So here’s a pic of the vise in its new orientation. My dad is having a heart attack right now at this! As a woodworker I’m sure he sees many better uses for this 100 year old vise than what I have done to it.
And above is a pic of it closed over 5 hedgehog blocks. My theory is that it will hold a ozen hedgehogs with ease! How freaking awesome is that!!!
NO all I have to do is build the stiff wooden blocks to fit over the jaws…
Those of you who have been reading me for awhile know that one of the mod’s I’ve been wanting to do to my fiskars paper cutter was to pt an integrated jig onto it. I detailed some plans about a year ago, but last night I put it into action!
I bought
2 brass 1/4in 1.5 in round headed screws
4 brass washers to fit the screws
4 steel wing nuts (they didn’t have brass and they only came in a 4 pack)
I then decided where to cut into the bed of my cutter. I figured if I went right along the rulers Id have a ready made guide. What I didn’t think of or notice that this was the thickest area of plastic on the whole bed! and thus it was harder to cut than anywhere else!.
I then made 4pilot holes. I had intended to use the routing bit my dremel and route the area of travel out, his proved to be both too difficult, because of the speed of the dremel and the cheapness of the dremel routing kit. I then took my drill and drilled holes consecutively until I had a series of 30 hole next to each other for each path.
It was a lot of plastic.
I then used my wire cutters to “nip” out the remaining plastic between each hole. Again it was a l of plastic. I used my dremel to smooth out the remaining areas of plastic. After that I installed the screws, washers and nuts. I used a 1/4 inch thick piece of hardwood I had been using as a jig as the stop bloc. I drilled 2 holes for the bolts and pushed the bolts up through the wood.
I moved the stop block around to find where it would stick and stop I used a knife to shave off small amounts of plastic until it moved smoothly. Now I can slide the wood to where I need it to be, lock it down with the nuts, and cut away, and there is NO WAY this baby is moving ANYWHERE!
I will post pics later.
The Vice should be an entry all on it own, BUT here goes. My work bench came with a huge charming antique vice. I’m in love with it, it’s heavy, patina’d with age and use, and did I mention it’s awesome!?! I knew that it was of no real use to me in it’s normal postion, gravity would make everything slide out of it. So I positioned it on the front of the bench so that the grip works up and down, LIKE A BOOK PRESS!!! The jaw is deep for a vice but not really deep enough for a press, but it is perfect for my hedgehogs! I plan on making some over sized wooden jaws that will make it more useful to me as a press.
Again pictures a little later today.
My brother got me 90% of the original buttons I asked for and even made me a cute little eraser end for the images! I’m very happy with the work he’s done and his pricing was very reasonable. If anyone is in the market for buttons email me the info our looking for and I’ll email it to him and send you his email.
Anyway, I’m feeling like the site is finally coming together, both image-wise and product-wise. I’m bursting with ideas and happiness. “vce got some kinks to work out a I think that by the end of next weekend I’ll have a majority of my product ordered and hopefully in stock.
For today I’ve got some goals but I’m hoping to spend a fir amount of time in the studio to get some books made.
Leather Pen Clips
Originally uploaded by bluman.
My penslips finally got to Armand from Moleskinerie! He took a nice publicity shot and posted it on flicker. Sweet!
Also, my webpage is limping along, take a look and let me know what you think! ComfortableShoesStudio.com
Last night I hit a milestone for use of dreamweaver, I made it do what I had in my head as a design. My hurried sketches and notes in my moleskine for the first time became a reality on my screen. It was combination of things, realizing I don’t HAVE to have full images of everything in my inventory, that thumbnails are a beautiful thing, and the culmination of reading the Dreamweaver book a year ago, and finding the menu with all the secrets that I couldn’t find before. (The book isn’t very clear and I would stop working out of frustration.) But now the page looks like the idea I had in my head and it looks good, or so I think.
I took my new found mastery of the program and immediately made a template so that no matter what I do, all my pages look similar.
When I pulled the screen up in Firefox and IE and it looked the same it was a happy moment in my life.
That being said I hope that Saturday I can get the new front page of the site up. I also hope to get the new
I decided that I would put the rough page up and have some functionality NOW versus waiting, I’m terribly impatient when it comes to these thins. When viewing it please realize it’s a first draft I’m waiting on getting the buttons and a few other custom elements. But go ahead take a look and let me know what you think. Please let me know if there are ay broken links or anything that is working funky.
Other than taking all the pics for website, I spent my day out of the studio. I work tomorrow and have a secret appointment that I can’t write out until tomorrow afterwards, those in the know know, those who don’t will know tomorrow.
I also designated retail prices for the pencils and sharpeners that arrived today. I’m still looking for a wholesaler/distributor for G2s, ECOwriters, Pitt Pens and a few other items (Note, if you work for a company who wholesales those items with a fairly low intial order- feel free to contact me, email is through the about me link.)
SO the price list is as follows:
Palomino 12 pack assorted Grades in Hard Clear plastic Case with an Eraser $14.99+shipping
Palomino Colored Pencils 6Pack $6.99+shipping
Palomino 6 pack Pencil grade 2B or HB $5.99+Shipping
Palomino 6 pack 3)2B and 3)HB $5.99+shipping
KUM Long Point Pencil Sharpener $6.99+Shipping
KUM 2 Hole Brass Sharpener $1.99+Shipping
Shipping will be reasonable for most of these items, they don’t weigh much and will require only a little bubble wrap. Probably $2 for most and obviously more for the 12 pack in hard plastic. Obviouly rush shipping will be more…
I’ll have these up on the website but if anyone is interested earlier feel free to drop me an email about what you’re interested in. I accept paypal.
OKay I admit , I had never used a Palomino pencil until today. I bought them becase everybody who is into pencils swears by them, lauds them and puts them on a pedestal so high I figurethey couldn’t be that bad.
I’m a convert to their HB. I haven’t tried the other grades but the HB is the smoothest pencil. I wrote a bit with it, and I didn’t break the point off, even after sharpening the pencil with the KUM long point sharpener to a fine point, I didn’t snap it off. The laquer is smooth and shiney and overall it’s an attractive pencil. It handled the kraft paper in my notebook well and has dulled slowly with my heavy handed pressure.
I give these an A+.
I’ll be offering a mix of sets at several prices. I may open some stock and offer single pencils.
Anyway here is what I want Christmas to look like:
Ell my first order arrived, opening it was like Christmas for me. And seeing $400+ in pencils made my day. I will post some pictures later.
Massively happy.
The phantom vegan journal! I believe that there is not much out there that can outlast a good quality leather journal nor can anything really give the look of leather, however there’re are many options out there for the vegan and many that I’m more than willing to explore. I love a good challenge and I’ll undertake this as I would any other challenge.
There a many options out there for those of us who are vegan, while I now eat meat, there was a time when I did not, hard to believe for someone who handles leather on a regular basis! In fact the first time I bought a hide I was rather grossed out by it. I guess in the years since then I’ve gotten past it, but still I like to know that the lamb hide I buy is a by-product of the meat industry, the animals were not killed for their hide. Believe it or not, I choose to buy hides that many bookbinders would not because of this fact. I’ll not go into my political and social beliefs about the meat industry but I feel I have an interesting perspective due to my upbringing and due to the industry that I now work in (my DayJob not my bookbinding.) That is a discussion I’m willing to take up in email but not on my bookbinding blog.
AS for vegan books and materials I suppose canvas would be a great option for a journal, it could also be decorated to simulate the look of leather. A good quality acrylic paint could fill in the surface and remain flexible, while the various colors of acrylic could give it the color and various acrylic mediums could give it the finish. That being said it would take some experimentation to get it right.
I hate vinyl and wouldn’t suggest it to simulate the look of leather, perhaps some of the other leather replacement options out there? (On a personal note- virgin vinyl is pretty evil environmentally. I one were to go after the vinyl option I would suggest recycling it. Like freitag or one of the other places that recycles vinyl signs, I bet if you went into your local grocery store and asked them for their old sis to recycle they might give some up.) Vinyl is also pretty easily decorated, any one out there have any suggestions for decorating vinyl?
I’m going to have to spend some time in the studio and experiment.
I’ve got a journal up on ebayherge.
W I get home from the DayJOb tomorrow I’ll post more about it.