Baby steps...

jep

Grumbler
Joined
Dec 28, 2002
Posts
41
Loc
Lexington,MA
O.K...now bear with me. I just learned how to upload images to my free webspace. Not yet figured the Grumble methodology yet, but I am going to give it a try some rainy day. Us Mac addicts are known for creativity not technical know-how.

For now here are some links to a few samples of recent works. Files are a little big for dial-up, but if you are patient I promise you won't be dissapointed.
Let me know if there are any problems with accessing these. Thanks.


images

[ 02-05-2003, 11:59 PM: Message edited by: vincent ]
 
Find out how to use your graphics program to crop off the background, and resize the images a little smaller. That way you can load a lot more of them up before you run out of space, and they will load faster.

Those flies came out really nice. Could you tell us more about how you got that look? Is that a print in the large opening, or did you paint it? It looks like you used a liner as a spacer, or am I seeing things?
 
As my teenager would say- AWESOME! We especially like the flies, Gary fly fishes. Would love to hear the details one how it was done. Have you ever considered submitting it to one of the framing magazines? Also, we were curious as to what the significance of the bells was with the tools. Looks like there is an interesting story behind these.
 
Vincent,

Very nice!! I collect antique hand tools and I always enjoy seeing how they are presented in shadowbox framing by other framers.

Some suggestions on your photos:

1. You are using images in the 2200x1700 pixel range. I would learn to resize them down to 400 - 600x300 - 500 pixels. They should have a file size no larger than 15K, otherwise they will take forever to load and will eat up server space.

2. Crop the excess background out of your photos as Hanna suggested. It will cut your file size down which helps load faster.

3. The quality of your photos is excellant! I would optimize the images (after you crop and down size the image size) for use on the web. Optimization of an image can reduce the size from 30K or 40K down to 5K or 6K without affecting the clarity of the image too much.

You can purchase an inexpensive image editor that should handle these tasks for you. Or visit a download site such as TuCows and do a search for an image editor. Many times they have some really good programs that are free to download or are shareware so you can try them before you pay for them.

Good luck and keep posting those great shadowboxes!

Framerguy
 
Yes, these are very cool. Please give details on what you did. Especially on the flies. I'd like to know more about the Arts & Crafts frames also. Very nice stuff. It took forever to load though, even on my newer faster computer.
 
Load speed has more to do with your internet connection speed and phone lines. The computer I use at home to grumble on is very fast but the phone line is not very good, so it sometimes can't handle things like this ( it quit on me this morning trying to load the flies.) :( The one at the shop is slow but connects at a faster speed and opened these just fine. Both have 56K modems, just one of those "things".
 
Sorry for the large files. I'm gonna get better at this. Thanks for the kind words also.

Thanks Framerguy for the tech.info.

A little about the flies-Size 16X20
These are hand tied trout flies. Each one is mounted (stuck) into a small cork, then floated on little cream fabric board squares that are framed with a reverse cut fillet. These squares are mounted onto a peice of specialty glass which has a liquid-like texture and is the backing of the frame.

The matting is a fabric covered board with stitched hemp accents.

The liner (spacer) is a wool tartan that I got from a fabric store and wrapped. A suede covered fillet lines the inner edge of the liner.

A little about the tools-24X30
A customer brought in a cardboard box that was stored in a basement for many years with these tools wrapped in newspaper, along with mouse droppings and sawdust.

These were her father's tools from their farm in Iowa.

The treatment and concept were simple. I floated them on a textured fabric covered backing with wire. They are not behind glass for the simple reason that it just didn't seem right. We wanted people to be able to touch and feel the worn wooden handles and the wonderful shapes. These tools weathered many midwestern seasons, a little dust won't make a bit of difference. The bells were worn by a work horse on the farm.

A little about the mouldings-
Bravura. A small moulding company out of Wisconsin. They make a wonderful line of quarter-sawn oak mouldings with butterfly inlays. These are great people and one of those little guys that we love giving our business to.

A little about the images-
The photos were taken with a Canon G3 digital camera (Merry Christmas). Worth every penny. I printed these photos of the tools for the customer to send to her relatives across the country and gave her a cd with the images on it for her to email to her "kin with 'puters".
Ironic how this high tech tool enabled her to share her low tech hand tools with everyone to enjoy.
 
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