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Photographing wool with a light box.

7/6/2013

4 Comments

 
I am in a foul mood this morning.  Not much sleep because the heat permeated clean through to my bones and there wasn't an ounce of comfort in any toss or turn or shift from the warm side of the bed to the untouched cool.  Nothing helped...maybe a boulder over the head would have afforded some relief, at least I would have been oblivious to the humid assault.  I had the air conditioner going in the bedroom, one of those four figure portable ones not worth the powder to blow it up.  It might cool a room 6' x 6' but after that good luck.  New fangled crap!  Rule to self...buy nothing new, energy saving means less guts....stick to old, tried and true!   So I'll be placing a call to order a heat pump for our house today, it works like magic in the shop, then all I'll have to do is worry about those few minutes of getting to the car in between work and home. If this is a sample of the weather of the future, I need to address it now or move farther north. No sleep makes me a crotchety ole thing, can ya tell?  My poor pups....wetting them down all evening, listening to them pant....not music to my ears!   Weather goes from the sublime to the ridiculous so quickly there's little time to adapt. 

And my apologies for all those who tried to get on my website last evening or through the night. The other reason I couldn't sleep.  I was worried sick it got sucked into a black hole of the internet.  Earlier last evening I signed on to copy a link for the blog I was writing and the site wouldn't load.  Nothing but a white page, no dear John letter or explanation as to why!  I checked every hour until 5:30 this morning to find much the same and then finally fell asleep.  So after an emergency email last evening to my web person she woke to a big HELP! this morning and the maintenance people did whatever to get it back online.   No one said this but I think they did the maintenance and then forgot to put load it back up.  My site didn't need an 8 hour plus operation, nothing should take that long and besides, Friday evening for maintenance? One of the busiest nights of the week?  Not a happy camper today.  Someone please come in today and give me a hug!  Where's that sweet Armenia when you need her?   If anyone wants to come by and hook its icy cool in the shop!  Help me stay awake! 
PictureLight box construction.
This is my son Shane.  So far he's mostly a name associated with dyeing our wool  but his position in our company is the sum of many parts  and  he will be working his way to front and center as his knowledge grows about all the aspects of the business.   We might be a little Mom & Pop shop but there are many aspects to running it that keeps us busy.  As I hand over more responsibility  I think we will compliment one another very nicely, working well together and still playing to our individual strengths.  

Shane is computer savvy,  does a mint job on our patterns, and is pretty much  solely responsible for producing our latest dye book,
Dye Me To The Moon.  He's now in training to handle sales and his sponge like intelligence is absorbing the business through watching and listening to me chat with customers.   He's handsome and handy, a combo that makes a mother proud and someday he'll be holding the reigns, freeing mom  to concentrate on the marketing, custom jobs and full time designing.  

He mentioned the other day he might like to hook his family crest and I almost fainted.  He thinks it would be beneficial to have that experience under his belt and I agree.  Maybe this winter when things slow down we can get him set up and pulling a few loops.   His ancestors are Scottish and I think tartans and crests would make for fabulous hooked rugs.   Manipulating wool to create a tartan pattern is a challenge I've wanted to try for some time so maybe we can work together to combine his crest with a tartan background.  Once a small section of the tartan is planned it would be an easy repeat and go quickly.  I can see it in my mind and I know it would be stunning.  I think it would be a wonderful first project and an heirloom to pass down someday.

Any job he takes on is done to the best of his ability and if perfection existed he would be a constant visitor. He refuses to rush a job, cut corners or compromise on quality so we're a perfect set of bookends.   He's been playing around with the camera taking pictures for the website and at times, has been frustrated by the colour quality.   So many factors effect photographs and our need to portray the best colour possible on our website was a quest that led him to the internet for answers.  He discovered something called a light box, downloaded the instructions and built this from various materials.   We have a half decent camera but neither one of use knew anything more than point and shoot, so after studying the manual and asking Google questions he's managed to come up with almost bang on likenesses of our dyed wool for the website.    

I thought I would start posting a few pictures of Shane so there won't be any shock to see him behind the various counters in the shop.   He and I are running the place together  and I'm having a lot of fun watching his confidence grow with more knowledge of the business.  In time he's going to be a jack of all trades and master of them all.   He's a big guy at 6' 3", he's charming and personable so expect to see him in an apron stirring a pot or at the drawing table working on a pattern.   

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All sides are clothed in a white cotton with a lamp on top with a special white light bulb.
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The camera poised just outside the box for the perfect picture.
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I think the yellow needs to be toned down to a antique gold to better fit with the tartan background.
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A beautiful rich tartan, the perfect backdrop for the crest design.
4 Comments
Adena
7/6/2013 03:51:38 am

Way to go, Shane! Christine, I also have one of those air conditioners and I agree with you, they're not for larger spaces despite their claims.

Reply
Margaret
7/9/2013 11:56:05 pm

H Christine: I have three big strong handsome sons who are worth their weight in gold so I know where you are coming from! Read your blog about the bird flying into the window...we put a decal of a hawk on our window and it did nothing to prevent the crashes!
On Sunday we drove 2 1/2 hours so I could take photos of Puffins. Beautiful little birds, very tame and extremely photogenic. Cost me $50.oo to get photos done yesterday! Well worth it.

Reply
Christine
7/10/2013 10:25:38 am

I've never seen a real Puffin. Someday!

Reply
light box link
6/22/2022 08:51:27 am

Fabulous..such precise carrier.” Thank you… I even have by no means had such precise carrier.

Reply



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    Max Anderson, Australia, recipient of my Nova Scotia Treasures rug.  An award of excellence for promoting Canada through his writing.  
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