The Principle Is The Same

Hey I’m taking a year long class called Lifebook. I like having classes to entertain me. I am usually taking more than one at a time. And this isn’t my first year long class and so I know that I usually fizzle out and loose interest at some point along the way. Not so with this one because I have learned that The Principle is the same.

Let me explain that a bit. I have taken many classes both online and in person. Invariability there is someone in live classes who needs their finished project to look exactly like the class sample. And I suppose there is some value in that. But that has never floated my boat. Well there was that one time when the teacher changed the class so much from the sample that I was not happy; but mostly I like to go my own way. Back in my courting days when women took to wearing pants out to the night club, I wore dresses. My hair stylist likes to part my hair on my bad side, I got her to switch…do you see where I’m going here…I think you do.

So when the Lifebook teacher taught a class on making a junk journal my little outside the box mind baulked. I don’t need a purse journal its not something I practiced, journaling while out and about. So I decided to use her technique but not on a journal. She started with white gesso, I went with black. I agree with Seth Apter that it add a richness of depth to a piece.


I started with a piece of junk like she did,  but I used something bigger, the packaging that my crafty goodness came in just that day. I turned it into some I need: a pocket. You see I had spent the previous evening looking for my watercolor chart only to find that my Alex drawers had eaten it. After looking everywhere and I mean
ev-ver-ry-where in my studio and if you want to see why that is a frustrating endeavor see my previous post where I gave a tour of my studio spaces. I needed a pocket to hang on the outside of the Alex drawers to hold my chart instead of putting it inside where it could slip behind the drawer again. I didn’t even think that was possible.

Here it is empty:


And here full:


And so the principle was the same I just used it my way to make some I needed, something I’ll actually use!


Can you guess who the teacher is?
In His Hand,

2016 Craft Room Walk Through

Birthday 2016 Card haul

The Pulley Consternation...

IF that title sounds like an episode of The Big Bang Theory hold on. In my last post I told you that my craft space is in the unfinished part of our basement. My stencils hang from a rod suspended on chains. This mostly worked; but to save my shoulders and neck I have to stand on a step stool to sort through them. I wanted them up and out the way when not in use and thus the short chain. I got a smart idea that maybe I could use something to raise and lower the rod and thus begins the saga of the pulley consternation.

This involves physics.

This involves engineering.

Someone should have warned me, I skipped physics took all the biology type science classes instead in high school. I wanted to be a doctor. I felt like I needed the help of Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper, Lenard Hoffstadter and Howard Walowitz. I’m like a dog with a bone on this one. I went to Lowes so often that the staff knew my name. I availed myself, at least twice, of the Same-day-shipping from Amazon. But after much frustration and 4 attempts and throwing too much money at it, I have something that works!

Eureka!

I started with a bike lifter (epic fail)
and while it worked I soon found out that I was not strong enough for this simple set up and that my stencils were so heavy they bent the bar and everything slid to one side or the other. And if I ever did use this thing it would not be often enough.
Enter a block and tackle pulley setup.
This has a 7:1 weight ratio (the physics part) so weak little me is now able to use this with little effort. 7:1 means I pull with one 7th of the force required to lift the actual weight.  I conquered 

the bending of the steel rod with a spruce pine furring 2x2x8 strip and some lag screw eye hooks.

What I used that worked
2 block and tackle pulley setups
6 foot ¼ inch diameter steel rod
2 ¼ inch axel caps
4 or more lag screw eye hooks
2 wire cable clamps (secures rod so that it will not slid out of the lag eyes)
2 block and tackle pulley setups
1 spruce pine furring 2x2x8 strip (cut to 6 feet and sanded smooth)
6 larger screw eye hooks (large enough for the block and tackle hook to pass through)
A wall cleat to tie the ropes off with.
Drill
Screw Driver (makes quick work of the screw eyes)
A husband with the patience of Job (NBA playoffs every night)

Oh did I say I made 2 of these yikes! One (shown above) for small stencils and the other for 12 inch stencils.

As always I leave you
In HIs Hands,

Hey I Shoot Youtube Videos Too

I like to share on mulitple social media platforms; one of them is youtube but if you’ve read my blog for any length of time you know this already! I had been filming from my desk in the office part of the space but I’m working on bigger substrates now so I need to move into the larger space.

 

My studio/office/craft space is in the unfinished part of my basement. This is to my benefit. While I would love one of those Martha Stewart too pretty to create in spaces being in the basement allows me to nail or spill paint all I want. That being said I created a camera rig out of pvc pipe and connectors attached to the rafters.

 

There is one part that slides so I can move the camera horizontally. I have a 360 flexible gooseneck cell phone clamp that is 31 inches long do I can move the camera vertically. Also a flexible monkey desktop tripod hanging on that. My lights are from the hardware store and have daylight bulbs. I need one more.

 

I’ve been away from video making and blogging. But I am returning!

 

In the Hands of the Creator,

QP