Wire wrapping, the third

Do we see a pattern in my posts?

The blue vein is pretty, though not as multi-hued and sparkly as some others. The pendant is just over 1cm, from eye to tip:


This one isn't a visually complex stone & wrapping, but I really like the flecks at the bottom point. Fullest width: 1.5cm. I like the subtlety & simplicity of this one:


OMFGSHINY. This one is really delicate, so I had to enclose all of it in wire, but I think the spiral works out fairly well. Eye-to-tip: 2cm. (I really like the uppermost vein--it's mostly nondescript till *Boom* = shiny.):

So the current line up (click for much larger view) is:

Wire Wrapping, part II

Silver wrapped Boulder Opal chips (Matrix Opal).
(Largest pendant, tip to tip: 2cm.)

And close ups!

Many of these veins are translucent. I attempt to demonstrate it by strongly back-lighting two of these stones:

Boulder Opals

I bought some tubes of semi-raw Boulder Opals. All the unset Opals I could find were made to mounted flat, and none of them would have worked for wire-work. I am so happy to have found these tubes. (They still weren't cheap. Bah!) Now I need some thinner & softer wire.

Here's attempt #1 at wrapping:
Boulder Opal wrapped in Sterling Silver
(It's about 1cm wide and 1cm tall, so it's pretty tiny.)


Here are two shots of the tubes, before I pulled the Opals out.

Orphaned chainmail

It looks like a cross between Parallel chain, Byzantine and Half-Persian 3-in-1:


I haven't been able to find any other examples of it, but it's hardly complex, so I'm guessing there has to be instructions somewhere on the internet.
If not, I get dibs on naming rights.

Manual Macro (kinda fuzzy, but much more zoom)

With a magnifying glass (cheap jeweler's loupe for me) supplementing your camera, you can get in really close to what you're photographing. It's not a crisp image (you're holding the magnifying glass manually, and it's hardly as precise an assembly as a camera lens), but it's much closer than macro-mode, and it's sufficient for a fair amount of detail.
I use it extensively when writing up instructions to provide some visual context, without the need for fine art photography quality.

Crane, Tiny
(for scale, that's a AA battery)
Click image to see it at 600x450 (which is still less than 29% of original image size)
No flash, on a point-and-shoot (5.1mpx)


And for comparison, a different item with similar composition on a different camera:
Stars, tiny.
This shot was taken with flash, on a DSLR (~10mpx?) It's clearer, I guess, but it's a royal pain to edit/crop.

Airport boredom, part I

Anodized titanium Jens Pinds, medium length choker, drape-y bits are in 1-in-2 weave.

I call this "Half of a 11 hour layover at LA", but I have yet to finish the other half (due to a lack of proper clasps).

And now I've learned that many airport security staffers can't distinguish between pliers and wire cutters via the x-ray screen:
Security: Hey, Bill, do we allow wire cutters?
Me: [Grumbling] I don't give a ship if you allow wire cutters or not, those are pliers!

Jars of loose chain links tends to get your bag opened for a closer inspection, but bright pink anodized aluminum rings gets you some awesome looks during the secondary inspection.

Remaining Stock!

Here's the chainmaille stuff I still have on hand! (Click on the images for large resolution)

All these bracelets (and one necklace) is in titanium, and the featured stones are all semi-precious gems (tiger's eye, jade, moss agate, etc.), pearls, cloisonne beads or silver-wrapped glass. Most of the clasps are magnetic.


These items are mostly copper, bronze or silver. The blue and silver band in the middle-ish is anodized aluminum.


S-t-r-e-e-e-e-t-c-h-y!
Neoprene and anodized aluminum construction make these items stretchy! The thing in the top right corner is a dice bag made from galvanized steel and anodized aluminum.

Photoshop System Requirements (6-CS3 + Elements)

I spent quite awhile trying to find the system requirements for various editions of Adobe Photoshop. Surprisingly, wikipedia did not have these listed, so I had to compile my own set.


If anyone wants to take this info and post it to wikipedia, please do so. (For reference, most of these numbers came from Amazon sellers listing the old versions & full sys.req., or from Archive.org's cached pages from Adobe themselves.)

Adopt-a-Pot

Adopt-a-Pot!
I'm giving away a lot of my ceramics, so lay claim to them soon, before someone else does. (I'm not adverse to being paid for any of these items, though, but I'm not really expecting payment.)

There are still more items I haven't added to the Adoption page, so check back frequently. (I'll attempt to have everything up by late monday/tuesday.)
-W.

Penguin Waves!

Tug the string and the penguin waves!


Made from stoneware clay with commercial underglazes, fired to cone 05.