Field Project - The Year in Photos

Field 12-21-2014

Last year at Winter Solstice I had an idea for the blog.  I decided that once a week I would post a photo of the field that I walk by every day.  I thought I'd share photos of the crops growing.  The field has been in production every year since I have lived here.  I thought it might be of interest to record the changes in the field from the beginning of winter, through the planting and growing season, and the decline of the field back through autumn and winter.

Field at Winter Solstice 2013

Well, surprise me!  No sooner had I started taking my weekly pictures than the field went up for sale.  No one purchased the field until well beyond the time crops are normally planted.  The new owner put in a few personal plots and left the rest of the field fallow.  So instead of having pictures of rapidly rising corn or soybeans I ended up taking pictures of what happens to a field as it is left lying fallow.

Field at Vernal Equinox 2014

I suppose that watching what grows in a field when it is left to itself is also interesting, but my photo project was not going as expected.  What I saw growing in the field were various weeds most of which I cannot identify.  I could identify a couple: mullen and jimpson weed.  The mullen sends up long spikes.  The jimpson weed has white trumpet shaped flowers in the spring and prickly pods in autumn.  Mustard plants sprang up in fields even though they were not intentionally planted.  A number of people do grow mustard and other greens around here, and I expect that the seeds were spread by birds. In the spring, Morning Glory flowers were seen along the edges of the field along with dandelions and buttercups.  The new owner kept the edge of the field mowed, so they did not take off as well as they might have.

Field at Summer Solstice 2014

Overall, I guess I was surprised at how rarely it was raining on Sundays, which was the day of the week that I took the pictures.  Some days it sprinkled, but only on two occasions was it raining hard enough that I had to take an umbrella with me.  Many days it was overcast, but that did not necessarily lead to rain.  I think I only have one picture of the field with snow on the ground.  We had more snow, but generally it melted before the day I was taking the picture. 

Today's photo was taken at 9:00 am.  The temperature was 38 degrees Fahrenheit.  Winds were calm.

Field Autumn Equinox 2014

Although we have had freezing temperatures overnight on many nights, the temperature has always come back above freezing during the day.  We have had a few days when the temperatures have stayed in the upper thirties, but most days the temperature has been in the upper forties to lower fifties.  I guess that accounts for why we have so much greenery still in the field. 

At this point, I am still mulling over whether I want to continue to take photos of the field for another year.

Field Winter Solstice 2014

On one hand, I would still like to do a long term project of the crops growing.  On the other hand, I am not so sure what the new owner's intentions are with the field.  The owner may plant in the spring as usual.  However, if his intention is to hold the land fallow until it can be used for organic farming, it could be another couple of years before anything is growing there except weeds.  I suppose in a worst case scenario, he decides to put up houses there.  I guess I will mull this over for another week before I make a decision.

I might add that one of the other reasons that I started this year long photo shoot was to try to engage artificial intelligence.  Last year I was surprised to see some animated photos stored in my photo section that I had not created.  The first photo was a series of photos I had taken of a walking stick I was working on.  The photos were pictures of moon phases that I had carved on a walking stick.  The animated picture showed the stick turning and showing the moon changing from full to waning crescent to new to waxing as the stick turned.  At first I thought someone had hacked into my account, but as I read on I came to understand that an artificial intelligence program had recognized the pictures as a sequence and had animated the photos.  On one hand, it was kind of cool, but on the other hand it kind of creeped me out as it meant that some sort of Artificial Intelligence was going through the pictures and possibly the text from my blog.  (This was before the whole Edward Snowden thing so at the time it was not generally known just how invasive that the internet turned out to be.)

The second animated photo was from a single shot.  It showed bare trees.  Although the text indicated that the scene was photographed in autumn, the AI had added snow falling.  Again kind of cool, but showed that it was interpreting what was in the photo, at least to the point that it could determine time of year.

The third photo was an interpretation of two similar pictures of our Christmas tree.  Our tree has fiber optics that change colors.  The AI was able to determine that the pictures were of the same subject but that there were color differences in the fiber optics.  It posted a photo to my account showing the lights twinkling.

These photos got me to wondering whether the AI could was only looking at an  individual blog post or whether it could take a look at a series of blog poss and could make determinations that it was the same scene taken over the course of time.  If so, could I signal the AI that I wanted it to give me an animated photo of pictures taken over time.  So the answer to that question is that it has not done so.  I have checked back regularly throughout the year.  Now I am posting a series of pictures to see if it will do so with a series of pictures posted on one blog post.  I'll let you know if it happens. 

It could be that the animated pictures were done to introduce a newly available program.  Or it could be that after the whole Snowden thing that it was dropped because people were so upset to learn about what was going on with the internet data gathering.  Or possibly there is another AI program that has decided that I am only posting innocuous art work and doesn't feel the need to spend resources on monitoring it.  So who knows what is really going on here.  Either it will give me the photo I am asking it to give me or it won't.  Hard to say what is going to happen here.  

Goblin Halloween Diorama - Part 32 - Photos - Field Project

Goblins have been added to the diorama.

Somehow the field project photo was deleted, (most likely my bad), so I am reposting this with the field photo.

I completed adding the Goblins to the diorama.  For such small pieces, they took a large amount of time.  The Goblins are only about an inch tall.  There were not many places where I could get a good hold on them while trying to work on them.

In an earlier blog, I had mused over whether to paint the Goblins red or green, and whether they should have tails.  I have some books on antique Halloween items and they have pictures of Halloween cards with tiny Imps or perhaps they were Devils on them.  The Imps were red, and had tails and carried pitch forks.  I thought the idea was cute, but practical matters caused me to decide not to use them.   When an item is that small, the parts tend to be fragile.  At some point, the tail might break off.  Given the size of the figure, I would not be able to support it with the wire I used to make the armature because it would have caused the tail to be to look too thick for the body.  Without a wire support the tail would be so thin, that a slight bump or touch could knock it off.  I opted to not use tails on the figures for the long-term good of the diorama.

As to color choice, I decided on a grayish green with dabs of gray.  Rather than have the Goblins stand out brightly, I thought they served the story better by being a little less colorful.  Most of the Goblins are close to the ground and are close to the color of the base of the diorama.  The colorful roof and leaves on the trees draw the eye first, then as the eye wonders over the diorama  they are eventually noticed.  They are there, but not as the most obvious feature.  That fits in well with the last piece for the diorama.  (More about that next blog.)

Field 11-23-2014

In  Old-World folklore, Goblins are tiny creatures who were characterized as annoying, mischievous, evil, or greedy in various stories.  Goblin stories abound in practically every culture, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and even Moldavian Gypsy tales to name a few.  Other cultures also have words that meany tiny little creatures in their folk tales.  Goblins were referenced in writings as early as the twelfth century.   Many place names have the word Goblin or local words that mean Goblin in their names indicating that the tiny creatures were thought to reside there.  If you would like to read more about Old-World Goblin mythology, read the Goblin entry in Wikipedia. 

 It is Sunday, so it is time for another field project picture.  Today's photo was taken at 8:35 am.  The temperature was 35 degrees Fahrenheit.  Winds were from the South South East at 6 miles per hours.  The sky is overcast and rain is expected to come in overnight.  Some of our low temperatures this week have been in the upper teens.  Only the hardy mustard and a few weeds are still green.

The voting for the Mystery Build competition is now closed.  I think they will announce the winners in about a week.  I want to thank all of my family, friends, and readers who voted for me and even those who took to time to go to the site, even if they voted for someone else.  There were a lot of great projects there.  I am always amazed at how many ways a theme can be interpreted.  I will let everyone know the outcome once the winners are announced.

Goblin Halloween Diorama - Part 29 - Field Project - Photos

Ghosts are on the trees.

When I started this project, I had a certain idea for the project: specifically, goblins.  I was inspired by the poem, Little Orphant Annie, by James Whitcomb Riley.  The refrain from the poem (paraphrased here) "an the goblins will get you if you don't watch out!" was the inspiration for this piece.  I wanted to do a Halloween piece about the fears and superstitions.  The one time of year that people explore that subject on a large scale is at Halloween.  Hence the working title I have been using: Goblin Halloween Diorama.  I guess everyone is wondering, "Where are the goblins?"  Up to this point, there are only a couple of ghosts and some colorful leaves that suggest that it is Autumn. 

Diorama for the Mystery Build competition.

Well, things are about to change.  I have completed the house, the birds, and the trees.  Now it is time to concentrate on the goblins and Halloween.  I am now moving into the phase of creating creepy creatures.  I'm hoping that I can do this without the diorama becoming too campy.  Along with the poem mentioned above, I'm also drawing inspiration from older sources of horror stories.  Before the hack and slash of modern day horror movies, there were Old World stories about strange creatures that lurked and crept about; or ghosts that lingered, attached to a place.  I'm planning to work some of these types of creatures into the diorama. 

Field 11-9-2014

I don't want to give away the whole show, so I don't want to blog too much ahead of what I am actually doing.  Sometimes plans change or ideas that arise take me in a new direction.  I don't necessarily want to lock myself in to something.  As the saying goes:  "I like to keep my options open."  But, I do expect that there will be a few goblins appearing soon. 

I'd like to remind my readers that the Mystery Build competition for the People's choice award is open for voting through November 20th, 2014.  I have entered a diorama into the competition.  This year's theme is "Build a Dream."  My piece is called, "About that Flying Dream."  I am project number 37, found on page 2.  Here is a link to the voting:  http://mysterybuild.com/   There are a lot of great projects there.  Naturally, I hope that my readers will vote for my project, but vote as you will.

Today's field project photo was taken at 9:10 am this morning.  The temperature was 47 degrees Fahrenheit.  It was overcast, but no rain is forecast for today.  The winds were calm.

Diorama - Competition Voting - Field Project

More leaves added to the trees.

The photos this week don't have the best lighting.  I've been going so hard this week that I'm having to do everything at top speed.  I did not have time to set up lighting and all the extras that make for better photos.  Last weekend, my husband was complaining about the slowness of the internet.  I suggested that perhaps it was because so many people were Christmas shopping.  Then it hit me.  Oh no!  It was the end of October and I have not even started on Christmas.  So this week I have been hitting the stores and shopping the internet.  It took up the whole week.  Not that I am finished; only just well begun.

Birds are more visible with the addition of contrasting leaves.

The holiday party season has begun.  Halloween was Friday night.  We had a few trick or treaters, but not as many as I had expected.  Saturday night we had a party to attend.  November is starting to get booked up as well.  My studio time is going to be somewhat limited until the end of December.  However, I hope to have this diorama complete by Thanksgiving.

Competition entry:  About that Flying Dream.

I managed to complete the leaves on the first tree and start on the leaves on the second tree.  That is about as much as I had time to do.  The leaf bundles take longer to make than one would think.  Part of the extra time is because I am working on such a small scale.  When pieces are small, they are difficult to handle.  The other part of the situation is that I am using hot glue to glue the leaf bundles to the branches, then the branches to the tree.  Hot glue is somewhat difficult to work with because it leaves long sticky threads of glue everywhere.  I get them on my fingers, on my clothes, and on the project pieces.  Some can be dealt with later, but some have to be dispensed with immediately to keep them from becoming a permanent part of the project.  Every little bit adds to the time it takes to get those leaves on the trees.

Field 11-2-2014.

On another subject, I entered the Mystery Build competition.  The main prize is awarded by a jury.  There is also a People's Choice award.  People can go in and vote for their favorite project.  I'm hoping that my readers will vote for my project, but of course there are many worthy projects there.  At least you will get a chance to see some other art.  Voting is open from November 1st through November 20th.  You can vote once per day.  My project is project number 37 which is on page 2 of the entries.  Here is a link to the voting:  http://mysterybuild.com/

Today is Sunday, so there is another picture for my field project.  Today's picture was taken at 8:50 am.  The temperature was 43 degrees (Fahrenheit).  Winds were 15 to 20 miles per hour.  It was overcast with spats of rain.  There is a freeze watch here for tonight and a freeze warning at higher elevations.  It is hard to believe, but there are only a few more pictures left in my field project.  I started on Winter Solstice 2013 with the intention of documenting the changes in the field from week to week as Winter changed to Spring and the field was planted and the crops grew.  Unfortunately, the field was not planted this year because the field was sold.  The entire neighborhood was glad that it was sold to a farmer and not a developer.  Because the sale was so late in the growing season, the new owner put in some tomatoes and a few greens and left the rest of the field fallow.  That was not exactly in line with what I was planning.  Oh well, such is life.  I will continue with my plan to document the field for an entire year.  The project will end on Winter Solstice 2014 which is about seven weeks from now.  Maybe I will try again next year.  I haven't made up my mind yet.  I do enjoy going out for an early morning walk.

More on the diorama on Wednesday.

Goblin Halloween Diorama- Part 25- Making Trees - Field Project

Branch sized increased after plaster cloth.

Plaster with rough texture.

Sort of a quick post today.  I've been working on making trees for the diorama.  I completed the wiring and taping of the second tree. I started adding the plaster cloth wrap on the first tree, but it is not yet complete.  I still have a few more branches and the roots to wrap before I finish this tree.  I added a few large pieces of plaster cloth wrap onto the second tree, but have not added plaster cloth to the branches.  I had originally considered experimenting with making my own plaster cloth, but with Halloween closing in, I decided that it would be more time efficient to just purchase some more plaster cloth wrap.  If we had not had a plumbing disaster that caused me to repair a large portion of my home, I would have had this diorama completed a long time ago.  

Today's blog focus is what the tree looks like before and after the plaster cloth wrap is applied.  It adds a lot of volume to the branches.  I think it may add more volume than if I had been using strip pieces of paper mache', but not so much as to make the product unusable for this purpose. 

I used the plaster cloth wrap mainly because I had some left over from another project.  However, the quicker drying time for the plaster cloth was also a consideration.  I would have had to wait a day or more between coats of paper mache'.  And if I had used paper mache' I would probably have had to use at least two coats, perhaps three.  With the plaster cloth, it was one coat and done.

Plaster cloth can be smoothed to a smooth finish and sanded, or it can be left with a very rough texture.  I chose to have a rough texture because I want it too look like tree bark.  Once everything is dry, it will be painted brown and given a dark wash.  The tree should have a very textured look once the painting is complete.

It is Sunday, so it is time for the picture of my field project.  Today's photo was taken at 9:11 am.  Winds were light and variable.  The temperature was 49 degrees Fahrenheit.  We have not had frost yet, but it is coming soon. 

Check back Wednesday for more on the diorama.

Goblin Halloween Diorama- Part 23- Photos- Field Project

Now that the house has been glued to the board, I can start adding details that will start to tell the story of the diorama.  I want to make this a spooky Halloween diorama.  So it becomes an issue of how to get across the idea of spooky.  I have to ask myself what makes things spooky and why do we think they are eerie?  What gives us a warning that causes our hair to stand on end and makes us feel that something is not quite right even when nothing is apparently wrong? 

Old abandoned houses are spooky in and of themselves.  We may not have any information on why someone abandoned a house, so we project our personal abandonment fears onto the situation.  That creates a fearful situation to begin with.  We also tend to view a house as having a story of the people who inhabited it.  When we don't know the story ended, we have a feeling of things left unfinished or prematurely ended.  This leaves us with an uncomfortable feeling as well.  Sometimes we do know the story, and if it is an ominous story with a bad ending, it scares us when we confront the unknown.  (For example:  Amityville Horror by Jay Anson.)  So an abandoned house by itself sets a tone.  It is time to build on those themes.  Read on.

Today the average city or suburban dweller does not generally give a lot of thought to birds except when birds leave a mess on their cars.  Birds are just some creatures that fly away when you move in their direction.   But we unconsciously carry a lot of symbolism and unconscious memory about birds.  It is always there, we just don't normally call that information to consciousness and think about it.  (I'd go into more detail here, but it may be too upsetting for some people, especially if he or she should  stumble upon it unexpectedly.)  Anyway, when we see a flock of large black birds, or for that matter a large flock of birds, it gives us an ominous feeling.  To add an ominous feeling to the diorama, it needed to have a lot of large black birds.  And that is when I ran into a arts and crafts product that was just what I needed.

My craft store had added a new product to its shelves.  This product is made by Modge Podge.  Basically, it was small silicone molds that could be used with their hot glue.  You used your hot glue gun to heat their product and pipe it into the molds.  The glue came in clear or white.  You squeezed the glue out of the glue gun into the mold.  When the glue was dried, it popped right out of the mold.  The pieces were very tiny, and held an incredible amount of detail.  No mold release was needed.   When the pieces came out of the mold I had to clean up the edges with a craft knife.  After that, they could be painted.  For the record, I purchased and experimented with Modge Podge sticks of glue first.  Afterwards, I tried it with some of my regular hot glue and it worked just as well as far as coming out of the mold, but it was not as clear as the Modge Podge product.

I saw a couple of different molds, but the one that interested me was the one that had birds in various poses.  These molds were very tiny.  The largest of the birds was only about three quarters of an inch to an inch across.  Other birds were smaller.  They were the perfect scale for my diorama.  The only unfortunate part of this was that the molds are for only one side of the birds; the back is flat.  I had to work on the other side to make it look like a three dimensional bird by building up the flat side with hot glue.  After a little practice, I was able to get things working well enough that I could make birds for the diorama.  So now I have started adding birds.  I don't want to add too many on the house, but there will be more in trees.

Because the product uses hot glue and a sharp craft knife, I'd say that it was best used by adults or teenagers under supervision.  However, your inner child will find a number of ways to use this product. 

Today's field project photo was taken at 9:00 am.  The temperature was 53 degrees (Fahrenheit).  Winds were calm.  The field seems to have a slight purplish cast to it in some spots.  The haze is actually tiny seed pods on the weeds.

Check back on Wednesday for the next step in the diorama.

Goblin Halloween Diorama- Part 22- House on the Board- Field Project

At long last, I have completed the house for the diorama.  I am pleased to say that the old farmhouse is now glued down to the board.  It took a long time to get the house completed.  I hope the rest of the diorama will not be as labor intensive as building the house. 

I completed the painting on the roof.  There is a temptation to add a little more detail to the roof, to really get the feel of an old roof, but at some point you have to stop working on detail and get on with the rest of the diorama.  I guess I've reached the "don't mess this up stage.  It works well enough that I don't care to have to start over if things don't turn out as I planned.

The house has been glued down to the board.  I also attached some steps. There will be a few
embellishments added to the house.  I'll have pictures of them next time.  I did not paint the ground on the board because the glue is only as strong as the surface to which it is attached.  If that surface is a coat of paint, the hold is only as strong as the bond between the wood and the paint.  I build these things to last as long as possible.

I forgot to put up my field picture on Sunday.  I thought I would post the photo today.  This is a picture of the field on Autumn Equinox.

Goblin Halloween Diorama - Part 20- Photos- Field Project

Adding a foil roof.

As I blogged last time, I want to put a tin roof on my miniature house for the diorama.  I experimented on different paint treatments, and on how to make that ridge in the tin look like a real roof.  I think I have succeeded.  At least, the tin is on the roof.  Although I have used hot glue on the rest of this project, I decided to try Elmer's Multipurpose Glue for the roof.  Hot glue dries quickly and I was concerned that viewers would be able to see lumps from where the hot glue dried.  Fortunately, the glue dried and held.  I did have to go in and re-glue on edge, but that was because it had not made good contact with the glue on the first try.

Field 9-14-2014

Before gluing the foil

Morning sun on a painted gazing ball.

onto the roof, I sprayed it with metal primer.  I had to put the foil on the roof before it was painted because the process of creating the creases caused the paint to scratch.  At least the damage was minimal.  Next I have to trim off the excess foil.  I did not attempt to trim it exactly to size before putting it on the building because pressing it into the creases of the small dowels change the width of the aluminum sheet.  I thought it would be easier to use a larger piece and trim it afterwards.  This also gave me a little extra wiggle  room in case I messed up the cut out for the dormer and had to make a deeper cut.  After I trim the piece, I'll paint on another coat of primer before I start using the black and terracotta colors. 


So all in all, progress is being made.  I'm glad that the foil sheeting worked.  It is a product I purchased at the craft store called Aluminum Tooling Foil.  It is an aluminum sheet that is much thicker than regular aluminum foil.  I suppose I could have purchased something similar at the hardware store, but I would have needed to purchase a much larger quantity.  Sometimes it is worth it to pay a larger price per foot at a craft store rather than to have a large amount left over that I have to find something to make to use it up.

Once the roof is completed, the house will be glued to the diorama and the steps will be added.  I can hardly wait.  I am looking  forward to getting on with the rest of the diorama.  Check back on Wednesday for more on the diorama.

It is Sunday, so that is field picture day.  The temperature was 59 degrees Fahrenheit.  Winds were from the North at seven miles per hour.  It was very cool.  The weeds seem to be growing, but it is hard to tell how the crops are doing because they are so far away in the field.  Well, perhaps things will be better next year.  The new owner started late in the season, so there was not a lot of time to get anything in the ground for this growing season.  The majority of the land is fallow.

Just thought I'd check in on an older project while I was at it.  Earlier this year I had made a ball from a papier mache' base which I covered in concrete.  I painted the ball and put it outside to see how the ball and the paint held up.  So far, it has been holding up pretty well.  The paint is not chipping.  Even though it has been a rainy summer, the ball is not showing any sign of water damage.  I think that this could be a viable alternative to using bowling balls as a base if I can figure out how to make the papier mache/ part more stable.  Once it is pulled off its mold, the ball's shape warps into an oval.  It was difficult to get the ball back into a spherical shape.  It took a long time to get it to do what I wanted it to do.  One of these days I will work on that project.  I'd still like to have an easier way to make a base for gazing balls.

Goblin Halloween Diorama- Part 17- Photos- Field Project

Did not work well with my glue.

I am starting the "field stone" foundation for the house.  My first idea on how to make it did not work out very well.  I quickly abandoned it to go for Plan B.  I'm showing you the failed plan in this case because anyone else attempting it might come up with the same idea I did, or some variation of it.  Plan B took longer but yielded a better result.

Glued and painted foundation sections.

First off:  the rocks.  These rocks are actually bits of aquarium gravel.  It was not just a matter of dumping the gravel out of the bag.  The rocks came in different colors and sizes.  Some of it was quartz that had been died red or green.  I had to sort the rocks for size and for color.  I wanted a color pallet of browns, tan, and auburn.  I had to sort through a great many bits of gravel to pick out what I needed.  It was a bit tedious.  I will say that I have gotten some mileage out of this one bag of gravel.  Off the top of my head I can say bits of this gravel have appeared in different ways in at least three projects.   Sometimes I was sorting for size, sometimes for color, and once just as ballast in a project that was not well balanced.   

Field stone foundation will be added to this model.

Field 8-24-2014

So I'll start with what did not work well and why.  I cut a piece of foam core board the length of the house, allowing for how the pieces would be glued together.  The foam core was painted black so that any spots that were not covered with glue or eventually paint would read as shadow.  Around the piece of foam core I built a dam from scrap pieces of foam core.  I covered the sections of the dam with pieces of wax paper.  My thinking was that the wax paper could be peeled off easily where the glue stuck.  That part actually worked.  What did not work was the hot glue and the rocks.  The hot glue dried too quickly.  By the time I had a small section of glue added it was already starting to cool to the point that the rocks would not stick to it well.  They would not stay in place.  I tried working in smaller areas, but was still having a problem.  There is a possibility that this might have worked with a different glue, but I was unsure which glue to use, so I gave up on this plan.  Resin glues would probably my next choice, but some of them yellow over time.  I suppose multi-purpose white glue would have worked, but it would take a relatively long time to set up.

Anyway, my Plan B was essentially to lay down a dot of hot glue and press a stone into it.  The hot glue sets up so quickly that I ended up using the glue gun in my dominant had to lay down the glue and using the other hand to drop the bit of gravel into place and push it down into the glue.  That worked.  Throughout the rest of the project, I only had to go back and re-glue three rocks.  

Once the rocks were in place, another problem cropped up.  The glue was clear, but very reflective.  It was very noticeable.  That was not a major problem as I planned to paint to represent the mortar between the stones.  I used a mixture of white and black paint to make a gray paint color and painted the glue and over the stones.  This was not painted carefully on purpose.  A real stone wall is a rough affair.  The stones are rough.  The mortar is rough.  And the stones are set into the mortar to keep them in place.  Besides, in such a small space there is not way to paint without getting paint on the rocks.  I quickly found that painting over the sides of the rocks helped the rocks look more seated. 

In the photo, it looks a real mess.  This is because it is a close up photo.  As with other art, once you stand back and look at it from a distance, it looks like a stone foundation wall.  Art is generally best viewed at about six feet.  So don't be discouraged.  This is only part of the process.  You will be amazed at what the finished field stone foundation will look like.  Check back on Wednesday.  I hope to have the foundation completed and attached to the building by then.

Today's field photo was taken at about 9:10 this morning.  The temperature was 69 degrees Fahrenheit and winds were from the North East at 7 miles per hour.  Humidity was 84%.  We have had rain on and off for the last two days and the fields were looking much better than they had for the past couple of weeks.

Goblin Halloween Diorama - Part 10- Field Project

Windows in place.

Since Wednesday I have been working on the windows.  Regular readers may recall that my Plan A did not work as well as I had hoped.  Plan B worked well.  I have all the windows in now.

The broken window.

I began by building the muntin bars.  That is the word for the pieces of wood that hold the individual panes of glass within the window.  I had to look that up because I could not remember what it was called.  I was thinking mullions, but that was not quite right.  The house in my diorama is an older home, and it has the windows with multiple panes of glass.  Unlike real windows which have the glass set in to the wood and held with glazing points, my muntin bars are just for looks and to keep the "glass" from bowing inward into the building.

The muntin bars are made from wooden toothpicks.  The building is made from foam core board, essentially a thin sheet of styrofoam with a rigid plastic sheet on each side.  I cut a toothpick slightly larger than the width of the window.  (Fortunately the pieces did not have to be exactly accurate.  That is hard to do when working on such a small scale.) 

Field 7-27-2014

Then I dipped each end of the toothpick into some glue and shoved it into the styrofoam.  If it wasn't quite even, I pushed until I had it in the right spot.  The foam moved out of the way very easily while still giving a little support.  Once I had it where I wanted it, I added in a little extra glue.  Then I cut the vertical pieces and dipped them in glue.  One end was butted up against the horizontal toothpick and the other was pushed into the Styrofoam.  After everything was in place and the glue had dried, I painted the bars with some diluted black paint in the same strength as I painted the boards that will become the clapboards.  At the moment, they look a little light compared to the black paint on the foam core board.  They will look better when the clapboards are in place.  They may still be a little lighter, as they are a different type of wood.  That is okay.  The windows would be protected slightly protected by the eaves and would not be subject to as much direct weathering.

Once the muntin bars were in place I cut a piece of a clear report cover and glued it over the hole for the window.  Everything went on easy enough.  Before gluing the plastic piece on I gently (emphasis on gently because all you need is to barely brush the surface) brushed the clear plastic with some fine grain sandpaper).  The plastic is so clear that it was hard to tell it was there.  A very light brushing with the sand paper gave it a look of an older window that has been etched by blowing grit and bad weather.  Besides, this is a house in disrepair.  Its windows should be dirty.  I used a craft knife to cut a small hole in the window as if a pane had been broken out.  I may go back and do more of that. 

I will say that you have to use a little caution when you put the glue around the window frame.  The glue will mush out from under the clear plastic and tended to make a mess on the "glass" of the window.   A little trial and error showed that placing the glue back about an eighth inch from the edge kept most of it from getting onto the window pane.  The glue dries clear, but it is still visible.  I guess it looks a little like there is dirt built up here and there.  Once the clapboards are on, you won't see the edges of the window any more.

So things are progressing.  Next, I will be working on the door.  More about that on the next post.

It's Sunday, so it is time to post the latest picture of the field. It is raining and foggy today.  The temperature is 71 degrees Fahrenheit.  We have rain and fog.  Winds are from the South South West at six miles per hour.  The humidity is 90%  Thunderstorms are expected by noon.

It is strange that I should choose to do the weekly photo project of the field the year that things get weird there.  When I started the project on the first day of winter I had no idea that I would be doing anything other than shooting pictures of growing crops.  Something is starting to grow in the field, but I cannot tell what it is.  The grass buffer is deep enough that I can't quite see what it is.  Although some things are growing, and are now taller than the grass that is in with it; not every place that was plowed has something growing.  If you look closely at the photo, there is a black wheel barrow towards the upper right hand side of the picture.  Although the field was plowed by a tractor, the soil amendments are being worked in by hand.  It seems to be taking quite a while.  It is not business as usual in this field this year.  Intensive organic farming perhaps?

Goblin Halloween Diorama - Part 8- Field Project

Stained craft sticks for clapboards.

I have had a fair amount of time to work on the diorama this week.  Although it does not look it, that pile of sticks in the first photo represents several hours worth of work.  I started cutting the rounded tips off the craft sticks last week and sanding them.  I developed quite the blister on my little finger from the scissors during that process.  I also sanded the sticks with a sixty grit sand paper because they were too smooth.  I wanted the wood to look worn and rough.  The sanding also removed some of the clear polyurethane from the sticks.

Scored to look like wood grain.

As I had mentioned in one of the very early posts on this diorama, I had read an article on how to make buildings look aged in a model railroad magazine.  I'm not trying to follow the instructions exactly, but work with the general gist of the idea.  In the article, the writer said that he had scored his planks with some sort of toothed tool.  I don't remember the name of it six months down the road, but I don't have one.  But I thought that he was on to something with scoring the planks, so I scored the planks I made with a sharp stylus.  I tried to score four lines into each plank on both sides of the planks.  I used enough pressure to scratch in a line, but held the stylus loose enough that the stylus could follow the contours of the wood grain.  This took a while since I was scoring them one line at a time.

Old barn used for color inspiration.

Field 7-20-2014

Once all the planks had been sanded and scored (I sanded first because I did not want to sand out my score lines.) I stained them with thinned black paint.  I remembered that the magazine article had said he used 1 part paint to 10 parts water.  I tried that, but only it looked dark.  Usually acrylic paint dries darker than it appears when it is wet.  In this case the paint dried lighter, and it looked too light so I changed it to a 1 part paint to 12 parts water and gave the sticks two coats.  The effect I was trying to get was the color of wood in old abandoned buildings.  I am not totally satisfied with the color, but it is close.  The old building in the third picture is more or  less the color I was shooting for.  The stain soaked into the grooves I had scratched into the sticks, and they really do look like old wood.  I'm putting up a close up of a stick so you can see the grain, but I am not sure how the resolution will look online.

Morning Glory bloom.

Other than that, I cut out the windows in the building.  The building is painted black inside as well.  I did not cut out the door because the door will be pasted to the front.  I am not planning on having the door open and close.  That is about as much work as I could get done this week.  This week I will be working on building the door and windows.  After that the clapboards go on. 

Today's field project picture looks much the same as last week.  I don't see anything coming up in the furrows that have been plowed in the field.  I think some of the vegetation coming up in the foreground might be mustard greens.  Most of it is just grass and weeds.  Even though the field has been plowed and mowed, the native vegetation is still hanging on.  I saw the first blooms of morning glory flowers this morning.

Field Project 6-15-2014

Today there has been a big change in the field.  Last Sunday, only after a short time after I took the photo, the field was harvested and replanted with something.  I guess the crop that was in there was some sort of cattle feed.  I have seen that plant  mixed in with hay fields sometimes.  The For Sale sign is also gone.  My neighbor told me that she had seen two men standing on the edge of the field before it was plowed.  I'm guessing that a deal was struck and the field was sold.

I can see that the field has been divided into four parts by a grassy median.  I guess that there may be more than one crop going into the field.  A large rain storm came through the area on Friday.  It was a major gully washer.  I hope it did not wash away all the seeds that have been planted.  Hopefully, there will be a chance for some photos of crops growing soon.

On my walk to the field this morning I saw some blackberries forming on the wild blackberry vines.  Soon I plan to be picking some berries for breakfast.  If the birds don't get them first that is.  That's okay.  I know a place where there are a lot of blackberries growing wild.  I have a plan.

We are coming to the end of our home repairs from the plumbing disaster.  We laid the new flooring in the final room yesterday.  Today the baseboard and trim is being put back.  Then we will start moving the furniture back into that room.  Then we have to unpack everything we had to box up while we did the repairs.  While Bill is working on the baseboard, I plan to be finishing up cleaning the last upstairs room.  I am more than half way finished on that.  Most likely we will finish today; if not, then we will finish up this week.  I am looking forward to getting back to work in my studio.

An Art Opportunity and the Field Project

Field 6-8-2014

Morning Glories at edge of field.

I have news of an art opportunity for my readers.  There is a contest going on that I think some people may be interested in taking part.  Unfortunately, it is only open to people in the United States.  I hope that my readers in other countries will be interested in viewing the results.  However, if you live elsewhere and wanted to participate, I think the issue is the postage.  It might be worthwhile to email to see if you could have it shipped to an American address and then have it forwarded at your expense.  I don't know if they will go for that or not.  This is just a thought as they mentioned the postage issue somewhere in something I read about the contest.

I received news of this contest from an art newsletter email I received.  There is a contest going on called Mystery Build.  It is sponsored by Jerry's Artarama, a company that has been in business since 1968.  The Mystery Build contest is in it's third year.  This year giving out $21,000 in prizes. 

Ubiquitous weeds.

 

So here is the scoop, or at least as much of it as I can give you.  The company has created a package of various and sundry art and craft objects.  Every package is the same.  You order the package, for which there is a fee, and build an assemblage from the bits and parts.  The build is based on a theme of their choosing.    You photo document your build and submit them along with the photo of your completed project.  There is a panel of judges and a public vote to determine the winners.  There are a number of rules that apply.

To get in on the contest, go to MysteryBuild.com for the full details and order your kit.  I cannot tell you any more than that.  We are not allowed to discuss what is in the box or our plans.  In fact, I cannot even blog about my build until after the closing of the submission period.  So you won't be hearing more about this project until the end of October. 

FYI: the kits became available in November, so some people have had them for a few months already.  Depending on what you decide to build, you are already pushing the envelope for completion by the final submission date in October.  As some of my regular readers know, some of my mixed media assemblages can take months to build.  So if you are planning on getting in on this contest this year, order your kit pronto!  Otherwise, consider waiting until the next kit comes available in November.

It is Sunday, and after a break for a holiday; and because of our ongoing rebuild of our home,  I am back to taking a picture of the field each Sunday.  At this point, the field has remained disappointingly the same.  I was hoping for some crop that changed significantly.  I have come to the conclusion that whatever is in the field was actually planted there when they harvested out the corn stalks from last year.  The field is way too uniform to have just come up naturally.  The crop (?) still has flowers on it that resemble peas, although the leaves don't look like any pea that I have seen.   Anyway, it is what it is, and so you have today's field picture. 

Although the plants in the field don't appear to be getting any larger, the weeds on the edge of the field are shooting up.  The wild morning glories are starting to come out.  Funny story, they used to all have purple flowers.  Then I planted blue morning glories around my lamp post.  That year, all the morning glories in the field turned blue and remained that way for years.  I have not planted morning glories in a long time.  It was only in the last year that the morning glories have started to revert back to their purple color. 

Hypertufa Spheres - Part 4

Mold was a light fixture globe.

Today's blog is not exactly a Hypertufa sphere, but it is sphere-ish.  As I blogged about a couple of posts ago, I had a lot of extra Hypertufa left over after I cast the second half-sphere in the concrete mold.  Having already filled my available plastic ball as a mold, I decided to try another experiment of something I read on the internet.  I decided to try using a glass globe as a mold. 

Filed 5-11-2014

This type of mold is a one off.  You have to break it to get your object out of it.  You spray the mold with Pam cooing spray; then fill it with the Hypertufa Mix.  As with the plastic ball mold for last week, I had let it set in the closed plastic bag for a week rather than the one day most internet sites suggested. This was mainly due to bad weather and being busy with home repairs.

For Sale sign almost hidden.

The first part of getting ready to remove the mold is to don eye protection and heavy gloves.  Once ready to remove the mold, I stuck it into a heavy duty construction bag, and smacked it firmly with a hammer in several spots to break the glass.  (The eye protection is important, a few pieces of broken glass did come flying out of the bag.)  I had to take the thing out to examine it a couple of times to look at it to make sure that all the glass was off, so the gloves were handy too.  All in all, the glass came off without too much trouble.  I was surprised to find that the Hypertufa had picked up the detail of the floral motif.  I had thought that it was only on the outside of the mold.  I can see this opening up all sorts of possibilities for garden art from thrift store finds.

It is Sunday, so that means it is field project day.  The weeds in the field are really taking off.  They have almost covered that pesky for sale sign that popped up in the field.  The temperature was 64 degrees Fahrenheit and the winds were calm.  The picture was taken a little early this morning at 8:10 am.  I have to get back to work on the home
repairs.

An update on the plumbing disaster:  Bill and I completed laying the floor yesterday.  We had optimistically hoped to complete it last Sunday, but it really was a two day job.   It took two ten hour days to lay the den and hallway.  Today we are putting in the baseboard and trim.  At that point we will have completed fifty percent of the renovation after the plumbing disaster.  I'll post a picture of the floor on Wednesday.  I have not taken one of it yet.  By the time we finished we were too tired to do anything.

Field Project Photos

Field 5-4-2014

I've been working on the Hypertufa Spheres, but I don't have new photos yet.  I will have the first photos of the sphere and some of the balls ready for posting on Wednesday.

Today, I barely have time to grab a photo for the field project.  My field project is to photograph the field and how much it changes from week to week over the course of a year.  Today's photo was taken at 8:20 am.  The temperature was 57 degrees (Fahrenheit).  The wind was calm.  The vegetation has grown to almost the height of the cornstalks that were left in the field from last year.  The flowers remind me of sweet peas, although the leaf does not look like peas. 

The plants in the yard are also flowering.  The Comfrey growing next to the Buddha statue has pretty purple bell shaped flowers on it.  The Iris were only small green leaves a few weeks ago have flowered.  We have already had to mow the lawn twice. 

Buddha in the garden.

I did not post about the Hypertufa spheres today because we are starting early this morning on the next phase of the reconstruction of our home.  Yesterday Bill painted the den and hallway.  Today we lay the flooring in those areas.  This is a major step in getting the house back together after the plumbing disaster.  Next weekend we will be painting one of the bedrooms and hopefully laying the floor in there.  Here's hoping that we will be able to lay the floor.  We have to wait until the concrete cures to a certain level of dryness.  I'm thinking that we will probably start with the smaller bedroom because the trench created to dig up the pipes in the slab was not as deep in that area.  I guess we will cross that bridge when we get to it.