The Front Fell Off

I don't mean to poke fun at something that should be taken serious, but here is a video of a Senator Collins, a member of the Australian Parliament reassuring the citizens that everything is under control. I can't help but think of Monty Python when watching this...

A photographer can dream

Just a quick post. Someone sent me an email with this photo and my mouth dropped and began to excrete a lot of drool at the same time. I quote Alex from A CLoCKWorK OrANGE, "Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh. It was like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now."

Unfortunately, this is just a concept and is not being sold...but a photographer can dream. It's almost the weekend and I need to get ready for the Open House this Saturday. Well me fellow frontier photographers, I wish you well and I shall see you all...well, you shall see me on Sunday.

Peace,

Serg

Post-Edits

Leaving some room for post-edits of various links I will probably put up.

Pyrography - an interesting form of art

I would like to share a guest written blog by, Meagen. She has a blog at: http://artistmeg.blogspot.com/

The best way to begin talking about what exactly pyrography is would be to define it. According to dictionary.com pyrography is the process of burning designs on wood, leather, etc., with a heated tool. Its more common name is simply wood burning, but I think pyrography sounds flashier, which is probably why the word was invented in the first place. I first learned about pyrography when I kid and it had always been a “forbidden” creative outlet since my parents really didn’t want me burning myself on the tool! Now that I’m older (but certainly not more mature) I decided to take up this art form as a new hobby and in the process I learned a bit about the history of it as well.

Pyrography itself has been around for a while. In Lima, Peru’s Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History, there is a cup from the Nazca culture that dates back to pre-700 AD. While this is the earliest piece found, there has been some speculation that cave men would use their own form of pyrography on cave walls. Unfortunately charcoal does not withstand the weather and passing of time overly well so this has remained only a speculation without tangible proof. Pyrography does not show up again in recorded history until about 1910 where the art was referred to as “pokerwork” or “fire etching” and often was used to decorate picture frames, spines of books or pieces of furniture. From my understanding of it the name “pokerwork” was used for pyrography as people would the poker from their fireplace to etch designs on different objects.

So now that you have a brief history and definition of pyrography I bet you’re keen on learning more about how it’s done and where to get all the supplies. I think the best way to do this is a quick “how to” guide.

The two main things you need in order to do pyrography are wood and the heated tool. Now the wood is easy enough to come by you can either go chop up your own tree, or if you’re a city slicker (like myself) you can go to your nearest craft store and purchase it. The wood itself comes in any shape and size you can think of so you should have plenty to choose from. For the purposes of this project I’m choosing to burn the lid of a wooden box.

(side view of box)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/kahlanamnell_rox/Pyrography/BoxProject012.jpg
(top view of box)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/kahlanamnell_rox/Pyrography/BoxProject011.jpg

Now comes the more complicated decision, which type of tool to purchase. There are in fact two types of tools to choose from, and there are pros and cons for both.
Tool A
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/kahlanamnell_rox/Pyrography/BoxProject008.jpg

Tool B
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/kahlanamnell_rox/Pyrography/BoxProject010.jpg

Tool A you as you can see is a far more simple design and as such is far cheaper than Tool B. You can usually find Tool A for around $30 including 4 or more interchangeable tips whereas Tool B I recently purchased for $150 and only includes one tip. As for purchasing these tools I suggest going to your local craft store or purchase them online. If you do purchase the cheaper tool, be aware there is no temperature gauge so it heats up to its maximum temperature (which varies by device) and stays there, and it also takes longer for the tip to heat up. Tool A takes approximately 1 minute to heat whereas Tool B heats in about 8 seconds. Each tool burns a little different as well. The piece in the how to guide is an example of how Tool B, and below is a couple examples of how Tool A burns.
Whichever tool you choose just remember to stay within your means.

i. (the “gone fishing” piece) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/kahlanamnell_rox/Pyrography/DSCN0696.jpg
ii. (Lo Shu Turtle Box) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/kahlanamnell_rox/Pyrography/momanddadcheckinoutthezoo062.jpg
iii. (Celtic cross and doves) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/kahlanamnell_rox/Pyrography/momanddadcheckinoutthezoo075.jpg
As you can see in these examples Tool A usually causes your piece to come out dark which can be good depending on the design you are creating.

So now you have your new toy, your piece of wood and the design or image you plan on burning into the wood. The design can be as simple or as complicated as you want. If it is your first time playing around with pyrography I suggest purchasing a couple cheap scrap pieces to practice on before you begin your actual piece, just so you can get the feel and limitations of the process itself.

I find the process of creating a piece of artwork from wood to be an all encompassing Zen like experience. In a stressful world where we are always running around and moving too fast, taking the time to sit and only think about the task at hand is a rewarding and rejuvenating experience in itself. Hopefully this article helped shed a little light on the subject of pyrography and maybe it even convinced you to give it a try, who knows you may even like it.
~Meg

“Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses - especially learn how to see. Realise that everything connects to everything else. “
-Leonardo DaVinci

For more tips and advice from Meagen on Pyrography, visit her blog at http://artistmeg.blogspot.com/, or shoot her an email at artistmeg@yahoo.ca

I am a bit of a gamer. I especially love the Fallout series, because the whole post apocalyptic scenario fascinates me. I stumbled upon these set of stock video game photos with some funny captions. If you need a quick laugh, take a look: http://www.gamespy.com/articles/106/1066150p1.html

Enjoy your weekend folks,

Serg

From SpaceAvalanche.com

It's Called Mindset

Interesting Experiment with Willpower

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122781981

For those resolutionites who stopped, maybe understanding why you stopped can help you start back up again.

Frontier Photographer - II

Date: 5/24/00

I picked up an interesting book at the annual book fair today: "The Prophet," by Kahlil Gibran. Back in college, poetry classes and I didn't get along... I remember the professor pulling me aside, "I should have failed you" she told me. I guess I was able to charm my way through. I miss those days. But back to the book...

"Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.

But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge.

Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, "I have found a truth.'

Say not, 'I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the

soul walking upon my path."

For the soul walks upon all paths."

I grabbed my old OM-1 and took a walk with it last night; had to get out of the house and figured I could snap some photos with old film I had laying around. When I was in the darkroom today, I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched. I gotta get that out of my head...I swear my mind plays these stupid tricks on me....strange though, the last photo came out different. Must be a light leak or something.

Photos taken last night:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If that's a light leak why did the other photos come out fine? I need to investigate this further...

Frontier Photographer - I

Date: Unknown (Date has been scratched off)

I sometimes looked back at my old scribbles...ideas, is what I used to call

them back then, but things changed. Damn it, I feel like I'm forcing myself to type sometimes...i don't

want to and, i don't know

what to, merge with one another and really make it

hard for me to

put my thoughts on paper.

...i had the dream again...

dream? fucking nightmare more like it, its been reoccurring for so

long I can't help but start

believing its a memory...

its strange...sometimes i dream in photographs, but lately the same image has been popping into my head every night. where am i? what's causing that light? and who is that person?

Respectfully yours,

The Frontier Photographer

Political Thursday - Freedom Tray

I don't have time to really go on a huge political rant...so I thought I would share with you guys something simple...something truly American...THE FREEDOM TRAY.

http://freedomtray.com/

Is this the new definition of freedom? The freedom to carry 3 Large cokes, fries and nachos without the worry of it spilling over? I can't believe this will be the last thing on my mind before I go to bed...

Weekends almost here folks...hope you are ready for it.

Serg

We now return you to our regularly scheduled blog.

So I thought I should share this little delight Katrina sent me.

Caution, hilarity may ensue.

Sex, drugs and deadpans

Its like they took the Golden Girls and combined them with Sex in the City. And even that's not enough to describe.

Video may contain some adult language.

Back to the studio,
Serg

Origins: Knock on Wood

"Knock on wood."

Funny how a phrase is thought to hold so much power, not only over us, but over fate itself. As if uttering these three simple words can keep the worst from happening. I know I fall into the magic of KoW when I am trying to catch a flight or get somewhere on time. Or during my college days, after a really hard final. One wonders how would have history played out if only these words were said.

Would the the lovable Trix Rabbit been able to get his hands on the cereal if he had used the power of KoW ? Instead, after many, many failures had had to resort to a more drastic approach. In 2001 August 24th, Trix finally snapped when Toucan Sam called him, "silly." Unveiling a hidden butchers knife he grabbed the bird, threw him in the car and took him to an abandoned cereal factory. He held the parrot hostage for 93 hours before he finally surrendered. He pleaded not guilty due to insanity, but the court found him guilty of attempted bird-slaughter, which put him in jail for 5 years. He got out in 2 and half years for good behavior and now has a position with a magician in Mexico. To this day he has yet to receive his beloved cereal; to this day no one ever heard him say, "knock on wood." Coincidence?

But this isn't about Trix. This goes beyond that. Where did this phrase originate? Through some extensive research I found that 84% of people in the United States use the power of KoW.* With that many people using the phrase, how can one not but help think, "Where did this come from?"

Taken from Wikipedia
It is commonly thought that knocking on wood has been a superstitious action to ward off evil throughout history involving Pagan belief systems.^[1] The same reference claims that knocking on wood is also used in some form of Christianity, but in a different context, where the wood represents the cross. In an alternate explanation, the wood represents the rosary. ^[2]

Another explanation for this practice is the pagan belief that spirits (dryads) lived in trees.^[3]By knocking on the wood of a tree while making some sort of a bold statement, the speaker could prevent the spirit from hearing him and stop the spirit from interfering^{[citation needed]} or out of respect for the wood spirit, touching a tree indicated seeking protection from the particular spirit.^[1]

However historian Steve Roud^[4] finds no evidence in the British Isles for the earlier theories, suggesting that the superstitions have not been traced beyond children's games of tag of the early nineteenth century. According to Roud, the earliest documented references to "touching wood" are from 1805 and 1828 and concern chasing games like "Tiggy-touch-wood", where you are safe from being "tagged" if you "touch wood", says Roud, "'Tiggy-touch-wood" was an extremely well-known game, and it is more than likely that the phrase was passed into everyday language.

Well folks, its a sunny day outside and I am off to play some Tiggy-touch-wood with the pup.

Stay Kosher,
Serg

*Percentage supplied by WRBS.** Critics argue that the WRBS does not gather its statistics properly. In fact most say that they simply pick a number out of a hat.

**White Russian Bullshit Society