Oops, I forgot

 This should have been in the post I did a few hours ago but it slipped my mind.  Rather than editing the old, I'll just do an addendum.

Re: Wood Engraving.  Traditionally the end grain of different types of wood have been used since the beginning of the craft to carve into.  End grain because you can cut in any direction without fear of tear out.  Not quite sure when, but a replacement for end grain wood blocks was developed by Dr. Richard Woodman using epoxy mixed with fillers to obtain a softer cutting surface.  He called it Resingrave.  He is now in his 90's and has stopped production of it but released his formula to the world.

Here's a reference to it.  Resingrave

I gave it go.  I'm making it in two foot by two foot panels and then cut it into whatever size I want.  It's a different experience cutting on it.  Whereas cutting end grain wood requires a deft touch, Resingrave demands an even lighter stroke and then going back into the line if you want to widen it.

First panel I made I stuck to his original directions, second and third I made a vacuum chamber to cure the panels in.  The vacuum sucks out all the tiny bubbles that mixing the epoxy makes.

Some pics.

Bonus Pic

I cry everyday

 I don't write this stuff to remember it later, I write it to remember it now.

I read some of the posts I wrote years ago and I can barely make out what I was trying to say.  But I do know at the time I wrote it,  I knew exactly what I was trying to tell myself. At that moment.

Like my friend, Sean Jewell writes "Stories can't be solid or they won't pass through us."

I do cry everyday.  About something or anything, or really about no thing sometimes. It's a good thing.  But I've been doing a lot more of it everyday and I know why now,  years from now maybe I won't remember why the tears today are so salty. 

Washing some coupes after a little happy hour with our next door neighbor

I have a photo that sits on the desktop of my computer that reminds me of why I cry everyday.  I can hardly stand looking at it.  But it is something I have to look at. How much of my failures as a human is part of the photo  How much belong to other people?  How much of the failure of the Grand Plan is to place the blame on?

This is not the photo.  No one gets to see that.

By the way, I cut this block four times.  Still ain't worth a shit.

Another by the way.  I toss this decade old blog out to the universe and expect only a few people around the world to read it a day.  Analytics tell me that.  I used to get numbers in 4-10 views a day.  But a month and half ago, somebody or something in Singapore started to go through every entry a hundred times a day, then the address switched to Hong Kong.  It's discouraging to me that I guess I'm just a way to bounce somebody's address off to hide their identity.  It's dampened my desire to write more.

Starting a new piece of furniture, ok, maybe three pieces for Taylor.

We went on a field trip to touch, see and feel some wood.  I'm going back on my own to pick out the species.  I'm hoping for Black Acacia.  Can't wait to find out what I pick.

A few years ago I gave all my Hasselblad stuff to a young filmmaker friend  of mine.  He's using it. 

Recently I decided to give all my view camera to another filmmaker friend of mine.  I think, even though they both grew up on digital, they are wanting to understand the roots of photography through real film.

He's getting all the 8x10 and 4x5 parts.  Lenses, the whole package.  Not tripods, I still need those.  For those inquisitive types, this is a Horseman, made in Japan.  I know, there are those out there who are saying, "But...but...why not the industry standard Sinar?"  Well, I used Sinar stuff for a full five years as an assistant, knew it intimately but there were super irritating design flaws with Sinar and I chose to go with all Horseman view cameras.

First year of any blooms of quantity on the Wisteria on the front of the studio.

The studio since it faces directly East is turning out to be a big teaching tool for observation of the movement of celestial bodies.  The sun is rising recently at a point where it comes in here.

Alright that's it.  Random and Bonus pics below.

Projector Lens Monday!

 I think even casual readers of MU will have noticed certain photos that are mushy dreamy.  Nothing is really sharp, colors can be bleached or strange, out of focus areas really are out of focus.  Black and white have a nice quality to them.  Curves things, it gives a natural vignette as well.

Those come from a slide projector lens without an aperture.  It's a $20 or $25 lens, I can't remember which.

We'll come back to Projector Lens Monday! soon.

But first a few from a conventional lens.

Glued up some end grain Hard Maple in order to have more blocks for the wood engraving.  I glue it long like this so I can run it through the drum sander more easily and I can cut to size depending upon the proportions of engraving I'm doing.

Been struggling in getting a crisp transfer of image but I've latched onto using the end of this porcupine quill I found in Turkey while we were hiking on the Lycian Way.  And good old fashioned carbon paper

The horse photo comes from a trip to Faroe Islands.  I'm using as a metric as to my progress in wood engraving. I will consider myself a beginner when I can cut something acceptable.

So far every time I try the horse, it's a real hot mess.  It all comes down to the eye.

I'm getting a few blocks cut and will print all at once.

Alright back to Projector Monday!.  Most of these I made today, January 1st, 2024.

 

 

Yes, a touch of Elegancé! on the new 3003 sign.

Edit. Some people wanted to know what the projector lens looked like attached to the camera.

I made a tight leather sleeve that's attached to a platform on the bottom of the camera.  To focus the lens, you slide it in or out.  The camera is a Fuji XPro 1.