Cheapskate

• August 3rd, 2008 • 0 Comments • cleaning, construction •

When I lived in an apartment, it really cheesed me off that I couldn’t hang laundry out to dry. Think of it! All that FREE hot air outside, and me running the dryer and the air conditioner at the same time. Now that I’m something resembling and adult homeowner, I can put whatever I want in my backyard, so I rigged up a fancy-schmancy clothes dryer!

Cost of materials was less than $10. I’ve looked up readymade clothes dryers online, and man! Are they expensive! Upwards of $200, apparently hanging clothes on a stick has progressed when I wasn’t looking. This contraption consists of some 2×4 scraps, a 1x.5, two large shelf brackets, wood screws, and some machine screws I had hanging around the house. Assembly was super easy and fairly evident from the photo.

I also mixed up some homemade laundry detergent with borax, washing soda and a bar of ivory. Hell yes, doing laundry is super cheap now! (I could work out how many kilowatt hours I’m saving plus cost per load, but that sounds suspiciously like a lot of work I’m not interested in, haha.)  I shouldn’t even have to mention the fact I don’t have to fold shirts; just cram them in the closet when they’re done. Hooray for free energy!

 

Hey, I know that guy.

• September 21st, 2007 • 0 Comments • cleaning, meandering, printmaking •

I read Makezine’s blog every morning with my breakfast. Imagine my surprise to see my former printmaking prof Justin Quinn’s work featured! His work is looking great since the last time I saw it (when it was also looking great.).

I admit though, seeing that article stare back at me made me feel immensely guilty. I haven’t touched an etching press since I was in Glasgow in 2004. Don’t get me wrong, the itch has hit me many, many times. I’ve tried to fill it with other activities; it’s kind of similar to when you want some really good ice cream, but only pre-mixed soft-serve is available. Yeah, the substitution is ok but dammit, you really wanted that ice cream.

Justin was a big inspiration for me, and putting my favorite body of work on the backburner almost seems like I’m letting him down. He was so encouraging and genuinely seemed to enjoy what I produced. It’s bad enough I’m full of frustration at not being able to print; feeling like the eyes of a mentor are upon you is worse.

That relates to the ol’ “Man, I miss college,” statement. I do miss college, not because of the memories of youth, freedom, and so forth, rather for the community. Genuine critiques of colleagues helped to mold and strengthen my body of work. Producing alone lacks that influx of encouragement. My college town also had a good art community which my current hometown lacks, a topic I’ve whined about before.

I’m not ready for grad school. Not yet. Some of the more interesting grad students I met in printmaking were in their 40s and up. They had an entire well of life experiences from which to make things. Some started out as art students in their 20s, lived an entirely different life, and came back to art afterwards.

Meandering in thought and feelings of guilt aside, today’s the day I clean my office and papers out. Once that is done, production on this, that and the other can begin without the “Aw damn, where is my ________ packed?!”

 

Whew!

• September 9th, 2007 • 0 Comments • cleaning, construction, studio •

So I’ve been busy! In addition to trying to get the studio in order, I’ve also been maintaining other bits of the house. This week involved:

- mowing the lawn
- edging the lawn (I don’t think it’s been done in, oh, a few months!)
- sprinkler repair (Ran over a head with the mower. Oops.)
- installing new ceiling fan
- moving old ceiling fan to room without a fan
- crawling up into attic to inspect electrical box for fan (Oh god hot.)
- patching up hole to plumbing in master bath
- lining garden with rocks hauled up from Austin

Ah, learning to own a home. I love it. I was filthy for most of the week and my hands are covered with calluses and a blister. I think I’m making up for years of apartment life.

Studio-wise, I’ve built two new table-tops/storage units out of old furniture, and set up a darker area for taking photos. Pictures to follow when I’ve put more things away.

A bunch of my larger paintings and whatnot were in storage at a place with a dirty garage, mice, and spiders. I had to clean a lot of it before moving into the new studio. Fortunately, no mouse-related damage has been done to the actual art, just to its coverings. UNfortunately, there is spider poop on everything. Lots of cleaning to be done to repair THAT mess.

 

Baby Steps

• August 15th, 2007 • 0 Comments • cleaning, construction, studio •

I think I sweated about 2 gallons of liquid today. It’s pretty damn hot in the new garage studio. Unfortunately, my father brought to light a development I hadn’t considered in my endeavor to climate control the place. The walls of the garage aren’t insulated. Heck, the house was built in 1974, I don’t think people were so big on spending time in the garage back then. Nowadays you can buy whole furniture sets to spend time in your garage with your beloved vehicle; I reckon in the 70s folks didn’t see the point of that when you had an entire living room in which to spend time.

While I wasn’t going to live in there, I was at least hoping to tack a window-mounted A/C unit in the window. My ultimate scheme was to insulate and seal the garage door thus ensuring my sanctum sanctorum was bearable in the Texas summer. After speaking to dad on the phone last night, I chopped a hole in the wall and disappointedly stared at the emptiness within. Ah well. Just means my drafting and computers must stay inside.

Meanwhile, I’ve been ripping down the ancient and poorly-built cabinets mounted by the previous tenent. One can admire how he built them out of scrap wood, but they were curiously overbuilt in places, while left dangerously underbuilt in others. For example, the framwork was constructed out of 1/2 inch fiberboard with five countersunk screws holding the shelves in place. But the entire structure was affixed to the wall by only four 1 1/2 inch screws that were attached to the cabinet framework with cheap wood paneling. It almost makes my head hurt to think about them. How they stayed up all those years is a mystery.

Of course, before all of my shelving and whatnot goes up on the wall, I must give the walls a coat of Kilz. Structurally the walls are ok, but guh-ross! My shop will not look this disgusting.

 

Boxes Upon Boxes

• May 29th, 2006 • 2 Comments • cleaning, studio 4A •

My husband and I cleaned out the storage closet that is supposed to house most of the studio’s supplies this weekend. It looks painfully small; I couldn’t help dragging my feet when I went down to the studio garage to start sorting out what gets packed and what gets semi-packed (so I can continue to use contents within). The whole month has proved a bit frustrating as I have produced almost no art. Making money to eat has taken precedent over making art; and annoying waves of melancholy idiocy keep washing over regards the studio’s demise.

However, I am a little excited about my supplies being moved closer to the computer. Yes, yes, I wrote a while back about how I liked space between my fine art and my computer. Things have changed a bit; I use the computer more for producing bits and pieces to use in my art. While it still remains true that the computer is not an idea machine, but rather a tool, we’ve wormed out more of a relationship that doesn’t interfere with creative development.

Oh I’m also excited about a FRESH WATER SOURCE. Remember the sink? Apparently the reservoir makes a wonderful swimming pool for cockroaches. Except they can’t get out. So they drown. And decompose. In the reservoir. Gross. You can imagine my delight when I cranked the faucet after being away from the studio in lieu of student teaching only to have a variety of roach bits come pouring out with the water. Now I have a bathtub with a pimp hose hookup with which to rinse out all sorts of things. Oh yeah, the new pressure nozzle is great for filling up waterballoons. As a second-floor resident I feel obligated to have a stock of bombs to drop on my husband’s friends.

Running for my life after dousing unsuspecting guests ought to chase away the “I ain’t got no studio blues.”

 

Cleanliness is next to Rapidographness

• August 9th, 2005 • 7 Comments • cleaning, how-to, pens •

It’s time to clean the ol’ Rapidos again; they’ve been out in the summer heat and have crusted up as they tend to do when it’s hot and dry. So what better way to celebrate the Zen of Cleaning than taking something tiny apart, cleaning it thoroughly then putting it back together only to fill it up with a black staining fluid? Beats me. (Heck, this is the second post on cleaning technical pens.) Paragraphs with a fist (☛) at the end indicate that the picture has a link to a more detailed picture.

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For cleaning, I recommend buying a Rapidograph cleaning kit. You know, the one with cleaning solution and the little bulb. Most of ‘em cost about ten bucks. Steep? Not when you consider how much the pen mechanism itself costs. A cleaning kit is well-worth the investment and can put years on the pen. You should also have on hand: paper towels to set the pen parts out on to dry and to clean; an old toothbrush (Run it through the dishwasher if you’ve used it! Blech!); cotton swabs; a pen key (shoulda come with the pen); some sort of old food container or jar (again, clean); and headphones with some nice trance or soothing music for that extra-meditative experience.

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This pen is a .60; a little larger than the .00 that most folks get. Still, these pens work exactly the same. It’s well-traveled; I took it to Europe and penned my diary whilst there (sounds so romantic!) and draw with it constantly. As a pen-mistress, I am abusive. Look at the dust! Who knows what managed to get up in the well when it was sitting out. Blech. ☛

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First thing to do is take the pen apart. Everything on the Rapidograph unscrews or gently pulls apart; there’s no snapping or difficult pushing. Everyone knows the first twist; you gotta refill the ink well! Twist the black pen top off at the colored band.

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Next, gently pull the inkwell off. Mine was filled with gummy/watered down ink, so I just rinsed it off and added a little pen-cleaning solution and set it aside.

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Remember that little circular thingy that came with the pen? That’s the pen key. It opens a magical world of…not really. It opens the pen and gets down to the icky bits that really need cleaning. Place the key over the point of the pen and gently twist. Keep twisting and one should have…

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…removed the innards from the outer casing. Ewwwww, look at all that crusty build-up! No wonder I haven’t been getting any pen-writin’ action. ☛

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First, a cold-water rinse. Running water is a must, especially if the pen is filled with black ink, otherwise your cleaning water will become black and unclean after the first dip!

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Scrubby scrub! But be gentle; the brush is just to loosen the dirt. If the pen is very dirty, or even dry then just leave it in the cleaning solution for a bit.

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Time for some pumping. The pen top neatly screws into the pump that comes with the cleaning kit.

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Pumped and ready to go! Haha! I have had my pens for a while, so I use two different cleaning solutions. One is my “dirty” jar and one is my “clean” jar. I use the dirty jar to get the big chunks and excess ink off. After a time, cleaning solutions can get pretty scummy, but still work. They just leave a little bit more scum on the pen for the likes of me.

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Take the pump and immerse the pen tip into the solution and gently squeeze. Then, gently release. Patience time! The bulb will slowly fill with cleaning solution; when it’s full gently squeeze the bulb to push out the cleaning solution. It will bubble and carry one, producing all sorts of dirtiness. Repeat, depending on how dirty the pen is. ☛

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That ol’ jar will come in handy. Fill it with clean, cool water and dip the pen tip in and repeat the slow, gentle squeezing.

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The water will be quite dirty. Check out the chunks on the bottom!

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Time for the clean solution! For this one, I like to keep the clean solution clean. Before dipping it in, first squeeze the bulb, then dip it into the solution, sucking up fresh cleaner.

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Repeat the process of blowing out the pen in the tub of water (Make sure you put fresh water in first!). Notice that the water is much cleaner after squeezing the bulb in and out this time.

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Most folks could stop there. Rinse off the pen with water and let it dry. But I ain’t most folks! Take it one step further. Unscrew the pen top from the bulb and turn it over. See that little plastic cap? Gently wiggle it off. This will give you access to the pin. ☛

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The pin is directly below that plastic cap. When I say gently remove it, I mean it. The pin is the most delicate and important part of the pen. If you bend it, it can ruin the way ink flows. So be nice! To remove, simply pull it straight out. ☛

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The whole pen head has been disassembled. Now you can scrub the whole pen from the inside out, using the bulb and cleaning solutions. Everything should be rinsed thoroughly with water then placed onto a paper towel to air dry. It’s not necessary to disassemble the pen to this degree every time one cleans, but I love taking things apart and putting them back together again. For people with a more exciting life, taking the whole durn thing apart is really only handy when a pen has been left dormant for about 6 months. ☛

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But what about the ink well? It’s been just sitting there. Ah-ha, that’s what the cotton swabs are for. Simply insert and swish around with the cleaning solution dropped in earlier. Oh, is the pen cap dirty? Just do the same thing to it. (Remember to rinse rinse rinse!)

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Ahh, the reassembled pen top, complete with a shiny clean ink well. How does one put the pen back together? Why, simply follow the above steps in reverse. (Well, except for all of the cleaning, because that would negate the whole exercise, now wouldn’t it?) Would you look at the top of that pen? Whotta difference! No more scunge, Now I can fill up the well with some fresh ink and get back to what I really want to do: draw! ☛

 

Technical Pens

• October 7th, 2004 • 1 Comments • cleaning, pens, supplies •

As mentioned in my previous post, I have recently aquired a number of technical pens. Today, I have been cleaning them. Most are not too bad (Koh-I-Nor), but about four of them (Faber-Castille) were left for oh, probably 10+ years with a full ink resevoir. This makes for some fun fun fun cleaning! Actually I like cleaning technical pens, much to the horror of some people I knew back in college. There is something quite meditative about taking apart a tiny piece of equipment and carefully cleaning each bit of it.

In cleaning pens with 10+ year-old ink in them, I could’ve really used a miniature bottle brush. The resevoirs were slightly gummy, and needed that kind of care. All of the other pen parts fit into the jars of cleaning solution I have, though I will probably have to buy new solution soon. The two solutions I have are pure black and going empty!

There are noticiable differences between these old pens and the ones I am used to buying. Most prominent is the size of the ink reserve. It is easily double the size of today’s pens. It is also easier to take the entire nib apart. That is, I can disassemble the entire mechanism and give it a most thorough cleaning. Unfortunately this led to the demise of two nibs, bent beyond usability. (Though I was able to cannibalize a few parts from other pens for later use.)

The technical pens shared their basket with a number of calligraphic pen nibs as well. Those have fortunately not rusted, and are decidedly in good condition. I suppose I will now have to learn calligraphy.

Lastly, a photo of my little operation:

My biggest beef with my garage studio is that it has no sink. You NEVER realize how much you use a sink until you are without. This is up in my apartment’s kitchen.