Tuesday, April 21, 2009

April 21 work in progress

Wow. I spent the ENTIRE day doing the image transfer for the CCA gun. :-0 I knew it would take a while, but geez! The first challenge was to get the two images aligned in the same spot on each side. And then I poked about a gazillion dots through the paper printout with the crazy sharp sewing needle. Worked well! I ended up with a VERY fine outline of dots, which is just what I wanted. I would not use that tool for doing actual scrim, it's such a fine point it would take way too long to accomplish anything with it!

Transferring the image is my least favorite part. It makes me nervous. Well, these ones did anyway. I have to remind myself to keep breathing. And take frequent breaks, stretch my hand, stretch my back, etc. Scrimshaw is not a job for the faint of heart of the shaky of hand!

I want to make sure ya'll understand how rounded these grips are, it's definitely not a flat surface I'm working on! (So that requires constant re-focusing of the scope whenever I move something). What kind of gun? Colt Single Action Army .45, aka Colt SAA.

For kicks, the current state of the scrim/engraving bench. Aaaaack! It's only clean if I'm not busy. I'm busy. :-)

Completed transfer of Wright Flyer and Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (these images will get much more obvious as I progress!) Oh! If at some point I said this was going to be the 1903 Wright Flyer (did I say that?) that is not correct. It is NOT the 1903, it's a later version.


19 days to finish CCA gun, and hopefully the zebra knife too, though I can push that one a few more days if I need to. Egads.

While watching the Brassies and Blue Brassies putter around the back yard today, I think I decided to keep them. I'm all over the place with this decision, but I have to think if it was really the right time to let them go I wouldn't be agonizing over it. Maybe next year. Maybe not. I just don't think I can let them go. I'm down to less than 40 birds now, I have 11 empty pens, maybe I need to just stick with this for a while and see how it feels. Blue Brassy Back hens are my absolute favorites, how can I not have them?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks like you have a bottle of water off to the side. May I ask what the mason jar of water is for? -BM

Katherine Plumer said...

To clean my paintbrush (inkbrush?) after I ink the scrim.