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Paper Making (Again)

I made some paper… again. The first attempt used a small 3D printed mold and deckle, and this time around I made a new (slightly larger) mold and deckle.

I also experimented a bit more with the paper, this time using paper from our paper shredder and mixing in a few “raw” pieces to some sheets. The results are definitely interesting.

I tried a new technique with the hydraulic press after they were all dry as well. Last time I stacked them all and flattened them in the press, and you can see the screen texture in those. This time I did that, and then followed up with pressing them with a piece of wood between each individual sheet. Some of them came out incredibly flat and smooth! I’m curious to see how they take ink when printing on them.

Some of them are a lot more ragged around the edges. (That’s the “deckle edge” you know.)

Here’s a few I added shredded paper to that was not blended or soaked, just tossed onto the pulp before drying. It seems embedded really well and certainly gives a look.

A bit more closeup view… you can see and read some of the type, which I think could be really interesting since Dana shredded sensitive documents. There’s probably a whole project there all on its own.

Because I printed this larger mold and deckle on my (small) Prusa MINI+ I split it in half in OpenSCAD, printed the parts, then glued them together. When assembled this one is about 165mm x 224mm and the paper comes out around 145mm x 204mm.

Printing in halves and gluing together mostly worked. I had to print small shims on the side to make it more rigid, but now I really want to make an even larger one! (Though I will need a larger pulp bucket then.)

Magnets embedded into the corners of the mold and deckle work to hold the whole thing together with the screen between the two parts. I’m happy with how this turned out. I just made holes and stuck 1/4″ cylindrical magnets into the holes (making note of polarity) and then shot some hot glue in the holes to hold them in place. (Yeah, sometimes hot glue it quicker and easier than perfectly modeling a hole with friction bumps.)

Despite a few issues combining the halves to make a whole, I’m quite pleased with how the mold and deckle turned out, and I’m sure I’ll experiment with others in the future, especially since it’s trivial to make any shape… round, hexagonal, triangular? No need to be confined to a rectangle. (And yes, I’m very happy with the paper as well!)

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Free Little Art Gallery Library Shop

I’m going to warn you, I can be quite pedantic. I like refer to my Free Little Art Gallery as a “Free Little Art Gallery”. (There’s even a site for them at freelittleartgalleries.art.)

And yet, I have one friend who will not use the shortened name FLAG because I guess they were involved with some other thing called “FLAG” and had a bad experience or something… so they call it an Art Library.

Another friend does a little better, and calls it a Little Art Library. So close! It’s Free Little Art Gallery… You know, it’s Free, it’s Little (and the art is Little) and it’s a Gallery.

I guess if you are used to talking about a Little Free Library you might get tripped up saying Free Little Art Gallery.

When I was describing it to my daughter months ago I said “It’s a Little Free Art Gallery… an LFAG!” before I realized I switched the letters, and quickly figured out that it was FLAG not LFAG. (For obvious reasons!)

So here’s the thing… I really don’t care what you call it, as long as you come and see it and take some art! Yes, you know… take some art. Some people see something and say “Oh, I love that thing, but I don’t want to take it, because someone else might want it.”

Please. Take the art. That’s why it’s there. I made something and put it there, or a friend of mine (or someone I don’t even know) put art there because they want to share it with the world!

So if you want something grab it. If you see something that someone you know might like, grab it. If a friend has a birthday coming up, grab it, give it to them and say “I thought of you when I saw this, and thought you might like it!” You don’t even have to tell them it was free, or where you got it from. I mean, isn’t it awesome you’re sharing someone’s art with someone you know?

I was thinking about someone calling it an Art Library, and remembered that one of my neighbors mentioned he used to check out art from the local library. What? Yes! You can check out art from the public library, hang it in your house for a while, then return it when it’s due. The Free Little Art Library can work the same way. If you see something you like, grab it, take it home, and keep it for a while. You can always return it.

I rotate things out if they’ve been in the gallery too long and no one takes it. If it goes through a few rotations I may drop it off at one of the other FLAGs in the area. (Either 65th & Clarke in Wauwatosa or 87th & Locust in Milwaukee)

It’s a Free Little Art Gallery. The Gallery is Little. The Art is Little. The Art is Free. Come and get it!

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Sleep Report for 2023

I never filed my sleep report for 2022 but since I’ve got my “CPAP Compliance Officer” appointment this week I figured I would pull the data from my SD card, run it through OSCAR, the Open Source CPAP Analysis Reporter, and show you 2023 so far.

Besides the first quarter of the year when I was sick a lot, including COVID, I feel like I slept pretty well. Sure, there are some insomnia nights in there (red lines) and some missing nights due to being sick and just unable to sleep wearing a damn mask on my face (and one due to an international overnight flight) but overall, I feel pretty good most mornings in comparison to 2020/2021.

In other news, my CPAP has shown a warning about imminent motor failure for the past 5+ months and my insurance company has so far not been able to get a replacement or repair. Supposedly things are “backed up” or something, so I don’t know… might die in my sleep soon. Hopefully not, I still have a lot to do!

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Gallery 69 – Brittany Farina

Brittany Farina is an illustrator who creates art for dog lovers. From pet portraits to stickers and magnets and even apparel. Brittany sent a bunch of packs for Gallery 69 that include a variety of stickers and magnets that show her style, and each includes a card so you can find her work online.

Speaking of her work, you can find it at brittanyfarina.com and if you prefer Facebook or Instagram she’s there as well. (Both are a steady stream of pet portraits which show her craft really well.)

Brittany also creates adult coloring books, and if you love dogs (and coloring!) it seems like that might be right up your alley.

She also does coloring books for rescue organizations to help raise funds so they can help more dogs. (I’m a cat-person myself, but I really so appreciate how much Brittany loves dogs and what she does for them and their owners.)

Okay dog lovers, what are you waiting for!? I’ve dropped a few of these stick & magnet packs into the gallery, so come and get them… and if you like what you see, get in touch with Brittany about more!

Gallery 69 is a Free Little Art Gallery located on 69th street just north of Locust street in the Enderis Park neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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Gallery 69 – Dave Polaschek

Right before I officially opened Gallery 69 I posted the following on Mastodon:

I’m opening a gallery this week. Sure, it’s in my front yard, and it can only handle small art… but the Free Little Art Gallery is (nearly) open!

Let me know if you want to contribute any art.

Woodworker Dave Polaschek said “What’s your address?” and I gave it to him and in no time he shipped a box of objects to me. It was the first to arrive, and I wanted to thank Dave (and congratulate him) for being the first one to send a package to the gallery. Cheers! So what was inside? Well, check the photos! Things from Dave’s woodshop. He also provided info on everything, so I’ll expand below.

The shot glass is birch from Timber Bay Lodge in Babbitt, Minnesota which was stabilized with black-dyed acrylic. (It might not be food-safe though, so don’t drink from it!) You can find more info about it on lumberjocks.com

While I’ve 3D printed a shot glass in the past I don’t think I’ve even seen a wooden shot glass. It’s pretty cool, and I hope someone takes it and appreciates it.

This bird (or “birb” as Dave called it) looks amazing. It was carved from juniper found in Dave’s back yard in New Mexico in September 2022. Hand-carving is one of those things I’m always fascinated by… My own skills lie elsewhere but I always appreciate a nice piece of wood shaped into something beautiful.

Again there’s a bit more info on Dave’s “birbs” on the lumberjocks.com site.

Finally there are two tops which were made in November 2021. One of them is pine and the other is a tropical hardwood (maybe granadillo). Both of them have been figited with in the shop and are a little dinged up. Dave suggested I add some paste wax to them (and I did) so they are nice objects but can also just functions as toys.

Thanks for reading this! You can check out more of Dave’s art at peekachello.art as well as write.as/davepolaschek

Gallery 69 is a Free Little Art Gallery located on 69th street just north of Locust street in the Enderis Park neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.