bour3pages, support thingies for other dealies

cheese cracker photos

2012-01-26T22:14:00.000-08:00

These photos were stacked in Photoshop and saved together as an animated GIF, posted at Things Wot I Made Then Ate, here.

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Parmigiano

2012-01-19T17:55:00.000-08:00

I was looking at the RAW closeup photos of Parmigiano Reggiano at 100% and noticed tiny hair.

I blamed myself until I saw the hair is IN the cheese not on it, and it is the type of hair I do not have any of around here. If I owned a pet that would be another matter.

Now I am visualizing the Parmigiano factory where they put peloso Mario, with the arms of a mountain gorilla, to prepare wheels for export to the U.S.So what now, I must check all my cheese with a magnifying glass for now on? That, or else ignore it.

This is starting to freak me out. Picayune, I know, but a part of me is still microscopically disturbed, and this requires a microscopic action to affect a microscopic remedy.

These photos were intended to support a post made on Things Wot I Made Then Ate, here.

aged bread dough for hamburger buns

2012-01-16T18:32:00.000-08:00

Three-day old dough is refreshed with processed red beans. The beans are cooked. The yeast can probably handle the beans either way, raw or cooked, but it seems to me this would give them a head start and it resolves up front the water-absorption problem that raw bean powder would cause.

This is the greatly reduced compressed optimized jpg version of the photo set used for the stack that was saved as an animated GIF on the food-related blog Things Wot I Made Then Ate.

12 cone café

2012-01-15T16:17:00.000-08:00

Source pic seen on Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

Althouse stork

2012-01-11T23:35:00.000-08:00

Source pic from Althouse.blogspot.com, 'pool' post, here.

scallop

2012-01-03T19:28:00.001-08:00

Owl in the second tree

2011-11-13T18:48:00.000-08:00

Source picture from Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

gnocchi

2011-11-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

It drifted down from Heaven.

The gnocchi post from which this image didn't make the cut.

gelatin plate fail

2011-10-28T21:22:00.000-07:00

Looks like Jello soup.

streaking the Ice Age Trail

2011-10-25T02:49:00.000-07:00

Source pic from Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

Autumn sunset

2011-10-20T19:16:00.000-07:00

Source.

iPhone test

2011-10-15T03:26:00.000-07:00

Animated GIF. Source pic from Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

cod, potato, sauce

2011-10-11T23:39:00.000-07:00

As food stylists-types, can we talk?

My mistake was at plating when I decided to pour the sauce over the potato. I thought it would re-moisten the potato slices then all slide off, but it didn't slide off. Instead it obscured the detail of the potato and melded the potato into the sauce. So instead of three layers there are two layers that look like an indistinct blob of potato is rising from the sauce and sporting a crusty tam.

I visualized three distinct layers similar in color but each with distinct textural detail. I would make light creep around the subject to make white fish, white potatoes, white sauce, look sexy.

* The top layer of cod is rough dry Panko.
* The middle is moist sliced potato with the skin still on, stacked, as a platform for the cod and a raft upon the sauce.
* Bottom is a pool of sauce studded with contrasting bits like capers.
* Finishing herb would be compressed like a little bush somewhere within the miniature mise en scene.

floating Althouse

2011-10-10T19:09:00.000-07:00

Source pic nicked from Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

ice cream, potato chips, banana, caramel sauce

2011-10-02T03:15:00.000-07:00

Caramel sauce:

sugar

butter

milk (cream is better but the closest I have to that right now is the ice cream itself)

salt

vanilla extract

cinnamon

instant espresso

4 youz pop-up card

2011-09-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

This card was made a long time ago by playing around but never mailed or used. Looking back at entries made when I first started describing these things I noticed that and thought, "Shame to waste a perfectly serviceable pun innit." I've hardly mined the depths of that whole [you : ewe] thing and I do resist giving it up, plus my whole family generally responds positively to dumb jokes.

Now is the time of year that three birthdays coincide, and whereas I should be thinking up something fresh and unique for each person, instead, I revitalized the original idea already described here and produced the same card for each person. You might prefer that link ← for a more thorough description of a single card. In some ways it is a better card. This page describes the production of three cards at once.

Three cards for one effort makes me feel like bum because I am not thinking exclusively of one person while making them. On the other hand it also make me feel like a Henry Ford type and I don't imagine Ford agonizing over the impersonal aspect of assembly line production.

If the term speeding can apply to coaxing a printer to true color with fresh cartridges for two hours then printers do indeed speed things by eliminating the need to paint backgrounds.

These wide straps ↓ are the basis of this card. Each card has two. They veritably cover the background so they are provided the same pattern. They are used to displace a segment of the central fold and double it.

See, the central fold of the card is the powerhouse for pop-up mechanisms and so often mechanisms are build directly upon it to avail its leverage directly. That puts pop-up things dead center of the card every time. A strap placed across the central fold eliminates the central fold in the area of the strap by inverting the valley of the original card to a peak of the strap while simultaneously creating two new valleys on each side of the original valley at the places where the straps attach to the card, which turns out to be vertical lines that imitate the central fold. It is these two valleys that are created by the attachment of the strap that imitate the central fold and not the peak of the strap that interests us. In a way, it is like two smaller cards within a card. It also moves content farther out toward the edges so whatever pops up must now be shorter. Each card has two straps producing four central fold displacement segments.

The straps shown below are not yet tented. At this point I do not know exactly where that crease will be, the one that inverts the central fold. What we see are the end tabs bent upward. Those tabs can be glued on the surface of the card or inserted through slots and glued to the back of the card. Either way, the line that is formed by the bent tab is the new displaced central fold. There are two for each strap. When the strap is tented, then the strap becomes the new recto leaf to the new little card, and the original card itself (with the new tab above, or below through a slot) is the verso side of the new little card. Opposite for the other side of the strap, the strap is verso page of the new little card and the original card (with tab) the new recto.

So these straps when they're tented become the verso and recto leafs of two new smaller cards that are grafted onto the original. When tented and inserted inside the main card the strap appears to be a card within a card attached with tabs and operating in the opposite direction to the original larger card, and that is correct, but we are ignoring the peak of the strap and instead we are using the connecting points (lines) of the strap and treating the strap when tented as two sides to two new smaller cards that operate in the same direction as the original card.

* The straps are printed with the same grass pattern as the background.

* The straps can be off-centered.

* Straps should be short to keep content built on them away from the edges. These are a bit long and so content that stands up on the straps must then be short in order to fold inside the closed card since they are so close to the edges. Some areas of the card closest to the center will not be affected much by this constriction, but most areas will. So the constructor must test with each new addition of content to make sure that it fits inside when the card is closed.

The peaks created by the two straps in each card do not interest us presently, it is the valleys that these straps are about. You can see that at 45º the straps form two little cards that are opposite to the main card. Viewed another way, the straps also create four new valley creases where they attach and a tent atop the original valley segment. You can also see that when the card is opened flat then the straps too will lay flat directly on top of the opened card, and opening such a card fitted with two broad straps will be like opening five cards simultaneously, the main card and the four smaller cards contained therein.

V mechanism strips are prepared for each new valley fold created by the strap attachment loci.

These strips with grass pattern on one half and white on the other will be bent twice to form V mechanisms at each new displaced central fold created by the larger straps. The grass sticks up and the white is glued.

Download grass pattern.

These strips are a little more complicated than usual because the grass pattern is needed on the front and back. That is a style decision. The strips can be whipped out quickly and in great number, but because of the printed pattern these strips must be folded over for the upright portion but not for the tab portion. That doubles the density of the card stock along the strip. I would rather have not doubled the card stock for these mechanisms just to have pattern on both sides. Here is where painting would have been better (or printed on both sides). The result is that single strength straps force double strength V mechanisms that flip up content that is already diminished because the straps forced content to the edges of the card. Mechanistically, it is not a great idea. If anything, the straps should be double strength and the V mechanism single strength, but it did not work out that way this time because of the perceived need for pattern on both sides.

The areas on the standup V mechanisms shown in blue are the places where content can be glued.

The tabs that attach the straps onto the card background are not shown. They would complicate the diagram unnecessarily, obviously the straps must be attached somehow. You can make whatever kind of tabs you like; built into the strap as done here, separate pieces glued to both the strap and the background which I do quite often, glued directly on top of the background image, or inserted through slots and glued to the back of the page to make them disappear from the surface. In this case, the background image is grass so it doesn't make any difference at all if tabs with the same pattern are glued to the top or glued underneath.

All that up there ↑ is mechanisms and background , all this down here ↓ is content.

As the animated GIF suggests, straps can be located anywhere across the central fold. The closer that the strap is to the viewer then the closer that the V mechanisms attached to it are to the viewer. The V mechanism fold forward toward the viewer when the card is closed and flip forward all the content that is attached to them. The content attached to the two V mechanisms closest to the viewer risk sticking out beyond the bottom edge of the card. The placement of the straps and their attendant V mechanisms is somewhat random in that the space for content is not actually measured, although now that the V mechanisms are in there is no reason not to measure. Different size sheep are provided for for this variation and for error.

The content needn't be detailed on both sides, but this content is. A page of sheep content is uploaded and available for download. The page is mirrored so that pages can be matched and the content of both sides cut out at once and glued together.

Download sheep content side A

Download sheep content side B

You just gotta see these things in action. The strap inside lifts upward to a folding tent when the card closes, which forces the V mechanisms attached to them downward and forward. Because half of the V is the original card, then content attached to that half of the V simply pushes forward and downward, but the half that is lifted upward by the strap while also being being forced forward and downward by the V it is attached to flips both forward and inward. It is marvelous to watch this paper sheep go flying upward, flipping forward, tucking inward as the card closes and while the bush right next to it simply falls forward. It's like you planned it that way or something when in fact that's just the way it turns out. In two cases, the straps were positioned too close to the front edge. Luckily, I preprinted different size sheep for that exigency. A little trim to their hoofies and they fit right in, that is, larger sheep stuck out when the card is closed. The straps having moved content from the center to the edges.

Review: Without straps, V mechanisms can be positioned on the center fold of a card. The upright V provides two surfaces to attach content, as you can see, content angled toward the viewer. A short tented strap covers the central fold and provides two new valley folds closer to the edges.

WARNING! Practice caution while playing at the edges.

Consider the two new valley folds to be displaced central folds. At this moment when the card is fully opened, everything is completely flat. The idea is to attach stand up V mechanisms directly over the new displaced central folds. And now that they're doubled there are two places to attach V mechanisms with their double upright surfaces, not just one place (the real central fold) to attach V mechanisms. And then there are two straps, so four new central folds, each with it's own V mechanism presenting two surfaces each, so eight new upright surfaces to attach content in a zig-zag arrangement angled toward the viewer, that all stretches and extends and then abruptly flips into position when opened and then compresses like an accordion which packs the V mechanisms and everything on them tilting content toward the viewer during that moment of closing, difficult to follow as a shutter of a camera, for some of the content, reverse flip and twist back into position.

kitty pop-up card big pictures

2011-09-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

reflection bridge

2011-09-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

Source pic from the Reflection Café at Althouse.blogspot.com.

marquee

2011-09-06T23:01:00.000-07:00

This is a test to see if the marquee tag works.

Alice in Wonderland pop-up card

2011-09-06T20:48:00.000-07:00

This is a birthday card for a friend. The theme is Alice in Wonderland in the style of Tim Burton. The characters are scratchy ink sketches on one side only. The original pictures are wildly colorful and the original sketches for this card were also colored, but honestly, after four iterations in various sizes I got tired of coloring the figures so the final version is plain black and white sketches with no color fields.

The characters fit within a three dimensional paper grid as chess pieces made of paper. The grid is fashioned from slats with alternating slots. Each slat is cut with slots exactly the same half way through. Half the slats are inverted so that half the slots face up and the other half face down. The slots are matched, 50% upward slot matched with an inverted 50% downward facing slot equals 100% of total slottage at the point of intersection of two slats, the point, of course, being a line. So there is the grid made of slats, the kind of slats that would protect bottles packaged together in a cardboard case.

Those cardboard protective inserts always fascinated me. The way they collapse. Collapse. Open. Collapse. Open. Collapse. Open. Collapse. Open. Collapse. Open. Collapse. Open.The idea of a 12 section grid designed to protect bottles suggests a 64 section grid for a chessboard. The way they collapse and open again suggest a way that a smaller version of the elaborated grid can be inserted inside a card.

Seven strips with slots facing up cross with seven slips with slots aiming down. With the ends extended so that boxes are formed on each end, all four ends, The grid can be fitted with an outside frame. Two sides of the frame will be attached to the card, the other two sides are free, along with the entire inner grid is also free, only the two sides of the frame for the grid are attached to the card. This is what is so visually extraordinary about the action that comes from opening the card. An entire grid comes flying out of the air and plunks down upon a tiled floor and forming a perfectly square grid.

So that is the basis of the grid. The grid is attached to the card along the central fold, the two sides of the frame for the grid set at precisely 45° angle.

Earlier versions used larger squares for the grid. The entire grid did not fit folded inside the closed card no matter what size paper was used. For one inch squares, a portion of the grid had to be trimmed off in order to fit the largest card stock. The bit that is trimmed off in order to force fit the content into the card actually results in an interesting changing pattern. The result is an incomplete grid that fades out from three dimensions to two dimensions to nothing as if disappearing in the background. But in this case the squares were made smaller in order to have a complete grid that fits inside the dimensions of the largest card stock reasonably available. Would you really want a gigantic card just to have a complete 8" X 8" grid inside? The rest of the content would have to be very interesting to make the grid worthwhile, after all, the grid is basically a floor.

The character pieces can be lifted out of the grid. Extra characters are placed in a pocket occupying a portion of negative space in the background outside of the grid. Each character piece is fitted with a 3 slot tab on the bottom, so that even the thinnest piece straddles three grid sections and with their slots the pieces fit through the grid and fold along with it. So the character pieces can be changed.

The cover is one of the characters glued to the front. There is no special envelope. The Postal Service mailer will have to do. That is how lazy I've become. *hangs head in shame* I drew the characters covering three pieces of card stock. On the third page I thought, "Okay, that's enough already," even though there are plenty more characters that could have been drawn. When it came time for the cover I was totally over drawing Alice in Wonderland characters so I used one that was already drawn.

lotus vs water lily

2011-09-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

Althouse commenter, Quaestor, cleared up an issue that has long perplexed me by explaining quite clearly the differences between lotus and water lily. I had been conflating the two plants for a lifetime, and now I know that the water flower upon which Buddha sits is not the same water flower seen throughout Egyptian art.

The explanation also clears up the questions I had about the strange lotus roots with holes in them that I keep seeing at Asian markets, and of the strange lotus seed pods that never appear in Egyptian art, and why the petals are always depicted differently, in Asian art with graceful curves and in Egyptian art as sharp triangles. So now I know.

square fountain and undefeatable squirrel

2011-08-30T02:26:00.000-07:00

Animated GIF. Source pic lifted from Althouse blogspot, Glittering Water Café, here.

Leadville flamingos

2011-08-22T17:18:00.000-07:00

Source pic nicked from Althouse.blogspot.com, We ♥ Leadville post, here.

ducks

2011-08-15T23:28:00.000-07:00

Source pic nicked from Althouse.blogspot.com, Duck Lake Café, here.

Althouse clouds

2011-08-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

Source pic from Althouse.blogspot.com, Cloudscape Café, here.

blue flower

2011-08-04T01:29:00.000-07:00

Animated GIF. Source pic nicked from the Blue Flower Café at Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

penguin pop-up card

2011-08-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

This is a one-page pop-up card for my brother.

Penguins do not climb trees, nor do they build nests, as far as I know. Penguins do not feed their young pies, as far as I know. I think that penguins have only one chick at a time, but I could be wrong. With that in mind, then, here is a penguin feeding a pie to its multiple young in a nest that is in a tree. So this card is absurdly wrong. It's intended to amuse, not to instruct.

The adult penguin is attached to a crimp that tilts a full 90º, which is a lot of tilting action for a pop-up card. I would have preferred less movement in this case, but I just dealt with it.

The baby chicks are attached to a separate mechanism that pops them up from within their nest to meet the pie that is being fed to them.

The cover is a simple ink sketch of a single penguin with touches of orange glued directly to the front of the card. An envelope is made to fit.

I must admit this card is a bit of a cop out, but don't tell my brother or he'll think I don't love him. The fact is, I had all sorts of penguin-related ideas. The struggle for supremacy at the Southern Hemisphere, battles with other species, all kinds of ridiculous anthropomorphisms, lines of penguins holding pies forward with their flappers, a penguin pie bakery, penguin pies with fish in them, those sorts of things, but I only had the enthusiasm to crank out one page.

The idea was inspired by Sophie and David Pelham's Counting Creatures, the number 13 "thrushes". It is a companion book to A is for Animals. It says right there in the book that all rights are reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form, and here I am copying their idea. Does that make me bad? I feel guilty, but I am grateful to them for showing me a new mechanism. The two books are really quite good. You should buy them, unless you're under 3 years. It says so right there in English and in French that the books are unsuitable for children under 3 years. I think that's wrong. People on Amazon say their one year old and their two year old children love these two books, and I sure can see why. I love them too. So what if they tear them up. What, do expect them to last forever? Besides, that's how people learn. They can always be glued back.

fantasy forest pop-up card

2011-07-15T21:07:00.000-07:00

This is a four-page pop-up card for a friend. Each of the four pages can stand alone as a separate card but here they are combined to convey an idea of a fantasy forest.

The first page is a chameleon realistically doing what chameleons do.

The second page is a snake uncoiling underneath forest floor debris. Also more realistic than fantasy. The page is included for the simple reason that I like this snake and it contributes to the sense of a dense forest not without danger. These two pages are misdirection for what follows.

The third page is the main page depicting the fantasy forest. Its main feature is a tree with mushrooms underneath it that are adapted to tiny improbable cartoonish homes.

The fourth page is a closeup of one of the mushroom houses. The door opens to show a tiny harvest mouse that fills the interior of the mushroom with its little mouse nest in contradiction to the outside appearance of the mushroom house.

The card is backed with black matt board. The cover is a simple ink drawing of a single ordinary mushroom. A doubled black matt window frames the sketch, so four black matts altogether. All the pages, backing, and frame, are bound as a book. The card weighs just short of half a pound.

The chameleon's tongue is seen snapping at a caterpillar. A piston arm located at the bottom of the page works when the two pages are opened. The piston arm disappears through a slot on the opposite page and engages a levered arm on the back which is covered and protected. The levered arm creates an arc movement and reappears to the front of the card sliding along a slot cut in the shape of its arc. A portion of the chameleon's tongue is glued to the tip of the levered arm. The first half of the chameleon's tongue is painted directly onto the background. Only the most distant portion of the chameleon tongue travels toward the caterpillar.

Additional branches and leaves are build up on a partial table mechanism. There is actually more space to the table than there is material, but the material that forms the table with exceedingly short legs is sufficient to suggest a dense thicket of branches and leaves.

The snake is two discs attached to short arms that in turn are attached to opposing crimps made into the step of a shallow platform. The crimps -- arms -- discs work in opposite directions.

As with the chameleon, another shallow table built up of sticks and leaves obscures the snake and contributes actual depth.

The tree is built on a V mechanism. Like the chameleon page and the snake page, another shallow layer is built up to form a platform of branches and plant life, but this time the mechanism is not a proper table but rather an extension of the tree's V mechanism.

The tree trunk is a double V so doubly strong. All the 1/2" legs to the platform conform precisely to the tree's V shape. The tree trunk V mechanism drags up a dozen or so additional supporting legs that could not operate on their own without being connected to the tree. So the tree pulls with it an entire platform upon which content is attached.

That is the way to visualize it. But the platform was built up the same way as the two previous tables were built up. The V shape is already established by the tree trunk. Guide lines are drawn on the entire background in front of the tree extending outward that exact same V shape. The guide lines amount to a chevron design. Posts comprised of a rectangle of three scored tiny squares are glued to the background randomly but in strict conformity to the chevron pattern. Now one of the scored squares for each rectangular post is glued flatly to the background. Precut content is glued to the second square of the 3-square rectangular post. All additional content conforms strictly to the tree trunk. The content stands upright with the tree. One square of the 3-square rectangular post remains. The last empty square of each post, now glued to the background and with erect content, are connected together to form a matrix upon which is built an airy platform of sticks and leaves, and connected also to the tree so that the platform is lifted with the tree and shoved back down when the tree is folded with the card. The platform and all the content is subservient to the tree. Because of that, it's built loosely and flimsily instead of sturdily and ruggedly.

The fun thing about it is that the posts can be glued together with paper branches and even topped with leaves before being attached to the tree trunk. Finally the entire platform having been constructed backwards in the down folded position, random legs strictly positioned, upright content, platform content, can be lifted up all together at once into position and then attached as slave to the tree trunk. It's how everything flips up at once when the card is opened.

[There are different ways to go with this. It's possible to construct a platform on a full chevron pattern comprised of sturdy squarish tubes that operate independently from the tree trunk and with content glued to their front surfaces and that provide a top surface to accept a platform, but to get all those square tubes to fold in unison either on their own or connected to the tree leads to a very paper-heavy result since the entire tube is not used to hold content upright. Using tube sections that are not connected in a complete V and so unable to operate without the tree are still paper-heavy because the entire square tube is not needed. That's because square tubes takes 5 sides as two lengths must overlap in order to form a tube. So this approach used here reduces the 5 sided square segments of a cut up tube to 3 sided partial square segments, the missing side is provided by the tree trunk itself. Clever, eh? It's also very fast and easy to build.]

The same piston arm that operates the hidden lever that moves the chameleon's tongue is used in the harvest mouse page to open the door. The door is a hinge attached directly to the piston arm. The door is a scored hinge set through a slot and glued to the piston arm so that when the card is half opened to the 90° position then so is the door. Pulling the card fully open also drags the piston and the door that is attached to it which forces the little door through the slot to a new fully opened position. When the card is closed, the piston is shoved in the opposite direction taking the door hinge behind the slot with it into a new shut position.

And isn't the mouse the cutest little thing? I got tired of drawing leaves so the fern is all scribbles. Actually, all my drawings are just scribbles.

Additional online pages detailing the construction of each individual pop-up page for this card. This card was fairly easy to construct. It uses only a few pop-up mechanisms and there was nothing to figure out in terms of mechanics. All of these mechanisms were used before in other cards.

* page one, chameleon page. Mechanical arm to levered arm to chameleon's tongue, with reticulated table.
* page two, coiling snake. Double crimp mechanism with short connecting arms to discs, with reticulated table.
* page three, fantasy forest. Tree trunk V mechanism with floating platform and upright content.
* page four, mushroom house. Mechanical arm to hinged door.

mushroom house pop-up card

2011-07-15T20:55:00.001-07:00

A stiff arm is fashioned to attach near the central fold on the verso page of the card. The arm fits through a slot cut into the recto page to accept the arm. A hinge is attached to the arm that will fit through another slot to flip back and forth as a door when the card is opened and closed.

The slot for the door hinge is reinforced on the back of the recto page of the card.

The arm with its hinged door in place through its slots. The arm is glued to the verso page of the card near the central fold. 1/2 inch distant from the central fold produces 1 full inch movement of the arm. That is to much movement to flip the door (it drags the door through the slot when closed and extends the door when opened), so the distance for the glue point from the central fold is reduced to 1/4 inch, and isn't it strange to desire less movement in a card?

The position of the door on the arm is determined by opening the card half way straight up and down. The door will be attached to the arm on the backside of the card with the little door also in the straight up position. If the door is larger, then the door should be positioned a little bit closed so that when the card is closed it can close on top of the little door, that is, the door tends to interfere with the card closing if it is even a little bit larger than the tiny door shown here.

Card fully opened, door fully opened.

fantasy forest

2011-07-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

A tree trunk is build on a V mechanism design. Flat branches are passed through the tree trunk and fixed parallel to the flat opened card. The double V shape tree trunk closes when the card is closed which angles the trunk tucked into the center of the card and collapses the inserted branches like the wings of a butterfly folding. The V shape is pulled apart when the card is opened which lifts the tree trunk up into position and drags along everything that is attached to it.

Content is drawn in anticipation of a platform to be built upon posts that present upright forward-facing content and that will be attached by an elevated platform to the tree trunk.

These are the square posts that will connect the platform to the tree. These posts determine the height of the platform. All following posts must conform to these original tree trunk posts. These are the only posts with four sides. Although as it turns out the forward facing sides were not used here, they could have contained upright forward-facing content and in that case then, one side is glued to the tree, another side glued to the background of the card, the top side used to build the platform and attach it to the tree, the fourth side to forward-facing content.

Notice the lightly penciled chevron design extending outward from the tree trunk.

Two of these pages of plant life were needed to form the floating platform and to cover the background of the card.

These are the paper sticks that connect the tabs at the top of the posts that both elevate the platform and present upright forward-facing content obediently conforming to the V of the tree trunk. You can see they are nothing more than random shapes and lengths. Some curve will be needed to connect the uppermost tabs of each post so most of the sticks are drawn and cut slightly curved one way or another. They will be mostly covered so there is no point in being precise about drawing the sticks. These were scratched out in less than one minute.

It looks like a mess at this point, but it's an organized mess! All of these upright pieces will be connected by their top tabs, here still flopping around but eventually forming a incomplete platform that is connected directly to the tree trunk.

The remaining posts are all scored three-square rectangles. One side to attach to the card background, the middle square to present upright forward-facing content, the last top scored square to build a matrix of paper sticks upon which plants are glued and that is connected to the tree.

Finally, all the top tabs of the posts are connected with paper sticks and covered with plant life forming a platform conforming to the tree trunk. Extra plants are glued to the background to create two layers of plants.

The card is seen to fold neatly and close as it should.

The backs of the forward-facing content is colored carelessly. I simply do not have the patience needed to carefully detail the backs of everything.

coiling snake

2011-07-13T02:23:00.000-07:00

This is the third time I used this snake. I like this snake a lot. It's a common crimp mechanism fitted with an arm with content attached. Content can be made to appear as if it is being rolled. Double crimps can appear as if content is rolling other content. In this case, discs glued to arms glued to crimps, rotate in opposite directions to appear as a snake coiling or uncoiling.

A small platform is created for the center of the card 1/2 inch high and attached 1/2 inch away from the central fold on the opposite page of the card. In the card opened position, the platform is stretched completely flat.

For some reason, I worked this part upside down ↓. The tabs that affix the platform can be glued either directly to the background surface or they can be fitted through slots and glued to the back of the card, thus mysteriously disappeared.

At the half opened position, the inserted platform forms a step 1/2 inch high. In the closed position, the platform is forced flat in the opposite direction from when it is stretched. Crimps made in the corner of the step are pushed in the opposite direction of the fold in the step, that is, the creases of the crimp operate opposite to the direction of the step in the platform. Arms attached to the crimps create an arcing motion of 90°. Crimps facing each other create arcing movements in opposite directions. (Incidentally, if the arms are connected to the opposite half of each crimp than the little triangles shown in the above animated GIF ↑, then the arms will flip as the crimps fold shut. The motion differs from it's opposite portion where an attached arm simply angles slightly and slides to closed or to open position without flipping as shown below.)

Discs drawn with a snake design are attached to the arms glued to the crimps in the platform step.

Now we're right side up ↓. Arms attached to half of each crimp ↓. The arms can extend from the crimp in either of three directions and they will each have the same effect.

A mesh table built up of content upon posts just above the snake is covered with the same forest floor pattern material as the background of the card, so the snake appears to be nested between layers of forest floor material. The snake discs rotate in opposite directions and eerily mimic the motion of a real snake. The movement is concealed beneath forest floor content as a snake would be concealed.

Posts for elevated table glued to background ↑, a few along the center, the rest randomly but still parallel on both sides of the central fold. New content will connect the surfaces of the posts ↓.

For the table to work, at least one of the posts must be situated along the central fold. All other posts are connected to the central posts one way or another. Additional posts are placed to the right and to the left of the central fold and aligned with it perfectly. To connect the posts with content and thus to form a net-like table, all the posts can be moved either to the extreme left or extreme right position, then connecting content glued in place. To check for accuracy, the entire table should move from flattened extreme left, to upright center, to flattened extreme right position as a single unit, an incomplete, see-through, slotted table without tugging and without any bulges. It is a very rigid interconnection of elevating posts that makes the partial table possible. In this case, the short incomplete table is made of branches and leaves, a matrix positioned on posts that act as paper columns and produces a reticulated table-like surface, a paper scrim, if you like.

chameleon page

2011-07-13T01:14:00.000-07:00

An arm is glued on the front of the card (not shown) to one side of the card's central fold but operating on the opposite side of the central fold. In this way, the arm makes use of the physical force applied by opening the card and closing it. The action of opening and closing the card will cause the arm to move back and forth one inch like a piston. The back and forth motion is transferred to another arm (above) on a pivot pin thus creating another movement, a much longer arc that sweeps nearly half the opened page. The first arm disappears through a slot to the back of the card. A second arm is attached to the original arm along with a paper pivoting pin. The mechanism is constructed on the back of the card. The tip of the pivoting swinging second arm is pushed through a slot cut in the shape of the arm's arc. Content is glued to the tip of the arcing arm, now showing through on the front of the card and traveling along arc of the slit. So, the original tip of the first arm shows on the front of the card, then the arm disappears behind the card where the transfer mechanism is located, and the tip of the second arm shows through the slot cut from the arc produced by the second arm.

On the back of the card, the button with an X cut into it forming four propellers. Two of the propellers are glued to the back of the card. The remaining two propellers are folded along a crease so that the propellers can fit through the hole cut into the pivoting and swinging arm to act as a stable swivel pin.

A finishing disc is provided to reinforce the two propellers that form a pin for the pivoting arm

An arc is drawn on the back of the card determined by the swing of the arm.

A slot is cut in the shape of the arc.

The tip of the pivoting arm is pushed through the slot so now content can be glued to the tip that swings back and forth on the front of the card. Notice the ends of both arms, the mechanism is hidden in the back. In this case, the content glued to the swinging arm is the chameleon's tongue. Only half the tongue swings back and forth along the arc, the other half is drawn directly onto the background of the card, also along the arc so that it appears as if the tongue is extending toward the worm.

Leaves of various tone covering a sheet of card stock.

The leaves cut out and ready to be applied to some kind of scaffolding.

The chameleon is drawn, colored, and cut out, then pasted onto the background of the card. So it is distinguished slightly from leaves drawn directly onto the background and very slightly 3-dimensional, at least so much as the thickness of card stock. Some leaves are glued to the background too. Other leaves are drawn directly onto the background. So there is a very slight variation in background height that creates a little shadow and hints at dimension.

Then there is actual additional dimension. Another layer of branches and leaves is situated on an incomplete table. The original conceptualization of a table is another plane, an inner card situated on paper legs directly above the background card. So a card within a card that work parallel with each other, fixed by posts, one post along the central fold of the card and two more posts for each end. The post in the middle can service both sides of the table as an I bar.

A variation of this is a table with large holes cut into it so that the background shows through. Like cutting holes into a broad side of cereal box so that the contents can be seen through the cuts.

Yet another variation of the table is a flimsy net-like or lace-like construction that operates the same as a table on posts, one along the central fold, but weak legs and not for the full length -- a very weak flimsy table. With the same or similar pattern as the background then the flimsy paper mesh constructed as a table can suggest depth through layers.Layers that can be seen through.

There is only one additional layer 1/2 inch above the background layer, yet it appears as if the chameleon is tucked behind thick dense layers of branches.

This idea of a flimsy table set atop flimsy legs, incomplete and randomly but properly positioned, is used again for the second page. This time looking down onto the forest floor.

hieroglyphic phrases

2011-07-08T20:55:00.000-07:00

grasshoppers pop-up card

2011-07-05T16:51:00.000-07:00

This is a four page pop-up card that tells a straightforwardly brief story of grasshopper infestation. The first two pages depict a single grasshopper against a plain white background with immature wheat stalks. On the third page a stylized sun rises over a mature wheat field crawling with grasshoppers. On the fourth page, three snakes strike at grasshoppers.

There is no connection with grasshoppers and the recipient of the card. No relevance to detect here, no subplot, no subliminal story to understand, no analogy to be drawn, no moral to be had, no depth, no meaning at all except an absurd card and plain silliness.

Related pages that may interest you on the movement, the ideas behind the construction, the process, the prototype pages and other trials.

3rd and 1st page further details.

3rd page trials that weren't used.

2nd page details

2nd page construction

4th page construction

2nd page construction, grasshopper pop-up card

2011-07-05T15:58:00.001-07:00

This leaf was not used ↑. There are six such leaves of varying shapes and lengths. Only two were colored.

Finally I arrived at the shape I wanted ↓ that would flip the leaf off the card nearly entirely and at the right angle and still hold a grasshopper that would fit inside the card when it was closed. I went through quite a lot of card stock until I found the shape I was satisfied with.

After all that, the tip still needed to be trimmed.

One side of front and middle legs. The card stock is doubled so all four legs are cut at once, two identical sets. They must be drawn and colored on each side so that's eight legs drawn and colored. This was done for three trials, so that's a lot of bug legs.

This is the key ↓ to what makes the legs work with the wings. It's a wonderful design with near limitless applications. It's one way to get butterfly wings to open with the card.

A speck of glue holds on each leg.

Once the legs are attached to the bug's body then the points on the leaf can be located and tiny tabs provided.

All four legs glued to the tabs ↑ in the card closed position.

Fascinatin' init.

Now that the front four legs are attached to the bug and to the leaf, and the bug with its legs and its legs/wings mechanism works with the leaf, then the hind legs can be attached. The hind legs aren't even drawn yet. They must not interfere with the wings that are yet to come. The hind legs are much larger than the front legs they are the distinguishing feature of grasshoppers. They can be drawn to be folded nearly shut as if ready to pounce or they can be drawn fully extended or anywhere in between. they can be attached to the leaf, or they can be provided with joints that actually work and be attached to the card, they can be parallel or they can be different as if the bug is having difficulty finding footholds. At any rate, their points of attachment are determined before the legs are drawn and colored and cut.

I debated on the weight of paper to use for the wings. I decided on heavier card stock to encourage them to flop down and help spread. I'm still not positive I made the right decision. The tiny X mechanism will be expected to force them closed.

The wings must fit inside the card.

third page, and first page, grasshoppers pop-up card

2011-07-05T15:52:00.000-07:00

Mechanically, the third page of the card (the first page that was constructed upon which the remaining three pages revolved) is basically a table mechanism with cutout areas allowing the viewer to see through to the background which is the same thing as the table top, mature wheat with grasshoppers crawling all over. A stylized sun face lifts up from underneath the table.

Any pop-up table is based on an I-bar mechanism running down the central fold, with stabilizing supports on each side. The table can be tall or sort, large or small. In this case the table fills the entire card so to appear as a cereal box.

When closed, a sun which is glued to an arm which in turn is glued to a crimp at the top of the central fold, slips back under the table. Grasshoppers on both sides of the table are compressed and disappear into a fold. The table is forced closed with the card. The table is not as wide as the card because its surface is elevated from the back of the card. Measured precisely so that the edges of the folded table match exactly to the edges of the closed card. See? That there is planning!

The back of the sun ↓ right before it tucks in underneath.

Bam! The sun is gone ↓.

Card folds flat. That's the thing, constructing a mechanism is one thing, but making it so that it folds back is another thing altogether.

Here are a few more views of the open card, the bugs, the table, the intervening sub layer to the table, and the stylized sun face.

The grasshoppers are drawn as if they are hieroglyphics. There is a hieroglyphic for grasshopper, it's L4 (Invertebrata and Lesser Animals) in Gardiner's Sign List, snHm in the Manuel de Codage. But my grasshopper is better. There are only ten of them. Come to think of it, they look a little bit like crickets.

They're colored as I see fit and as my felt tip pens allow.

They're cut out. This part isn't so fun.

The background, the tabletop, and the partial intervening layer all have this pattern. I kept thinking as I was drawing it, "Gee, this is like a wallpaper." Now that the pattern is done it occurs to me I could have scanned it and printed copies.

It all seems s easy now that it's done but to be honest about it I actually tried a whole bunch of other things that were rejected. Most of them were junky little test pieces on scraps of card stock but others were serious attempts to develop mechanisms that actually did work. I wanted the sun to rise up, not to flip up, nor cantilever up too obviously. I can visualize paper mechanisms that do that but executing the idea becomes overly involved. They turn out to be way way way WAY too awkward and ultimately unreliable. Like this.

So there's that.

The head and front arms of the single grasshopper is also on a table except this time it's a tiny table and not one that is edge to edge and supports an entire background image. The second pair of legs are placed on two side extensions to the tiny table built at a lower height so closer to the background. The third pair of legs, the large jumping legs, are drawn onto the background. There seemed several approaches to this, but now that I'm being simple about things, I figured I could avoid drawing the body completely. Presumably it's lost to foreshortening.

Two blades of wheat grass placed on a separate "V" mechanism flop out towards the viewer when the card is opened. It appears as if the the bug is climbing on the blades but the legs do not actually touch. The blades lift back up and tuck inside the card when the card is closed, without interfering with the face of the grasshopper or with its legs. A few more blades are drawn onto the background along with a single wheat stalk.

The two bottom blades of wheat grass are drawn on the background then over the "V" mechanism which is the base of the two moving blades, then onto separate strips that extend beyond the edges of the card toward the viewer. My original idea was to have the entire bug appear to jump toward the viewer but that would entail a three dimensional bug, tent for top wings, rounded face, etc., it's possible, I've done it before with a winged scarab, but it's a lot more complicated. This has a similar effect.

Adorable innit.

This is showing the little table mechanism upon which the head is glued along with the side extensions that support the middle set of legs.

Below shows the blades lifting back up and tucking inside the card, between the bug's legs and in front of its face.

There are no trials for this page. It was a straight shot deal. I did make a few corrections to cuts but I covered them and the corrections are imperceptible.

second page, grasshopper pop-up card

2011-07-05T15:49:00.001-07:00

I'm running out of time. I didn't realize until today that this card must be delivered to San Francisco by Saturday. Monday, tomorrow, is a holiday. The card must be in the mail Tuesday morning. That leaves tomorrow for whatever further pages I can manage and for a cover.

This page is similar to the first page in that is depicts a single grasshopper against a simple background. The background is not shown here. It is a single mature but still green wheat stalk with leaves. Man, I've got my wheat spike drawing act down. The difference between the two pages is this depicts the entire bug, all six legs, full body with wings spread. A broad leaf, broader than an an actual wheat leaf, lifts up, arcs outward, and plops down right off the page toward the viewer, the leaf tip even with the flat open card. The grasshopper is attached to the leaf so it appears as if the bug is jumping out of the card onto the viewers lap. The leaf is split in half lengthwise and reconnected at a curve, most unusual for pop-uppery. The legs of the bug are attached to the edges of the leaf, so when the leaf spreads open, forced by the opening of the card, then the bug's legs are forced open too.

The bug is flat. there is an X mechanism held loosely through the center of the bug, two sets of front legs are attached to the bottom of the X and two sets of wings are attached to the top of the X. The wings open and close as the front sets of legs spread and fold, due to being attached to the X. When the card is closed, the leaf folds back into the card, compresses together as its V collapses, forcing the legs to collapse with them, along with the wings. It's like a miracle, but it's actually the opening and closing of the card forces the base of leaf which forces the tip of leaf which forces the legs of the bug which forces the wings of the bug.

This is the X mechanism that is positioned at a slot at the grasshopper's thorax. It's made of two tiny 1/2" pieces of card stock. A slit is made 1/4" through the center of each tiny square then the slots are matched like the cardboard pieces that separate bottles in a case, if you've ever seen that and marveled how the whole thing can fold flat. Whoever thought of that is totally brill-o.

Notice the tiny slots.

The slots are matched.

Like this:

The X is folded flat and passed through another slot made in the grasshopper. You will notice on a real grasshopper's anatomy that two sets of wings are positioned directly above the front two sets of legs. When the X is opened, then a tiny platform is created for two legs on each side on the bottom platforms and for two wings on each side on the top platforms. Now, it would have been easier to just draw two legs for one side of the bug on the same card as two wings of the opposite side of the bug and make two such cards then form an X with them, but how to get that X positioned in the proper place on the grasshopper? A slit large enough for either the legs or the wings to pass through must be made and then sealed back. I tried that, it works but it was ugly. It occurred to me I could make a tiny X then glue legs and wings to it.

Once the bug is standing on four of its legs then their position on the leaf can be located. Tiny tabs attached at those spots first on the leaf then the bug to the tabs.

Open and close the card to test for fit and for proper folding. Imagine my delight to discover that nothing interferes with the action and nothing sticks out beyond the edges of the card.

More details, if you like, on the construction of this page are available here. There were a few false starts, a few trials not photographed of various shaped leaves and angles of attachment, lengths, and so forth.

grasshopper pop-up card, 4th page construction

2011-07-05T15:01:00.000-07:00

This page describes two mechanisms that produce four movements. The action occurs on the fourth page of the grasshopper pop-up card, recto and verso. The content depicts three snakes striking at grasshoppers in a mature wheat field.

The purpose of this strip is to create two crimps with arms attached that cause two separate discs, one atop the other, to rotate in opposite directions.

This strip creates a platform 1/2 inch high on one side of the card. A step, if you like. Considering the two pages as a single card, one end of the strip is attached to near the center of the card in this case the recto side of the card. The distance is determined arbitrarily by the content, here, a snake that is turning, so the rotation of the two discs and the head of the snake plus the thing that the snake is striking are all considered in arriving at the length of the strip, the height of the step, and the location of the tab. It's all a bit intuitive. The other end of the strip is glued to the opposite side of the central fold, the verso side of the card, exactly 1/2 inch away from the central fold. So now a step is formed exactly 1/2 inch high when the card is held in the half way opened position, that is, the verso page 90° straight up.

Two crimps are creased into the outer corners of the step. The crimps face each other. Tiny paper arms are attached to 1/2 of each crimp. Opening and closing the card causes the crimps to open and close which in turn causes both tiny arms to swing 45° in opposite directions. Discs attached to the arms appear to rotate. A snake pattern is drawn on the disk so that when they turn it appears as if the snake is uncoiling. It's eerie! The bottom disc is slightly larger than the top disk so that its edges show. The center of the bottom disk is cut out, like a donut, a torus, so that the arm attached to the top disc can pass through. Now, why not just glue the discs directly to the crimps? Try it and see, the crimps fold inward and must take the discs with them. The arms allow the discs to lay approximately flat although the discs tend to tilt when rotating. When you see the discs rotate one atop the other in opposite directions with no obvious force applied, it boggles the mind, especially with a snake pattern drawn on it, and looking exactly, and I mean exactly like a snake silently unwinds. The crimp device can be used for a ton of things. Whoever invented this device was a devious mind indeed. Frankly, I wouldn't trust them to buy me a pack of cigarettes even if I did smoke.

So there's that. One device, two movements.

The second device disappears behind the card. A stiff paper arm pulls and shoves back and forth like a piston with the movement of opening and closing the card. The stiff arm moves another arm like a lever. In this case the arm affects a paper lever with an offset pivot much like a piston attached to one side of a see-saw with the fulcrum offset and unequal sides. The arcs produced by the arms of the pivoting lever are the same lengths, but there is more paper on the bottom and a longer arm so then an apparent longer arc but that is only because the fulcrum is offset, if it were a fulcrum. I think. What do I look like, Euclid, over here?

Like the strip in the fist mechanism, the stiff paper bar, the working arm, of the second mechanism is attached to the opposite side of the card. That is, the content is on the verso leaf but the arm is hinged to recto leaf. This is what makes the arm move when the card is opened and closed. The arm pulls when the card is opened, and it shoves back when the card is closed. So you can see the stress put on the tiny paper hinge. For this reason the card stock is doubled.

This photo is getting a little bit ahead of things, but it shows the stiffened arm attached to the recto side of the card and disappearing through a slot on the verso side of the card. The arm is located underneath the snake. So you will see the two mechanisms operating in different directions. The platform for the snake is attached 1/2 inch from the central fold on the verso side, and the post for the other two snakes is attached 1/2 inch from the central fold on the recto side. This is the essential idea of both mechanism whether on top of the card or behind it: one side of the card forces movement on the opposite side of the card. The sooner you accept this then all the sooner you enter the Halls of Advanced Pop-Uppery. I'm telling you, this is not seen anywhere else online or in any books that I am aware of.

Now the back of the card where the action takes place. Originally I intended for the stiff working arm to shove two separate arms in opposite directions. So I made two arms and their paper pivots that fit through their little holes. But then I realized I could get arcs moving in opposite directions with a see-saw type construction instead. So I glued together the two arms at the pivoting circle, one hole directly above the other hole. (It turns out this had to be repeated later on so the whole thing was cut as a single unit. That too turned out to be too weak so the whole thing was redone a third time with a reinforced see-saw. These pictures are showing the original thing)

One end of the see-saw passes through a slot cut into the working arm. The pivot point in the center of the hole in the see-saw is determined and marked on the page with a pencil through the see-saw hole.

The clever little turning pin made of paper is glued to the spot marked by the pencil. This little circle with the X drawn on it like a nuclear hazard sign, cut so that two propeller-looking things are glued to the card back and the other two propeller-looking flaps are creased, folded and passed through the hole of see-saw arm is not my invention. I discovered it by fixing a few pages of Kirby the Easter Dog by George White and glueing them back together.

This device is going to be very useful.

You can see how the working arm behaves as a piston operating on the longer see-saw arm. The longer arm will make a longer more dramatic arc.

Remember, this is the back of the card. Card closed ↑ the top see-saw arm to the far left position (which is far right on the opposite side of the card). Card opened ↓, see-saw arm to the far right position (far left position on the opposite side of the card).

The extremes of see-saw arm movement are marked ↓.

The content on the front side of the card will be snakes striking at grasshoppers. Their placement is mostly intuited. Whatever difficulty arises must be dealt with later or maybe even another fresh start. Slits must be cut for the arcs of the see-saw tips to swing on the front side of the card. A mark is made on both tips of the see-saw and traced as the card is opened and closed ↓ in order to mark the arc.

The arcs are cut ↑. Yikes! and the see-saw arms are pushed through to the other side. Here is the same picture ↓ again already shown above to point out the working arm attached to the opposite leaf but now used to show the tips of the see-saw arms poking through their arc slits. Content is attached to the tips, in this case, snake heads striking at grasshoppers. Content is also drawn all around the arc, the bodies of the snakes and the little grasshoppers being struck.

wheat field with grasshoppers trials that weren't used.

2011-07-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

This is the back of the card. Card closed. The arm on the bottom protrudes from the front. On the inside, the arm is attached to the opposite side of the card. The arm is attached on a hinge exactly 1/2 inch from the central fold. When the card is closed the arm is shoved 1/2 inch away from the central fold, but when the card is opened the hinge travels in an arc above the central fold and over to the other side to rest exactly 1/2 " on the opposite side of the central fold from where it started when closed, so the arm travels exactly 1". A guy can do a lot with that kind of movement. The problem here is the movement is in the wrong direction. The movement must be reversed. I tried several additional mechanisms, not all of them are shown here. I tried elbows, C bars, and S bars. They all worked to varying degrees, but they were all a big mess.

Different sun face, different sun-raising mechanism, different three-layer table. different wheat, different grasshoppers.

I still have this page ↑. It works fine, but it's way too inelegant. The middle layer has cut out portions just like the tabletop but the background is virtually obscured because the slots in both layers must align in order to see what's going on back there. It wasn't until I was completely done that I realized the middle layer must be partial and that even a partial layer will suggest a dense field, since the background must be viewed through slots. It's like a visual trick.

This works but it's ridiculous ↓. The mechanism is a neat-o idea that shoves the sun upward with just a bit of an arc which could be eliminated with an additional joint, but the force-transfer from rod to rod to rod is too much for paper. The sun does move up and down when the card is opened and closed, but the mechanism must be protected in its own hollow shell. One wrong move and a fix is inaccessible. I hated giving up on this idea but I needed something much more simple.

Card closed ↓. This is the back of the card. The mechanism in the down position. The sun that would be attached to the vertical post on the other side of the card is also in the down position.

Mechanism in the up position ↓.

Front of the card. This shows the horizontal rod ↓ that is forced by the card opening and closing. The rod (or post) is shoved to the right through a slot to the back of the card. Then the hinge will rest on the right side of the central fold, a movement of 1". The mechanism is attached to the rod in the back, the movement is transferred from horizontal to vertical. The vertical rod shoves up and pulls down by the opening and closing of the card. A sun is attached to the vertical rod. The mechanism is hidden by a complete backing glued around the edges. The portions of the mechanism on the front, shown below, are hidden by content, so it's all a big mystery how the sun goes up and down because nothing shows. Too bad it's dadgum overly complicated.

Joe's tree pop-up card

2011-06-26T01:42:00.000-07:00

This is a single-page pop-up card based on the opening page of Tomie dePaola's Brava Strega Nona!, popped up by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart. My tree is their tree with modifications that made it easier for myself, reduced its size, provided content for the vacant front, portion, and personalized it with initials and date.

This friend does not celebrate their birthday and this card will be presented late.

I was at a loss for an idea so I rummaged through a few books and settled on the tree. I'm substituting birds in the tree for the Good Ninth Witch's cartoon portraits of relatives.

This took several hours. I don't know how many exactly, but it was finished over a course of two
days. As the project progressed I began to find some relevance to the choice of a mature tree. I did not intend this. As it turns out, this friend is the most senior person that I know. There is something about seniority and the solidness of a tree that goes together. I cannot quite put my finger on it. It was not my plan and I hope it doesn't offend.

This was a one off deal. No prototypes. No practicing. The content is colored with crayon, which
is a really weird medium to use. It's all waxy! It flakes off all over the place and makes a proper mess of the whole work area. They break maddeningly. But they're fun! They cover a lot of area quickly, and they produce a naïve effect that is rather charming and permits all kind of rough execution. I like crayons. They're childish and innocent.

I learned something this go around. The two posts that are the trunk of the tree are designed to lean backward. The layers of branches build onto the trunk therefore should not be perpendicular to the trunk but rather they should all tilt forward to compensate and be parallel to each other. This will display the branches to the viewer instead of tilting away. Built as it is, the branches tend to display to a person opposite the viewer and I do not like that. Were I to do it again I would make that correction. I would also build the tree trunk straight up and not lean backward. Oh
well, live and learn innit.

Who is this?

2011-06-21T19:42:00.000-07:00

blue flower

2011-06-14T00:52:00.000-07:00

Source pic nicked from Althouse.blogspot.com, Dark Blue Café, here.

2011-06-13T14:30:00.001-07:00

2011-06-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

Palin's Christopher Titus trophy

2011-06-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

allium spacecraft

2011-05-28T15:35:00.001-07:00

Source pic nicked from the Bumblebee café at Althohouse.blogspot.com, here.

Bernies at the Back Alley Café...

2011-05-25T13:43:00.000-07:00

Unsightly back alley fixed with Bernie the Brewer garden gnomes and yard flamingos. Source pic nicked from the Back Alley Café at Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

wooing crane

2011-05-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

Source pic nicked from the Nature and Civilization Café at Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

osama bin beatrice

2011-05-04T01:46:00.001-07:00

Trump Beatrice Fiddlehead

2011-05-02T16:48:00.000-07:00

Daniels on Drudge

2011-05-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

Source pic nicked from DrudgeReport.com, here.

look who's bin come a knock'n

2011-04-27T03:11:00.000-07:00

The page links are not clickable because this is a screen capture, but that post being referenced is the only time I've seen them visit that blog. I think it was a few red-flag words I used in that post that drew their attention. Your tax dollars at work. Not my tax dollars, of course, those are going for nice things.

trout lily

2011-04-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

Source pic nicked from from the Trout Lily Café at Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

Mead in the rain

2011-04-12T21:32:00.000-07:00

Sourcepic from Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

beware nesting birds

2011-04-11T15:58:00.000-07:00

Source pics nicked from Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

Scaled Barbie

2011-04-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

It's all fun and games until the real giant Barbie shows up.

Stanley Dunham and Madelyn Payne

2011-04-08T18:50:00.000-07:00

pussy willow, Wisconsin

2011-04-03T21:36:00.000-07:00

Source pic nicked from the Dogwood and Pussy Café at Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

angry bird

2011-04-01T01:49:00.000-07:00

The cartoonish face of the bird is unPhotoshopped. Apparently the bird really is angry at having its territory invaded, according to this, The Telegraph, picture of the day.

super patriot

2011-03-31T23:07:00.000-07:00

Animated GIF. Source pic seen on Althouse.blogspot.com, Protest Café, here.

tragedy

2011-03-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

As to dealing with tragedy, six such significant events come to mind immediately. None of them are unique and their details are not significant to the observations I make.

Collectively my reactions to tragedy have been a general hardening, a crustiness that wasn't there before. Chief among the hardening is a realization that I don't have to put up with anybody's nonsense, and the crap I do tolerate is by choice. Other people seem to perceive a deepening of character, at least that is what they say they perceive and what they appear to me to be responding to, but I do not feel that myself. In fact, I actually feel lighter and more shallow than before.

Astroglide protest

2011-03-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

Source pic nicked from Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

hieroglyphic phrases

2011-03-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

Oh, Man, I so totally know these. Here are some 33 odd words and phrases recently uploaded to my word and phrase finder. I look at these and think, "How was there a time that I didn't know these, for crying out loud?"

send, pass (time)

Your children shall be upon your seats.

Would I had a little bread.

Thou shalt pass eternity in happiness and in praises of the god
who is in you, thy heart shall be with thee, it will not forsake you.

There is no crime to the god in respect of me.

temple, chapel, shrine

seats

rudder

Praises are to thee, lord of this temple.
[This never fails to strike me as a little bit funny, okay hilarious, to see 'temple' written so clearly as "mouth house".]

plough, cultivate

old, old age

office, rank

month

jubilation, praise

I followed His Majesty upon my feet when he was in (upon) this foreign country.

I completed many days while I was the priest who is in his month
(The ordinary priests [web] served in the temples in rotation, one month at a time.)

house, large edifice, temple

high, tall, height

heart, breast

follow, accompany, serve, following, suite (noun)

fish

Okay, now you're looking at this and thinking why does it take an owl to express the word for fish? The thing is, the first two pictures represent the sounds for the word fish but those sounds have multiple meanings. The sounds represented by the football, which is a stylize human mouth, and the sound represented by the owl are the same sounds represented by R and by M but it is unknown for certain what comes before and after and in between the R and the M without help from other languages and really good guesses. So for now, let's just say the word for fish sounds like "ram." No irony. So now the vocalization "ram" means other things in Egyptian too, just as the vocalization "ram" in English has more than one meaning so another glyph is provided so that the reader knows this ram means fish and not something else. I think the system developed backward from that. Originally it probably started with just the fish and pictures for sounds developed later.

field

festival, holiday

wrong, crime

complete, completion

Again with the owl already. What could an owl have to do with completion? The scroll could be a diploma. That would be completion. The scroll represents something mental. The zig-zag thing in front is a piece of crocodile skin that represents the the combined sound K-M, the owl is a redundant M. The M sound is not vocalized twice, rather the owl M is buttressing the crocodile skin M. They do this sometimes. You just have to know when the sound is written redundantly and when it is intended to be vocalized and that takes practice. Incidentally, this is very close to the word for Egypt in Egyptian, "Kemet", the crocodile/owl here is a bit a fake out. Of course it's the missing T sound and the determinative scroll that clarifies.

bird

Behold, this city is in festival now that thou art its lord.

behold, she is with thee.

abandon, forsake

a great bird is upon this high tree

How beautiful this is!

The red ones are beautiful.

The path is very inaccessible.

button

2011-03-16T21:57:00.000-07:00

Kelly

2011-03-13T15:53:00.000-07:00

Two haircuts ago a girl cut my hair who was apparently hard of hearing, but not seriously so. An adorable bird too, I must add. I did not know if she had been raised entirely by the vocal method or if she had any sign language in her background at all, or what. I was loathe to broach the subject and risk offending her as she was clearly passing as hearing and doing very well at it besides.

She cut my hair again. Quietest haircut I ever had. None of this smalltalk bullshit. None at all. Still, what communication was necessary wasn't all that smooth. A lot of repetition, a lot of face-directly-to-face lipreading going on. A few communication mistakes.

At last she asked me how I wanted my sideburns. I vocalized, "short." She proceeded to trim them but she was leaving them long. I realized that she probably thought I said, "sure" and not "short." So I brought out one hand from underneath the barber cape and with the other hand still under the cape I took a risk at possible offense and signed the two-handed word for "short." A single sign, but you can see it is an incomplete sign because one of my hands was covered by the cape. She knew the word. She stopped immediately what she was doing, turned from my side to face me directly, looked straight at my lips and asked, "How do you know sign language?" Deaf people always ask me that. With my exposed hand I gave my stock answer, a flat hand parallel to the floor lifted up, indicating that I grew up with it, and shrugged. That never fails to satisfy the question, but this hairdresser probed. "Is someone in your family deaf?" At any rate, we bonded immediately and that opened a floodgate of questions. I continued to vocalize in English because that is what we had been doing, but I persisted in using sign language to help buttress the specifics. For instance, at one point, she asked what kind of dog it was that I once had, and then asked what a Belgian Sheepdog looks like. All that was facilitated with some spelling and a few signs. She understood all my fingerspelling and all my signed words flawlessly, but she never once through all that used any sign language back to me.

She mentioned that she used to have a small placard at her station that explained she was hard of hearing, but took it down. "People will figure it out on their own eventually, anyway."

I mentioned I encountered a fellow in my building wearing white earbuds. I greeted him but he ignored me. I mumbled under my breath, "Fine, carry on with your iPod, you rude asshole." Then, inside the elevator he chirped cheerfully "Are you enjoying the beautiful day outside today?" In a strained voice that indicated to me he is deaf. His earbuds were to a hearing aid, not an iPod. It totally faked me out. Kelly giggled like a little girl. She said she has just such a hearing aid and loves it because people assume it's an iPod. I said, "Yes, but I assumed he was being rude to me. " Kelly goes, "Hahahahaha, people think I'm rude too."

I'm an idiot.

Eventually she asked me if I had a sign language name. I answered affirmatively. She asked me to show her so I did. She asked me to explain it, so I elaborated. She said she too has a sign name and showed me. It was perfectly ordinary. Her given name is Kelly so her sign name is a K placed at the heart. It resembles the word for "cop" which is a C placed where a badge would be on a policeman's uniform, which is how I locked in automatically the mnemonic association. Then she said that her new deaf friends decided her regular sign name is too ordinary so they devised a new name for her: two Ks placed at the head near the ears and flicked. So it's a two-handed name that requires lifting up both arms. Not the most convenient or eloquent of signs. The Ks are similar to two scissors cutting hair. Cute. I'll bet her friends are fun.

It is now quite impossible for me to forget Kelly's name, her first sign name and her amusing second sign name.

That was all the signing she did to me until the very end when we walked together to the receptionist and she said "thank you" and "goodbye" in sign, smiling broadly, she lit up the entrance. I also said "thank you for the haircut" in sign. Then vocalizing right in front of a small group of men between us but with her attention focused directly on me, she asked in English, "How do you say, You're welcome? See? I don't even know how to say you're welcome!" I showed her the sign, it's a very basic sign that one learns right off, and then I thought, "Jesus Christ, get me, I'm showing a deaf person how to say words in sign language over here. That's a first. Until this moment it's always been the other way around. "

camouflage poodle

2011-03-09T10:31:00.000-08:00

Source pic from Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

Gaddaffodil

2011-02-26T10:27:00.000-08:00

Gadsden dog

2011-02-17T20:07:00.000-08:00

Original pic seen on Althouse.blogspot.com Politically active dogs, here.

Sriracha chile sauce

2011-02-04T19:01:00.001-08:00

Three Crab Fish Sauce

2011-02-04T18:52:00.001-08:00

girlKrauthammer mashup

2011-02-01T23:25:00.000-08:00

Original pics seen on Althouseblogspot.com, here.

Bittersweet restaurant

2011-01-22T12:14:00.000-08:00

These are the .jpg camera-compressed photos rejected for this post at thingswotimadethenate.blogspot.com. The NEF (RAW) photos were used instead. Ultimately they too were compressed to .jpg files but with post processing adjustments that allowed more color to come through.

Michelle's Alexander McQueen

2011-01-20T22:28:00.000-08:00

The color palette of the first fabric struck observers as a little bit overly jingoistic. A decision was made to go with a more subdued red print.

Gadsden Argyle

2011-01-19T16:50:00.000-08:00

inverted skyscape

2011-01-16T02:47:00.000-08:00

Source pic from Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

party Gadsden

2011-01-14T15:56:00.000-08:00

4 Gadsdens

2011-01-14T08:39:00.000-08:00

klicken Sie, um zu vergrößern

celeriac salad

2011-01-09T20:30:00.000-08:00

It was a tough choice, but this is the photograph that was not used on thingswotimadethenate.

Photoshop stacked focus

2010-12-29T16:29:00.001-08:00

Stacked focus. Double clicky for bigger BIGGER, if you dare.

Here's the deal-io, Kids.

After all that, waiting, stacking, aligning, choosing, and masking, and finally compressing, Photoshop's stacked focus still has out-of-focus bands running across the full length of the image.

Can ya see 'em? Can ya see 'em? Huh? Huh? Huh? Can ya see 'em?

The out-of-focus bands continue clear across the whole image through the meat and through the bands on the plate.

Those are the horizontal bands, but there are vertical bands too.

Can ya see 'em? Can ya see 'em? Huh? Huh? Huh? Can ya see 'em?

There are also little naked splotches all over the place.

And then lastly, but mostly, there is this dreadful bit with the plate rim at the bottom.

All these things can be fixed. Chiefly by taking better more stable shots to begin with, but short of that they're still fixable within Photoshop, especially with the help of its new 'content aware' tool, that sometimes takes a few tries to get right. But all that is not so easy or fast no matter what methods are used. It is still quite tedious to go over the image section by section making corrections: cloning, masking, selecting, feathering, copy/pasting new layers and so on, as hard or easy as picking one image for a base, then picking and choosing patches using ordinary layers. Or better yet, using a tripod to shoot. Or even better than better, use a lens with depth of field or live with and love bokeh. After all, it just an exercise anyway, most any of the original images are fine were they not shot purposefully with stacked focus in mind.

So there's that.

I wondered how things would work if the dimensions of the files were reduced before they were loaded into a stack, and then go through the stack and do much of what Photoshop is expected to do, stretch its outer edges, hither and tither, jerking the layers one by one on top of each other as closely as possible before having Photoshop do the aligning. Then finally have Photoshop do the blending automatically as usual. I was afraid that sacrificing that much data would badly affect the result, but I was interested in seeing if that would take much of a load off my poor little grinding moaning protesting laptop. The final image would be 700px wide. There will be trim on the stacked focus image no matter what. So, wad'dya say the images are reduced to 1,000px width giving a nice fat margin to play with and still over halving the total original width. (quartering the width from the same images still available in RAW ) Here is the result.

The exact same problems as the larger set. Now why does that surprise me?

All of this stacking, aligning, blending comes before any other adjustments in levels, curves, color balance, exposure, shadows/highlights etc.

I wonder what would happen if the number of images was reduced to a bare minimum.

Oops. Too minimal.

I wonder what would happen if I combined this with the original stacked
focus.

Hahaha. Me likey. But it didn't fix the bottom egg. <--- nit picker.

Photoshop stacked focus

2010-12-29T16:28:00.001-08:00

The miracle of the sheep happened again

2010-12-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Mary appears to Adele at Champion Wisconsin

2010-12-23T22:45:00.000-08:00

And this is exactly how it happened.

wrong turn at the Multi-tone

2010-12-21T02:12:00.000-08:00

Original image posted at Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

2 stacked focus images.

2010-12-17T15:38:00.000-08:00

These shots were taken without a tripod. Through the viewfinder. I find that it is easier to compose the shot, check the corners, then when the viewfinder focus returns to the previous spot, mine seems to have a mind of its own and goes where it decides it will, go ahead and focus, tilting the focus box to the desired spot, then tilting the camera back to the pre-established composition, mindful of the corners, while maintaining my own bodily position. That is the best way to fire off a rapid sequence of shots without messing with a tripod and delicate refocusing through the live view.

Today I learned the battery for on the remote is dead.

combined image

I notice I did not get a shot with the mushrooms behind the biscuit in focus ↑ . My bad.

combined image ↓

This isn't a very clean set. My eggs were cooking while I fired these off.

stacked focus

2010-12-16T15:55:00.000-08:00

Photographer Rob Cantor taught me how to do stacked focus today. Here is the dealio: it is for times when you would like to keep the depth of field but eliminate the bokeh so that the entire thing is focused without being flat, as other methods are prone to do along with other problems. The idea is to focus at various depths of the composition and have a program consolidate the areas that are in focus.

This is a photo stream focusing first at the back rim of the plate and then progressively through the crackers toward the front, then at the front rim of the plate. You will be able to see what is going on. Finally, the combined photo. The combined photo was further adjusted for exposure and levels.

skiing

2010-12-14T21:31:00.000-08:00

Source pic lifted from Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

Animated GIF.

Tina

2010-12-11T22:10:00.000-08:00

This is my second Belgian Sheepdog Groenendale at Red Rocks, Morrison Colorado near my parents home. She was never big on rock climbing but she was always spectacular.

Art Museum

2010-12-08T20:55:00.000-08:00

I invited two blokes to the art museum today as my guest to view the Tutankhamun exhibit presently on loan. The museum is half a block from my home. One guy has no interest in African history at all, although he is himself of African descent. The other guy is an ex Navy diver, not a Seal, but a regular diver.

The ex Navy diver called yesterday to reschedule for today with much apologies. My African friend agreed. Today, the Navy guy didn't show up and didn't bother to call either. Mind, this was an offer at my expense, me extending myself, my home, my time, my access, my knowledge, which if I may say is considerable for a regular fellow. The thing is, I cannot bear the thought of my acquaintances letting an opportunity slip brilliant as Tutankhamun in their own city. They have no idea how rare that is. All they had to do is show up. It surprises me that his training could leave so wide a gap, although my brother did caution me about that proclivity so it wasn't entirely unexpected.

The African guy was more uninterested and more bored than any of the children that were literally crawling like ants throughout the exhibit, including the babies. Okay, maybe not the babies.

They are so bright, these kids. (Can you believe every last one of them wear sneakers? The males, not the girls. Are leather shoes for boys a thing of the past, or what? I was in high school before I ever put on a pair of sneakers, and that was solely for gym class, and it felt weird.) I engaged a number of the children to see if there was a chance they might be as much a crackpot about Egyptian history as I was at their age. To my delight, they are. This gives me hope for a bright future in the hands of these charming and intelligent and very perceptive youths. Some of the insightful things that came out of their mouths would please any Egyptologist. And their manners and grace are exemplary. Then I compare that with my own compatriots and my heart sinks a little. To the African guy's defense, he did say at first he thought, "Uh oh, I'm going to hate this.," but then as he began to read the placards and hear the children in discussion, his mind began to open to the experience. Nonetheless, we did race through the exhibit, skipping some of the items that I know to be of great interest and no small importance. Still, through all of that, the seed is planted. As for the diver, too bad.

Gingriches

2010-12-06T23:53:00.000-08:00

Bradley Manning to Howdy Doody morph

2010-11-29T09:54:00.000-08:00

Animated GIF inspired by Ann Althouse commenter Clyde, here.

trashy lake

2010-11-27T17:09:00.002-08:00

Original pic brazenly stolen from Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

trashy lake

2010-11-27T17:09:00.000-08:00

Original pick brazenly stolen from Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

cleaning birdhouse

2010-11-21T23:06:00.000-08:00

Animated GIF. Leave and return if the file fails to run. This is a rather large file, it takes a moment to load. Source pic nicked from Althouse.blogspot.com, here.

burial masks, coffins

2010-11-20T14:25:00.000-08:00

Psusennes silver inner coffin

Psusennes is the fourth king of the Twenty-First dynasty, which with the Twenty-Second, Twenty-Third, Twenty-Fourth, and Twenty-Fifth Dynasties are combined into the group titled Third Intermediate Period. This would be an extended period of decline in prestige, fractured kingship, and foreign rule.

Before Psusennes reign the capital had been moved north to Delta where the royal necropolis of Psusennes I, Amenemope, and Shoshenq II were later discovered intact and unlike the tomb of Tutankhamun, undisturbed by ancient looters. A very large cache of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, precious stones, burial masks was discovered there by Pierre Monet in 1939 and 1949. By all rights, the find should be more famous than Tutankhamun because the tomb was untouched but due to the moist climate at the delta and the inundation by Lake Manzala most of the wooden and perishable objects were destroyed by water.

One is reasonably tempted to consider this silver coffin less precious than the solid gold inner coffin of Tutankhamun, but silver had to be imported into Egypt from other countries whereas gold veritably poured into Egyptian royal coffers from within the country so silver was actually more expensive to Egyptian royals than gold.

The solid gold mask is an object of fascination. It is smaller than you might imagine. One wonders how a mummified face can fit inside it, although it is clear how it is placed on the mummy front to back with gold metal tabs fitting through slots then bent. It appears to be rather light were it not gold. As if it is about the approximate thickness of three or four sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil hammered together to give you an idea of it. Not at all like the burial mask of Tutankhamun which is inlayed throughout with polished pieces of precious and semi-precious stones.

Psusennes gold burial mask, on temporary display Denver Art Museum

Tutankhamun's burial mask permanent display Cairo Museum

Tutankhamun's solid gold inner coffin

Tutankhamun's middle coffin

Tutankhamun's outer coffin

Gardiner's G-1 and G4

2010-11-18T10:45:00.000-08:00

The A-3 is trying to convey the sound made in English denoted by the letter A. The 3 is representing an "ah" sound. When one sees the Egyptian vulture, often painted in greater detail than this typeset, and sometimes abbreviated in text to a few curved lines, one reads the sound "aye" or something close. Nobody really knows for sure, but it's a very good guess and it works with a good many linguistic cross references.

So there you have it. You can see how it is that when this typeset is shrunk, say, by half, the differences between them are obliterated. Do you even notice the differences? The long-legged buzzard has a more rounded head and breast and a tail feathers more squared. This is more evident in larger paintings with more detail.

shark

2010-11-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

Animated GIF. Yahoo's picture of the day.

Mary Ellen's plates

2010-11-09T16:34:00.000-08:00

first snow 2010

2010-11-09T15:37:00.000-08:00

Big honk'n happy snowflakes. It rained a little, snowed for awhile. It didn't last long, but the city is ensconced within a deep vast cloud that does eerily reflect the city light even in early afternoon. I don't know why that cheers me, but it does.

Denver Nov. 9, 2010.

dinner rolls