Caught in the web (again)

"..and I'm hovering like a fly, waiting for the windshield on the freeway."

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Anyone who knows me well has seen me buried under a MASSIVE re-design of the entire Wareham Forge web site over the last month. All 150 megabites of it.

I was relatively early into the internet, starting back in the days when this all was just bulletin boards. The first fledgling Wareham Forge web site was created roughly 1995. At the time it was pretty small, so all the individual sheets of information, the images and their thumbnails, were all shoved into one single folder. Flash forward over a dozen years, and there are over 850 images alone used to create the massive site.

I have chosen (with intent, if not wisdom) not to remove the earlier content, but to just add on top of it. This is because I want the web site not just to be an advertising vehicle. It also is specifically intended to be a reflection of personality. As an artisan, I want people to consider that personality when they select my work. This may (or may not!) be a wise business decision. Others with less artistic vision have chosen a kind of slick (but shallow) representation of themselves and their work, which may better attract the world of high end designers. Frankly, these are not what I see as my ideal client anyway.

Back to the site, it has grown so much that I myself can often not find things contained inside it. The re-design that is under way is primarily concerned with creating a more logical underlaying file system. If done correctly, there should be no real change visible as users move through the contents. There has been some changes with creation of 'theme' background wallpapers, which should help you know just what section you are delving into.

Along with obvious changes like addition of the 2008 schedule and course dates, I am adding about 50 new objects from 2006 and 2007 to the various gallery sections. The single most active part of the site is the Experimental Iron Smelting section. The materials published here provide an ongoing record of my work in that area.

I'm at the last two stages of the overhaul: Integrating any 'orphan' images and running the whole site for spelling errors (!!) With luck the entire new package will be loaded by the end of this week (After Friday Feb 8).

Any regular visitors are asked to check any bookmarks they may have. I have moved the exact locations of most sheets and all the images. I have (tried to) inserted re-direct warnings for those sheets which have moved to help you with this.

Darrell