To do the sun/shade studies I propose here two things need to happen. The site plan needs to be rotated to true north and a set of shade templates must be constructed. The site plan rotation makes it possible to use the same templates for all projects in the same general area. The templates work well over about a 30 mile radius, which can probablly cover the work area of most designers. To do sun calcs one needs the Lat/Long location of the area. This can be found at ... www.topozone.com Below is a screenshot of me looking for Shawn's project at Campbell, CA. Note on the left I have set the "Corrdinate Format" to "D/M/S". Then at the top of the map the Lat/Long will be shown as degrees, minutes, seconds. At the lower right True north is shown with the difference for magnetic north and grid north. A lot of mapping will use a grid north and I suspect Google maps may well be shown to the UTM grid which is a 0.636 error from true north at Canpbell, not something to worry about for sun studies. We don't have the sun observation described above to pin down the rotation needed, but looking at Google Maps of his house I was able to determine that the roof edge is near azmuth 215 degrees. Azmuth is direction of a line in degrees or rotation from North. Think of it as the hand on a clock where 0 is at the 12 position of the clock and as the hand swings clockwise, 360 degrees is the full circle. 90 degrees is East, 180 is South, 270 is West. Sun calcs are easily done at the following web site ... http://www.srrb.noaa.gov/highlights/sunrise/azel.html Below is a screen shot of a sun calc for Shawn's project. Above I have set the "City" box to "Enter Lat Long", and the values I got from topozone are entered. The time offset box is set to 8 (7 for Mountain, 6 for Central, 5 for Eastern time) and set Daylight Savings Time to "yes". A date and time was entered, and then the calc button is clicked to get the results. By changing the time by trial and error I look for an azmuth of 215 degrees, the roof edge direction I got from google maps. The time comes out to be 1.49PM. Though Shawn missed the sun observation last Saturday, he guessed it was near 2PM. It looks like rotating his plan so that the roof is at az 215 is what we need. Next I need to complete the templates for this area.

iain42, I have gone to this event for the past 6 years and have usually ended up buying one or two bamboo each year. The Texas Bamboo Society usually has a bamboo sale and auction and there are usually three of more 'commercial' bamboo suppliers as well. There are also usually bamboo arts and craft, and related items for sale. Lastly there are several bamboo related presentation. If you are interested in growing or using bamboo it is well worth attending. The following is an except from some tentative information sent out earlier by Carole Meckes who is coordinating this 16th Annual Texas Bamboo Festival and is a past President of the Texas Bamboo Society QUOTE August 23-24 - 16th Annual Texas Bamboo Festival - Zilker Botanical Garden Help is needed to plan this event - this is what is going on so far: Robin McBride Scott Our guest speaker, Robin McBride Scott, is an award winning artist who works in Traditional Woodland materials and native American Bamboo. She is the first place recipient of the American Bamboo Society Arts and Craft Award for 2007 for her work with basketry and canebrake (Arundinaria gigantea) bamboo. Robin is a consultant, presenter, and teacher of performing and visual Native arts. She is one of 6 artists in 2008 to receive a Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Visiting Artist Fellowship. She is also a recipient of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers 'Artist of the Year' for 2005-2006. On Saturday, August 23 - Robin will do a presentation about her work with basketry and native American bamboo. On Sunday, Robin will conduct a workshop on Weaving a Cane Mat, using native American Bamboo that she has personally harvested, prepared and dyed. The workshop will be limited to 10 - 15 participants. Registration Info is posted at http://www.bamboocentral.net/weavingworkshop.html Additional Presentations: (times are not decided yet) 'Landscaping with Running Bamboo' - using running bamboo - in the landscape and elsewhere - and not to be afraid of it - Presentation by Steve Muzos A Video Presentation about the works of Japanese Artist Tanaka Kyokusho - produced by David Stewart- Tanaka Kyokusho, is a bamboo artist and a bamboo basket maker. The video is about his work and shows how he makes the fine slivers of bamboo that he uses in his baskets. If you would like to do a presentation - or there is a topic you would like discussed at the festival - please email me. There is ample time to further develop and round out the program. The festival will include a live plant auction on Saturday afternoon, a dinner by reservation on Saturday evening and two full days of bamboo activities with bamboo plants and crafts for sale and show. Vendors: To date - the following bamboo vendors have sent in their vendor registrations and are listed at http://www.bamboocentral.net/16thfestival.html * Spirit Mama - Spun Bamboo Clothing (for adults and children) * Waterstones - vases created from stone with bamboo accents email * RM-Collectibles.com - Hand-Made Bamboo Crafts from Mt. Fuji, Japan * Bamboo Branch - Bamboo Beads & Jewelry, Poles, & Pieces Mike near Brenham TX Here is a link that might be useful: Bamboo festival

Below is a link for a site that lists "1000 things made from bamboo." It has a wide range of photos. It's in German, but I plugged it into Google translate to make it a little more accessible. Click through the photos in all the various categories to see if you get any ideas. As far as building things like furniture, etc., it's actually quite difficult because the culms are hollow, so it's hard to hold things together with fasteners. There are also very few books that actually show construction techniques, and you need considerable skills to do complicated things or things that need to be structural. I've been doing woodworking for over 50 years and working with bamboo is a challenge because you have to do a lot of individual fitting of pieces because the culms aren't perfectly round and the diameter changes as you go along the length. Lastly, you might get some ideas from the following books: "The Craft & Art of Bamboo," by Stangler; "Bamboo Style," by Goldberg; and "Building Bamboo Fences." by Yoshikawa. Here is a link that might be useful: 1000 things...

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