Jumping fish carvings in front.
My latest Autumn colored scarf. This one went fast. The center was multi-colored yarn and I matched the colors for the rest of the scarf which I changed colors as I went along, usually at about a third of the length..
Year 14, Week 43, Day One (week 689)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-16-13 Saturday
80 degrees, dropped down to 75 degrees before bouncing back to 80 degrees. Thick threatening medium high grey clouds with low pregnant clouds to the north and south of us. A broken band came over us late morning which caused the temps drop and then the weather improved to just the medium high threatening clouds. At some times, there were strong gusts of wind. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism. At least we got no snow......
I have had a cold all week. It showed up last Saturday and was at its worst Tuesday. It has not gotten sloppy which was nice. I treat it with Cold-EEZ, Menthol cough drops and If I get bad, I will take a pain medicine. No cold is comfortable, but this has been one of my more comfortable colds I have had in years. The cold and the weather took a lot of energy out of me today.
There were supposed to be a big community yard sale, a big church yard sale and Granny's Attic. We went to Granny's attic first. It is held in a gymnasium with a extended room off of it. These are collector and vendor quality stuff. There are good prices. I saw several things I could well have gotten if I did not already have five of them. One family had antique stuff. There was a washboard and a crank clothing roller. I thought it would be cute to get them, but I have no place for them and no use for them. They were just cool. I walked the place five times and when we got back to our car, I was worn out.
The weather killed any outdoor yard sales. We found a garage sale in a warehouse. The couple things that caught my eye was not enough to ask their price. The church yard sale and the community sale were not going on, most likely because of the weather.
We did find a yard sale. We saw it the instant we saw the sign. There was a bag of those wicker paper-plate holders. I asked how much. She said a dollar so I grabbed them up. There was 15 of them. I now have like 35 wicker paper plate holders. I will have no interest in them again unless I find a bunch of them like I just did. I will test them out at the next family gathering that is not a sit-down meal.
I dug out my Manolta film camera equipment and gave it a quick test. I did not run film through the camera, but mainly checked out the lenses and the set-ups.
My bellows attachment does have a problem of not locking in place, starting to disconnect itself from the camera. That is not a problem usually. I just have to be careful and aware of the problem.
I was reminded of something that I forgot about as soon as I learned it the first time. ON my bellows, I have a 55mm lens mounted backwards with a 2x doubler on it to make it a 100mm lens. Usually the doublers are poor optics but this one is very good. When I was heavy into photography, I had mounted a zoom lens on the bellows backwards like I have this one. I had found that the zoom ring became focusing, and the focusing ring became a zoom.
With my setup, I turned the focusing ring and found that I can get a wider view or a narrower view through the bellows attachment. When looking at a flower, I can fill the screen with a flower the size of your thumbnail, or by turning the focusing ring, I am backed up slightly to see some of the leaf surface around the flower. When I crank the bellows in, I can look at infinity. The focusing ring will give me a good telephoto view or a wider angle view. I will have to do some tests to figure out what the range is.
I now remember what the difference is between the model 101 camera I have and the model 201 camera that they came out with later. The newer model allowed the hot shoe on top the camera to set off the strobe. This requires you to plug the strobe in with a cord and the fitting on top the camera is only to hold the strobe. This model 101 has two flash plugs, one for flashbulbs where it would set them off before the shutter fully opened to give them time to power up, and the electronic strobe that flashed just when the shutter was opened. I have several adapters that fits on the strobe's hot-shoe and then a cord runs to the plug.
With the bellows, I liked having the strobe mounted on a bracket so the lense of the strobe is about the same height as the camera lens. I tested a handle bracket but that put the strobe too high. I have no idea where most of my camera equipment is as I used to have a bracket the right kind.
Some of my lens attachments don't work with my selected equipment. I realized that I don't need some of the equipment I brought with me. That will make the bag lighter.
I am not a person who uses a tripod. Most photographers will mount their bellows onto a tripod, and carefully adjust the focus until they get everything right then take the picture. My method is to basically set the focus to the size I want the subject on the image to be and then move myself in and out until it is in focus and take the picture. The strobe, mounted the way I like it, freezes any motion. The strobe also made the subject stand out against the background, which natural lighting cannot do.
All this camera testing likely took only half an hour.
The weather and my cold took away any serious thought about wood working. I just did not have it in me.
I did sit and crochet. I finished, except for the tassels, my Autumn colored scarf. I can see things I should have done that would make it better, but I am not complaining. It is pretty colors.
That is the eighth scarf in my collection. The one in the truck is going to take quite a while to get any length that someone might consider finished.
I do hope to do some wood working tomorrow. It gets frustrating to not have any production. A lot will depend on the weather.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
Year 14, Week 43, Day One (week 689)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-17-13 Sunday
85 degrees, lots of medium-high grey clouds, with blue spaces between and some sunshine. A nice breeze kept things comfortable.
Feeling better this morning, I dug out my carving stuff. I carved another jumping fish and when I was done, I decided I did not like carving jumping fish. This gives me four and I won't make any more unless the mood hits me sometime. They are just not working. My first one came out good and none of the rest has matched the quality.
I got around and finished touching up the Penguin ornaments. I used a Stabillo to touch up some spots missing black or where paint went a little too far. I also finished up the eyes. I sanded the bottom of the bases and signed them. I still have to give the penguins a coat of varnish but held off on that. 9 penguins will be enough. I could use, though, another three.
I had seen an article where a guy turned little balloons (light bulb shapes) and then turned little baskets and attached them together with string glued between them. I have considered making them for a while, but wanted to do a single step kind of thing, avoiding the string.
Years ago, I had made a few ornaments that required one to take four sticks that are attached back-to-back. One then turns a shape in them. You then disconnect them turn them around so the turned surface is facing inside and then turn it again, following the shape. One ends up with a hollow ornament you can see inside of.
I got an idea of trying to make the balloon that way, using the wood to be the strings. I had a stick of three-quarter wood. I cut it in half, then cut each half in half. I used tape to bind them together. I was going to remove some wood where the ropes would be on the lathe. I found that the little lathe was too small, and the chuck of the big lathe did not go small enough. I tried turning it anyway using friction and marked the wood before it caught and came apart. I then decided to tape it back together and carve it instead. I made my cuts, then flipped them around and glued them together.
While the glue was drying, I went in to have lunch and do some crochet. I came out after the glue set and started carving and quickly found my plan with the lathe would not have worked anyway, at least the way I tried to do it. Cutting into the wood limited the size of the basket. I was not getting a balloon shape at all. After I had piled some wood chips, I tossed it in the garbage without ever taking pictures of any stage. I have been thinking about methods that could have worked and don't like any of them.
The momma kitty sat in my lap for about fifteen minutes. She enjoyed the attention I gave her. I set her on the ground because I had to do other things. I do not know if she would stay there if I were not giving her attention. When she gets to that point, I will call her a lap cat.
Scarface has been hanging around close for the past few weeks. He had hurt his paw and has decided not to wander anywhere. He is eating heavily right now. He is sometimes fed two meals in a day and normally eats everything he is given. That shows he is not double dipping as he used to.
I can forget about woodworking next week. I have to go to a wedding next Saturday. I am giving away the bride. The whole day is shot. There won't likely be even yard sailing. With all the activity we won't have time. Since it is my mother who is getting married, I won't go up Sunday.
I will see what happens next weekend.
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