Busy Week!

It’s been a busy week in the Studio.  I’ve had many prototype ideas going through my head for ages, and I finally had some time to experiment.  It’s always a bit tough for me to try out prototypes as I hate to waste the materials if it isn’t going to work out, and if they aren’t perfect, what to do with it?

First up was a production run of toy cameras.  Made from Walnut for the body, and maple for the lens, these were a copy of a prototype I made (and gave away to my daughter).  I love the simplicity of these, just the basics of a real camera, viewfinder-lens-shutter button.  They are finished with a light coat of mineral oil, and are for sale in my Etsy Store, as well as in Patisserie La Toque in Wakefield, Quebec.

Next up, a mid-century modern inspired chair.  Made from Baltic Birch plywood with padauk wedges in the through tenons.  I curved the back using bent lamination and the seat is covered with an upholstery grade corduroy.  I’d like to make these adult size, but for the prototype I decided to build it for a child so as to not use as much materials.  It’s now my daughters favourite chair!  After seeing me taking pictures of it, she yelled at me, “You’re not going to sell my chair are you???!!!”.  She’s hard to please, but I clearly won her over on this one.  These chairs will be custom order only as I don’t have the space to store finished chairs, and this will allow people to choose their upholstery colours.

Last up was a pyramid shaped macaron tower.  Requested by Patisserie La Toque, how hard could a pyramid be to make?  Turns out this was the hardest project of the week.  Lots of angles made this very tricky, but with some glue, and a ton of brad nails and filler, it got completed on time and made the customer very happy.  Might think twice before making another pyramid though…

Next week I’ve got some canoe paddles on the go as well as a few more prototypes to try out, stay tuned!

Photo Friday

Last Sunday was Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day.  In the past I’ve made a camera for the occasion but due to time constraints and laziness I opted for a pinhole body cap on my digital camera.  I love how the light flares in the picture, and it also shows how dirty my sensor is!

More info on World Pinhole day and photos from around the world HERE  Click on Gallery at the top of the page for photos.

52 Create – Pinhole Camera

52 Create, my weekly creative outlet for 2011…  As this past weekend was World Pinhole Photography Day, I decided to make a little pinhole camera just for the occasion.  Last year I made the Pin-Cube, but this year I decided I’d like to test out some of my new Ilford Direct Positive Paper, so I went with the “Granny Cam”.  Far simpler than last year, I simply took a tin of sweets, drilled a big hole in it, then took a throw-away pie plate and cut a square out of it, drilled a pinhole in it, and taped it to the can.  The photographic paper is taped to the inside curve of the can, giving a curved focal plane, and hopefully some interesting distortions.  The camera was f231, with a pinhole of .016 (drilled with a micro drill).  I also spray painted the inside of the tin with flat black paint to minimize reflections.

So why the Granny Cam?  Well the sweets were a type my Granny always had around the house when I was a kid.  My brother brought this particular tin back for me on one of his vacations, so proud he had found “Granny’s candy”, I didn’t have the heart to tell him I never thought much of the candy myself…

No pictures yet as I’ve been busy with commissions, but one will be used for this week’s photo of the week.

52 Create – Packaging

52 Create, my weekly creative outburst for 2011.  Hot on the heels of my first Etsy sale, I realized that I couldn’t simply wrap the camera in newspapers and send it away, I needed to give it some class.  While I realize this week’s craft isn’t exactly epic, I do feel there is some importance to the first impression when the buyer opens the box, and as well you can never work hard enough to establish some great branding.

 

The box is made out of card stock, stapled together to form two boxes that fit inside each other.  The red tissue paper was left over and my wife designed the logo (which was printed by inkjet onto the paper before I folded it).  As you can see above, I gave in to the customer’s request and burnt “M9” onto the camera.

 

My other 52 Create projects.

 

My Etsy Shop

 

 

Etsy – First Sale!

Well, after a long day of home renos, I opened up my email to find that I had made my first Etsy sale.  The wooden Leica toy camera that I made for 52 Create is heading to a buyer in New York!  I even accomodated their request to add “M9” on the camera.  I was a bit torn as it’s supposed to be modelled after a film Leica, and the M9 actually has a slightly different shape, but the customer is always right!

I’ve put two of the toy wooden cell phones up for sale as well as a Parisian Market picture (holga).  I’ll be getting the helicopters up in the next week or so, still waiting to find some time to do the last coat of finish on them.

My Etsy Shop.

Photo of the Week

I have this habit of selling old cameras and then regretting it.  Usually I finish the roll off, sell the camera, then get the prints back and realize it was a great camera and I had lots of great shots from it.  Then comes the regret….  What does this have to do with this week’s photo? Well it’s taken with my Yashica 124G, and it’s the second straight roll I’ve scanned and realized I wasn’t excited about any of the pictures.  I mean there are a few good ones, but nowhere near as many keepers as from my other cameras.  Of course it’s not the cameras fault, it works flawlessly, it just doesn’t work with my style I guess.

 

Anyways, that was a long intro… Photo taken in Paris on Fuji Reala with my soon to be former Yashica 124G TLR.

52 Create – Helicopters

Toys toys and more toys…. This week, a fleet of helicopters.  Is it a fleet or a flock? Perhaps a squadron, who knows….  52 Create is my year long project of creating something myself each week for the entire year.  The majority of the items are out of wood, however last week we branched out into film.  Check out the projects so far.

As I said above, this week I made 3 toy helicopters.  Once you make one, you might as well make a few, and I’m hoping this one will be a big seller on my Etsy shop.  The helicopter is made of Douglas Fir (dark wood) and the rest is maple dowels except for the baltic birch plywood rotor.  They haven’t been finished yet as the weather is too cold but they will be getting a coat of polyurethane to help keep them in pristine shape.

 

I’ve also at long last put the two toy rangefinder cameras up for sale on my Etsy Shop.  I finished them in shellac which is a food safe finish that is even used on some candies (sweets), so it’s a very safe finish for kids who may be keen to take a bite out of them…

Photo of the Week

You know you don’t use a digital camera very much when it takes you half an hour to figure out where you last put it… And then another 10 minutes to find the cable to download the pictures…  On that note, as soon as I get the AF issue fixed with my D300, it’s going up for sale.  Too much camera to be sitting in the closet (yes that’s where I eventually found it…).

 

Anyways, this week’s photo was taken on Christmas eve.  I took a long exposure of some Christmas lights while zooming the lens.  I took about 20 shots, and this one looked the best overall.  I got the technique a bit better on a few of the other shots, but as I didn’t bring a tripod along, some of the shots didn’t turn out so well.  Taken on my Nikon D300 with the 18-70 zoom lens (used the entire zoom).  Exposure time was in the 2-3 second range, supported on a fencepost.

Photo of the Week

While most of my photos have been from film cameras or the odd one from my D300, I do own a digital point and shoot and feel it’s a great camera for certain situations.  The other day I was making an espresso when I saw this shot and felt the need to take it.  It’s a simple still life and even though it’s taken with a cheap camera, I like the look of the shot due to the slightly different perspective.

52 Create – Toy Camera

Week two of 52 Create and I decided on a couple of toy cameras.  My daughter loves playing with our real camera, so why not make her a little wooden version?  I went for a rangefinder style (whom am I kidding, it’s supposed to be a Leica)  They are scaled down from a full sized camera as they’re meant for a 16 month old.

Both cameras are made from maple (and in Canada, making them an M 4-2 I guess…) and the lenses are from a dowel I had lying around the garage (not sure what type of wood).  The lines are done with a wood burning pen, the lens and dark part of the one camera are done using a propane torch.  There are no moving parts and I plan to finish them with shellac to make them kid safe (it’s -15 here right now so no finishing in the unheated garage for a while).

I’ll be putting the dark one up on Etsy, the lighter one would likely get me sued and my daughter seems to like it…