crowjonah » Crafts

Sweet Pea’s

crowjonah — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:34:12 +0000

All this while I've been living a full life, even if that hasn't been totally apparent on this website/blog/whateveritisthatIdohere. I am in a bit of limbo between the end of dorm-livin' (for good!) and the beginning of my very own (shared!) lease, and have been spending the between-time helping my grandma open her seasonal ice cream shop in Ogunquit, Maine.

Whenever I haven't been building muscles with a hi-tech ice cream scooper in hand or carefully crafting chalked menus, I've been up to no-good with some of my fellow hooligans who were in need of a temporary flop house, which my grandma was willing to provide.

I've got Caiti who will not hear the end of my nagging her to post her Flash Fiction Friday piece as we'll be housemates all summer, Monica who has already appeared on this website in a state of laughter and will be another colocataire, and Nate who is fresh from Oman and about to venture into the unknown of Washington DC for the summer. There'll be more shots of our tom-foolery and other shenanigans up North, so check back soon.

Spring in a Bubble

crowjonah — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:10:48 +0000

A couple weekends ago a bizarre bunch of bands came to my school to sing their little ditties, put on a flashy show, and entertain the blossoming students. Sun does wonders. There was Nas, Santigold, Deer Tick, of Montreal, and so on, but my friends remained the subject in my lens! I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'm actually pretty sure that J Whoa took that one on the bottom left. On the subject of camera mods, check out Robin's jar photos. Actually, join the flickr group, grab a jar, snap some yourself, and share! As soon as I saw hers I reached for the jar on my desk and tried a few. Mine had milk residue and Oreo debris (which has since been cleaned and similarly re-dirtied,) so I'll have to give it another shot soon.

Makeshift Fisheye

crowjonah — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:36:30 +0000

I am a huge fan of tape-n-glue, diy modifications for high tech equipment. Whether it's TTV (Through The Viewfinder, shooting photos through the magically dynamic top of an old medium format camera,) hacked up pinhole lenses for a DSLR, or in my present case, bootleg lens converters, they all freshen up and add a beautiful layer of imperfection into something that is otherwise trying to have as high image quality and cutting edge market value as possible.

Once upon a time Josiah bought a clip-on fisheye lens that fit on his video camera in order to boost the legitimacy of our attempts to film skate videos. The extent of our success in that effort amounted to a few clips that were on this very website years and years ago. Anyway, he lost the video camera and so I felt okay about stealing (borrowing?) the lens from him to try taping it onto things to see what happened.

The retractable lens on my point-n-shoot camera happens to have nearly the exact same circumference as a film canister, so I made a little light-proof extension so the camera could focus properly, and took some silly ultra wide angle photos! I have a few more to show you another day. Maybe I'll take some photos of my contraption, too. It's pretty high-tech.

Supperware

crowjonah — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:54:55 +0000

A wonderful friend treated me to one of those paint-your-own-pottery joints and here's what I came up with:

Said friend decorated what we affectionately referred to as a Winnie The Pooh honey pot, but was frigidly rung up as a message mug. It was also a delightful experience in that we got to enjoy overhearing the store's owner's phone conversation with the ceramic company in which she stubbornly insisted (for what must have been an hour) that her operation qualified for free shipping. All sarcasm aside, though, it was quite lovely.

The First T-Shirt

crowjonah — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:22:23 +0000

As was mentioned in the prior post, last Christmas was similarly crafty in the gift giving department as my uncle (/brother /bestfriend) and I conceitedly thought that our family members would enjoy sporting crude stencils of our faces on their chests (and, due to some mishaps involving poor screen placement, their bellies.) After a feverish Eve in the basement with a squeegee and an iron we cranked out an edition of about 5 (as compared to this year's 16.) Here is a dashing family member modeling last year's style.

As a way to use up remnant ink on the screen we made a super hood status, black on black, all over print shirt that has somehow managed to evade my wardrobe. I'll have you know my silkscreen skills have since improved, but are admittedly still somewhat provisional.

Lone Star Christmas

crowjonah — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 05:01:05 +0000

For the second year in a row my family's Christmas gifts for a larger family gathering - this time in the great state of Texas - were as homemade and frugal as can be with a second design in the holiday t-shirt series (albeit for the other side of the family this time.)

There're a buncha things going on, for example: each of the four wisemen - nowhere in the Bible does it say there were three - represent a state of origin for each of the fragments of family that were congregated.

This round of silkscreening brought the revelation that when making a stencil, photo paper works quite excellently, and that canvas does not absorb ink and makes for a messy scene.