hippo embroidery bag

i need to cheer myself up after the mini disaster of the printing press (still in the making)... what way better than making a bag! esp a hippo embroidery bag!

DIY printing press part 2 - reflect, redesign, renew, redo

work continued on the press this arvo...
everything back onto the verandah...

this time i got the nuts and bolts from the hidden corner of our garage - mcduck's hidden treasure trove

i'm makeing the platen plate today and the bungee rope mechanism...

the double plate - melamine & timber plate combo should make the platen stiffer...

the finished press looked the part, but the real test was how it would go pulling a print...

since i haven't bought a bottle press, i tried with my scissors car jack first...


here is a print done with an etching press...

here is one done with the bottle jack press...

loads of difference!
the pressure was not enough... and it was a collagraph! not even a zinc plate...
:~~~(
abit sad really... esp i have sore muscles and have spent 2 arvos making it...
lucky i didn't jump onto ebay to buy a 20 ton jack! so lucky!

even sadder when i saw the damage to the press after pulling the first print! massive crack above as it de-bolted! and the horizontal hairline crack of the timber beam below...

reflection:
1) timber pieces are too weak - too dry for starters and they are pine, not hard wood
2) bolts are 1/4 inch (could not fit larger ones in the slotts of the slotted steel angles)
3) using too much pressure? (already? but i was using only a scissors jack and it was only rated to 850kg, not even one ton)
4) may work better with a linoprint or woodprint - ink is thinner and rolled on, not like the oil ink used on etched plates, so thick!

so there is still hope yet - first i'll have to change the timber beams and get myself some easy carve lino tiles and a tool set...

DIY printing press part 1 - bottle jack press from mossworks

for the last few weeks i have been researching for a printing press... i really want one for printing my collagraphs and etchings... and possibly our invitations...
the prices for a printing press though are jaw droppingly expensive... i cannot really justifying spending $2000+ for a proper press (mind you they go up to tens of thousands of $$)...
i also surfed numerous sites and forums for benchtop / hobby / baby presses... the user responses are not too great - and they are nto cheap either... the cheapest one so far would set me off $400-500 ("might as well get our invitations printed by a shop", mcduck said... he's got a point there)
may be i can DIY one...
then i came across http://www.mossworks.com/techniques.html
the "bottle jack press" pdf looked "do-able"
after much procrastination and time wasting internet surfing, i went to buns buns and got the parts today!
i spent the arvo half of today on the project... only stopped when the sun went down... here was what happened...
first i printed and studied the steps and plans...


"how am i going to adapt this plan to the materials i already have?"





i listed out all the stuff i had and the stuff i needed to buy from buns...

stuff required - timber pieces (got at home, recycling bed slats), slotted steel angles x4 (gotta buy), melamine pieces (got at home, recycling kitchen cupboard scraps), nuts/bolts/washers (gotta buy, got 1/4 inch ones), angle brackets (gotta buy), elastic rope (gotta buy), hooks (gotta buy), eyelets (got some from roman blind making), hydraulic bottle jack (i want a 20 ton, why? on that later... gotta buy too)

the only thing i haven't got today was the bottle jack... the plan suggested a 6 ton jack... but forums i have been to suggested up to 20 tons for printing of etching plates to be possible... so better bigger than smaller... bottle jacks are not cheap though... the "larger" it is, the more $$... the cheapest 20 -ton one i researched came to over $100... so my plan is to finish the frame and get the jack later...

first was measuring out the dimensions, ready for cutting...

after much hard work the timber pieces were cut to size (cut manually bu heck saw and reg saw! sweat and hard labour involved)

more measuring b4 putting on nuts and bolts...

i figured that drilling 3 pieces of timber secured together by rubber bands to be the easiest... i did start of with drilling each piece of timber, then put the bolts in - didn't really line up (v easy to be out by a mm)...

major bit of the frame done! (after numerous hours have passed)



time to do the bed plate... securing angle brackets to the "timber feet" & melamine bed...







done! looks easy but was bloody hard to do...



by the time i finished... it is well into darkness outdoors... so i had to pack up in the dark...
but v happy with the results so far...

Thank you charles for putting up the bottle jack press plans! otherwise i won't be able to have my own press for under $200!

DIY roman blinds to shield us from the wintery draft

our hanging out area in the house has been unbearably cold of late... the fridge themometer hovers around the 13-15 degree mark... just thinking about it sends shivers down my spine...
in order to keep warm, we have been turning on the gas heater constantly... but the heat has been escaping into the corridor... until now...

we have now got our custom made cafe LF roman blind to close off the area... now we can keep warm and feel cosy!
the whole project started as i got my bargain material from AS-IS Ikea... $1 per sofa cover (and i ended up with 10 of those)... some of them have been reincarnated into seat covers...
"so what to do with the rest?"
"ah-ha! roman blinds!"
after much searching on the internet, i found this excellent video!
http://www.viddler.com/explore/Blinds/videos/1/
after one viewing, i thought, " i could do that!"

i first sewed a "blanket" large enough to cover the arched doorway out of the bits of material recovered from dismantling the AS-IS chair covers... had to use the 2 tones due to lack of material... but good that it ended up as "L" - for cafe LF!

the bits and pieces i got from "material world" and "bunbuns" - pine dow rods x 10)rectangular pine rods (one large one small), plastic loops x30, eyelets (3 needed, bought 1 packet), thin string 10m, backing material (bought at reverse garbage), velcro...
first the backing was sewn to the "blanket"...
for every 20cm, i have folded the "blanket" (5cm in length) and have sewn a space to secure the dow rod...


measured...
pinned...

and abit of sewing...
the larger pine rod was to be encased material with velcro sewed onto its length...
the other pine rod was secured into the bottom of the "blanket" to weigh the "blanket" down...
inserting 6mm pine dow rods here...
loops were sewn to the backing material... 3 spaced along each pine dow rod casing...
took me a whole week to get here!


now the three eyelets screwed on the rod...
threading through the loops - there would to be three columns of loops... each column would have its own string... first a knot was tied at the bottom loop of each column where the string would start... string would be threaded through up the "blanket" through all the loops in the column until it arrived at the eyelet on the pine rod up the top... then the string would travel horizontally, passing through the other eyelets until it reached the side of the blinds where we would open the close the blind...

from the backside of the blind...

lovely!
lets draw the curtains...
more
more...

and get warm... L for cafeLF!