Clockwork Feathers

"If I want to fly, I have to build my own wings." Works of a modern artificer

[clockworkfeathers]

Visit Original Link

Posting some tracks that I've worked on that I haven't managed to get online elsewhere.

This track was done entirely on the original Polyend Tracker. I only used Audacity to transcode it to MP3

Hope you enjoy it

[clockworkfeathers]

Rewound: A Short Story Collection Zine | Clockwork Feathers

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The stories in this zine were written in 2020, while we were all going through the surreal experience of the early days of the global COVID-19 pandemic. It was around the 4th of July (when there was talk about having a parade of tanks in DC) and I was having a talk with my good friend Lee. We were both trying to cope with overwhelming feelings in the face of the absurdity of what was happening, and what had happened in the past 10 years or so, when our conversation wandered into the idea of redoing the past 10 years. The twist that we came up with to try and actually get things to turn out better was that in this weird groundhog decade mulligan, we would all have our memories intact.

These writings were how I coped at the time. I wrote most of these in a hypomanic episode that lasted for about a month. Looking back, I could see bits of hope in my writings.

As I’m writing this intro now, it’s February 2025, and I find that I am again dealing with feeling overwhelmed in the face of what’s happening in the world around me. It feels so unbelievable that the four and a half years since I wrote all of this has developed the way that it has. This is why I went and dug up all of these writings. I wanted to remember that weird bit of hope that I had back then.

I have done some editing, since most of what I had written were, at best, second and third drafts. I hope these short stories give you something to think about, or at the very least, give you a moment of distracting entertainment.

[clockworkfeathers]

Some thoughts I’ve been having recently…

I can’t believe I actually have to say some of these things.

[clockworkfeathers]

Just some thoughts for the new year.

I think I’m going to start posting more of my work on here going forward

[baggebythesea]

Grieve AND organize.

Good article by David Hunter on how to survive the Trump presidency, both on the personal and on the political plane.

There is hope — 10 ways to be prepared and grounded for another Trump presidency

The key to taking effective action if Trump wins is to avoid perpetuating his goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion and disorientation.

[the-moon-loves-the-sea]

This is an excellent article. It talks about the psychology of tyranny, the history of resistance and the paths we have to take to rescue each other and recover.

[bigbigtruck]

Point #4 especially.

[clockworkfeathers]

If new year’s resolution don’t work for you, like they don’t for me, maybe it’s time to try something different.

For a while now, I’ve been using a method that was inspired by video game achievements, and they have actually worked out way better for me.

[clockworkfeathers]

I’m trying something new.

The best way that I’ve found to learn how to do something is to just start doing it as best as I can.

[buried-in-stardust]

Making a glass rabbit

[eng by me]

[clockworkfeathers]

So, I released an album (link to my Bandcamp in bio). You can read the details on the album page. . I’ll probably have more to say about it later, but it’s essentially free (it’s pay what you want, but seriously, just grab it). I’m mainly just putting stuff out because I enjoyed making it, and if someone else happens to like it, then enjoy! . It feels deliciously transgressive to make something purely for the sake of enjoying the act and process of making; and especially rebellious when no thoughts about making sales were involved in any of the creative process. . #musicproducer #trackermusic #madeinpolyend #electronicmusic https://www.instagram.com/p/CrHnGGdLPzm/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[clockworkfeathers]

Let’s see if tumblr will let me post the whole video here.

This little device is the Polyend Tracker. It’s a stand alone music workstation that implements the workflow of the old tracking programs that were used in early computer/video game music and the MOD scene.

It’s a workflow I find intuitive, so I can capture musical ideas quickly. Which means I can use this device like an audio sketch book, and I’m enjoying being able to have something that captures a lot of detail in a remarkably short amount of time.

Capturing this video was more work than it should have been, but that’s a rant for another post.

[gottalottarocks]

Hi I saw your reply on a post about weird things people believe in (in terms of science) and you wrote about that unless one stands on a volcano, its solid rock down to the outer core and I had to google it because I was always taught that THE MANTLE IS LIQUID not by movies but by SCHOOL and now I learn it's a case of 'technically-' and I'm shaking so, uh, thanks.

Hello! Sorry I sat on this, I wanted to respond with this earth structure diagram I've been working on. I think most public schools in the US do a terrible job of teaching geology and it actually drives me insane lol. Also, if learning the mantle is not liquid blew your mind, then this is gonna blow your mind too...

The mantle is green!

This is a pretty quick and dirty diagram, but I wanted to show the earth in a way that we don't usually think about (usually it just looks "hotter" as you go toward the center). Here are some earth facts I wish everyone knew:

The Crust - relatively super thin, very brittle, mostly granite, and things get weird where the crust transitions to mantle and where plates collide (might make a second post on that).

The Mantle - primarily made up of a rock called peridotite, which has lots of olivine in it and is blasphemously green. Also the mantle is pretty much all rock, maybe a little magma here and there, but it's pretty minor. But because all that rock is really, really hot it can deform plastically and it actually undergoes convection (it moves!) Mantle upwelling (shown in that lighter green) is actually a huge driver of plate tectonics.

The Core - made of an iron and nickel alloy, the outer core is liquid (because it's so hot) and the inner core is solid (because the pressure is so high). This dual metallic core generates Earth's magnet field (our planet is one big magnet). We also suspect that inner core has Widmanstätten patterns, similar to those we find in meteorites.

So yeah, hoped you liked some more earth facts 😅

[gottalottarocks]

I was not expecting so many responses and y’all have some great questions so here’s round 2 lol

@zscribez the deepest hole that humans have ever dug is the Kola borehole which is 12.2 km deep (like a third of the thickness of the crust)... so how tf do we know what the interior of the earth looks like!? We look at how earthquakes move through the earth:

So an earthquake happens and it sends out a blast of shock waves. P-waves push and pull, while S-waves shake, shake, shake. Since you can't really shake liquid in a way that propagates a wave, S-waves cant move through the liquid outer core, but P-waves can move through both liquids and solids. (So yes while the mantle is very hot and can deform over long timescales, it is definitely a solid).

After seismographs and global communication became a thing, geologists were able to figure out that earthquake waves were traveling in weird ways that could only be explained by a layered internal structure. Shadow zones are areas where you don't see any waves and they were one of the first big clues that something was up

Also, the speed of these earthquake waves depends on how dense the material is, so these waves will travel faster through a dense iron core than the granitic crust.

So by measuring how fast these waves moved we figured out what the material each layers was made of, paired with observations of rocks at the surface that were exhumed from the mantle

@x-cetra The reason magma or lava coming out of a volcano glows is because it's so hot it's emitting electromagnetic radiation, so it doesn't need any free oxygen to glow. It's kinda like how the sun isn't actually on fire (no oxygen in space). I believe the same type of magma at the same temperature will be the same color regardless of how deep it is.

@decayed-foundations so I think we need a physicist for this, because the color of the glow depends on the material and the temperature, and black-body radiation starts at red and goes to orange, yellow, then white. So the true color will be related to the level of radiation emitted and whether it overpowers the natural color, which may also change with depth.

@acidhues Rest easy tonight my friend

[clockworkfeathers]

So… the mantle is glass…! That oddly makes sense. It’s a silica based amorphous solid.

Not sure why I hadn’t put this together in my mind before, especially being a person that works with glass and ceramics.

🤯

[clockworkfeathers]

Squeaking in just before the end of the year, it’s a new zine issue! The main feature in this issue is the write up of my work at the beginning of the year as a resident artist in the Penland School of Craft flame shop where I refined a method for combining ceramics with glass using a torch. . Major thanks to @penlandschool for a fellowship award that made this work possible. . Link to the Patreon post where everyone can download the issue for free is in my bio. . #ceramics #glazechemistry #glasschemistry #flameworking #zine https://www.instagram.com/p/Cmz1CTfLRTn/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[clockworkfeathers]

More artifacts found while cleaning https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckg0pvegzQ4/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[clockworkfeathers]

Artifacts found while cleaning https://www.instagram.com/p/CkWTfbUgQu5/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[clockworkfeathers]

Penland is unique in our modern society. It’s a place where we are reminded of our connection to the physical world. . In times where the way we source the tangible things that get us through the year, season, day, hour, and moments are through clicks of buttons and exchanges of numbers, Penland reminds us that there are actual people with will and agency that shape the world around us to bring these items, whether necessities or luxuries, into existence. . Penland is a place that grounds and anchors our physical beings into our physical world, and that is something that is increasingly scarce as the world grows ever more fast paced. All of our advancements are built upon a foundation of making, which is the essence of craft. Places like Penland reinforce these foundations upon which we build our modern wonders; without which we would be adrift and unmoored from that which is real. . (Click the tagged account for a link to help this special place) . #wemakepenland (at Penland School of Crafts) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj61I0aD24a/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[clockworkfeathers]

Another branch off of the materials research I’ve been doing leads down toward self-glazing clays. Here are the results of preliminary proof of concept formulation. . Oh, and did I mention that it’s not thixotropic like the traditional self-glazing/Egyptian paste/faience formulations, so forming it isn’t as difficult? This also makes it more suited to extrusion for 3D printing than traditional formulations. . These samples were fired to cone 04. I’ve got some fine tuning to do as well as some colorant tests, but I’m excited for the possibilities. . I think I’ll call it Appalachian Paste. . #ceramics #claychemistry #glazechemistry #selfglazingclay #faience #egyptianpaste https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci1DeQ5DUFl/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[clockworkfeathers]

Jesse! We need to cook … . Experimental low temperature glaze formulations! . This stuff isn’t illegal. It’s going to be a glaze ingredient. If you want to follow along… ligand subscribe. . #glazechemistry #glasschemistry #sciencepuns https://www.instagram.com/p/CiMBvPgjXil/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=