Andy Chase

During the summer of 2007, I got a bee in my bonnet to have a go at linoleum block printing. I had my grandfather’s tools and fond memories of printing Christmas cards with my family as a kid, so I got myself a block and some new blades, and jumped into it.

The only problem was that my blades didn’t fit my older handle, so I wound up using the old dull blades at my disposal… guaranteed frustration. I put the project aside until I had a chance to get a new handle, not knowing that my attention would soon be diverted to the purchase and subsequent renovation of an old house.

It wasn’t until early this last January that I unearthed my half-finished block, got some new tools, and finished carving… and after a brief, unsuccessful trial printing session it took me another two months to regroup and made a proper go of it. Some notes:

Print on damp paper.

I used some cheap (but acid-free) watercolor sketchpaper, which is heavy and textured. The recommendation I followed (I think I read it at briarpress.org) is to:

1. Take a sheet of paper and either spray both sides with water, or quickly dip it in water, then let the excess drip off.
2. Place a sheet of dry paper on top.
3. Continue layering damp and dry sheets until you have as many sheets as you need.
4. Place the stack of paper in a plastic bag, and place on a flat surface under a flat weight for a few hours, until the moisture evenly distributes itself.

This worked beautifully for me; after a few hours the paper is only very slightly damp, but it makes a huge difference in terms of ink transfer.

Thin your ink a little bit

If you’re using oil-based ink, one recommendation I saw in a clip on YouTube is to add just a drop of printing medium (or plain old linseed oil, which was what I used) to your ink, just to make it flow a little better and transfer more easily to the block and thus to your paper. Again, this was a definite improvement for me over my initial trial a couple of months ago.

Easy cleanup for oil-based ink

Instead of stinking up your workspace with mineral spirits, try using plain old vegetable oil to get the worst of the ink off of your plate and brayer, then finish cleaning up with Simple Green. I didn’t even wind up staining my hands!

In late 2007, I decided that I wanted to get my hands on a bow tie. Not the cheesy, pre-tied clip-on thing you’d get with a rental tux or a movie theater usher uniform, but an actual tie-it-yourself bow tie. I saw a gentleman wearing one at a conference and I thought it looked pretty sharp, so I started keeping an eye out for bow ties.

Here’s the thing: they are rare as hen’s teeth in brick and mortar stores. Oh, people still wear them, but apparently not in sufficient numbers for it to be worth stores to stock them. Gentleman’s Wearhouse had a very small selection the last time I was there, but two years ago I had to resort to Ebay to get my hands on my first self-tie, or “freestyle” bow tie.

I was hooked immediately. I’ve always hated four-in-hand ties, which never made any sense to me as a garment; all they do is flap around in the wind and fall into your soup. Neckwear in general is really sort of a stupid convention for which we have 17th century Croatian mercenaries to thank, but at least bow ties remain true to their functional origins. They stay out of your way, and they look dapper if you wear them with the right attitude (“I’m wearing this because I think it looks sharp,” not “Hey, look at me! I’m that bow tie guy!”)

Freestyle bow ties are readily available online. Beau Ties Ltd has many wonderful designs, and makes fine ties (I own one and lust after many more of their offerings) but they are pricey. There are several vendors on Etsy who make nice bow ties for a little bit less, but still, $25 for a garment I’m only going to wear a few times a year is not an expense I can easily justify. I’ve gotten compulsive about looking for bow ties in thrift stores as well, but in two years of searching I’ve only had one find.

I’d been meaning to get my wife to give me a sewing machine hands-on for years, and last weekend it finally happened. Yesterday I picked up some cotton fabric and fusible interfacing. I made a pattern from one of my favorite ties, and managed to make myself a passable bespoke bow tie; I don’t have any sliders yet, so it’s fixed-length for my 16.5”ish neck. For a grand total of about $3.75 in materials, with enough fabric left over to make several more ties and/or a matching pocket square. Clearly, I’m onto something. Granted, silk yardage will be more expensive, but if I turn this into a cottage industry perhaps I can at least fund my own habit… and with Spoonflower, the sky is the limit.

If you’re interesting in doing this sort of thing yourself, BurdaStyle has one of the better bow tie patterns and instruction sets I’ve found online.

Update 2010-03-04
I just made another tie using the BurdaStyle pattern above, and I found it to be very short even when adjusted to full length — 16.5” isn’t particularly huge for a neck size, is it? Your mileage may vary. Next time I’ll just use the longer half of the pattern for both pieces of the tie.

Update 2010-03-06 I had another go with the BurdaStyle pattern last night, using the longer half of the pattern for both pieces of the tie, and although this one fits me fine, there’s still not a lot of room left for adjustment. I’d add another few inches to the adjustable half if I were going to sell these.

An old-time chestnut played on my new Jeff Menzies gourd banjo. No frets + nylon strings will take some getting used to!

Last night I decided to get more familiar with CCK and Views integration by way of rebuilding the Chords module, which is functional in its current state but doesn’t do much.

So, I’ve begun work on Chords 2 for Drupal 6. Major architectural changes:

• The original module has been split into two:
  • The Chords API module provides basic functionality around calculating and rendering chords (and keeps the original module namespace)
  • The Chords UI module contains the simple chord builder tool from the original module.
  • New modules are on the way:
  • A Chords Field module will provide a new CCK Chord field and some useful formatters
  • A Chords Views module may provide Views 2 integration, if Chords Field doesn’t cover it.

I know better than to state a timetable, as these things have a way of languishing when other shiny objects catch my interest. However, if you’re interested in playing with the latest and greatest code, check out the CVS HEAD.