Quick update: Doing some two-layer screen printing (not on the screenprinting project page yet), for the first time in a year or so:
Yes, that’s a beer in the apron pocket. It’s almost water.
Voila!
New custom pannier with compression straps, spring-loaded rack hooks (with reinforced double webbing + spur grommet mounting, not shown), and removable-for-security external pockets for wallet/keys/cell phone.
Hey, I already have a waterproof roll-top backpack— why not use it as a pannier?
1. Mandrel/anvil and heavy-duty spur grommets (with teeth).
2. Grommets added to the bag, rack hooks bolted to them with locknuts. I could redo this later to have the grommets set in a separate piece of sturdy webbing, which is then sewed to the bag to distribute the force.
3. Loaded with groceries: (the straps are folded under the bottom of the bag and held in place with velcro, to keep them from getting sucked into the wheel)
[also cross-posted to the biking blog]
Over a rainy weekend, I modified a purchased bag:
And also built and tested a first prototype of a bike pannier.
More info and photos on the bags page.
The goal: screen-printed wedding souvenirs for friends of the bride & groom who helped cook the 100-person wedding dinner. And the bride & groom liked the “block print” style of art.
I started pretty last-minute on a busy week, so just had a few evenings to get it done. I started with a pen sketch, scanned it, and inverted the image (I’m under no illusions about my artistic ability or lack thereof):
The bride & groom approved, so from there, I decided to be ridiculous (given the deadline) and carve the design in scratchboard rather than using some sort of Photoshop effects filter I’m sure must exist. It took most of an evening.
From there, the image was scanned and turned into a screen and screen printed aprons, success!
I normally don’t post food-related things here— but I’ll make an exception for any all-day or especially-involved cooking adventures. Recently I made a few types of chinese dumplings, adapting recipes from a dumpling-cooking class I took at Cavallo Point last fall.
pork + napa cabbage water dumplings
baked bao with curried beef
With a table at the 2010 Portland Zine Symposium as a deadline, I finished two zines:
eldash #7: In the format of a binder-clipped set of index cards, Recipes (“for food, drink, and disaster”). Ranging from a scone recipe I’ve made dozens of times, to infused vodkas that worked or didn’t, to recipes “for insomnia”, “for a mauling”, or so on.
eldash #8: Volcano-Trapped! A journal of a week trapped in Switzerland and Italy by Eyjafjallajökull, also recently published in the slick one-shot magazine-by-the-dispossessed “Stranded”.
I also spent an afternoon doing my once-a-year update to the eldash web site:
It’s not a project in the same sense as the other things I post here, but I’ve been biking… a lot. Probably 3000 miles in the past year, a mix of some really scenic 30-70 mile weekend rides and a 450-mile, 7-day ride across Iowa (RAGBRAI). I have a separate “bike ride blog” at bikeit.tumblr.com.
I made a quick update to the eldash zine web site (putting up some photos of zines made in the past year and a half, including issue #4: surly animals and issue #5: i lead a charmed life).
I also was recently stranded in Switzerland by the volcano, and am working on a travel diary zine about the experience, to be part of a magazine-by-the-stranded someone’s putting together (see this article on a BBC blog for more info).
Linoleum-block carving and printmaking for the first time. I’m no artist, but it’s interesting to try out a new process.
