Building Machines


The x-y Easel and The Atelier Print:

The concept is simple.  Shoot paintings the way artists see them, in their studio or in a gallery.  Print them using good digital processing techniques, and you have a print that’s as faithful to the original as you could imagine.

Read more about that process here: The Atelier Print.

That required designing and building a motorized, programmable easel to control the stepping and capture.  Read all about that here: The x-y Easel.

The results?

Ted,

“I’m blown away.

 Just got the print. Hugely impressed. Thanks so much for the effort!  Very top quality work, in fact better than anything I’ve seen to date from anyone.”

– William Penniman Storck


Easel-mount Monitor

Many artists use photographs for source material.  Many years ago, we worked on an idea to use a computer monitor to display photos for the artist, eliminating the inevitable transposition of a paper print.  Finally, the technology has reached a point where it’s feasible and workable.

We used a Samsung Q6F television, and simply prepped the image with our layout and positioning in Photoshop.  We loaded the image using a USB drive.  Though color profiling the display, and driving it through a computer would result in a higher fidelity image, the on-screen adjustments seem to work fine, and allow the artist to adjust the display to taste.

The image appears entirely life-like, giving the artist the ability to paint as if the subject was sitting in the room.


Belt Sander Racing

I don’t know what to say about this one.  I guess something along the lines, “…if you have to ask, you probably won’t understand the answer.”


Motors

This is a 1940s vintage AC brushed variable speed (manually variable brush position, controlling the field timing) printing press motor going into a Golding Model #5 if you’re interested.


Finally, “The Chandelier”.  An electric drive hoist to raise and lower the lighting rig (“gantry”?  OK “chandelier”) from the comfort of your Barca Lounger.  Built for Warren Prosperi, Prosperi Studio.

Yes.  It made him very, very happy.


Of course, I can’t leave out the electric motorcycles.

Read all about that at The Electric Chronicles.