Magical Disappearing Pen

I learned about this incredible disappearing pen in the hand piecing class I’m taking. It really is amazing. It writes like a Gel Pen. When you first make a mark it looks like there’s no ink, don’t toss it out! Over the next several minutes a beautiful white, chalk-looking line emerges. It stays until you steam it out with an iron. I could die happy if there was a similar marking pen for white fabric. I’ve tried several of the blue ones but they all seem to leave a mark. Please share your secrets.

My blogging life has reached a milestone. I have enough comments to actually write a post responding to things mentioned in my comments. Thank you.

This is my first post as President of Women For Violence Against Magazines (WFVAM). Thanks Meg, that gave me a HUGE laugh. You are too funny. I love this woman’s blog. I envy her fluid writing style. I have all those thoughts, I just can’t seem to get them out onto paper. This week’s assignment: Tear a recipe out of Food and Wine, stick it in a folder to make later and then throw the rest of the perfectly good magazine into the recycling bin. If you’re feeling really bold, don’t tear anything out and toss the rag.

Linda commented on my hand stitching on the strawberry pincushion. I used the basic old backstitch around the first layer of the greenery. I love that stitch. If you’re not using it get on it right now. It never fails to make a stitch more even looking than you’re actually capable of making.

Courtney asked about my camera. I purchased a Rebel XT Digital camera body in December. It has the 8.2 megapixel feature. I was one of those black and white film camera hold outs. I’m so in love with COLOR digital right now, my EOS-1 is literally sitting on the shelf collecting dust. I’ve been a camera buff since high school. My dad had a Minolta SR-T 101 that my uncle had purchased for him while stationed in Germany. That camera took the most incredible photographs. I still miss it. I switched to Canon in the early 90′s. Once you decide on Nikon vs. Canon you’re pretty much in for life. I’m happy with my choice. I don’t think you can go wrong with either brand. It all comes down to the lens investment.

I generally use one of two lenses for my blog photos. The 50mm 1.4 lens that I knocked off a table several weeks ago is my favorite. (Good thing I’m not a doctor, my operation results were only temporary. I sent it off to Canon’s repair facility last week and they just sent me an e-mail saying it’s on its way home, yay!) The low aperature settings allow me to take pictures inside my sewing room with minimal sunlight. I take most of my pictures around 2.8 and some as low as 1.4. Those extra stops at the low end make a HUGE difference in picture quality with out the flash. It’s also a high quality lens. I have a Tamron 28mm-105mm lens that I’ve been using in the interim but it just doesn’t capture the detail of my good friend. I’m not an expert to understand exactly why but I can definitely tell a difference.

The other lens I like is my Macro 100mm 2.8 lens. This is the lens used for the above photo. It allows me to be as close as 6 inches from my subject. It’s really fast and the quality of the photos is extroidinary.

I took a black and white film class at Santa Fe Community College in 2003. Santa Fe is one of those places on the map that draws artistic people hoping to find themselves in one way or another. It’s packed with very talented photographers, one of which I had the good fortune to take a class from.

Each week he would have us take pictures that focused on one technique. We would look at slides he had assembled from famous photographers. The pictures displayed the techique he was asking us to do for the week. Assignments I can remember: shadows (every picture needed to have a shadow in it), light (focus in on light sources at different times of the day and see if you can capture it), reflection (water, mirrors, glass, windows, anything that created a reflected image), partial images (only part of the subject is visible), corners (make sure each corner of the photograph had an element in it) and depth of field (only the subject was in focus, the background was blurred).

My pictures were so boring and stiff at the beginning of this class. I actually cried after week 5 because I just wasn’t getting it and the critique sessions in the class were painful. No one said anything negative, they just didn’t say much at all. The instructor would circle photos on our contact sheets that he thought we should print. I would leave class with nothing circled but a few pity squares. Then the most amazing thing happened. In week 6 I forged ahead, once again trying to do the assigment and taking a lot of film. I brought in my contact sheets. I left with enough Sharpie circles to print for 3 months. It was a real break through for me. I finally understood what made MY pictures interesting. I think the focused practice exercises and critique sessions were key for me. A lot of students dropped that class. Way more than half. For those of us that remained (6) it was an extremely valuable experience.