La Copia Lavoro del Maestro

Today Deb put out all these pairs of glasses that she's made herself and we got to pick them up and examine them and I just love these!  She encouraged us to take pictures of everything we liked or wanted to understand, and those of us who just really loved a pair she instructed to try to copy them.

I was so excited I cut my lenses and all the wires in an hour.

Somehow working in this new studio isn't bothering me at all.  Actually I'm surging about the place like it's the studio back at home, but without all the taco breaks.

This is Laura, she sits across from me and is also work/study.  We met on the shuttle ride to Penland.

And this is the view from the studio door.  Yeah, I know.

Almost done! These will be spending the night in the pickle.  

Now it's time for lucky charms and sleep.

Rit Colorante Può Fare Nulla

Yesterday I neglected to mention anything regarding lenses.  We're using these optically perfect lenses which are completely prescription free, and they are super easy to cut.  You don't use a wax blade for these like on plexi, instead Deb's having us use a 3/0 which is wonderful because those are my favourites.

I'm not sure what sort of frames to build 'round these lenses, but I kind of like the shape.

Also, I am continually amazed by what you can dye with Rit.  I now wonder what you can't dye with it.  Just steel and black things, pretty sure.
However, these lenses seem to only like being red, brown, or purple.  These were in a blue dye for 2 hours.  Mon-filament will be whatever the dye is supposed to be though.

Campioni e di Lavoro Delle Cucine

After 16 hours of traveling and sitting in airports, a full day of the most hot and ridiculously tiring cleaning we finally started our classes.  The work part of work/study is definitely more tiring than 3 hours of work a day aught to be, but it's certainly better than finding another $800.

So first day of class we got right into slides of historical pieces, which were pretty cool, though quite a few of them I'd seen already in my own research.  But then she started teaching us about the different mechanisms for holding lenses and had us do one with an eye-wire going half way round the lens and mono-filament taking up the rest.  I'd always wondered how the fishing line was pulled tight in that sort of lens setting, so doing that myself was pretty cool.

In Movimento è Orribile

Unless frenzied packing and carpet-cleaning count as a project (I think it does, but a horrible one at that) then I won't be making anything until I reach Penland.  That being the case, expect some back-posted entries in a couple of weeks!

Crochet Camicia Completo

Perhaps packing and cleaning will be easier to complete with my crochet project finished.

Kimono in Tessuto e Calzature Costruzione

Today my dad sent me this video on recycling and ridiculously beautiful shoes.

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Which lead my to this man's fascinating videos on shoe construction.

Now couple these new seeds of project ideas with my new stash of kimono fabric brought from Japan by my dear friend Tory and in inherent need to make everything ever- and you get sketches like this:

Obviously I'm still completely obsessed with the lathe.  I'd like to turn the heels in aluminium and anodize them an aqua blue to contrast the orange silk.  I think I'll also do the interiors in aqua suade (a material/colour combination I never would have thought to be a good idea).  Normally the insides are the smooth side of the leather, but I really hate that.  If you wear stockings you slide about for ever.  And no stockings dooms you to cold sticky feet all day long.  I've never understood the material choices on shoe interiors.

Now all I need is to figure out how shoe patterns are made, and to probably get a set of foot blocks or something, as well as access to the lathe and anodizing things again (why isn't it September yet???). 

Oh, and I guess some shoe-making skills would be good too.

Una Storia Improbabile

As I may have mentioned before (checking to see if I have being obviously too difficult) my old and generally not good sewing machine stopped functioning near the end of the spring semester- just when I'd started a project involving lots of sewing on leather.  

This month I had started searching for a new one -even had a budget for one- and then my plane tickets to Penland cost double what I was expecting- so much for getting a sewing machine!  Or so I thought.

Last night as I was walking home from the bars I happened upon this cast iron (~40+ lbs) beauty on the side of the road and lugged it the 3.5 blocks back home.

To my great delight it seems only to be missing loose parts- foot pedal, bobbing case, needles, and the like.  All the working bits and turney-knobs seem to be working just fine!  After a morning's search of the interwebs I've discovered this is a 1966 Kenmore industrial machine- designed to sew through heavy things like canvas sails, leather, and jeans.  Hurrah!

I've already begun to order its missing bits from Ebay, so hopefully I'll have it running by August.

Art Nouveau Lampada Disegni

Sometimes you just have to design things that you don't think will ever happen.  The bottom two sketches on the top image are of the Paris Metro lights, not my own designs.

Crochet Progetto di Aggiornamento

Perfezionando il Despensor Nastro

 They're bumping along one day, doing what they do, and some mundane object crosses them for the last time. This or that particular doo-dad never works as well as it should, or breaks too easily, or gets misplaced once too often, and it occurs to them: Hey, I could fix that--and not just for myself, for today or for the next couple of weeks or months, but for the rest of my natural life and possibly those of my descendants for the foreseeable future of the species. [via Make]

 Make said it was over-engineered, but I think it's finally properly engineered.


Note: My internet has been out for a few weeks, so come Sunday (when the repairman arrives!) there will be a land-slide of posts.