From the Mailbox: three mail art pieces. One very interesting post from Paint Rock River Valley Postal Authority with a puzzle: can one identify what butterfly would emerge from the caterpillar? Two postcards from Cascadia Artispost: Stormy Season (a bit of a tradition) and “Trenes y Vagones.”
Photography: I took a suite of photos at different exposures of the Dublin Corn in the Sam and Eulalia Frantz Park. [See this and this.] I don’t know what i think of “proper” exposures. Lately i’ve been stepping down. Christine says they look under exposed, and i get that, but i still like the image a little better. This seems to be a good indicator that it’s time to take a photography class.
I have heard of one answer to my frustration with exposures: playing with HDR. I found a list of software and tried FDRTools Basic. It does an interesting job of attempting to align the images and all of the adjustments, mappings, etc. I’ll give it a go sometime i’ve taken the bracketed images with a bit more precision. I tried to keep things aligned, but, oh my, what a little twist can do to making alignment impossible. I *could* use the rubber sheeting algorithms in a GIS package to align the exposures, but i’m not sure that’s a good use of time.
New tools: Mom gave me new crochet hooks from Twin Birch Products of Pittsboro, NC. I look forward to giving them a try. So far i’ve just worked with aluminum and steel hooks.
Beading: Just as i was leaving NC, i noticed the bead store close to my sister Laura’s place. She, i and W stopped there on the way to the airport so i could pick up some beads for Christine. I chose three focal beads of laminated leaves and two wooden beads for earrings. When i got back to town i had to run some errands in downtown Mountain View. I didn’t have any excuse to get more beads for Christine, but i had a string of sodalite chips and a cabochon that did not have any other beads to keep them company. So, i now have more beads, but i don’t quite feel up to the wire wrapping challenge. I don’t quite have a vision for the blue necklace, either.
In the oven: I left town for ten days before finishing my first batch of bread dough. I made a fine looking loaf when i returned, but it did seem to have gone off. I hope to make a second batch this weekend.
Artistamps recommendations: There was a long discussion about perforation practices. I am more tempted now to send sheets of stamps off to be perforated, but my general practice of cutting them out continues to satisfy me.
- Pounce Wheels followed by use of an awl (without the awl, it seems the perforations would be slotted. I’ve a perforating wheel for my paper cutter that can do this.
- The Olathe Poste offers pre-perfed gummed papers as well as custom perfing jobs. (1″ x 1.5″ – portrait or landscaped orientation) on 8.5″ x 11″ (or A4) papers in standard weights is $0.75 per sheet.)
- There was some discussion about antique Rosback perforators. “The pins on a Rosback are about 1/16″ diameter. They are spaced about 14 or 16 to the inch.”
A general roundup on the topic is available at mailartists.com. It does seem that a rotary punch could be developed for one sheet at a time. I’ll leave that for another life time, though.
This post is now plenty long: bread-baking, gardening, and crocheted toys to come.
