A Moonstone

I guess this is why they call it "moonstone"?

How my camera 'saw' a 10mm stone; most moon-like.

Spring Clean

Ive been spring cleaning... threw away a lot of stuff... and found some amusing things in a stash that has lain untouched since my early 20's:

There's no name for this, but it gets called 'Swan Face' by Alice, who doesnt like it.

"Oh not Swan Face again" she'll say. Oop- here she comes now...

I was making this musical album (as you do)- starting with the cover (as you do).

Maybe Ill keep going with it?

Pine Needles.

yeah. well its just me, so maybe it should be "pine needle"?

The cover makes me laugh anyway because its not dance music.

Incidentally, my pal Jesse has his album finished at last.

From the same pile; I used to do these monotype thingos on old book covers (those offended by libracide: look away now)- just traced photos from Nat Geo. Sort of imaginary books...

Back-pack and hound... looks like a good book, judging by the cover. Maybe I was writing a novel? ( as you do) - speaking of which; My Dad's novel-my Dad's novel- I might have to make a separate post for that.

Note

Esmé is 4. She wrote this on a rose petal.

Esmazing!

Nice Fakes

Fabergé; gold, jade, pearls and crystal. Decorations for royal shelves I think.

Botanical models for scientific purposes:

made by The Incredible Blaschkas (though they also did work for royalty). These are made of glass, all handmade, lamp-worked. Amazing detail and colour. Years of work...

Faster Pasta

Giorgetto Giugiaro designed a lot of cars, for just about everyone; Alfa, Bugatti, BMW, Ferrari, Hyundai, Lamborghini, Toyota, Ford and more- pretty much the whole alphabet!

Even the De Lorean from Back To The Future ( upon which movie I based my whole System of Love. Yes, I have system...)

She has unpainted stainless steel panels. Scratches are simply buffed out ( great idea).

3 of them were 24k Gold plated- but all came out of the factory unpainted.

Anyway, Giorgetto had a go at pasta too... but apparently it was a flop- wouldn't cook evenly or something.

Back to the drawing board- or back away from the drawing board? Pasta and drafting doesnt seem to match...

Au

What Ive been doing: poring over the treasure maps...

No disclosure on location this time- titles cropped off and image file names changed...

Thats the bottom of my gold pan... crazy low-relief prospecting cameo!

Lathey Days

Sorry if you've been dialling me up, only to find nothing new here.

Well here's some more old things...

In case you were wondering where all that pole lathe stuff from the last post was going;

Ok - its Max Ernst and his chess set. ( thanks Mal E for straightening that out)

Anyway, nice lathe work...

via Danish Pepper Mills Blog,

a taxonomic collection of Quistgaard pepper mills at Sam Kaufmann Gallery.

I wonder if there's any consensus on which is the best one? I might hire Malcom Gladwell to research this for me.

Watchmaker's hand lathe via FTJ.

Its not a steam-punk thing- dont pigeon-hole me. Its just a nice machine.

Pedal-powered ( fixed-gear too) scroll saw. FTJ ag'in.

Hard to imagine folks actually made such pretty machines.

Possibly because all the structural parts are cast-iron, dynamic curves become not only possible, but efficient and appropriate. Like how bones are structured inside?

The ol' disembodied-hands-doing-the-work-diagram.

Bow lathe and pole lathe. Making violin tuning pegs I think...

Rudimentary Lathe

A pole lathe re-enactment.

Powered by the foot-treadle + that long springy branch.

An Asterix and Obelix kind of situation!

Source...

Hand-carving a rifling guide- very impressive and resourceful.

The second picture shows the guide in use; the helical fluting is translated to a cutting tool inside the iron barrel. The lengths folks would go to eat birds for dinner!

source: contemporary makers

Stupendous Ears

Samurai helmets...

Well, they are pretty amazing in terms of metalworking, very dynamic forming.

As to function, I guess there was a status thing going on.

Imagine this face-off:

"My ears are big!"

"But my ears are substantial!"

"Oh-ho! My ears are resplendant!"

"HAH! My ears are STUPENDOUS!!!!!!!!"

Aurthur Ganson Machines

Magnifico!

Circustry

Atsuko Tanaka

A schematic for her electric dress ( covered in lights) becomes a circus of circuitry!

Neigh

Picture from Horses of the World, with in-house cropping.

My Dad came over the other day, and started reading E's Horse book, and got totally absorbed in it. He even said to us "stop trying to get my attention!" - it must be a good book!

Gold Stuff!

Pendant!

Small Aster Studs!

Trove of Aster earrings!

mmmmmmmm!