Shot-glass Inkwell

 

I wanted an inkwell, so I made one out of a shot-glass and a piece of (probably) rimu.

The only shot-glasses I could get locally are double-shots, and it's really a bit tall. A single-shot (30ml) glass would be better. I'll keep an eye out for one on my travels.

It could do with a cap of some sort to help stop the ink evaporating and thickening, but for the moment it will be a use-it-and-wash-it thing. 

A bit later...

I did find some 30ml shot glasses, so I modified the wooden carrier to fit one. 

The notch out of the rim is just there to tidy up a chip that broke out when I was thinning it down enough to fit the new glass. 

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Blender screenshots

Antique inkwell
with its new reservoir in place

I have an excellent nickel inkwell from the '30s, with a sprung domed lid that slides out of the way when opened.

Regrettably, its original reservoir was made of bakelite, and over the years it had got cracked.

I did briefly use an aluminium insert made from an old case for some fairly fancy fountain pen cartridges, and that worked just fine, but in the end I decided to design and print a brand new reservoir for it.

I had to print it in resin, as FDM isn't reliably watertight, and also it seems to disintegrate when in extended contact with indian ink. Hopefully the resin will fare better.

Chessboard Table Revisited

 

Way back in the distant past (2011), I made this chessboard table. In a failure of foresight, when I attached the top to the carcase, I glued it as well as screwing it to battens. That was a mistake.

The table is too low to be comfortably usable, so it would be better if the chessboard was detachable, to be used sitting at a table.

So today, at long last, I achieved that by the judicious application of brute force. The damage is all underneath, where it doesn't show, so that's good.

Next step is to formulate some method of attaching it to the carcase in such a way that I don't have to unload it all and turn it upside down to unscrew it (and replace it). I think I have a plan.

A few hours later...

I've added a collar moulding in sapele around the bottom of the chess board. It fits snugly against the carcase and holds it firmly in position, but can be taken off at whim. If I ever have to have it more firmly anchored, I could put a couple of screws through the moulding into the carcase, but I doubt very much that will ever be necessary.

The moulding also acts as a foot for the board to sit on when it's off its carcase.

Dip Pen Doodles

 

Like any hand-eye coordination skill, drawing requires constant practice to keep it up.

I've become very lax about drawing, not least because I tend to waste my life away these days on the goddam internet instead of doing anything productive.

I really need to take myself in hand and get back to drawing every day, even if it's just nonsense like this.

These two guys I drew in Indian ink, using a couple of dip pens.

My hands are not as steady as they once were, but I'm sure that a bit of practice will help with that — or at least let me figure out how to work around it.

Big Mouth

 

Quick sketch, probably never to proceed any further. But you never know.

Yet Another Box

 

Here's another box I made, another presentation piece for somebody who's leaving a job for pastures new.

 The box is made from walnut. The two plaques are deep-etched in copper. The corners are just mitred, and reinforced by some decorative square-cut copper nails. The floor of the box is a piece of 4mm sapele plywood, and sitting loose inside there's a nice soft cushion for things to rest on comfortably.

The lid has two sets of magnets as a latch — they're strong enough that I can pick up the whole box by the lid and not have it fly open, but not so strong that I have to struggle to get the lid open.

The walnut is all out of one board, about five feet (1.5m) long. There's a considerable difference in colour from one end of the board to the other, which I found a bit odd.