January 27, 2007
There was Snow
It snowed last weekend quite a bit. A lot of it has been shoveled away or melted of it's own accord by now, but it still looks much nicer outside than it did. Also, it's snowing now. It's not nearly hard enough to accumulate on the salted streets, but it's still nice.
The photo is from last weekend. I forgot I wanted to put it up then.
January 26, 2007
I think so, but instead I've been drawing. I don't think I've drawn anything other than doodles in over a year now. Long ago I had wanted to do a series of portraits of friends as fantasy/sci-fi things. I did a picture of Amber as an elf quite a long time ago on this vein, but then I stalled, because really I didn't have that many friends at the time who would consent to portraits.
Well, now I have more friends, who coincidentally tend to put up more photo galleries on their websites. I'm starting with Kathleen. She has multiple lovely pictures on her site that I can draw from. I wasn't sure what I wanted to make her at first, but after a little browsing of pictures I found this image. I figured it out after that. ~_^
The sketch above is after only a few hours of work. I took the picture with my camera (too lazy to scan), so that's only part of it and the colors are inaccurate to say the least. It's coming together much faster than I expected. There are still multiple issues in the sketch I need to work on, but I'm hopeful that I might get it inked and colored this weekend.
January 24, 2007
For quite a few years before he passed away my grandfather was working on scanning a lot of the photos, news paper clippings, and other paperwork related to our family. My parents have a copy of most of it and I finally remembered to ask them to send me one. I'm still looking through the photos, since there are more than a thousand files on the CD they sent.
I did want to share this one though. I confirmed with Aaron that the source mentioned is real and the translation they gave is reasonable. The text accompanying the image reads:
The Schiffer Coat of Arms, illustrated left, was drawn by a heraldic artist from information officially recorded in ancient heraldic archives. Documentation for the Schiffer Coat of Arms can be found in Rietstap Armorial General. Heraldic artists of old developed their own unique language to describe an individual Coat of Arms. In their language, the Arms (shield) is as follows:
"De gu.; au chef d'arg., ch. d'un corbeau de sa.,
tenant en som bec une bague d'or, le rubis en bas."
When translated the Arms description is:
"Red; a silver upper third, charged with a black
crow holding in his beak a ring of gold, the ruby
downwards."
Above the shield and helmet is the Crest which is described as:
"Le corbeau."
A translation of the Crest description is"
"The raven."
Family mottos are believed to have originated as battle cries in medieval times. A Motto was not recorded with the Schiffer Coat of Arms.
Individual surnames originated for the purpose of more specific identification. The four primary sources for second names were: occupation, location, father's name, and personal characteristics. The surname Schiffer appears to be occupational in origin, and is believed to be associated with the Germans, meaning, "one who was a boat man." The supplemental sheet included with this report is designed to give you more information to further your understanding of the origin of names. Different spellings of the original surname are a common occurrence. Dictionaries of surnames indicate probable spelling variations. The most prominent variations of Schiffer are Schiffers, Schiffere, and Schifer.
Census records available disclose the fact there are approximately 450 heads of households in the United States with the old and distinguished Schiffer name. The United States Census Bureau estimates there are approximately 3.2 persons per household in America today which yields an approximate total of 1440 people in the United States carrying the Schiffer name. Although the figure seems relatively low, it does not signify the many important contributions that individuals bearing the Schiffer name have made to history.
No genealogical representation is intended or implied by this report and it does not represent individual lineage or your family tree.
January 23, 2007
Yay lunch time blogging!
I just wanted to say that Home on the Strange makes me happy in ways that no other comic ever has. The sheere zaney silly at times remindes me of my own friends. (I don't have quite so much of the self destructive and emotionaly unwell in my friends, but it makes for a more dramatic comic I'm sure.) ^_^
Now I'm off to go play sheeps-head with my coworkers and eat my tasty soup.
(I can't get Blogger's spell checker to work right now, so I appoligize for the misspellings in here.)
January 22, 2007
I haven't made any progress on my regency corset since the last post. I'm feeling mighty sucky this month. Also my hip is acting up again. I think the weather is setting it off, but I'm not quite sure.
On the up side I have put up several new galleries of pictures, including some of the National Zoo and Sideling Hill (not from the same trip).
January 08, 2007
I finished the first mock-up of my Regency era corset yesterday night. Considering that I had to scale the pattern up by four sizes, I think it turned out pretty well. I need to shift the hip gores and the arm holes back a bit, but I think it's about the right length and size. I think it will have an even gap in the back of about two inches. I'm not sure if this is right for Regency period corsets, but I don't have a lot of image resources to work from.
I'm using the Past Patterns 1820s-1840s Corded Stay and I like the pattern so far. Unfortunately the pattern only goes up to a 33 inch waist (which I left about four years and fifty pounds ago... ;_;), but Saundra Ros Altman who runs the company (and I think drafts all the patterns) was very helpful and supportive. She even sent me some information about grading patterns so that I could get it to work for me! ^_^
I did have about twenty minutes of extreme frustration while I tried to understand the directions for sewing a gore. I was pretty sure I had done gores before, but no, I was thinking of gussets. Eventually I dragged out my fifty year old sewing manual from Coats & Clarks and it delivered me better instructions. That book is worth every penny of the $7 I paid for it.
Hopefully only one more mock-up to go for the corset and then I'll be able to work on the actual one. I'm hoping I can get to the dress I'm wearing over it some time next week. Somewhere in there I have to squeeze in making a chemise, but I'm not too worried about that part.
My goal is to have my Regency outfit done by the end of the month. That might be a bit ambitious, but I'll try anyway. I still have to make another stab at a Victorian corset that fits me for a different costume. I can't wear the improperly fitted one I bought any more. I was trying to pretend that it wasn't that bad, but I'm pretty sure that's what screwed my hip up. Bleh. Eventually I'm putting some corset reviews up in my sewing section and I will have very bad things to say about the woman who made that one.
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