of Melbourne, Australia






What's New

Periodic updates about works in progress,
site changes and other late-breaking news.

Last update: 3 March 2002

	March 2002 Visitors returning to the site will notice quite a few changes which have taken place over the last four to six weeks. Some of the changes are easy to spot - such as the 'down' and 'up' arrows to take you to the head or foot of the page, which are now standard on all pages of the site (except pop-up windows in the catalogue etc) plus some simplification of page layouts and increased consistency between pages and some navigational improvements using JavaScript. There is also now an Internet Awards page - since the third week of January actually - which I can say (with more than a little appreciation!) is now populated with more than a dozen awards. Several of these are Art awards, given primarily for the content and the way it is presented rather than for the technology, and that too is gratifying. February also saw the launch of the Guest Book, which has gotten off to a rather slower start. Nevertheless, the comments submitted so far have been appreciated, and hopefully there will be more to come. Less easy to spot (but no less significant) was a thorough overhaul of the html code to improve browser compatibility, remove a few errors and inconsistencies and slim down the code for quicker load times. At the end of this process, the whole site was achieving a clean bill of health at NetMechanic.com (except for their excuse for a spell check - they count everything from 'Cologon' and 'NightWing' to 'realise' spelled with an 's' as a spelling error, and consequently give the site a very poor rating for spelling?!). Last but not least, February saw an integration of forms with the inventory and archival database (what? you say). This means that you can now click a button next to an item on the online catalogue listing to send a query about the current status (price, availability etc) of that item. The query goes directly into the database which I use to track and store archival data about all the works. The response (in html) is generated automatically by the database and placed in a queue for a 'clearance check' (by human hand - as a safeguard against code or data errors) before the response is posted. The check introduces a potential delay (worst case scenario, 24 hrs) but it is otherwise a smoothly automated process. With this, the integration of online payments using the PayPal service (and a "shopping cart" function - limited at present to established customers) were also completed. So, if you were thinking of buying something...   :-) Ray, 2 March 2002
	January 2002 Detailed drawings and preliminary work for further works in the 'Human Architecture' sculpture series (of which works such as 'Room for Dreaming' and 'Temple Sunrise' are part) developed further this month, and work on the next stage of the series will start shortly. Visitors who came via the front page may also have noticed that the site now proudly boasts that it is listed in the highly selective World Artist Directory and also online at dArt.fine-art.com - the major Internet Art Database. Also a note of thanks to the Philadelphia Wood Turning Center for including a reciprocal link on their impressive new site! Further upgrades to the site this month, including roll-over text menu commands at the foot all pages (they were previously only on the main pages) and a lengthening of the 'Wands' page to include ten wands as features (with acess via each to enlarged picture display pages). Ray, 25 January 2002
	December 2001 The site didn't change much last month, because every second of the day (well, it felt like it!) went into final preparations for the exhibition at Art Affairs which opened at the end of the month. Ten pieces in all were included in the show, and the opening (on 21 November) was a great treat. Many thanks to all those who came along on that day. While not making a lot of changes to the site during November, preparations were nonetheless underway for the inclusion of the in-progress photos of a number of the works which were being prepared for the exhibition. This meant having a remote timer-triggered camera set up at various spots in the workshop to capture pictures of a number of stages of the process. As you can imagine, I was concentrating on the work more than the pics at the time. However, this month I've taken time out to collect together a selection of the resulting images and put them into an online gallery of pics of several of the works during the various stages of their progress (as well as pics of the final result). Have a look at them on the new 'Studio/Workshop' page. Ray, 19 December 2001
	October 2001 A few major refinements to the site this month, with extension of the online catalogue to include a complete chronological list of the recent groups of work - including the entire collection which was exhibited as 'The NightWing Series' at Art Affairs Gallery in July. Other changes and additions include the detail pictures of all of the featured work. If you click on any work displayed throughout the site, you will now be taken to a page with details about the work (eg its dimensions and materials) and an enlarged studio format picture. The Articles/Reviews page has also had a facelift and now includes an article by Tim Brooks (VWA) which his account about a presentation at the September meeting of the Victorian Woodworkers Association (at which I was kindly invited to be guest speaker) - reproduced by courtesy of the editors of 'The Cutting Edge'. Ray, 30 Octopber 2001
	September 2001 The NightWing Enterprises site was launched within its own domain name at www.nightwing.com.au in September 2001. This has been the culmination of some long hours compiling the images and materials from the databases and archives of images of the work, plus adapting the graphics elements, logo etc from digital drawings which I'd designed for printed materials. The pages of the site are hand coded in html (with a few inserted drops of handwritten javascript for good measure) to try to give clean, quick and (relatively) browser-independent loading. As others who have put art sites up on the net will attest, the biggest draw-back - at least initially - is the need to find bulk time to set a site running while still trying to keep up hours in the studio/workshop producing new work and preparing for exhibition deadlines! After a concerted effort (and some very late nights indeed), the basic site is operational. Look back here for regular updates about events and progress with the work and the site. Ray, 21 September 2001

NightWing Enterprises
ABN 22 207 533 285
www.nightwing.com.au
PO Box 20, Dallas, Victoria, Australia 3047
Ph +61 3 9016 3347  •   Fax +61 3 9309 8273  •   Mobile 0409 309 143
Email: contact@nightwing.com.au



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