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tl;dr: this is my personal "stuff I feel like sharing" thread.
So! I thought about this a long time ago, but at the time my suggestion was much grander: To offer blogging space here in our forums for our players who wanted to blog.
But at the time the idea was shot down by people saying they either don't blog, they hate blogs, or they blog in 92491743152 other places already and didn't need to add one more to the list. Also some pointed out that popularity was an issue: On MyFace (or whatever it's called) you get 384263875321 watches in an hour, while on personal sites good luck getting 10 visitors a day - and of those, 8 will be bots.
That was then, and this is now! I don't blog anywhere else, and I have access to this lovely message board system here where several of my closest friends do check out every now and then (or at least they should!). So I figured I would start a highly shameless self-indulging blog thread for myself here! If more folks feel like they want to do it too, let me know and I'll set up a proper board for it. For now, it goes in the General Discussion board!
Although my life has quieted down a lot in the past few years, I'm not exactly totally inactive, so I'll be sharing here my endeavors, whatever they may turn out to be, that I feel worthy of sharing! Feel free to post comments/questions/ignore on the stuff I will post here.
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One of my New Year's resolutions this year (this is actually the first time I did that!) was to have hobbies, because I don't have many hobbies, I end up turning everything I do into all-out jobs!
And one of those hobbies was to grow bismuth crystals! So, here are some photos of my first crop!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/bismuth_DSC01388_crop_800.jpg)
This is the whole set. Took me 2 days and some 30 or so tries to grow these all (not all at once).
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/bismuth_DSC01384_crop_CC_800.jpg)
This was the very first crytsal I grew, on the very first try! It had some pretty yellow hoppered appendages to it but my cat swatted it out of the table and across the wooden floor until the pretty jagged edges were all rounded off.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/bismuth_DSC01380_crop_CC_800.jpg)
I call these the "Twins", because they grew spontaneously at same time on the same batch.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/bismuth_DSC01386_crop_CC_800.jpg)
I call these the "Manhattan Cluster", because they make me think of skyscrapers from New York.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/bismuth_DSC01399_crop_800.jpg)
This one was the one with the most complex geometry I got. Haven't been able to get one like this again yet. It's hard when they grow all on their own and you have practically no control over it!
For anyone who hasn't fired up Wikipedia yet, bismuth is the element number 83, Bi on the Periodic Table of Elements. It's a heavy metal but it's non-toxic (to a point), it is the active ingredient in Pepto Bismol, and it's technically radioactive but its half-life is several billion times the estimated life of the universe (meaning your granite countertop pumps out more radiation than bismuth ever will). And it's as fragile as glass so it breaks really easy!
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I have a bunch of cedar boards left from a previous project from a while ago, so I decided I needed a new computer desk, so I could use the boards to make it!
Cedar is one of my favorite woods! I love the way it smells, I love the color, and it's reasonably easy to work with, and affordable. Also it lasts forever! The only problem to me is that it sometimes has a few too many knots in it. But one can always work around that, or incorporate the knots as part of the visual aspect of the thing you're making!
I'm currently going through my Art Nouveau phase, so any old square cut desk wouldn't do it. Because the place where this desk is going is reasonably limited on space, I had to keep it small, and relatively simple. There's going to be some whiplashing and crazy Art Nouveau curves, but nothing too crazy.
I asked Tye to take a photo of me working, because my mom just loves to get photos of me doing stuffs...
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/NouveauDesk20140420_173017_HDR.jpg)
...here seen about to cut one of the curvy legs for the desk - no, it's not overkill to wear a respirator with safety goggles with ear protection while working with dusty loud splintery stuffs (no gloves here, though. Never wear gloves when working with machinery that can snag them and pull your hands into the machine!).
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/NouveauDesk20140422_173818_HDR.jpg)
And here the desk upside down with 4 of its eventually 6 legs being glued in place. Due to the tiny nature of my workshop, I often have to improvise, and while there's no lack of clamps, there's lack of room, so the angle sander doubles as 'heavy-thing-to-keep-things-in-place' while the router and angle grinder and box of drillbits serve as counterweight and support!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/NouveauDesk20140424_190019_HDR.jpg)
One of the pieces for the desk, held tight by clamps while the glue sets.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/NouveauDesk20140424_174926_HDR.jpg)
The desk with its 6 legs.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/NouveauDesk20140427_160640.jpg)
Here's the desk with the little 'computer shelf' at the bottom. And because the desk wasn't complicated enough as it was, I added a drawer to it! (pieces of it seen clamped while the glue sets)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/NouveauDesk20140427_175743.jpg)
...and it's not proper Art Nouveau without some whiplashing. Early on I had decided to have a whiplash branch on top with some ginkgo leaves, and had that piece already made. But today I figured it needed some more whiplashing on the bottom to balance it aesthetically. So I tacked on a board to the desk and freehanded some vine...
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/NouveauDesk20140427_223850_HDR.jpg)
5 hours later!
That's the back of the desk. I put the leaves there not only for aesthetic reasons, but because I need something back there so the cats don't shove whatever is on top of my desk down behind it!
Now all that's left to do is some final sanding, then apply some polyurethane to seal and protect and bring out the color of the wood! Might get that done tomorrow if it doesn't rain.
And it's done! Weeeee!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/NouveauDesk20140504_161811_HDR.jpg)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/NouveauDesk20140504_161120.jpg)
...but it has to sit in the workshop for a few days to air out the intense smell of the varnish! (actually it's sitting out in the wind right now to air, and I'll take it out every day for about a week to air it :P )
I'll take another picture when it's all set up with my computer and other random stuffs in the place it will go.
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Most people have New Year's resolutions: Things that they want to change in their lives and they promise themselves (or others) that they will do it as the new year rolls in.
My New Year's Resolution for 2014 was to have a hobby! You see, I have this problem, I'm a workaholic, and I end up turning everything I do into job-like proportions! So this year I decided to have a simple hobby, something simple, silly, casual, where as with pretty much all hobbies I put more money into it than I get out of it.
SoOOoo, for my hobby, I picked collecting celebrity autographs through mail requests! It's rather simple: You figure out what address to write to a celebrity, write them a letter saying some nice things, and oh by the way can I have your autograph? Here's a photo and self-addressed stamped envelope for your convenience! If they are nice, they respond, if they are jerks, they have their secretaries respond, and sometimes you get no response at all!
I picked a bunch of celebrities I like, wrote them letters of request, mailed them off, and then sat and waited....
....and it didn't take long for the autographs to start coming in!
My very first was from Sir Ian McKellen! As a huge fan of his, and of The Lord of the Rings, I was overjoyed!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20140129_173118.jpg)
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...then came in Patrick Stewart!
Squeeeee~!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20140207_175631_LLS.jpg)
His is actually worth quite a bit since it's not inscribed to me! ...not that I'd sell it. :P
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...and Adam West!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20140218_142702_LLS.jpg)
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And because now I'm hooked on Game of Thrones, I had to get George R.R. Martin's autograph too!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/DSC01403.jpg)
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And I like Joan Rivers. Shutup! ;)
...this one actually was a little weird: I sent in the letter of request, and waited, and waited, and waited... then one day checked the mailbox and there was a huge photo of hers! ...then a couple of weeks later, I got another mail from her with the photo I had originally sent with my letter!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20140325_202627_LLS.jpg)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20140419_223549_LLS.jpg)
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And I had to get some from the great Judi Dench!
Xela actually helped me with this one, sending me British stamps to include with my self-addressed stamped envelope..... which oddly enough they didn't use, neither did they use the photo I sent, but oh well, it's still Judi Dench! Thank you Xela for the help! ....and for the ...what were those things called, Jelly Babies? :)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20140409_165450_LLS.jpg)
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Today I got back the one from Francis Ford Coppola, and I figured I'd post my collection in my blog thing, because sure why not! :)
...so blame all the spam and self-indulging... indulgence on him! ...somehow! ;)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20140512_231408_LLS.jpg)
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I seem to be a glutton for punishment! Tye also could use a new desk (down with particle board prefab furniture!), and while he really doesn't deserve it, building him a desk gives me another opportunity to do something I like. So I've started working on a second Art Nouveau inspired desk.
This one is gonna have less crazy whiplash, and it's bigger than the previous one.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/NouveauDesk2_20140519_193946_HDR.jpg)
May 26, 2014
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/NouveauDesk2_20140524_214024_LLS.jpg)
There's much clamping going on!
June 02, 2014
And it's finally done! This one has practically no crazy swirls, it's on a more stiff style. I kept it simpler, for my own sanity's sake. Still, I'm pleased with how it turned out.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/NouveauDesk2_20140602_195959_HDR.jpg)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/NouveauDesk2_20140602_200052_HDR.jpg)
My grapevines in the background are going crazy!
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...continuing with my autographs collection, today I got some from James Earl Jones!
I didn't want to impose by sending a bunch of photos to be autographed, so I had to pick between Darth Vader and Mufasa. Mufasa won because Lucas has ruined Star Wars for me. ;)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20140609_204021_LLS.jpg)
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Although I'm an extremely picky eater, and skittish about what I call "gross food from hell" (also know as "the parts people in civilized industrialized places don't even feed to their dogs!"), I love watching Bizarre Foods.
So I wrote to Andrew Zimmern asking for an autograph and got it today! Weee!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20140620_200934_LLS.jpg)
...no idea why they didn't use the perfectly good photo and self-addressed stamped envelope I sent. My photo was a lot less gross than whatever the crap is it he's eating! Looks like brains soup! Uugh! :P
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Today was a good day for the autographs collection! Two autographs in a day! Weeee!
This one is from the great Whoopi Goldberg!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20140620_201031_LLS.jpg)
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(haters are gonna hate!)
This is a project that started over a year-and-a-half ago, but only now it's getting continued, because drying wood without a kiln takes... well, years!
One of my neighbors cut down a big tree on her yard and I asked if I could have some chunks of it. So I cut them the rough sizes and stored them out in the tools shed. Then after several months brought a couple of pieces into the house where the air is dryer, and intentionally forgot about it until the wood reached a moisture content of 5% (which is amazing for non-kiln dried wood of that size).
The idea is to carve a horsehead statue one of the characters on the My Little Pony Friendship is Magic show has in her home, because 1) I like the design and find it aesthetically pleasing, and 2) I could sell it and try to make some money to help with bills!
So the other day I cut the roughs into nice big blocks of wood, and today (while asking the god Thor not to throw his thunderstorm down on me until I was finished working) I cut the blocks into the starting shape for the carving. From now it's all hand chiseling!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/MLPWCiM.jpg)
I'm making two of these, one for sale, the other for myself to keep.
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It needs to be about...20% cooler :-P
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Back in February I also wrote to John Travolta, because my grandmother adores him, and I figured an autographed photo of her idol would be a good 86th birthday gift for her. So on the letter I mentioned my family had been fans of his and oh by the way could I have an autograph for my grandmother?
Well, today I got in the mail the photo I sent him, and three others!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20140715_190137_LLS.jpg)
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It needs to be about...20% cooler :-P
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/poster_20__cooler_now_by_iggorss-d5frhwu.jpeg)
...better? :)
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I suppose so :-P
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And I got a Penn and Teller autograph! Weeee!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20140725_215436_LLS.jpg)
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Tye wanted us to work on a project together! So.... we took some hunk of mahogany I had lying around (bought it ages ago because it was too good of a deal but never had anything in mind to do with it), and made a bunch of dice from a piece of it!
We made these because we are currently flat-out broke, but we wanted to play a dice game. So what do you do when you want to play dice and have no money to buy dice but have exotic hardwoods and a workshop full of tools at your disposal? You make your own dice! ;)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/MahoganyDice.jpg)
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I've been working on and off on this for over 2 years. Last night I decided it was time to finish it at last, so I took the night off from everything else to finish this wooden stylized cat statue!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Basswood%20Cat%20Statue%20(small).jpg)
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In case anyone wondered where I've been all weekend, well, folks here decided to have a yard sale. The attics were overfilled with stuff, closets were overfilled with stuff, stuff stuff stuff everywhere, so it was time for it to go, and in true American fashion, Tye's mom decided she was going to inconvenience everyone to help her have a yard sale.
So we've been back and forth getting crap down from the attic, cleaning and organizing and pricing everything, and finally, we spent all night setting it all up outside for sale.
And apparently yard sales need to start early in the morning. So, after spending literally all night setting everything up, we 'opened' at 8am.
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/YardSale20140927_081033.jpg)
I took a panoramic photo right as the sun was coming up. Stuff, stuff everywhere!
And right on time a mariachi of Mexicans (wolves are a pack, cattle is herd, and we say a group of Mexicans is a mariachi ;) ) showed up and bought a bunch of stuff. Then some old people showed up, and then more Mexicans. And more Mexicans! Thank-gods for Mexicans! I love them, they buy in bulk!
Sales were Ok Saturday! The Mexicans took most of the furniture items (thankfully!). We're hoping to sell a bunch more Sunday, specially after noon with all the church-going people being out and about. But there is so much stuff that I doubt we'll sell it all. So what doesn't sell Sunday will either be donated to the Salvation Army or something, and whatever isn't donatable will be burned in a glorious bonfire! :D
So yeah. Yard sale. Ergk. So much work! The lesson here is: Don't be a hoarder! If it's of no value and you won't ever use it, give it away or throw it away, don't stash it up in an attic!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/YardSale20140927_080629_HDR.jpg)
What you see in the photos is about 2/3 of what's still left in the house. :P
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Today I got one from the prince of darkness himself, Ozzy!
I had sent him a nice pretty photo, but he sent me back one of their stock photos or something. Either way, it's authentic, so, I got an Ozzy autograph, I'm happy with it! :)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20141001_004129_LLS.jpg)
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I need to get this on record, because I'm both amused and really mad at myself! But first let me explain where I'm coming from: When you work with precious metals, or precious woods, you really can't afford to make mistakes! I've enjoyed a mistake-free career since I started serious woodworking projects and jewelry-making for years! As a perfectionist, I'm obsessed with not making mistakes while I build things, because mistakes can be very costly, or even dangerous and get me hurt!
Well, today I made a mistake! A stupid, idiotic, moronic, dumb mistake! 20 years from now I'll still be kicking myself because of it!
I'm making some new tables here, and I got carried away making table legs! I needed 8 legs (2 tables, 4 legs each), but somehow I made 16! I spent the whole day making legs until late in the afternoon I looked at the pile of legs I made and thought "hold on a second...!".
AAAARGGHHH!!!!
...I wasted so much damn wood! I'm gonna go punish myself by eating a bunch of donuts and turning my blood into sludge!
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I need to get this on record, because I'm both amused and really mad at myself! But first let me explain where I'm coming from: When you work with precious metals, or precious woods, you really can't afford to make mistakes! I've enjoyed a mistake-free career since I started serious woodworking projects and jewelry-making for years! As a perfectionist, I'm obsessed with not making mistakes while I build things, because mistakes can be very costly, or even dangerous and get me hurt!
Well, today I made a mistake! A stupid, idiotic, moronic, dumb mistake! 20 years from now I'll still be kicking myself because of it!
I'm making some new tables here, and I got carried away making table legs! I needed 8 legs (2 tables, 4 legs each), but somehow I made 16! I spent the whole day making legs until late in the afternoon I looked at the pile of legs I made and thought "hold on a second...!".
AAAARGGHHH!!!!
...I wasted so much damn wood! I'm gonna go punish myself by eating a bunch of donuts and turning my blood into sludge!
Well, I did ask you to make me some tables! :D
But on a different note, you could use the legs to make a bed or a couple chairs maybe.
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Well, I did ask you to make me some tables! :D
But on a different note, you could use the legs to make a bed or a couple chairs maybe.
*points finger accusingly* ...this was your fault! You and your request for tables! ;)
I don't know what I'll do with them. I'll find some use even if it's bit by bit on other projects.
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make dice out of them! :3
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So my excuse for not doing anything today was that there was a giant spider on my backyard....
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/GiantSpider20141023_172610_HDR_edited_800.jpg)
...also it's my birthday! Yay! :)
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Happy birthday, just for that, here's a puppy sized REAL spider http://news.discovery.com/animals/puppy-sized-spider-surprises-scientist-in-rainforest-141020.htm
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Happy birthday, just for that, here's a puppy sized REAL spider http://news.discovery.com/animals/puppy-sized-spider-surprises-scientist-in-rainforest-141020.htm
AAARGH!!
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Belated happy birthday from me, too. :) So that was what the cake was all about. I really suck at getting hints. ;) *paws a hug to the birthday-fox*
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I've been working on this one on and off for quite a while! Not because it's technically challenging or anything, but because I've been busy with a million other things! But it's finally done! ...well, it was done a week ago, but I had to let it air because the varnish I use has a really strong smell!
This shelf I made for Tye to put his My Little Pony Friendship is Magic little figurines (which he has scattered all over the place) in one consolidated single location so it doesn't look like we have a little girl child in the house leaving her pony toys everywhere. :P
It's worthy mentioning that the whole thing is put together with hidden dovetail joints. It's so strong by friction alone and one piece locks the other in place, that it could hold together without a drop of glue! ...but nah, I use copious amounts of glue on everything I make! :)
I'll post another picture when the thing is filled with ponies, so MLP haters can hate it all the more! ;)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/MLPshelf_20141030_200114_LLS_editedcrop.jpg)
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So this was what we did for Halloween this year...
SPIDERS! SPIDERS EVERYWHERE!!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Halloween20141031_183011_LLS_800.jpg)
Janus, my two-faced pumpkin!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Halloween20141031_180230_HDR_800.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Halloween20141031_182213_HDR_crop_800.jpg)
Laziest costume ever: The creepy horsehead!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Halloween20141031_195403_LLS_800.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/HalloweenDSC01546_800.jpg)
Happy Halloween everyone! ;D
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...and I got one from Mike Rowe too, because I like Mike Rowe! :)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20141101_190031_LLS.jpg)
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That smile! :D
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I finished these by Halloween, but they had to air for a few days because the varnish has a really strong smell, but they're ready to be brought in! Weee!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/EndTablesDSC01552_800.jpg)
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So last night was a bit out of my routine! I started having these really intense chest pains! Felt like my whole chest was having a charlie-horse cramp! ...and because I'm prone to panic disorder, I thought I was dying. But I soldiered on until about midnight, when I figure I might go to the ER and get checked out to make sure my heart wasn't trying to stop or anything like that!
We went to.... I don't remember the name! St. Francis perhaps? It's a really nice hospital around here (as far as hospitals go! As far as I'm concerned, hospitals are places of dread, that I try to avoid to the maximum!), and for some miracle, the emergency room was almost empty, only one lady sitting there waiting, but I discovered something interesting about emergency rooms: Come in saying "chest pain", and they take you in immediately! ;)
They hooked me up to a dozen machines that go 'ping!', and drew a few liters of blood out of me, because... bloodletting I guess? I dunno. Medicine is scary.
Thankfully there was absolutely nothing wrong with my heart. Or lungs. Or anything in that general area. The blood test showed my potassium was low, and while that is known to cause leg cramps, they figured the chest is full of muscles too and those were the things that decided to cramp up on me instead of my legs.
So yeah. No heart attack for me! ...at least until I get the hospital bill. Pretty sure it will be something like... $2000 or $5000... That's gonna be a matter for another time. Right now I'm celebrating being alive! ...uhmm that sounded really corny... Anyway, I love you all!
(they did give me something for stress, and it might be making me a bit sappy. Just a wee bit! ;) )
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I decided to brush up on my stained glass making skills, and asked Tye for suggestion for something to practice with, and of course I got pony stuff as response.
So here's Applejack's cutiemarksomethingoranother as a xmas tree ornament!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/AppleJackCutiemark20141204_031753_LLS_800.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/AppleJackCutiemarkTree20141204_032509_HDR_800.jpg)
I'll probably be making the others too, it's good practice stuff!
...if anyone happens to want one of these I think I can make it for..... Uuhmm... $20?
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...and today was Rarity's turn!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/RarityCutiemark20141205_025610_LLS_800.jpg)
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Squeeeeeeeee! Love those cutie marks!
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...and I made this for a Nightmare Moon worshiper! ;)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/NightmareMoonC360_2014-12-14-01-48-04-512_800.jpg)
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Want!
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...and I made a little xmas star thingie...
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/XmasStar_C360_2014-12-17-21-21-07-722_800.jpg)
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...the star was to cover an ugly exposed lightbulb that for some reason had no cover at all, on Tye's mom's nativity scene thingamajig...
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Manger_C360_2014-12-17-21-21-36-894_800.jpg)
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..and the dinosaur?
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..and the dinosaur?
Yes! ...T-rexes are people too! ...aren't they? They can have Christmas too!
(also watch "Merry Christmas Mr. Bean" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsCoK-n10fw )
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And the house is all lit up for xmas...
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/xmas2014_C360_2014-12-10-21-26-50-152_800.jpg)
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I might have just invented something! ...well, I'm sure somebody in the history of the world must have thought of this as well, but if they didn't, I'm calling it my original discovery!
To create patina on metals you normally use some harsh chemicals that usually have no place being used outside a laboratory or a factory, but I noticed eggs put out what must be sulfur gas that tarnishes sterling silver silverware, and that got me thinking, what else does it tarnish?....
So! Here's a step-by-step guide on creating a fake antique.... or just steampunk stuff. ;)
- The first step is to clean up the piece to be patinated. I used Brasso on this candlestick and then thoroughly rinsed it with water.
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/BrassPatinaC360_2014-12-22-03-44-17-447.jpg)
- Next, hardboil some eggs! (put them in water in a pot and bring to a boil; turn off the heat as the water starts to boil and let it sit for 15 minutes)
I cooked 3 eggs: Two for the experiment, one for myself!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/BrassPatinaC360_2014-12-22-03-47-57-989.jpg)
- Break and peel off the egg shells and cut the eggs in half to expose the yolk. Put them in an airtight container with your brass piece and close it up right away. I used a Ziploc bag.
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/BrassPatinaC360_2014-12-22-04-16-05-686.jpg)
- Let it sit for several hours at room temperature. After one hour I had already noticed oxidization on the surface of the brass, but I let mine sit overnight.
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/BrassPatinaC360_2014-12-22-05-29-15-004.jpg)
- After about 9 hours, this is the result! Dispose of the eggs (they sat overnight at room temperature, don’t eat them!) and wash the brass thoroughly, but don’t scrub it with anything abrasive or you risk damaging the patina.
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/BrassPatinaC360_2014-12-22-19-07-25-935.jpg)
I suspect this method should work with most alloys containing copper, and varying the time and the amount of eggs you use might give you a lighter or darker patina. I wonder what neat colors I can achieve mixing up other common foods that put out gases that interact with the copper in the alloy!
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Wow.
I think you just invented a whole new way of forging antiques! ;D
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Patent it!
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Sounds interesting, but I'm wondering if its linked to the eggs, or simply the warm moist steam causing corrosion. Maybe try putting a small bowl of boiling water into the same bag and see what happens! :3 maybe add a touch of vinegar too for added effect.
Its a nice idea though and seems to work!
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Sounds interesting, but I'm wondering if its linked to the eggs, or simply the warm moist steam causing corrosion. Maybe try putting a small bowl of boiling water into the same bag and see what happens! :3 maybe add a touch of vinegar too for added effect.
Its a nice idea though and seems to work!
If chemistry doesn't fail me, it's the sulfur gas released by the eggs. Regular steam won't do anything.
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Sounds interesting, but I'm wondering if its linked to the eggs, or simply the warm moist steam causing corrosion. Maybe try putting a small bowl of boiling water into the same bag and see what happens! :3 maybe add a touch of vinegar too for added effect.
Its a nice idea though and seems to work!
If chemistry doesn't fail me, it's the sulfur gas released by the eggs. Regular steam won't do anything.
If so, would different sized eggs/different aged eggs, have different effect? Perhaps a bigger or an older egg create a stronger effect?
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Sounds interesting, but I'm wondering if its linked to the eggs, or simply the warm moist steam causing corrosion. Maybe try putting a small bowl of boiling water into the same bag and see what happens! :3 maybe add a touch of vinegar too for added effect.
Its a nice idea though and seems to work!
If chemistry doesn't fail me, it's the sulfur gas released by the eggs. Regular steam won't do anything.
If so, would different sized eggs/different aged eggs, have different effect? Perhaps a bigger or an older egg create a stronger effect?
I dunno! It's something to experiment with!
*goes chase an ostrich for its eggs!*
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Do keep us informed ;D This is interesting.
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After going through standard patina formulas (which come in bottles marked with skulls and crossbones!), I have put together a list of possible combinations of household items (mostly foods!) that theoretically might work on brass!
I already know as a fact that hardboiled eggs give it the aged brown color. Now I have to test the following possibilities:
Ammonia (glass cleaner) + salt = green
Banana + glass cleaner + egg = blue
Salt + glass cleaner + vinegar = purple
...and Pepto-Bismol + vinegar would turn it white!! ...in theory!
I'll post the results once I have tested it! :)
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And here are some more examples of patinas we can achieve on brass using common household products!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/BrassPatinaDSC01657_800.jpg)
The window cleaner + salt recipe I found on the interwebs. The others are my own experiments.
Eggs + vinegar seems to have a similar darkening effect as just eggs, but with a lot more black and some rust colored splotches here and there. About 6 hours into the process I noticed a lot of iridescence on the surface, but hours later that seemed to have almost completely disappeared. I wonder if I had taken the piece out at that time if I'd have a peacock effect on the surface. Must try that later!
Window cleaner + vinegar + salt gave it a bronze-like look. I like it!
And window cleaner + salt gives it the coveted verdigris. I bet if I left it longer or if I had a more potent ammonia (window cleaner barely has any, just enough to make it smell foul) the green would be even stronger.
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And some more stained glass works! This one is for my former boss, who's a bishop! Maybe I can score some contract doing some church windows, there's plenty of money to be had in there! ;)
The pattern I used as reference called for a much darker skin and hair, the angel looked like Dora the Explorer, but I didn't have those colors of glass available so I used what I had, and ended up with a very Aryan angel! ;)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/JoyAngel20150104_000056_800.jpg)
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Beautiful piece, I could easily see people putting up similar angels in various color schemes as guardian angels. :) When my brother, cousins and I were little, they used to tell us stories about guardian angels and we had some pictures and small figurines of them around the bed.
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Beautiful piece, I could easily see people putting up similar angels in various color schemes as guardian angels. :) When my brother, cousins and I were little, they used to tell us stories about guardian angels and we had some pictures and small figurines of them around the bed.
Thanks bigwulf!
This one was based on a pattern from a book that's all different angel patterns. This one is the angel of joy! I made this one in particular because it was the free pattern-of-the-month on a stained glass guild publication I subscribe to. ;)
But yes, as you suggest, there are various color schemes and different poses for all kinds of angels for all kinds of things. :)
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One of my current WIPs, an Egyptian-themed Tiffany Style lampshade! After working out the surprisingly complicated mathematics for not only a round but also curved shape, I cut all the pieces out of favrile glass, and got as many carnelian-colored jewel-glass beads as the local stained glass supply shop had (can't use the ones sold by HobbyLobby or other 'craft' stores because they are flashed, not actual colored glass!)...
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/ELWIP_C360_2014-12-16-23-26-22-296_800.jpg)
Then today I assembled all the pieces to make sure everything was right, and evened out with the stained glass grinder the edges of all 311 pieces, preparing them for foiling...
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/ELWIP_20150107_203302_LLS_800.jpg)
After lots and lots and lots of work all pieces were wrapped in the copper foil... Then put back together to make sure they all fit, and then, one by one, put on the lampshade form where it would then be soldered together...
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/ELWIP20150110_225424_LLS_800.jpg)
...one by one...
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/ELWIP20150110_234150_LLS_800.jpg)
...all 311. Then tack them with solder in place, and 15 hours of soldering, cleaning up, patina....
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...and it's done!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/EgyptianLampshade20150113_041540_LLS_800.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/EgyptianLampshade20150113_041516_LLS_800.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/EgyptianLampshade20150113_041404_LLS_800.jpg)
I'm reasonably pleased with it! Considering it's my first Tiffany-Style lampshade, I'll consider it a success, but was also a learning experience. I'm not entirely pleased with the colors, but above all, if I had to do it again I would absolutely not use those damned glass jewels! What a freaking pain in the ass those things were! They're a pain to foil, an unimaginable pain to solder, and a waste of solder too because you have to build up all around them! I'd much rather cut a couple hundred little red glass circles next time, than use those damned things! I will use them again only if I absolutely have to! ;)
(the lamp base is some lamp base we had lying around, no idea where it came from or what it was, but it has mahogany, so can't be all that bad!)
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I wrote to the Top Gear guys asking for autographs! ....and.... they disappointed me! :P
They sent me a pre-printed autographed photo.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/C360_2015-01-29-21-05-20-084_800.jpg)
I know celebrities are busy and all that, but I actually think I would prefer no response at all, than a pre-printed autograph. Pre-prints totally defeat the purpose of the whole 'I want your autograph' thing. :-\
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My latest project, another Tiffany-Style lampshade, this one inspired by a ginkgo tree!
All pieces have been cut, ground, fitted, and now as of 01/16 I've foiled 2/3 of them and worked on it for 14 hours so far...
I'm excited about this one, I think it will come out beautiful!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Ginkgo_Lamp_WIP_20150216_020847_LLS_800.jpg)
And I finished the lamp base I'll be using for this one! The lamp base is forged copper and brass, and was quite a lot of work to make! The sockets are high-quality brass sockets I get from a supplier in China (yes, sometimes "high quality" and "China" can go together like that), because I'm terrified by the flimsiness and outright el-cheapo nature of sockets you buy in stores here in the US. I will be shelling out the cash to buy pre-made bases in the future, unless I'm being paid pretty well to make one, but I'll probably re-wire and re-socket them! ;)
Since the lampshade will be ginkgo tree leaves, the base is meant to be a tree trunk, sorta!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/LampBase001_20150220_013849_800.jpg)
And all pieces are copperfoiled and organized, ready to be put on the mold, where then soldering will begin!
(final count: 273 pieces, which is average for a lamp this size; the pattern repeats 3 times)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Ginkgo_Lamp_WIP_273pcs_20150220_213134_HDR_800.jpg)
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I want one! :D
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Yay, it's done!
I'm reasonably satisfied with it. But my next lamp will be a more 'traditional' design; my designs are too complicated! ;)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/GingkoLamp20150226_115143_800.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/GinkgoLamp20150226_115513_HDR_800.jpg)
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Its really pretty, I want one :D
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...our little cat was helping me with the pattern of the new lampshade I'm working on...
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20150319_213206_LLS_800.jpg)
Work on this one is on hold, until I have the $$$ to buy the red and yellow glass I need! :(
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I'm working on a dragonfly Tiffany-Style lamp now! ...because I'm pretty sure there's a law somewhere that says people who make this stuff have to at some point make one of the dragonfly lamps!
So far it's taken me one night to cut all the pieces, and 2 nights to neat them up on the diamond grinder. I predict one more night of grinding, and then I can test-assemble it, make any necessary adjustments, then foil all 340 pieces, then test-assemble again, on the mold this time, and if all is well, soldering can begin!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/DragonflyWIP_20150328_035333_LLS_512.jpg)
(the 14" lamp repeats the pattern 6 times all around)
And all the pieces are cut, ground, tested for fitting, and ready for foiling.... except that I don't like the color of the wings, so, I'm gonna be making new wings! I might be changing the color of the top and bottom borders too. :P
(there was too much bright green)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/DragonflyWIP_20150404_001402_LLS_600.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/DragonflyWIP_20150404_003403_LLS_600.jpg)
April 4, 2015:
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/DragonflyWIP_20150405_000208_LLS_600.jpg)
Much better! (changed the wings and the top and bottom borders)
April 8, 2015:
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/DragonflyWIP_20150408_052418_HDR_600.jpg)
All pieces are foiled and tested for fit and ready to be assembled on the mold, and then soldered! :)
April 10, 2015:
Work on the lamp continues! Last night I assembled it on the mold (pictured), did the outside solder, reinforcing wires, and tonight I did the inside soldering. Now all that's left is the decorative solder beading inside and out, and patina!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/DragonflyWIP_DSC01674_500.jpg)
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Its really pretty, I want one :D
...thanks kitty! :)
I can make you one if you have the $$ for it! ;)
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You are FAR more dedicated to the project than I ever could be. My hands would look like something out of a SAW Movie and the only color the glass would be is red at that point. I applaud you. Chain ain't got nothing on you. (And yes I belive the law is written under article 78 of crafts, just like all knitters must make a Jane's Hat)
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You are FAR more dedicated to the project than I ever could be. My hands would look like something out of a SAW Movie and the only color the glass would be is red at that point. I applaud you. Chain ain't got nothing on you. (And yes I belive the law is written under article 78 of crafts, just like all knitters must make a Jane's Hat)
Hehe, I say it over and over, because it's ironic: I handle the glass all day and haven't so far got a single cut! ...then spend 10 seconds playing with my cat and my hands look like I tried to untangle razorwire barehanded! ;)
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You are FAR more dedicated to the project than I ever could be. My hands would look like something out of a SAW Movie and the only color the glass would be is red at that point. I applaud you. Chain ain't got nothing on you. (And yes I belive the law is written under article 78 of crafts, just like all knitters must make a Jane's Hat)
Hehe, I say it over and over, because it's ironic: I handle the glass all day and haven't so far got a single cut! ...then spend 10 seconds playing with my cat and my hands look like I tried to untangle razorwire barehanded! ;)
The issue is, the cat wanted to be petted for only 9.5 seconds!
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And here it is, my first Tyffany-Style Dragonfly lamp!
I'm gonna be frank (and shameless) here: I freaking love how it came out! I love everything about it! The solders, the glass, the colors, the filigree wings, damn I'm happy with this one! ;D
...just the base isn't the one meant for this shade yet, I haven't been able to finish the base for it because I'm only one foxy with an enormous to-do list! So I'm borrowing the base of the Ginkgo lamp for these pictures, but I'll post more pictures when it has its own base! :)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Dragonfly_20150414_001438_LLS_800.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Dragonfly_20150414_001518_LLS_600.jpg)
This is a six-repeats pattern. Most Dragonflies Tiffany made had seven-repeats, but the rare small ones use 6.
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Dragonfly_20150414_001627_LLS_800.jpg)
And the technical data:
- 14" diameter
- Six-Repeats pattern
- First designed in the late 1890's or very early 1900's
- 62 hours of work to make it
- Uses Kokomo glass throughout
- 100' of copper foil
- 2lbs of 60-40 solder
- Not a single injury from making it! ;)
Here's an updated picture with the base made for it:
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Dragonfly_DSC01697_800.jpg)
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Does that not count the wounds infliced by your feline?
Looks REALY Good! The number of hours that went into that is truely impressive.
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I made this lamp base out of an old filigree candlestick I found in a flea market for a very good bargain price! It's all solid brass; I made the necessary modifications for it to become a lamp base and finished with an antique bronze patina:
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20150420_004041_HDR_600.jpg)
You can see an updated photo of the lamp on its designated base at the original post http://sculptyworks.com/lismore/index.php?topic=1564.msg8290#msg8290
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It's been quiet in this topic! RL has been hectic and non artistically-productive lately! But I got myself a violin! Yay! ;D
I've always wanted to play the violin! ...but we had a piano at the house, so they insisted I learned the piano, because we had one. My grandfather wanted me to play the piano; my mother wanted me to play the electric guitar; my grandmother wanted me not to make any noise at all! I ended up singing opera. But still, I always wanted a violin, so a couple of weeks ago I decided screw it, I was going to get one!
Violins are tricky, though! They are unimaginably complex and delicate instruments! They are as unique as people are. And the violin-trade is notorious for not being exactly honest; there's a lot of fake antique violins, mislabeled violins, inferior violins made of superior violin parts just so they can claim pedigree (one famous violin maker was reported to have said back in the day that he could make 5 Stradivarius out of one).
And violins are expensive.
There's countless 'cheap violins' on eBay that are also known in the business as 'VSO' - Violin-Shaped Object. They are so bad they are blamed for causing most students to give up on playing. And there's a multitude of cheap Chinese violins on the market - China is the world's largest producer of violins; most come from a place called Violin City (Donggaocun, just outside Beijing)!
As usual, I did my research, and while I found there are quite a few 'good' Chinese violins, getting one is a gamble: You may get one that sounds superb for $100, or you may get one that sounds like a cardboard box with strings for $300. Good violins (European-made are the best but there are some very good American made ones out there, and some Chinese ones too!) start around $500...
Well, I didn't have $500. But discouraged from trying to get something cheap on the Internet, I went to a violin shop here in town, admittedly just to window-shop and sigh longingly at all the beautiful instruments... Then they told me I could get one and make payments!! ;D
So I listened to 5 different violins in my price range played by the most lovely and patient lady at the store (because I couldn't play anything other than open strings) until I finally picked one I liked best! They got me all set up and now I have a violin! Squeee~!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Johannes_Kohr_DSC01797_800.jpg)
My impressions after a few weeks of learning to play: The violin is a very difficult instrument. Mostly because the sadistic jerk who invented it didn't think frets were needed on the fingerboard, so you kinda have to invent the notes with no point of reference whatsoever when playing. Also holding the violin is a special art, and holing the bow is an even more special art! And that's even before you get started fingering the strings and bowing!
It will be a few months before I can say I can play something for real.
But it's nothing unattainable! I had the headstart at least of already being able to read music, so that's a step I could skip on learning to play. I'm doing it all on my own for now but eventually I'd like to get a tutor or something to point out what I'm doing wrong because I'm sure I'm doing a lot of things wrong! ;)
...and according to some, I have a special violin-playing face I wear when playing!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Fox_Violin-Playing_Face_DSC01792_800.jpg)
The Johannes Köhr, despite its German-sounding name, is actually made of Chinese parts assembled in America. The company that makes it, Howard Core Company from Alabama, buys instrument parts from China, sorts through the good stuff and the bad stuff and puts together a quality instrument. Basically, they keep you from having to buy a few dozen Chinese violins to find that one which has superb sound. :)
08/12/2015
Took a couple of nice photos of the Johannes Köhr, front and back.
(it has a nice single-piece back)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Johannes_Kohr_DSC01841_800.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Johannes_Kohr_DSC01847_800.jpg)
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And time has come to harvest my potatoes!
It was quite a nice little harvest, and this is the first batch, the next one will be ready for harvesting in 20 days!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Potatoes_20150626_174726_LLS_800.jpg)
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...because I have a long neck, and sloping shoulders, I've been struggling with comfort concerning the position of the violin when I play. I tried getting a taller chinrest, and a couple of different models, but still I find myself leaning my head too much trying to keep the violin in place.
SoOOooo, what's a fox with a bunch of tools and exotic woods to do? Make my own chinrest, of course!
I put some plastic on top of the violin and put a lump of modeling clay there, then pressed my jaw on it to get an impression at the most comfortable height and position. The next step was to turn that lump of clay into wood. The primary choice of wood for chinrests is ebony. I tried getting a hold of some locally but they didn't have small enough sizes that I could afford, and the sizes that they did have were too expensive for me in my current impoverished financial state. Boxwood is also a popular choice, but I couldn't find that either. But I still had some mahogany, so, mahogany it is!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/CustomChinrest_DSC01863_800.jpg)
After cutting the rough shape of the blank with the bandsaw, I started to whittle it. I love working with mahogany, but damn the stuff is hard! ...and ebony would have been three times as hard!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/CustomChinrest_DSC01870_800.jpg)
Despite the hardness which makes progress slow, it's coming along nicely! Should be able to finish it in a day or two depending on how much of other things I have to do around here. :)
08/12/2015
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/CustomChinrest_DSC01875_800.jpg)
Work on the custom chinrest continues!
Today I refined the shape and put on the mounting hardware to test it with the violin. It fit perfectly on the first try, both on the violin and my jaw, so now all that’s left to do is finish it. :)
08/12/2015
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/CustomChinrest_DSC01882_800.jpg)
Today I finished the sanding and burnished the wood. Mahogany is so nice and hard that it could go without any varnish, but I put a light coat of it on the chinrest just to seal the wood pores, and then glued the cork on the bottom. Tomorrow just have to cut the cork and mount it on the violin and at last jaw and neck comfort shall be mine!! ;D
08/14/2015
And there it is, all mounted and ready to play!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/KnillingBucharestChinrest_DSC01897_800.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/KnillingBucharestChinrest_DSC01888_800.jpg)
It looks kinda thick but it's actually 10 grams lighter than the previous chinrest I used. And it is remarkably comfortable under the jaw! I practiced for 2 hours today without getting the slightest neck or jaw discomfort, even with my jaw still having the mysterious odd feeling behind it. My left arm got tired before anything else did. :P
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/KnillingBucharestAsh_DSC01884_800.jpg)
Ash approves of the new violin and chinrest. That's always important, to have kitty approvals! ;)
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So! I got a new violin! :)
A friend's friend's friend was getting rid of things around the house, and one of the things was a violin. I checked it out and liked it, so I took it!
It's a Knilling Bucharest made in 2005, which proudly states it's a copy of a Stradivarius. It's also an oddity on what comes to the varnish because Knilling used for some reason a thing called Nitrolac, ...basically the same stuff used on classic Fender guitars (and other electric guitars too, but Fenders are the best!), which you can hardly find anymore because it's even more poisonous/toxic than regular lacquer while being applied/curing. It's made in Romania, so I guess they have different standards there? But that last bit is a good thing! It's made in Europe, with properly air-dried European lumber. I had heard before that the European ones have a mellower sound than Chinese woods, and I agree it is noticeably more mellow than the Johannes Köhr which is made with Chinese wood.
It was a fiddler's violin, though. It's been played and it's been played hard! The top had rosin caked in from never being clean (apparently that's a thing among fiddlers? Like a badge of honor or something!), and had some terrible steel strings, and the bridge was incredibly low! So I took it to the violin shop here for an appraisal/setup. Before the setup, the folks there estimate it to be as good as my Johannes Köhr, so that's great news to start! I had them set it all up for me, with a new bridge being cut to bring the strings up to the proper height, and the soundpost adjusted. The luthier suggested having the fingerboard planed as he thought the scoop or camber was slightly deep, but that was going to cost much more than I was comfortable spending, so if in the future I think it's a problem, I'll get them to plane it but otherwise should be good! It had a couple of scuffs on the wood that I patched up with varnish just so the wood wouldn't be bare there.
Another odd thing about it is that it has Perfection Pegs on it. They are some mysterious geared magical pegs that hold on through an internal mechanism and that require no skill at all to tune with (other than knowing when the notes are in tune). It had also fine tuners on the tailpiece but with the Perfection pegs, I took those out when I changed strings! No need for the added weight, Perfection Pegs are fine tuners!
I find the sound of the Bucharest to be indeed gentler, perhaps mellower or even warmer than the Johannes Köhr. I put my good Pirastro Tonica strings on it and the greatest difference is on the E string, I can make it sound good even at my beginner's level of expertise without barely any effort. With the Johannes Köhr it was a bit of a gamble whenever I had to play the E and it was really easy to make it screech. On the Bucharest I find it I actually have to want to make it screech if I want it to sound bad so it's a lot more forgiving. Some violins, you hear them played and you think "this sounds perfect for Bach", or Mozart, or Vivaldi. Something about the tone of the Bucharest makes me think of Ireland, so maybe I should go for some Irish fiddling music with it, I think it would fit it perfectly! ;)
I would love to try some Pirastro Oliv gut strings on it, but at $130 a set, it will be a while!
Also even if with 'deep camber', I find the strings on this are much easier to work with than they were on the Johannes Köhr, which were set up about a millimeter higher than they should be and had a really tall nut. The Bucharest has actually a very short nut, at first we worried the strings might even buzz, but nope, they don't. Perhaps the deep camber of the fingerboard is actually not a problem but a feature! ;)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Knilling_Bucharest_DSC01849_800.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Knilling_Bucharest_DSC01839_800.jpg)
Since I have this one now to play, I turned back in my Johannes Köhr (because I was renting-to-own it). It's one less bill for me to worry about every month, but I admit I was really sad to turn it in. I'd have kept it if I could. I got emotionally attached to it. It was my first violin! :'(
I hope it goes next to someone who appreciates and takes good care of it!
I took a picture of them side-by-side, a last goodbye to the Johannes Köhr. Don't they look pretty? :)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Johannes_Kohr_Knilling_Bucharest_DSC01835_800.jpg)
Now as soon as it's ready, the Bucharest gets my new, custom and improved chinrest! ;D
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...just some good ol' violin pr0n! ;)
I was practicing earlier, and yay I'm making progress again! So I decided to take a photo of the violin, because!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Bucharest_DSC01912_600.jpg)
I was trying to define the difference in sound between the two violins, and I think I found a way to do it: Compare them to chocolate! MMMmmm!
The Köhr was like 85% cocoa dark chocolate: Strong, a little bitter, with a dry finish. The Bucharest is like milk chocolate: Sweet, smooth, creamier taste with less bite. ...yes, I'm rambling, I'm putting too much thought into this. Maybe I should get some RP, yes, some RP will be good for my wandering mind! The point is they're both chocolate and therefore both are good because chocolate rules! They're just different types of chocolate! ;)
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Some of you might know I love old things! Some of you might know that among the old things I love, I love oil lamps! I have a humble collection of them, and circumstances have led me to now undertake a restoration project with an old oil lamp! :)
The lamp in question is a Master Lamp, made by United Lamp & Burner Co., sometime in the early years of the 20th century. Here's an ad for said lamp from a 1912 issue of The Literary Digest:
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Master_Lamp_Ad.jpg)
$5 in 1912 was about $125 now.
Mine is... well, not in that good of a shape...
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Master_Lamp_WIP_20150825_201758_LLS_800.jpg)
Here's the damage report: This poor lamp was electrified sometime I assume in the 1950's (the parts used were typical of that time), so to do that they ripped out the center draft tube, did away with the complex wick mechanism, flame spreader and wick holder thingie. Basically what I have is a mutilated font, a hollow burner, and.... well that's it really.
These lamps are very rare! From collectors and for sale, I've only seen 4 (this one included), and two of them were electrified and one was gunked beyond usability (though a proper cleaning might have saved it). So when I got the chance to get one even in bad shape, I couldn't pass, because there's a story there too! (incoming story time!)
I saw this lamp first for sale on eBay some 2 years ago for $150, with a Best Offer option. Well, I sent them a $80 offer, and they refused. The auction went through, didn't sell, they re-listed it. I offered $90. Again, they refused! A couple more cycles of unsold auctions, it was for sale again, I offered $100. They countered with $150. ...I really think some people don't get the concept of "or best offer"!
So I let it go. I wasn't about to dump $150 on a broken lamp that would need loads of work and who knows how much in parts.
About a week ago, browsing eBay to pass time while waiting for my turn to post in the RP, I stumbled upon that same lamp, now on auction, with a $0.99 starting bid! I'm broke, but I figured I could scrunch up some $20 and hope for the best. That was my max bid! If it went above that, I would not bother! I ended up getting it for $9.98! They should have taken my $100 back in the day! ;D
So, this is gonna be a fun restoration project! The wick mechanism is impossible to restore, so I'm gonna have to improvise there. I could make a more standard mechanism for the existing hollowed burner, but I know that a Plume & Atwood Royal burner will fit the threads on the font (don't ask how I know these things!), and they are easy and relatively cheap to come by! I can fix the holes on the font that were there from the original mechanism and the subsequent electrification of the lamp easy enough. ...the center draft tube is going to be a bit of a challenge, but we wouldn't want it to be too easy now would we? ;)
Other parts such as the chimney, shade holder, and shade, those will all have to be sourced.
Today I cleaned it all up from 100+ years old of gunk, and fixed metal fatigue hairline cracks on the little lid that covers the fueling hole on the font. Thankfully that was the only part of the lamp that had cracks and it was easy enough to fix. Tomorrow I'm gonna see if I can find a P&A burner from one of the cheap antique shops around here!
08-27-2015
Well, I found a P&A Royal lamp in bad shape but with all the parts I needed intact, so I got it for $5! Then I came home, retreated to the workshop in the backyard, and worked on this damned thing for the next 7 hours!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Master_Lamp_WIP_20150827_031330_LLS_640.jpg)
I had to disassemble pretty much the entire lamp (which meant undoing 100+ years old solder joints), and as I got working on it, I found lots, lots of metal fatigue cracks on the brass. GAAHH! Took me hours to fix them all and then patch the holes left from when the original wick mechanism was ripped off. Then I got to work on the center draft tube! The P&A is a perfect fit on diameter, but was too long, and guess what, had metal fatigue cracks too! So I had to cut it the right length, solder the cracks, center it precisely, and solder it in place.
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Master_Lamp_WIP_20150827_034011_LLS_640.jpg)
See that tube in the center? That's what it's supposed to look like!
...then solder the base of the lamp back in place, which I had to remove otherwise I couldn't work on the font. Because this is a restoration, not a preservation work, and this isn't a museum piece, I went for a full "brand new" polish on the lamp. And here it is!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Master_Lamp_20150827_054850_LLS_640.jpg)
Nevermind the burner is silver colored, not brass! Maybe I'll find a brass one cheap someday!
Now when I have money I will need to get a chimney for it, the shade holder, and a shade, and it will be complete! :)
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Its a pretty lamp... I want to rub it :3
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Its a pretty lamp... I want to rub it :3
...it's not that kind of lamp, kitty! ;)
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OMG, I totally get a Fallout vibe from that lamp advertisement :D
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OMG, I totally get a Fallout vibe from that lamp advertisement :D
"Condensed Sunlight!"
"Friend of the Optic Nerve!"
...gotta love these old ads! ;)
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It is a really beautiful lamp and I do love oil lamps myself. Have a couple of them back at my parent's place in my old room. When you are done with the restauration, can you please take a small video of the burning lamp and post it someplace? :)
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It is a really beautiful lamp and I do love oil lamps myself. Have a couple of them back at my parent's place in my old room. When you are done with the restauration, can you please take a small video of the burning lamp and post it someplace? :)
Not exactly a video, just a couple of pictures of it burning. You can't really enjoy the 'flickering of the light' since one of the selling points of these center draft lamps was that the light doesn't flicker! But I'll make a video for you sometime. :)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Master_Lamp_DSC01928_512.jpg) (http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Master_Lamp_DSC01933_512.jpg)
It uses the same chimney as another lamp I had, so I borrowed it because I couldn't wait to see it lit up! That's a 103-years-old wick burning there! The glass chimney is even older (it's from a lamp from 1887). It puts out a tremendous amount of heat, though! On winter I'll just light it up in my room and turn off the central heat. I'll be cozy warm. Everybody else can freeze! ;)
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My Dad would've loved a lamp like that, he likes oil lamps, storm lamps even more.
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I've been stumbling upon some beautiful photos of the interior of violins and other musical instruments, all perfectly lighted and photographed all artistically and stuff ( http://blog.gessato.com/2012/07/27/inside-the-music-print-campaign-by-mierswa-kluska/ ), so I decided to give it a shot.
Those photos are clearly from instruments that have been either cut into so the camera could have a perfect view, or perhaps they used some kick-ass endoscopes, but all I had was a dentist's mirror...
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Inside_Violin_Bucharest_20150905_051815_LLS_800.jpg)
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I've been dealing with a rather mysterious thing on the back of my jaw, on the left side! It's a sensation, much like that of there being something swollen back there. It's been driving me crazy, so I've gone to the doctors (many doctors!). They don't know what it is. They are pretty sure it's probably some sort of temporalmandibular joint disorder (TMJ). The reason they aren't sure is because I don't have one of the key symptoms of TMJ: Pain.
I haven't felt any pain there! Once or twice there was some muscle pain in the masseter, but other than that, nothing I would call pain.
They took a soft tissue x-ray of my neck, which I felt like sharing here so I can creep everybody out with my bones! ;)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Fox_Neck_X-Ray_front.jpg) (http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Fox_Neck_X-Ray_side.jpg)
...I always thought my jaw looked a lot like the Terminator jaw...
And behold, my phenomenal amount of dental work! Fun fact: Although I still have all my teeth, only 5 of them have not had work done. ...wait that's not fun, that's not fun at all, that's so very very sad! :( Take good care of your teeth, folks!
Anyway, they checked my neck inside and out and can't find anything obviously wrong with it. The doctor today ruled out any tumors or scary stuff like that so I guess I just have to deal with having a strange sensation on the back of my jaw. Hopefully it will go away with time! They recommended I try over-the-counter anti-inflammatory stuff, and look into getting a mouth guard in case I'm grinding my teeth in my sleep.
The next step to see what is it exactly that I'm feeling swollen would be to get an MRI, but I can't possibly afford one of those. So, just deal with mysterious feeling!
(many thanks and love to my secret patron who helped me with the doctor bill!)
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Our kitty here Punkin had really bad teeth. Like, really really bad teeth! She was the runt of the litter to begin with, and a few of her teeth never really came through in first place. And the rest of them, they were really weak. That combined with her love for cheesecake and icecream ensured she would eventually have teeth problems.
Punkin is technically Tye's cat, but anyone who's heard me rant about him before would know he'd sit there and watch the poor cat suffer like he doesn't have a clue what to do instead of getting off his ass and doing something (I suggested to him many many times that something needed to be done about her teeth)!
She was clearly in pain; she'd not let people touch her in the jaw/face, and she looked like she was suffering every time she ate. Having had plenty of teeth problems myself, I couldn't stand watching poor Punkin suffer anymore. So I put a bunch of stuff up for auction and got a fundraiser started on FA to help with the considerable veterinary dentist bill. Thanks to some incredibly generous folks, we got the money in less than a week, and I made an appointment for her with the kitty dentist!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Punkin_DSC01956_800.jpg)
She was so eager to get it done, that 5 days before her appointment she had already climbed into the cat carrier we got, and she slept there every night since!
She went through the dentist alright, though she was understandably freaked out since she had only been taken out of the house here once in her life and that was when she was old enough to get spayed. When we brought her back she cuddled with me all day, and she's doing so much better already even though her mouth is still healing.
...and it's still healing because they had to pull 7 of her teeth that were completely rotten! We asked them to take some before & after photos, but they forgot or something, so here's her medical chart...
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Punkin_Teeth_20150924_123403_LLS_600.jpg)
So now she has her canines, and her incisors. And on the lower jaw she has a set of molars. She will be eating a lot of soft food now that she can't really crunch anything when she chews. ...not that she could before. She was swallowing her solid cat food bits whole! We gave her kitten food as it's smaller and easier for her to eat. She definitely feels a whole lot better, though!
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Today when I was mowing the grass I bumped one of my apple trees (meaning: I grabbed it and shook it vigorously), and the one apple it grew this year came loose! So yes this is our first (and only!) apple from the red delicious tree that we get to enjoy!
The gold delicious tree had a bunch of apples 3 years ago but something ate them overnight when they were approaching being ripe. We never got to taste them. I blame it on squirrels, or chupacabras.
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/FirstApple_DSC01958_800.jpg)
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Once again it's Halloween!
This year we unfortunately couldn't do anything fancy here on the house, and Tye decided not to do anything at all, because he's a very lazy horse. :P
But I've been productive in my own way! Still practicing the violin! So I figured, for anyone musically inclined here, I'd share my Halloween soundtrack for this year: Camille Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre (Op. 40)! ...well, the part that everyone knows and that doesn't get too long and drawn out. Don't get me wrong, I love the whole thing, but sometimes you just want a quick little piece to play not the whole concert! ;)
Anyway, the Danse Macabre, the Dance of Death, where Death appears at midnight every year on Halloween and calls forth the dead from their graves to dance for him while he plays his fiddle. His skeletons dance for him until the rooster crows at dawn, when they must return to their graves until the next year.
I got a wonderful composing program to play with so I put this together tonight!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Danse%20Macabre%2001.jpg) (http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Danse%20Macabre%2001.png) (http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Danse%20Macabre%2002.jpg) (http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Danse%20Macabre%2002.png)
(click the images for full resolution)
Happy Halloween everyone!
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Weee! Got another autograph! ...this one almost two years late!
Apparently Mark Hamill isn't signing photos sent to him (pity, the one I sent was a pretty cool one of him as Luke, and a Joker card), but according to the letter I got with the autograph he left a pile of photos signed to be sent to fans who request them. ;)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20151121_180708_LLS_600.jpg)
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And we finished putting the lights all over the house and the yard so it's all ready for xmas!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/DSC01978_800.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20151221_174931_small.jpg)
...and after many days of messing with it, the xmas tree is up and fully decorated!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20151221_184019_800.jpg)
And here Punkin can be seen doing her traditional terrorizing of the nativity scene.
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I've decided to document my ongoing fight with fleas, so that others may benefit of what I learn as I try to exterminate these damned useless pointless pests!
Our animals here are officially infested with fleas: Punkin and Ash the cats, and Lizy the dog. They have cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis, which must have got into the house from the stray cats that roam the neighborhood and our yard. Or who knows! These pests spread so easy there might have been a flea egg or two that came in through many different ways (on our clothes from visiting somewhere with fleas, or in a package through the mail, the possibilities are endless!).
We started trying to kill them with your everyday flea shampoo (the Adams brand). Well, it kills the fleas on the animals, but the shampoo also advertises it's supposed to repel and keep them 'flea free' for days! Nope. Doesn't work. A day after the bath they have fleas again, even though they're still smelling of the poison shampoo.
We tried the little drops you put on the back of the necks of the animals, that are supposed to keep them flea-free for a month. It worked the first time for a few days, but then they started coming back, and the subsequent doses of the poison didn't seem to do anything!
We tried flea collars. Those were absolutely pointless! In fact the fleas were gathering on their necks under the freaking collars that are supposed to repel and kill them!! I'm starting to think we have super fleas!
One thing we know kills them with absolute certainty is Dawn, the dishwasher detergent that's also used to wash animals victim of oil spills. It kills them instantly! ...but again a day after the bath the fleas start to come back. So that means the house is infested.
We cleaned the house before but considering the whole house (with exception of kitchen and bathrooms) is carpeted, it's gonna take some industrial-grade stuff to kill them all, which is not an option because we can't leave the house fumigating for a few days or anything like that.
In the ongoing fight, I've read lots of articles on the internet, and now we're getting ready to try some different anti-flea medication to give the animals. One is something that supposedly kills the fleas that are feeding on the animal within 30 minutes of administering, but it only kills adult fleas on the animals. It lasts only a day or so, though. The other is one that gets stored in the fat tissue of the animals and any flea that feeds from them will only lay eggs containing deformed fleas that die upon hatching; that one stays in their system for a long while and you're supposed to do a 6-month treatment.
Killing the fleas on the animals is no big deal, like I said Dawn works like magic and is not poisonous to them (or us!). Now as far as cleaning the house, that is proving to be a challenge! Again, carpet all over is a curse!
I've tested 'home remedies' that are said to work:
- Salt: Does nothing to an adult flea; haven't found a larva to test it on.
- Baking soda: Also does nothing to adult fleas.
- Borax: Nope, doesn't work!
I captured 3 adult fleas and put them each in a container with pulverized salt, baking soda, and borax respectively, and for the past three days the fleas which are in the absolute most ideal condition for the products to kill them have not yet died! So sprinkling any of those on the carpets would not kill adult fleas! Maybe it harms the larva, maybe it harms eggs, but not adult fleas. :P
I'm looking forward to testing diatomaceous earth next, it's said to kill all stages of fleas. I'll keep you posted on the results!
12-29-2015
I found flea larvae! I put them in the containers with the baking soda, salt, and borax. After 2 hours, the larvae were still alive. >:(
EDIT: After 15 hours in the containers, all three larvae are still alive! My conclusion is baking soda, salt, or borax do not work to kill fleas!
1-14-2016
I tested the diatomaceous earth. It doesn't work. ...well, it kills them faster than the borax or the baking soda or the salt did, but that still took some 30 hours at ideal conditions, so I'm writing it off as no good either.
Steam is wonderful, though! Steam kills them all instantly! It's just not practical.
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I've been making bonsai trees since.... my childhood. I have some quite nicely aged 'trees' down there in Brazil that my mom doesn't take any care of other than watering so they're all overgrown, but still alive and I guess happy! ;)
When I moved to the U.S., I made a couple of bonsai when I lived in Tennessee, but my roomate at the time neglected to water them when I was out for a couple of weeks traveling, and they died. :(
I hadn't made any new ones since then and I figured it was time change that! So I was trying to figure out what would make a good bonsai for me to make here, and I learned that people can make bonsai out of grapevines. Well I have three healthy grapevines there on the backyard, and they are easy to deal with, so, that's what I chose!
So, to start with, I cut a few pieces of the grapevines, and while people normally put some rooting hormone thing to stimulate root growth, I decided screw it, let's see if anything happens if I just stick these in water. Lo and behold, exactly one month after I took the cuttings and put them in water, they have grown roots (one of them is even growing leaves! IN WINTER!!). So the process has begun! I've put the now rooted cuttings on some akadama soil, and let's see how they develop from there!
(if nothing else, I'll just plant them in the backyard comes spring and will have more grapevines!)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Grape_Bonsai_20160114_215302_800.jpg)
1-16-2016
Inspired by the success of my previous cuttings, I've taken some more cuttings this time from my most powerful grapevine. I picked some with interesting shapes that would make good bonsai material. Let's see how these do!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Grape_Bonsai_20160115_145149_800.jpg)
2-7-2016
All original clippings/canes/whatever-they-are-called have sprouted leaves and have tremendous roots growing! The more interesting ones are still in water waiting for roots to grow. If it's anything like the previous ones, they should have some roots beginning to show after a month.
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Grape_Bonsai_20160207_142407_600.jpg)
2-18-2016
So I greatly underestimated the power of grapevines! All my samples have either leaves or buds, and roots. The new ones (the more interesting ones) have already put out roots and some are growing leaves, and it's been only 11 days!
I've selected one I think will make the best bonsai, but have to wait to see how it plan to grow its first buds which will later turn into limbs. The others, I have to wait 'till spring and then I'll plant them outside.
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Grapevine_Bonsai_DSC01995_600.jpg)
3-11-2016
I finally planted the two I picked for bonsai in their respective pots, and put them by a window where they will get morning sunlight.
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Grapevine_Bonsai_20160312_182514.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Grapevine_Bonsai_20160312_182459.jpg)
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I tracked down some good violin makers in Shanghai, and made a deal with them trading in my Bucharest violin and a couple of bows I didn't care about for one of their brand new 'professional' models!
This one is a copy of a violin by Guarneri Del Gesù, Antonio Stradivari's direct competitor at the time. All my other violins have so far been Stradivarius copies. The Del Gesù is noticeably different in sound and feel!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_20160304_195957_500.jpg) (http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_20160304_200029_500.jpg)
...it needs a name! I should start naming my violins! ;)
10-30-2016
I'm calling this one the Diva, because it's a diva! It's sensitive to weather changes and temperamental to play but its voice is so nice and it knows it! ;)
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That is a stunning violin...
I am a player myself, and I have always wanted to upgrade to a more professional Violin. However, mixing that with buying guitars and other musical instruments its taken a back step. My plan for the near future (This year) is getting an electric violin. Have you bought one before?
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That is a stunning violin...
I am a player myself, and I have always wanted to upgrade to a more professional Violin. However, mixing that with buying guitars and other musical instruments its taken a back step. My plan for the near future (This year) is getting an electric violin. Have you bought one before?
Oh it can get crazy expensive to keep getting instruments! ;)
I never had nor played an electric violin, no.
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...and I've been doing some experimenting with my brand new violin!
It's generally agreed (though there's always some spoilsport out there who doesn't agree) that brand new violins need to be played for a while to acclimate them from being a pile of wood into a musical instrument. This playing-in period can be anything from a few weeks to a few months. But SCIENCE! has come with ways to speed that up, or so I heard!
Apparently there's some play-in devices such as ToneRite that claim to do this playing-in for you giving the instrument months of playtime in just a couple of days or so. Also they tend to be unjustifiably expensive! Also the musical community is divided on the effectiveness of these devices, and most see it as snake-oil. I was skeptical too!
I looked into the physics of it (and a very thorough paper some Germans published about the effects of induced vibration on string instruments), and figured out the exact same effect can be accomplished with spare parts I have at home!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Home-Made_Violin_Play-In_Device_001.jpg)
Spare parts: An old boombox, a wire, hotglue, and a practice mute.
So! Take one of the speakers out of the boombox, disconnect the other, solder a longer wire, hotglue a practice mute to the dust cap of the speaker, voila! Play-in device!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Home-Made_Violin_Play-In_Device_004.jpg)
I set the mute-bearing speaker on the violin's bridge, put some rubber bands to gently hold everything in place - not that I think it would fall off, but when things start vibrating, you never know, it could wiggle itself loose or something! - then set the whole thing on the floor on the back room here that's used for nothing but clutter currently.
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Home-Made_Violin_Play-In_Device_002.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Home-Made_Violin_Play-In_Device_003.jpg)
Originally I thought I'd play some solo violin music on it, since that's its natural thing, but that got so little vibration going, I didn't feel it was going to be much effective. So I switched to something much stronger: Iron Maiden! That got it vibrating nice and good!
So I covered the whole thing with one of those big storage containers... and put a blanket over it to further muffle the sound coming out of it. Turns out putting a speaker on a violin makes it into a louder speaker! ;)
I left it to play-in for 2 1/2 days, under the box and the blanket and behind a closed door - I love Iron Maiden but having constant music going would get annoying; I require silence for a while too! - and I checked back on it after a couple of days...
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Home-Made_Violin_Play-In_Device_005.jpg)
So the results!
I'm astonished. I really didn't expect a noticeable change, or a change at all (I was a bit on the "this is snake-oil" group), but there was a very noticeable change!
At first the violin had that characteristic "new violin" sound: A bit stiff, muffled, like there was something hidden there but wasn't coming out yet. And was a bit like a stuffy nose. I wasn't too sure I liked it. Now after playing-in it sounds open, resonant, and incredibly loud!
So I think play-in devices may work. I don't think they will miraculously make a bad instrument good, but it seems that the logic of opening up the instrument to its full potential is sound! :)
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Soooooooooo...........I know I can't be the only one to think this but I'll say it. You should totally pop a video in here of you playing it! Or like a sound file so we can hear you play atleast! :D
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Soooooooooo...........I know I can't be the only one to think this but I'll say it. You should totally pop a video in here of you playing it! Or like a sound file so we can hear you play atleast! :D
I'm still a beginner on the violin. Give me a while to get better at it. ;)
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This is very clever. Somewhat brave as well! I do not think i would have the balls to attach that to a new violin! However, as you said, it works and saves loads of cash!
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For anyone wondering what I've been up to that RL suddenly consumed all my time, here it is!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Fox's_Closet_20160314_231557.jpg)
My bedroom closet was basically a catch-all full of clutter. And the water heater was in there for some reason! So with much toil I took all the clutter out of there, moved the water heater to a better location (the utilities closet where the washer and dryer are), then patched up the walls which had lots and lots of damage, painted it, equipped it to handle clothes, not clutter, and moved all my clothes and closet-related things in there today!
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*paws the closet*
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Ashy, get out of the closet! :P
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So I've gone and seen Zootopia! I think it might be my new favorite movie! It's really nice, and it's so freaking cute! ...like OMG SO CUTE I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WItH MYSELF!!!
(https://49.media.tumblr.com/7628509ef8524ab60de84be0a2348a69/tumblr_o44btuqPba1u24s0bo1_400.gif)
If you haven't seen it yet, go see it!
Oh gods I'm gonna die of overcuteness from that fennec in the elephant suit!!
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It's spring! Time to plant things!
I pruned the grapevines outdoors, and planted the cuttings I didn't think would make good bonsai. Now I'm left with two of those, and they are growing happily! Ash the little gray cat likes them too!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Grapevine_Bonsai_20160321_135824_800.jpg)
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Ash the little gray cat likes them too!
You mean, Ash loves laying in the sun and tolerates your plants taking spot there....for now.
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Ash the little gray cat likes them too!
You mean, Ash loves laying in the sun and tolerates your plants taking spot there....for now.
"When are they going to pay rent for my sun spot?"
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So I've gone and seen Zootopia! I think it might be my new favorite movie! It's really nice, and it's so freaking cute! ...like OMG SO CUTE I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WItH MYSELF!!!
(https://49.media.tumblr.com/7628509ef8524ab60de84be0a2348a69/tumblr_o44btuqPba1u24s0bo1_400.gif)
If you haven't seen it yet, go see it!
Oh gods I'm gonna die of overcuteness from that fennec in the elephant suit!!
Excellent movie. I walked 4 miles from work, to the movie theater, just to see it. Worth the trip. Not even exaggerating, I walked down a highway, crossed the missouri river on a bridge with no proper sidewalk, and got partially lost in a confusing maze of off-ramps and on-ramps, just to get to the theater because it was the only day of the entire week that I was off work in time to get to the theater before the final showing. WORTH IT.
The absolutely wonderful message the movie had, enjoyable story, and amazingly well animated characters, make it well deserving of the records it broke. On that note: Frozen got it's ass handed to it by Zootopia, which broke Frozens release week records.~ I hope "Try Everything" washes away that damn song "Let it go"
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Tye's mom got some money, so we got started on a long overdue renovation of the back bathroom (the one she primarily uses here). The bathroom was a gross blue color (like that blue thing on the back of the door on the photos) and had completely outdated fixtures from the 80's and mold, lots and lots of mold! So it was about time for it to go!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Bathroom_Renovation_20160323_111720_800.jpg)
Also it had no windows. Apparently that's usual in many places (specially here in the U.S.), but I can't grasp the concept of a bathroom without a window! So I made the executive decision that I was going to install a window in this bathroom!
We started by gutting the bathroom. Everything had to go! Because it was so poorly built, it was rather easy to demolish. Of course, that's when we ran into some wallboards with mysterious fibers in them, so I took a sample to be tested. Thankfully it wasn't asbestos, just fiberglass. Oh and the subfloor under the shower and toilet is rotted and needs replacing! I say there's a rule about renovations: The moment you start opening up walls, you find horrors you were never prepared for! More on that in a moment...
With demolition done, mold taken care of, I prepared the area to cut a hole in the wall for the window. That's when I found out how horribly built this part of the house was. This bathroom is on an addition that was built by the previous owners who supposedly were contractors; they were also rumored to steal materials from their job sites to do their own projects. Too bad that didn't translate into stealing quality materials, or enough amounts of them to build things right! As I cut into the wall I found out that there is no outside wall to the addition! The siding is going right on some thin foam sheet insulation that's nailed to the studs! And there's no way I can fix it unless I take out the entire siding on that side of the house and re-build it as it's supposed to be! Dumbshits! No wonder contractors have such horrible reputation! Oh and I don't think they ever learned how to install insulation inside the walls! Little patches here and there don't do it!
So I remedied the situation as best I could on the part of wall I had exposed to work with, installed the window properly, and now just have to get on with replacing the rotted subfloor... then installing the cement backer boards, drywall, tiles, paint, fixtures, and it will be all pretty and not leaky and not moldy!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Bathroom_Renovation_20160326_154006_800.jpg)
03/29/2016
Today the plan was to start work replacing the rotted subfloor boards, buuuuuut when I cut them off I found out the shitheads who built this part of the house had made some horrible structural screw-ups! Most glaring, they cut one of the freaking floor joists and left it dangling with no support and no nothing! Morons! Dickheads! Cost me the entire day repairing the damage they did before I can resume work on the floor!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/19651183-9b37-4695-8c0c-cd9e33433b31_800.jpg)
A very angry fox repairing floor joists.
04/08/2016
Work continues on that stupid bathroom! I've been taking my time with it because 1) I don't have a crew, 2) I don't care, 3) I have better things to do than work non-stop on it. ;)
...specially considering how frustrating it is. We took down the ceiling the other day, just to find out that the ceiling joists and the rafters on that side of the house are built wrong. ....oh and guess what! One of the joists was also cut, so, more time-consuming repairs to the structure of the house before any of the work I set out to do could be done.
But now that all the horrors have been repaired, my new floor is in, new ceiling, I can continue on the work on the walls. I put proper insulation the other day, and did the plumbing for the shower. Now just need to do the cement base for the shower, put the walls in place, tiles, fixtures, and it will be done!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Bathroom_Renovation_20160406_220244_800.jpg)
05/20/2016
Well, the floor and walls are all up, or... down in the case of the floor. It's been impossibly humid here so things have been taking forever to dry! And I've been procrastinating! But work continues and maybe by the end of next week I'll be putting down tile on the floor or painting the walls, or maybe both! We'll see!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Bathroom_Renovation_20160516_172511_800.jpg)
06/19/2016
After cutting a bunch of tiles the previous days, staging them to make sure everything fits where it's supposed to go, I started laying the tiles on the bathroom floor! Started with the shower area, and I had to get a special thinset because the one I had wasn't recommended for shower floors. :P ...so I had to mix it myself. I hate mixing my own thinset. But here it is! I ran out of the batch I had mixed at same time I ran out of spacers so I called it a day there. Now have to wait a couple of days for it to dry!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Bathroom_Renovation_20160619_175451_800.jpg)
07/8/2016
Work continues, very slowly, on the back bathroom! Since I'm the only one doing it with no help from anyone here, I decided I will do it at my own leisure pace and it will get done whenever it gets done, damnit! I'm not gonna hurry. :P
So, the floor tiles are all in place, and now all grouted. I also installed the vanity/sink which is on the spot I was standing for this photo (I'll take a photo of that later), and maybe if I feel like it tomorrow I'll install the toilet. The shower walls still need their tiles, but I decided to finish the rest first so at least the bathroom will be usable for everything but bathing.
...and that door will need to have something done to it too, but I'll get to it when I get to it.
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Bathroom_Renovation_20160708_211138_800.jpg)
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I had a playing partner... or was he audience? Either way, the little gray cat decided he was going to keep me company while I played tonight...
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Fox_Ash_Fiddle_20160330_231700_400.jpg) (http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Fox_Ash_Fiddle_20160330_232557_400.jpg)
...my hair looks terrible!
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And here's my favorite of the bunches of grapevines I picked to make bonsai! It's establishing itself well in the pot, so now the training begins! In a few years it will be a beautiful little tree!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Grapevine_Bonsai_20160402_152219.jpg)
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I got a new baby!
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Hellier_Copy_20160803_164932_400.jpg) (http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Hellier_Copy_20160803_164857_400.jpg) (http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Hellier_Copy_20160803_164302_248.jpg)
This one has an intricate provenance story but basically it was given to me by my former boss. My local luthier was stumped by it because it has no label and no distinct markings that indicate who/where it was made, so she gave me the contact info of some experts in Maryland and they say it's a copy of the "Hellier" Stradivarius, which is neat!
It sounds quite nice, but I need to save up to get some better strings. :)
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It's done! It's finally done! That stupid back bathroom is done! ;D
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Back_Bathroom_20160805_154559_800.jpg)
(http://sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Back_Bathroom_20160805_014715_800.jpg)
There's some distortion in the pictures because of the panoramic view, but there it is at last! Only took 4 freaking months to finish! That's what happens when you have one single lonely fox doing all the work, on a shoestring budget, and with absolutely no motivation or desire to get it done after having to deal with fixing structural problems on the house! :P
I inaugurated it this morning! The shower there is sublime! ...now I need to re-do my bathroom because it's a piece-of-crap by comparison. ;)
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It had been a long time since I got any autographs, but today I got two from the Nostalgia Critic (Doug Walker) and crew! Yay!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20160812_171244_800.jpg)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20160812_171304_800.jpg)
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It had been a long time since I got any autographs, but today I got two from the Nostalgia Critic (Doug Walker) and crew! Yay!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20160812_171244_800.jpg)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20160812_171304_800.jpg)
So cool!
Also I looked up through some of your other posts on here. I never knew the foxy was so gorgeous!
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So cool!
Also I looked up through some of your other posts on here. I never knew the foxy was so gorgeous!
*blushes* Oh shush. :)
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Some might have heard me babbling about my latest creation, a 3D pantograph (it has nothing to do with pants in 3D... Or David Bowie's pants from Labyrinth, which have legendary pronounced 3D features of their own!). I bought a bunch of parts from China for a 1000th of the cost that was buying them here, and... one was lost in the mail and a bunch of others the bearings are crap. But I changed the design and made it work!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/3D_Pantograph_20160904_213420_800.jpg)
Yes those are dumbbells.
So I finally finished it and put it to work today! It's loud, it makes a huge amount of dust, but it works! So for my first project, I decided to copy my custom-fit violin chinrest, which when I made last year took me about 4 days to make.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/3D_Pantograph_20160912_185455_800.jpg)
I copied the top part which was the really tricky part, and the dimensions, then made it different on the bottom part: The original one is side-mounted, the new one is center-mounted.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/stuff/Etretat_Chinrest_20160913_001400_500.jpg)
As I was working on it, I kept thinking, where have I seen this shape before... Then it hit me! It's Étretat, in France!
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/4/3334/4621875668_d3063545eb.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/83qjBw)
Cote Normande (https://flic.kr/p/83qjBw) by Patrick Demory (https://www.flickr.com/photos/photopade/), on Flickr
If nobody's got dibs on the name I'm calling this an Étretat style chinrest! ;D
It's pretty much done, need to varnish it still, but yeah, 8 hours of work instead of 4 days, sounds pretty good to me! And now I have the ability to copy 3D objects! Weeee!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/stuff/Etretat_Chinrest_20160913_031510_500.jpg)
Je suis le Étretat mentonnière.
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So clever! SO VERY CLEVER!
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Well, I made another one!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/stuff/Etretat_Chinrest_20161011_223234_500.jpg)
I got a hold of a hunk of ultra-rare Brazilwood (Caesalpinia echinata, aka. Pernambuco)... which was harvested before CITES listed it as endangered and became illegal to import it so don't send the attack helicopters and unmarked black vans to arrest me... Anyway, I got a hold of it and figured, why not!
So I'm also making a tailpiece and an end button and pegs for my Diva violin (the loud and temperamental one).
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"The fox has been quiet lately", someone says.
"He hasn't made anything in a while!", another says.
Yes, I have been quiet, but not inactive! While still clearing up the 'middle room' here to turn it into a proper workshop (the latest renovation work in the house), I've been making some more Pernambuco pieces for my violin!
Behold, the pegs, and end button!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Pernambuco_Violin_Pegs_End_Button_20161103_160904_800.jpg)
Funny thing is, I can make all these pretty things, but I don't have the tool to properly fit it on the violin. So I figured by the time I bought the proper tools I could just pay the folks on the violin shop here to put them in for me. I left the violin with them last week and today it was done so I picked it up.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Pernambuco_Violin_Pegs_20161111_233609_800.jpg)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Pernambuco_Violin_Tailpiece_End_Button_20161111_233539_800.jpg)
The tailpiece on that picture is also Pernambuco but that I had made a while ago. ...and of course, my custom chinrest!
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Another thing I have been working on had been a cabinet to put my violins!
Normally they would just stay in their cases, but that's detrimental to practicing: When you want to practice, you have to open up the case, get the bow, get the violin, shoulder-rest, set everything up, play, then pack everything back in the case. Might not seem like much but it's surprisingly significant! Having them in a case brings to mind the old saying "out of sight, out of mind". There's much 'unpacking' and then 'packing back up'.
So having them in a cabinet where the only step to playing is opening up a door that's right there, setting it up and playing, and then just putting it right back in the cabinet is much simpler and more encouraging!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violins_Cabine_20161111_215341_500.jpg) (http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violins_Cabinet_20161112_024323_500.jpg)
Like the other furniture stuff I've made, it's Western Red Cedar. This one I was on a shoestring budget so I had to make do with some very knotty boards I had rejected in the past, and had to get creative with being economy, but I think it came out Ok. Also doubles as spaces for movies and a drawer for things!
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I still don't have the workshop ready to resume making Tiffany lamps, but I've had some ideas for lamp bases. I'm trying to come up with a way to make them inexpensively, quickly, and simply.
...I haven't succeeded in making it simple, or too quick yet. ;)
But here it is, this one is a prototype, inspired by Tiffany's original 'twisted reeds' design. It's made of solid copper with my own recipe of bronze patina.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20161203_190937_800.jpg)
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So all the xmas stuff is in place finally! People will leave me alone for a few days now! ;)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Xmas_2016_20161217_210257_800.jpg)
That in the back there is Dani, our Christmas dragon...
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Dani_Xmas_Dragon_20161112_161452_800.jpg)
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I got my Diva violin a couple of xmas presents: A titanium fine tuner and titanium chinrest brackets!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/stuff/StradPet_Titanium_Hill_Fine_Tuner_20161223_202150_500.jpg) (http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/stuff/StradPet_Titanium_Chinrest_Bracket_20161224_032746_500.jpg)
Of course the manufacturers of anything for stringed instruments claim "improvements in tone" and all sorts of other miracles, and 90% of the time it's all snakeoil. I didn't buy these for any supposed improvements, I bought them because titanium is awesome and they're different so my violin is a step closer to being a special snowflake! ;)
That said, I noticed difference in the tone.
The fine tuner I was using before weights 3.4 grams. The titanium one weights 1.9 grams. Any change in weight on the tailpiece can cause differences in the tone. In this case, sounded like certain frequencies were de-dampened, some sounds seemed more open, resonating more freely. Which is neat. The chinrest brackets might have added to some openness in some frequencies too; the previous one the brackets weighted 18.5 grams. The titanium ones weight 9.2 grams, a huge difference! Again, any change in mass might make difference, some violins are more sensitive to such things than others.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/stuff/StradPet_Titanium_Hill_Fine_Tuner_20161224_021409_500.jpg)
Whichever the case, titanium!! Need I say more? :)
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Nice. Which reminds me... now that Aryn and I do have a stable and fast connection to the net... will you stream something you play on the violin for us sometime? ;)
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Nice. Which reminds me... now that Aryn and I do have a stable and fast connection to the net... will you stream something you play on the violin for us sometime? ;)
Sure. We'll have to set something up sometime.
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yesh!!
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Hi, my name is Fox, and I have a violin problem...
;)
I seem to be amassing a collection of violins!
Our lovely Aryn had a violin lying around, it belonged to his grandfather, and if I recall the story correctly nobody really cared about it at the time so Aryn ended up with it, but he doesn't play the violin so it was just in a closet somewhere. One day we were talking about music and violin stuffs, and he asked me if I wanted to have that old violin. OF COURSE I DID! ;D
So he and Athian arranged to send it to me from Germany (and now because of a miscalculation, Athian has more bubblewrap than he will ever use), and it arrived here safe and sound, to great credit to Athian's packing skills, because the postal service did try to kill the poor thing, the box it came in was in tatters! But it arrived, and that's what's important!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/stuff/20170419_173621_800.jpg)
As it arrived, I began the task of restoring it. First a very gentle cleaning to get rid of the dust of the decades. This poor thing has seen some extensive repairs in its past, but it's in perfect playing condition after cleaning and setting it up. The violin was unlabeled, but inside I found some interesting markings...
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/stuff/20170419_184001_560.jpg)
Inside, I found a big 'S' branded on the upper block, and what seems to be the letters 'C S' branded on the top plate and the bass bar.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/stuff/20170419_191622_560.jpg)
On the back, south of the bass F-hole, I found some pencil scribbles that read "C.S.- = 2 1936".
I called upon experts to help solve the mystery of whom might have been the maker of this violin, but so far the search has come surprisingly vague. They agree that the violin was a relatively low-cost type, probably mass-produced, somewhere between 1880 and 1910, but it is not from Markneukirchen; the best candidate for source so far seems to be Schönbach, another important violin manufacture center at that time. But there is a very small chance that it could be Scottish! The Germans or Bohemians for the most part did not do linings like the ones inside this violin, but the Italians and the Scottish did! It's absolutely not Italian, so that leaves Scottish as a possibility! It could also be the work of some obscure maker not associated with any of the important violin making centers at the time. The date 1936 inside it is thought to be from when the repairs were done, not when the violin was made.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/stuff/20170421_032857%20Aryn's%20Violin%20800.jpg)
Squeee~!
Anyway, I cleaned it up, restored it, set it up with as much of the original parts as possible for authenticity, and put it to the test!
It has a rather lovely bright voice. I've said it makes me think of a Mozart soprano, it's very clean, very precise, very controlled, with just a little bit of warmth. My playing is still that of a novice so I'm gonna get my teacher to record something played on it and I'll post it later. ;)
...the bow that came with it is a matter for another post another time. It needs to be restored but I don't possess the materials to work on it, so I'll take it to the archetier once I have money.
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A couple of weeks ago or so I did whatever repairs I could on the bow that came with the violin Aryn sent me, and then I dropped it off with the archetier for what I couldn't fix on my own. Today I went to pick it up! :)
I had hopes that this would be a nice old German bow, but it is a 'student model', meaning the snobs with monocles turn their noses up to it because it's made of inferior wood and often not very well made, though the craftsmanship on this bow leaves nothing to wish for! Regardless, it was an old bow that needed my help! So I got it all fixed up!
As you can barely see on this picture I took when I first got the package, the bow is crummy, the hair is all worn and broken and cruddy, the lapping and leather were coming apart.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20170419_173621_bow_800.jpg)
There was also a repaired crack by the screw, and a repaired broken tip. The crack by the screw seemed to be properly closed, if perhaps a bit sloppy (the archetier pointed that out), but the repair at the tip was atrocious. I can't re-hair bows, but I sure can undo a crappy fix and restore it properly!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20170426_221434_BowtipRepair_800.jpg)
The tip on this bow happens to be ivory, which was very good because I could use solvents without dissolving the tip too (a plastic tip wouldn't have survived the solvents I used). So after carefully swabbing with a cotton-swab and solvent for about 2 hours, I managed to undo the old repair job, then I cleaned it all up, and re-glued the parts properly and neatly:
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20170427_050136_BowtipRepair_800.jpg)
That was as far as I could go. I could have touched-up the varnish but figured better let the archetier do that too. I've only done a French Polish twice, he's done it countless times. ;)
So the bow was done yesterday and I went to pick it up today! It looks beautiful, with fresh new hair, new leather grip, and touched-up varnish. It was slightly warped once under tension, but he also corrected that (3 times, he said!).
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20170510_223602_800h.jpg)
Because it's a simpleton pedestrian student bow, we went with a simple, affordable double-leather fix: The leather grip and leather lapping instead of the traditional silver wire for the lapping. And he cleaned up the nickel-silver bits too.
Being a student bow doesn't mean it is a bad bow, but it is likely to have deficiencies with advanced techniques, and also the market value of it is only so much, so it's generally unwise to spend on it more than what it's worth, even if I have no intention of selling it.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20170510_224717_800.jpg)
...and look at that beautiful tip, all varnished again (with my restoration job too!):
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20170510_224904_800.jpg)
I put it to the test when I got home. This is an interesting bow. I still need my teacher to give her opinion on it, because she can do all the crazy things I'm nowhere near able to do to really put it to the test, but I find it has some nice characteristics, and some that would take some getting used to. First, it's very, very light! The balance is just right but I'm used to a slightly heavier bow. And because these things are fickle, I tried it on all my fiddles, and amusingly, the one I liked it the least with was the violin Aryn sent, the one it was paired with to begin with! ::)
The overall sound I got from it was generally strong and sharp, and I couldn't get good staccato with it but again I'm just a beginner still. My teacher will be the final judge on its quality! As far as personal preference goes, it still didn't beat my best bow, though. I'm putting it as my second-best for now. Maybe it will grow on me, but the good bow has been difficult to beat! I even like mine better than I like my teacher's and she has a really good and expensive one!
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(yes, more violin stuff! ;) )
Violins are intricate, pedantic, and fickle little wooden boxes! Out of the dozens of parts that make them, one of them is the sound post (or soundpost): It's a little dowel that stands by friction alone between the top plate and the bottom plate. It transmits vibrations between the plates and is stupidly immensely important and without it a violin doesn't work!
Soundpost adjustments are one of the 'simplest' ways to change the sound of your violin. Because the little piece of wood isn't glued, it can be nudged this way and that with a special tool, and that can change drastically the character and sound of the whole instrument!
And still with how important this little piece of wood is, some makers still get it not-entirely-right! That was the case of my 'Diva' violin, the soundpost was too long (0.5mm too long, to be precise!). So I had a new one made by my luthier here and put in, because back then I hadn't spent my experience points yet on that skill. But now I have! ;D
So with the new skill acquired, I experimented removing and re-setting the soundpost on one of my cheap Chinese violins, then after the luthier offered me a job because I had done right on the first time what takes often months of training, I felt confident enough to set the soundpost on the violin Aryn gave me. Again I got it right on the first time, so, time to upgrade the skill!
I had another violin that the luthier had told me the soundpost was too long, but since I don't play it regularly I didn't spend the money getting a new soundpost in. But now that I have the skill (and the tools, and the materials), I figured I would do it myself!
So I made a 6.5mm round little piece of wood out of some awesome ancient Norwegian Spruce pieces I've got (piece-of-cake!), and took the old soundpost out of the violin and measured it. That one was actually a whole millimeter too long! I made mine of the right size, and with the incredibly precise angles at the ends to match the contours of the inside of the violin...
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20170513_030036_soundpost_800.jpg)
Then comes time to put it in and make sure it's right! The procedure is simple: Stab the soundpost with the sharp end of the soundpost setter, carefully maneuver it inside the violin through the treble F-hole, tilt this way, tilt that way, angle it just right, pull it between the top and bottom plates, and it should fit effortlessly! Which it did, on the first try. :) The soundpost setter should also dislodge itself from the soundpost effortlessly. Then you take a bunch of precise measurements and tap the soundpost with the weird-looking end of the soundpost setter to make sure it's precisely where it needs to be.
By the way, this is my first time using a proper soundpost setter tool! I didn't have one when I set the posts on the two other violins, because I'm poor, and was waiting for the one I bought really cheap from China to arrive but it took 40 days! So the tools I used were simply a couple of coat-hanger wires I sharpened and shaped to fit the purpose!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20170513_052238_soundpost_setter_800.jpg)
Top: The proper tool.
Bottom: WTF? But hey, I made it work!
Then put the bridge back in place, tighten the strings a bit, nudge the post a little more this way or that if it needs some fine adjustment, and there you have it!
Because I put the new one exactly where the old one was (I marked the position on the plates in case I screwed up and wanted to put it all back the way it was before I messed with it), I didn't notice any change in the character of the sound, but because there's less tension now restricting the plates there's a lot more resonance and projection. But these are fickle little wooden boxes, so I should give it a couple of days to adjust to the shorter soundpost before drawing final conclusions. But so far nothing got worse, so means I at least didn't screw up! ;)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20170513_030749_soundpost_800.jpg)
I'm becoming famous for my inside photos in the violin community. Check out this one, captured both contact points on the same shot! ;D
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Following the success with making and setting a soundpost, I ventured into the world of making and fitting bridges! ...well, one bridge, so far. I practiced first doing some heavy adjustments on an overly-bulky bridge on one of my violins, and since that worked out, I felt confident enough to make a whole new bridge from scratch!
So, you start out with a blank. Bridge makers sell pre-cut blanks that have the basic layout already carved out, but you still have to cut a lot of wood out to make it work...
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Bridge_20170528_011627_800.jpg)
While I was at the luthier the other day I mentioned my interest in trying to cut a bridge myself, so he picked a couple of nice ones from his stock for me to work on.
So, basically, you get these specialized super-sharp knives (you think a razor blade is sharp you haven't seen a bridge cutting knife yet! It's scary-sharp!) and whittle away until you get some mad complicated and precise geometry...
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Bridge_20170529_025832_800.jpg)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Bridge_20170529_025846_800.jpg)
Yes, I have a tiny little fox stamp.
...then set it up and see what it sounds like. :)
I made it for the violin Aryn gave me, because the bridge on it was very old, kinda crummy, and the top was very flat, which made it difficult for me to play cleanly on it. This one I copied the angle from my 'Diva' violin and now it's a pleasure to play!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Bridge_20170529_190947_800.jpg)
06/02/2017
The luthier checked out the bridge I made and fully approved of it, so I'm adding 'violin bridge making' to my Skills List. ;)
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Today I made a bridge jack tool!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Bridge_Jack_20170603_021824_400.jpg) (http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Bridge_Jack_20170603_021932_400.jpg)
That tool is used for lifting the strings gently off the bridge so you can take it off and do things to it without having to loosen the strings back and forth, which is time-consuming to keep having to re-tune them, and also isn't good for the strings to get tightened and loosened over and over.
I made it with mahogany! ...and a customized screw, a couple of nuts, and some bits of metal and cork. :)
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We were out today and stopped by a nursery, and I got a couple of dwarf jade plants (Portulacaria afra) to make bonsai!
They aren't much to look at just yet, the first one here has some growing to do to be in proportion with the pot, but they're cute!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Dwarf_Jade_Bonsai_20170624_231329_800.jpg)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Dwarf_Jade_Bonsai_20170624_231250_800.jpg)
This one has a Salvador Dali style crutch.
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I've attempted my first violin restoration, and I think I succeeded. ;)
The violin Aryn gave me had a few blemishes, comes with being 100+ years old and all that. Since I've been working to put it back in good playing order as far as the sound goes, I figured I should take care of the aesthetics too! But more important, it had spots where bare wood was showing, and that's not good!
One spot on the side had a big chip taken off it, along with some other scuffs...
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Restoration_20170622_001427_380.jpg) (http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Restoration_20170622_001300_380.jpg)
...and on the bottom there was some wear from some intense shoulder-rest action that rubbed the varnish right off on both sides!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Restoration_20170622_001329_380.jpg) (http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Restoration_20170622_001343_380.jpg)
So I got to work, first researching on the instrument. I learned that violins of this period and from the provenance this one is believed to come from had color applied right to the wood underneath the first layer of varnish, then amber-toned varnish on top of colorless varnish. Complicated stuff! I could have cooked up some varnish and that takes time and money, but when I was telling one of the luthiers I know about the restoration project she told me to just stop by and use their varnish! :D
After cleaning up the area to be patched, I made a roughly shaped patch of matching spruce, and glued it there. When the glue cured, I went about shaping it to match the contours of the rest of the violin.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Restoration_20170623_015929_380.jpg) (http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Restoration_20170623_030200_380.jpg)
Once that was all done, came the task of matching the base color. The back was incredibly easy! The top took a bit more work, but I got it satisfactorily close to what I believed was the color beneath the varnish. So today I went to the luthier, and started varnishing! Took about 3 hours with several ultra-thin coats, but here it is!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Restoration_20170628_215109_800.jpg)
Like it never happened!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Violin_Restoration_20170628_215652_800.jpg)
The back was the easiest part once again. The top, the color had to be very carefully blended, but it came out pretty nice if you ask me. ;)
And while I was there, the luthier was messing with it and the E and the G pegs were terribly worn (again, 100+ years...), so while we waited for the varnish to dry she made me a couple of new pegs! Yay! It's been a good day for this old violin! :)
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We got some 'accident of birth' pumpkins coming up, as last year's seeds from Halloween were carelessly spilled on the fertile ground of the garden here!
It's funny that when we tried to grow pumpkins, they always just get about fist-sized, then rot and die. These we did absolutely nothing for them, they grew just fine...
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Pumpkin_20170715_193049_800.jpg)
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Another long time without any new autographs, but today I got one from violinist Joshua Bell! ;D
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20170728_183457_800.jpg)
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I'm gonna be opening up a violin soon as I continue on my journey learning how to service these fickle wooden boxes, so I figured I would need some spool clamps to close it back up. And of course these are unreasonably expensive to buy, so I made my own! (a good set of 30 is about $100)
I took a long thick dowel I had lying around, some cork mats I also had lying around, some 4-inch carriage bolts and wing-nuts from eBay surprisingly not from China but still at only $10 for packs of 25 (HomeDepot sells them for $1.60 each bolt!).
I started by chopping up the dowel into a bunch of equally-sized pieces, then glued them to the cork, waited a couple of days for the glue to fully dry, cut them all out with a band-saw, refined the shape with the belt sander, drilled a hole through them, threaded the screws, and voila!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20170803_002931_1024.jpg)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20170803_024101_600.jpg)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Spool_Clamps_20170807_233845_600.jpg)
If I ever make more of these I actually would do it different, though. My method proved to be more labor-intensive than I predicted. Next time I would glue a flat piece of wood of the right thickness to the cork, then use a hole saw to drill/cut them out at same time.
I can't wait to get to use them! :)
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Continuing on the trend of making highly specialized luthier tools with whatever I have lying around, I made a thickness gauge! ;D
(these are used to measure the thickness of the various oddly curved shapes inside a violin where you can't get a regular caliper on)
It's a piece of oak, cut in the shape of a lyre because I wanted it to be more than just a plain [ bracket shape (and the whole thing with Apollo's lyre and god of music and all that, it's symbolic as well as practical), with a cheap but accurate digital caliper I had, some brass screws, rubber band, and a couple of burnt LEDs for the tips! ;)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Homemade_Thickness_Gauge_20170809_203205_800.jpg)
I considered putting a little lever on it but it's really easy to raise the measuring bit the way it is with a thumb or just pulling on it so I think I'll just leave it as it is, since it's working just fine.
A good one of these costs anywhere from $100 to $300. I already had all the stuff so I didn't have to buy anything, but adding up the costs it would be about $5 for the oak, $8 for the calipers, $2 for the screws and nuts, and whatever two LEDs and a rubber-band cost. Anyway, less than $20 in total. ;)
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It's done! It's doOooOooOoNE!!! ;D
Finally, after literally years in the works, I finished work in the room here in the house that will become my workshop! The ceiling, walls, floor, trims, everything, it's done, ready to be filled with shelves and tools and workbenches and all the things I need to have a proper workshop for my various crafts!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Middle_Room_20170812_002702_800.jpg)
As you can see the place for the cats at the window and my plants had extreme priority, going in as soon as the walls were finished!
On top is a violin case, and on the bottom is my 7-terabytes file server array.
The reason it took so long is because this room was completely filled with clutter (belonging to Tye and his mom) from floor to ceiling, and they didn't want me to simply throw it all away, but also couldn't bother to sort through said clutter. Other reasons for delays included the fact that I had to do all the work by myself, because again, nobody here helps. And I had a budget of nothing!
But it's done! Tomorrow I'll start moving in my jewelry tools/equipment in there and maybe the stained glass stuffs.
I chose that color for the walls because it photographs extremely well as a backdrop, and I'll be setting up a little corner in there for proper photography of the things I make. It will be good to have proper spaces assigned for things, instead of improvised.
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Hey, congratulations! I am really curious to see how you will fill up that room with stuff that allows you to work your various crafts. The room has a rather interesting shape, from what I can see. ;)
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I had my first concert today with the FHASE group, and it was awesome! ;D
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/FHASE_8-20-2017_Concert_20170820_152554_800.jpg)
I got a picture from just before the concert when we were doing sound checks; I'm the one in red on the left.
And I also got video(s)!
They came out Ok, considering the distance the camera was (to get everybody in the frame), however, Tye was operating the camera and he was supposed to pause on the intermissions, but he was a bit abrupt in doing so! But nothing musical was lost so all is well! ;)
Also the camera angle is terrible because I'm 90% of the time covered by another violinist! But you can still see my red shirt!
The first link is the entire concert, with our group and the cello orchestra. It's about 316MB in size and one-and-a-half hour long, and the second one is just the intro and my group's part, 139MB in size and 40 minutes long.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_j84Rsx8g8jT0tvdW15eWRSX2s/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_j84Rsx8g8jWV9fSXdKTEdwRDg/view?usp=sharing
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Not violin stuff for a change! ;)
It's been over 3 years since I sent an autograph request to William Shatner (January 2014), and today (11/04/2017) I got my envelope back!
Unfortunately there was no personalized autograph, just a letter thanking me for my kind words to him and explaining he's too busy so he can't be signing autographs for everyone, and a print of an autographed photo (and the original photo I had sent him).
Still yay, kinda! :)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Autographs/20171104_203436_800.jpg)
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It's been a while since we had any truly worthwhile Halloween haunting done around here. The past few years have been basically pumpkins.
This year was no different really, except we had a Halloween dragon, to go along with our Xmas dragon. ;)
But I figured I'd post some pictures of the pumpkins as the carvings were more involved than the usual Jack-o-Lantern face. It wasn't even our biggest number of pumpkins, only 11 (our record is 45), but here, have some Halloween goodness regardless!
I thought this one was cool with the dragon and the pumpkins and the moon as the sun was setting (behind me).
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20171031_183102_800.jpg)
And as darkness fell...
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20171031_190110_800.jpg)
The tiny one on the left is the only pumpkin we ever successfully grew in our garden! It even got its own post earlier this year!
http://sculptyworks.com/lismore/index.php?topic=1564.msg11071#msg11071
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20171031_184931_800.jpg)
This one was supposed to be the 'Gray Lady' from the library in Ghost Busters.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20171031_184920_800.jpg)
Cerberus...
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20171031_184940_800.jpg)
Some pumpkin face...
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20171031_184956_800.jpg)
Another pumpkin face...
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20171031_184901_800.jpg)
A skull.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20171031_185014_800.jpg)
A character from Hollow Knight I think. Tye made this one.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20171031_185005_800.jpg)
Eddie!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20171031_185032_800.jpg)
...and Eleven, doing her thing.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20171031_185040_800.jpg)
Then we ended the night with Purple People Eaters.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20171030_225819_800.jpg)
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This is a sad post, so if you're already down because of holiday depression or something, you might want to avoid it.
Today December 22, 2017, my grandfather on my mother's side has died.
Since my parents were divorced, and my father was basically in a constant state of inebriation and/or high (he was an alcoholic and drug addict), my grandfather was the father figure I had when growing up.
He was born in 1927, and had nothing short of an amazing life. He worked extremely hard during his childhood, and studied hard. He came from a poor family, so growing up he didn't have much. He was an athlete in his early years, and graduated as an engineer, but he had a passion for aviation, so he got a job at an airline company, because on his interview there the owner of the company himself said "if you work hard, you can even go aboard [the airplanes]", which was ultimately his intention. He started out as a mechanic, and eventually got his pilot's license and went on to fly planes all over the world.
He married my grandmother I think around his early 20's, and they had four daughters. My grandmother inherited from her father the farm and land some of you might have heard me speak of, and my grandfather went on to manage and administer it, well, but with an iron fist, which would later on create conflicts whenever someone had a different opinion.
After flying all over the world (except Antarctica), saving two airplanes in emergency landings after catastrophic engine failure, he retired from aviation and went on to study biology, and became a botanist. By then I was tagging along with him on his 'research trips', when we would go to the middle of nowhere, sometimes just to confirm that some lone species of plant existed in that place. We visited many places of outstanding natural beauty. He didn't care much about cities, but he loved an open field or a forest or a jungle. He became an almost obsessive conservationist/naturalist, which could become annoying at times since we owned a farm but more and more he tried to turn it into a natural reserve so less and less 'farm things' could be done, and the place would eventually become so overgrown, I had trouble recognizing some areas on photos I've seen recently.
He was a professor of biology and botany at two universities down there in Brazil, and traveled far and wide going on scientific conventions and events, and I often tagged along as well; as former pilot, back in the day, he could just hop into a plane and go, and because he was a very distinguished pilot, he could take whomever he wanted along with him. The younger generations of pilots all had heard of him and were glad to have him aboard. (I was bumped to First Class whenever the crew knew who my grandfather was)
In his lifetime, he planted more trees than I know anyone else to have done. We're talking tens of thousands of trees! I might have got my love for plants from him, though I like them in smaller proportions, thus my bonsai. I did pick some on botany from him.
He was a beekeeper, and we had our own hives at the farm. I still think the honey our bees made was the best honey I've ever tasted. And to maintain the hives, he had a workshop, where I would spend hours just nailing pieces of wood together or carving them into pointless shapes, but from there I learned to use everything from a basic hammer to properly sharpened wood gouges. I loved that workshop, the smell of the wood and some of the beeswax/honey is still fresh in my mind! Alas, I often had to sneak in there, because he kept the place under lock and key, being very possessive of his things.
He played the flute, I don't know at what age he started, but it was in his early teens, and he went on to play with the biggest symphonic orchestra there was down there. He was good, but spent years without practicing, so what I remember of him playing is actually him picking it back up years later, so lots of practice, which is never as good as a concert itself. I never saw him play an actual concert, but I have a recording of one. A few years ago he broke his hand and because of that couldn't play the flute anymore, and I know that deeply saddened him.
He amounted an extensive library, in subjects ranging from general knowledge encyclopedias, to mineralogy and astronomy, natural history, and of course biology and plants. And I devoured the knowledge on the books when growing up! I owe most of what I've learned on my formative years to that library.
We had a beach house, and he loved going there, he loved taking stupidly long walks on the beach, and often I walked with him. But I have mixed feelings about liking and not liking to go to the beach. I liked it when I was a little fox, but as I grew older I started disliking it. He loved the beach, to the very end!
His health was as far as I know rather good, though he always caught the flu, every year. Around 60 he had surgery to remove gallbladder stones, and in his 80's he underwent radiotherapy for some prostate growth. He suffered from tachycardia as long as I can remember, and he was a bit of a drama-queen, so whenever something would hit he would act like he was dying, even if it was just a stubbed toe. But at same time he would stubbornly keep to his routine: Teach Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and go to the farm on Wednesdays and weekends. Always! The routine only changed in his mid 80's when my grandmother started to get tired of it and throw fits about it. Only in the past couple of years he stopped teaching full-time, and his goings to the farm became less frequent.
Still, this time of the year was the time to go to the beach. So to the beach he went. He was sick with a cold, having trouble breathing, refusing to take antibiotics because he was terrified of the potential side-effects, but he truly wanted to go to the beach! So he packed my grandmother and my sister and niece in the car and to the beach they went! He loved the sea, and they drove though the road that goes right along the sea on their way there, so he got to see it one last time. A couple of nights ago he was having trouble breathing, so they took him to the hospital. He had pulmonary edema, and at some point in the night had a heart attack. The doctors sent for relatives then, because he wasn't going to last.
My grandfather was a great man. We had disagreements, he did things that made me think "what the fuck are you doing?!", and if I have one true major complaint about him was that he was a penny-pincher. But through any troubles we've had, for every one bad time, we had a hundred good times, and while he was not one to show much emotion unless he was angry, he did love us, and we loved him. And I will miss him dearly!
Rest in peace, grandpa!
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So sorry you lost a great man hon
I know the feels
My grandfather was the best, always happy so long his grandchildren were happy. He took us to great places and told us we were amazing and always greeted us with an enthusiastic "Wotcha!"
much love hon
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Thanks Dru!
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Sorry to hear of your loss, Fox *hugs you softly* I remember my grandpa fondly too. Which is why I am very happy that some of his memory lives on now with you having his violin.
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Today we had our winter concert with the strings ensemble I play with!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/vlcsnap-2018-01-29-00h19m35s623.jpg)
I won't lie, it was a bit of a mess! But probably if you don't know what's missing you won't ever notice it! ;)
But we had all sorts of problems, from people's music falling off the stand, to our conductor starting us when we weren't ready, to missing one of our members who's sick with the flu, to people losing their place... During the 1812 Overture, the Cellos and 2nd Violins got all out of sync (and I mean ALL! Everyone was playing a different thing!), and while thankfully we pulled together, I actually broke into a cold sweat and had to use the 'curl your toes' technique to keep from fainting as I heard everybody around me going in each and every direction! And I'm going to be bold here and say I was playing right, because I fixed my eyes on the conductor because I couldn't understand what was going on, and I at least was on the right tempo! ;)
Aaaaalso, I played this one on the violin Aryn & Athian sent me and I restored, because I had some sweet piano (soft) passages and that violin does piano and pianissimo wonderfully!
Anyway, here's a link to the video if anyone wants to watch. It was a short concert, only 30 minutes.
https://youtu.be/m5l124KziiQ
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Thanks for sharing the video with us. I am currently listening to it. :)
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I've been diving pretty deep on my violin restoration hobby! The violin Aryn gave me was 'patient zero'. This is now officially Number One, the first fully restored one!
It was a broken pile of wood when I got it. It was a very low quality late-1800's German-made violin (probably from Schönbach), the outside looks Ok but the insides were given no care at all when they made it. So! I took it apart, re-did a whole bunch of its bits and pieces the way it's supposed to be properly made, and here it is! I call it the Orange Strad, because of its blaring orange color. Tenaar said Fiona was a better name, but the working title of Orange Strad has stuck. ;)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Orange%20Strad%2020171207_024149_400.jpg) (http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Orange%20Strad%2020171207_024323_400.jpg)
And I got an audio clip of my teacher playing it...
http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Meditation_from_Thais_Orange_Strad.mp3
It sounds good in the hands of someone who knows how to play it, but it's not without quirks, or as some would call it, 'character'. ;) Your intonation has to be spot-on, and takes a bit of work to coax the sound smoothly out of it. But given that most violins do have 'character' and in most cases that means terrible shortcomings you need to deal with, I'm happy with how this one turned out, specially being my first one! ;D
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This was the second violin I completed restoration! This one I tried really hard to keep as close to simply 'restoring' instead of 'rebuilding', but it sounded just so terrible when I first got it, I decided I would make this into a good sounding violin as part of bringing it back to life!
I call it the Fake Vuillaume because it has a J.B. Vuillaume (famous French maker - Google it!) label in it, but it obviously isn't a real one.
This one has an interesting story to it:
This violin was given to the son of a freed slave here in Virginia at the time of the Emancipation Proclamation (1862). The former slaves continued to work for the farmer as free men then, and the one who got the violin was best buddies with the farmer's son, which was highly controversial here at the time, because imagine befriending someone of a different skin color! The outrage! *sarcasm!*
They remained friends their whole lives, and the black man who had the violin kept it his whole life too.
It was found recently in the former servants' quarters still in that same farm, by one of the descendants of the original farmer, and she gave it to me because she learned that I restore these things.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Freed-Vuillaume_20180214_001146_400.jpg) (http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Freed-Vuillaume_20180214_001305_400.jpg)
It was in terrible shape when I got it: The neck had broken off at some point in the past and been improperly glued back on. It had scuffs and chips missing, but amazingly, no cracks! The interior was grotesquely made and I took upon myself to improve it to the best of my ability. Also, this is a 3/4 size violin, not a full size (4/4) one.
All things considered, I think it came out pretty good for a 3/4 (they are usually crap because they are intermediary sizes that children use when learning before they grow big enough for a full size one - some people of small stature also use 3/4 but good ones are extremely rare).
http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Meditation_from_Thais_Fake_Vuillaume.mp3
Here's Amy playing the Meditation from Thais again. She makes it sound wonderful, but she agrees with me it's a bit of a workout to play on it, in part because you have to compensate for the fact that it's smaller so the notes are not exactly where you expect them to be. ;)
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And here's Number Three, I call this one the 'Butt Strad', because of its prominent posterior! I mean, look at that...
| (http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Orange%20Strad%2020171207_024617_forum.jpg) | (http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Butt-Strad_20180214_000743_forum.jpg) |
Normal violin profile (the 'Orange Strad') | The 'Butt Strad'! |
This violin was originally made sometime in the late 1800's in Schönbach, and it was crap. Ironically, after I messed with it, this one is the one I'm most pleased with, even with its quirks.
It had a horrible horizontal grain-failure crack on the back (butt crack? heheheheh!), that required a patch. And because of the weirdness of the grain on that area, it absorbed the pigments in an unexpected way, so instead of a beautiful invisible repair we got an ugly smudge, but oh well! The sound totally makes up for it!
This violin has a powerful sound, it's clear and rich, and has amazing low register. Here's my teacher Amy playing it, because she knows how to make it sound its best:
http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Meditation_from_Thais_Butt_Strad.mp3
And another one of a piece she composed herself, because the sound of this one is really good and I want to show off! ;)
http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Amys_Piece_Butt_Strad.mp3
Aside from patching and closing cracks, I re-did the graduations on the top of this violin, which was terrible, but interestingly the back was extremely well done, aside from its weird bulge on the lower bout. My previous two, I did the graduations according to what some researchers believe is what gives ancient Italian violins their legendary tone. This one I blatantly copied what Stradivari did to one of his violins. I guess old man Strad still knows best! ;)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Butt-Strad_20180214_000540_400.jpg) (http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Butt-Strad_20180214_000624_400.jpg)
This might actually be one of my favorite violins to play, because it feels just right, and the sound is so nice, though it is loud! It can leave my ears ringing after a long session of playing in fortissimo.
I had plans to replace the fingerboard, this one it currently has is made of some lower grade of ebony that has been painted over to look evenly black. But I didn't want to do it until I knew if the sound of the violin was going to be worthwhile, and now that I love the way it sounds I'm afraid of changing anything on it in case I mess up the way it sounds - yes, violins are that fickle! Change one little thing and you can ruin it!
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And now we interrupt the lovely and delicate violin restoration posts, for something much more disgusting and violent!
We intended to do some renovations here on the house, the living room was very dated and the carpet was crappy and gross and it was time for a change! So the idea was to take out the wooden paneling we had on the walls, and rip off the carpet, and put wood floor instead.
I always say there is a rule when doing renovation work, that any time you open up walls, you will find something wrong that needs fixing. So, as I was taking out the wood paneling, I noticed behind the wall under one of the windows there was a lot of mold and actual rotting on the exposed wood! I took it further apart and found that the morons who installed the window there didn't wrap the wall, didn't wrap the window frame, didn't caulk, didn't do anything basically to keep water from coming into the house! So one part of the wall was plain simply rotting away!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20180506_175911_600.jpg)
This is a view from the outside after I removed some of the siding covering the rotting wall.
There are two windows in this room that were installed by the same people, and on both of them they screwed up! The other window however sits under a roof on the porch side of the house so it didn't get water to come in directly, but also needed to be properly sealed!
The rotting wall however, needed to be completely demolished and rebuilt!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/IMG_20180508_184118_036_800.jpg)
Here is the hole on the house after Tye and I knocked down the rotting wall with me still tearing some of it off.
So after that wall was demolished a new one needed to be built! That took the entire day and was exhausting!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20180508_195625_800.jpg)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/JPEG_20180508_222511_800.jpg)
Still needs insulation, and the siding to be put back up on the outside.
...but we got it done! Now I can start doing the work I originally set out to do!
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Back to the normal programming now, some more violin stuff! ;)
As I'm slowly building up to resume my jewelry work, I decided I will want to make some videos documenting how some things are made. And for practice, I have put together a slideshow video of how my Orange Strad violin was restored!
I got the materials together and made a rough draft of how I wanted it, and Ani put it all together with his video-making skillz00rzs!
https://youtu.be/TkRmeaB2YUU
The violin is being played by my teacher, who is strangely anti-technology (seriously, the most she has in terms of electronics is a flip phone from circa 2005), so she asked not to be credited on a video that was going into this crazy modern technological thing called Internet-YouTube-Cloud-Thing! ...maybe she thinks it will steal her soul or something if her name is put there...
I'm happy with it how it came out for our first video, it's a good learning start and hopefully we'll make nicer ones still as time goes on!
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Number Four was a bit different of a project.
It came to me shattered into many, many pieces, that had been improperly patched in the past. So I had to first of all put it all together. When I put it all together and took measurements I found out there was nothing I could do with the graduations on the top or back, they were already carved out really thin. So whatever this violin was, it was gonna have to do without me meddling with its plates! So this one was truly a restoration work, nothing modified or enhanced, just brought back into playing order!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Conservatory_Violin_20180322_012339_400.jpg) (http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Conservatory_Violin_20180322_012603_400.jpg)
This one is called the 'Conservatory Violin' because that's what it was branded from the original maker, again from the Dutzendarbeit industry at the end of the 19th century.
And of course the obligatory clip of Amy playing it...
http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/Meditation_from_Thais_Conservatory_Violin.mp3
This one in the hands of a good player sounds pretty good, but it has some notorious frequencies that overlap, not hard enough to create a wolf tone ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi_6r0kk2nE ), so all they do is make some specific notes seem 'bigger' than others. That's a quirk a luthier can go mad trying to fix so it's accepted simply as character of the instrument.
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And now for something completely different!
This is an old French cello, circa 1900, that we found at an antique store here in Richmond. At the time, it was in terrible condition, with lots of cracks on the top, big chips on the edges, and improper repairs on the inside. And a horrendous rib crack at the bottom which normally would be a death sentence because they are horrendously expensive to have a professional luthier fix. But it had a nice old German bow ducktaped to the back of the cello, and that's what caught my attention! But they wouldn't sell us only the bow, so we paid $30 for the whole thing! ;)
I thought if nothing else there was more than $30 in wood alone in that thing that I could use for other projects - yes, it was in such bad shape that I considered scraping it! But upon some research, I found out that was actually a rather valuable cello, so I took the route of restoring it. Took me about 5 months of on-and-off work to bring the cello into playing condition, and do the cosmetic repairs.
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/French_Cello_20180529_231343_400.jpg) (http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/French_Cello_20180529_232047_400.jpg)
And it sounds sublime! I don't play the cello at all, so I had some cellists at the orchestra try it out. Their expert opinion is that it's a very responsive, very resonant, wonderfully even and easy to play instrument. ...and they all want it! ;)
I put A LOT of work on this one, but I think the part I'm most happy with and most proud of is the varnish. It still had the original varnish and after 100 years it had a marvelous patina and crackle effect that's just not possible to replicate, so it had to be preserved, while the damaged parts were restored. I made a special blend of restoration varnish specifically for this and the results came out better than expected!
I asked one of our cellists to play something on it so I could have the obligatory audio clip...
http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/French%20Cello%20Sample%20-%20Bach%20Suite%201%20in%20G%20-%20Gigue.mp3
Not bad for my first restored cello! And while it gave me no unexpected troubles at all during restoration, I don't look forward to restoring other cellos, they are too big and unwieldy! ...but if I find another bargain like this, I know I won't turn it down! :D
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(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OWSKp6S_Ia8/hqdefault.jpg)
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Today we had our summer concert with the strings ensemble I play with! We played at St. Francis Home, a retirement home for low/no income elderly folks. They were very happy to have us!
I had the camera placed where I wanted it (where I would appear on the video!), but Tye moved it to let someone on a wheelchair pass, and then he put it in a completely different place, where I'm totally obscured by another player 90% of the time! >:(
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/photo_2018-06-09_14-49-21.jpg)
At least I appear on this photo - I'm the one in red as usual!
Here's a link if anyone wants to watch it:
https://youtu.be/nAr5EtJETDk
This one was better than the last one. :)
...still little issues here and there but it's acceptable. ;)
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The renovations on the living room have been done for a while now, but getting all the furniture in place and decor and all that still took a while. Today I deemed it 'good enough' and took some photos to show off the results of the hard work and frustration dealing with all the crap I had to deal with on that project!
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20180901_084619_800.jpg)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20180901_084754_800.jpg)
(http://www.sculptyworks.com/Images/Forums/Blog/20180901_084851_800.jpg)
Most of the stuff is Tye's mom's, though I exercised my veto power on everything that went into the living room and where it got put, so I'm technically the decorator-in-chief.
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And this was a different video for me to make: An unboxing and a review!
We got a tiny mini-lathe, and I couldn't waste the opportunity to do a video with it! ;)
https://youtu.be/v3K4XQFU-Ck
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Yay, I'm now doing freelance repair/restoration work for a local violin shop, and this is my first professional restored violin!
This might be a Jackson Guldan, made in Ohio sometime after 1915, as America's attempt to compete with Germany on the cheap/affordable fiddle market.
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This one was secretly made merely to explain to my mother how sterling silver is made. ;)
https://youtu.be/XeLFeWZgH7s