tra-worst
We set out for a three day adventure in the White Mountains to test out our gear on one of the more challenging parts of the AT. The result however was a single overnight and successful summit of Mount Madison. For context the presidential range contains two of the most difficult single day assents on the AT, Mount Madison gains 2800 feet over roughly two and a half miles, and the weather on Mount Washington is notoriously capricious. Our packs were full, we were generously supplied, and prepared for any weather we may encounter on our first test run. We were not prepared for Ani’s foot to swell to twice its size due to a bee sting, thus turning our three day excursion into a single night and two day double summit of Mt. Madison.
We set out after a terrific breakfast at the Tilt’n Diner in Tilton, NH with our friend Rob who would accompany us for the weekend. As we had planned to complete the full 25 mile range over the course of the weekend, we spotted one of our cars and proceeded to the base of Mount Madison. We were chipper and excited to be on the trail, the smell of pine surrounded us as we clambered over rocks and roots, making our way to the tree line where we would begin the scramble to the summit. The scenery slowly turned alpine. The trees, first small and craggled, yielded to larger granite rocks stippled with multi-color lichen and small berry patches. On the summit we took our victorious pictures with Reggie and Annette, our hedgehog companions. Then we started down the trail to Madison Hut, and our tent site. Rainstorms could be seen to the north passing by, we were thankful that the curtains of rain had missed us.
After we made camp, Ani checked on her bee stung foot. While she seemed fine that morning, she was certainly not fine now, her foot had a bit of swelling and the edges of the sting could be clearly seen. We marked the boundaries of the inflammation and she popped a few Benadryl, we would check on her the following morning and make a decision on how to proceed. After a fitful and stormy night, her foot had fully swollen and we needed to descend. After coffee and oatmeal, we made our way back up to Madison hut for advice on how best to descend the now rainy and overcast mountain. We had three options, a flooded trail, a poorly marked and seldom traveled trail, or to return the way we had come; back over the summit and 2 mile exposed ridge to the safety of the tree-line. The volunteers at the hut advised us that the later would be our best bet.
So we returned to the summit of Madison in 50mph sustained winds, rain blowing sideways, and 20 ft visibility only allowing us to see each other and the next cairn. The clouds, forced over the summits by wind, dropped all of their moisture in violent outbursts as we crawled over the rocks clinging to hand holds while the wind pushed us and the clouds up and over the mountain. Finally we crossed a threshold where the wind cut to dainty wisps, the sky was strikingly blue and we were wide eyed and harrowed. We nearly ran down the mountain, at certain points hitting 3 miles per hour on our decent. We slowed when we reached the soft pine trail at the base of the mountain, enjoying our walk in the woods, the light rain was dispersed by the trees and the wind, no longer a gale force mammoth pushing our bodies, only reached our ears as a pleasant sound. While summiting in the worst weather on particularly difficult terrain is “exciting” we really rather enjoy walking in the quiet woods with nice pine needles and mud trail to follow. Long Trail, bugs and Vermont mud, we are on our way!
Mt. Washington
Welcome!
Hello,
Welcome to AN-JOHN! Our website offers various prints available for purchase, and Laser cut products will be available shortly. Any orders and questions can be sent to our email info.anjohn@gmail.com In the meantime catch up on the Adventures of AN and JOHN, and follow us as we complete our Appalachian Trail thru hike!
-ANI and JOHN
THE ADVENTURE BEGINS