Posted some photos of the old Deckel pantographic engraver that I recently brought into my shop. It needs some work, but will eventually, hopefully, be used to cut matrices or punches for the creation of new designs in metal printing type.
Month: February 2005
Wood Engraving #2
This is actual size. I find that I really like the small working scale and the focus. The hands tend to cramp, though. I think this one shows a bit more control than the first attempt. Better tonal variation. Squishy letterforms. But overall worth trying again.
Wood Engraving
This was my first attempt at wood engraving, done sometime last year. It is not a good drawing. It was a technical exercise, the results of which were promising enough to permit me further study in the medium. In retrospect, I wish the modeling—the rendering of light and dark—was much more extreme. This image is very flat. Still, it has some qualities I like.
I have executed a few more wood engravings since this trout: they will be posted ‘in the fullness of time’, as my boss would say, apparently quoting Paul Rand.
Trichrome
Trichrome is a simple interactive diversion that I made back in 1996, when using HTML frames was still really cool (I thought). While neither a game nor a tool, Trichrome could be useful to a few, entertaining to others, and numbingly dull to the rest. This is an excercise in basic HTML. It requires only a frames-capable browser and a delight in color. There are at least 17,550 possible variations. Instructions should not be necessary.
Special Note, 02/10/05—Color frames are adjustable! Click and drag the frame border between colors in order to change the amount (relative surface area) of color. Thanks to Douglas Campbell for indicating to me that this is a cool feature that is not at all obvious.
Start Trichrome
Quonset lust
I just discovered this most interesting industrial compound. These buildings comprise Landisville Railroad, Inc. (LRI), a recently defunct railroad car building and repair shop just west of Landisville, Pennsylvania. LRI is represents the end of a short spur of track that branches off the Amtrak mainline at Salunga/Landisville.
I have always liked metal quonset huts for their rugged, no-nonsense construction and sheer visual appeal. The unpaved lot on which these are situated just intensifies the feeling. Notice the traditional 6-pane windows placed as different angles—chords of the circular surface they breach. Also interesting is the scalloped metal awning over the nearest window and over the window of the building in the center background. Sweet. There are several quonsets on this compound, which I am afraid will soon be lost to progress. If I could paint…
I will try to post more shots of this location when time permits.
Trains and Grain
If trains are big, then feed mills are huge. I love the scale of this mill in Denver, PA, photographed January 2005. This is probably quite small by Midwest standards. Notice the spiffy new-ish Archer Daniels Midland covered hopper (ADMX 7240) on the rail siding: a bit clean for my taste, but some rust-staining is evident.
Something about trains
Welcome to the next manifestation of my continued interest in things industrial, uh, that is, my lastest obsession. Trains. The grimier the better. This photo shows a GE EMD SD38-2 at the head of a coal train just outside of Newmanstown, PA. The photo was taken in 2005 but this engine was built in the early seventies. Isn’t it beautiful?!
The Private Press of Ian Schaefer
The scene is always changing in this shop. This is how it looked in February, 2005—a little cramped. On the right, in the background, is the recently acquired, pre-war Deckel pantographic engraver , which I am hoping to bring back to life. Someday it will be used to engrave brass matrices—or punches which in turn will be driven to form matrices—for casting new metal printing types of my own design. Casting type will eventually be accomplished with Monotype equipment like the composition machine that arrived here last spring.
A view of the shop, February, 2005.
Works in progress, a.k.a. piles of type.