Banners & Anime Midwest & Things

Banners!

The new fabric banners arrived last night!

2 ft. x 2 ft. banner

2 ft. x 4 ft. banner

Hmm. I don't seem to have done the same color-correction on both pictures, the banners are the same colors. I also discovered that PhotoShop Touch for the iWhatsit can only rotate 90 or 180 degrees, not an arbitrary value like I needed to for the picture of the square banner.

The cream colored background they're supposed to have turned out only vaguely off-white (the picture of the big banner is closer to how they really look), but the rest of the graphics aren't the horrible washed-out mess that resulted when the previous printer tried to color-correct the background to white. Their turnaround time was fast, as mentioned previously, and their prices were good - $60-ish and $30-ish for each banner, plus shipping. So, I endorse this printer, MegaPrint(.com), and will be willing to use them again.

My only complaint is that they rolled the larger banner up the silly way, so it was a 4' long roll, which meant it shipped in something like a 5' long box, which was more pricey than the box for a 2' long tube would have been. I'm assuming that they usually do big stuff, so that's what they have shipping supplies for, and be content. They also didn't set grommets on the centers of the long sides of the big banner, but we can fix that ourselves. 

I tried the square banner with the plain brown text for "tter Necessities" that I used on the big banner, but it needed something more. Then I tried the two-color "tter Necessities" on the big banner, but that was too busy with the other text. If you click for the full-size pictures, the smaller print on the big banner has a lighter highlight. 

Other Things

Yesterday we also received the second order of photopolymer printing plates. Unfortunately, I made an error on how I submitted the plates for the printer to gang up, so they're closer together than I wanted them to be - I can't trim them to the size of the finished piece, which would have made setup and registration easier. Ron came up with a workaround, though. Wednesday we got the custom-mix dark brown ink I'd ordered, which I think I've forgotten to mention up until now. The green ink and replacement adhesive for the polymer plates is scheduled for delivery today (the adhesive on the plates is good for more than one use, but I'm not sure how many times it will be good for, and ordering some to have some on hand was cheap peace of mind).

I considered trimming plates and printing last night, but decided I had insufficient functioning brain cells.

Still haven't made the order form for calling/business cards. Must do that this weekend.

A while back I volunteered to help with publications for the annual floodplain managers' conference I attend. Got e-mail about it last night, responded this morning, we'll see how it goes. Normally my content deadlines for convention books are 6 and 8 weeks from the convention. Wednesday was 7 weeks from this one, and I'm busy next weekend with Military History Fest, the next weekend with Cap, and some of my proposals are a pretty big change from how things have been done in the past for this conference. Even if I can't convince them to try everything, I'm hoping for some incremental progress.

Anime Midwest - Yet More Kvetching

Yesterday I wrote down the timeline of registering for ACen and Anime Midwest. 

I started the ACen Exhibitor registration process on September 1st. On September 9th I got e-mail that I was approved and the process to continue with choosing space, etc. was X, Y, Z. I got updates on September 11th, October 15th, 22nd, and 28th, chose my space on October 28th, more updates on November 5th and 14th, and paid for my space, finishing the process, on November 16th. One or two of the updates were extras because of a change in their process from previous years, and one or two were responses, prompt ones, to e-mail I sent. But even though I did get frustrated with the process, I mostly knew what was going on, and it was wrapped up in 2-1/2 months.

Now let's look at Anime Midwest:
I started the process on October 31st. Unlike ACen's on-line system, no mail echoing what I sent, or acknowledgement it was received. I e-mailed on 11 November, heard only the chirping of crickets, so I e-mailed their parent organization on November 21st. On November 25th I finally got a response that they're still reviewing exhibitor applications, with nothing about when they'd actually have an answer. Since then . . . crickets.  A week from today will be 3 months since I submitted the application, and they can't manage to get me an answer ACen got me in 8 days. 

I'm debating when (not, you note, "if") I want to poke at Anime Midwest again. Also if I want to even be an exhibitor with them, given how things are going so far.  We did well at ACen, and had a bunch of people ask if we'd be at Anime Midwest, so I think we'd do well there, too. OTOH, I'm not getting a feeling of competence.  ACen's process as described wasn't how it really worked out, but at least they communicated.

Print Studio Layout

As threatened, here are pictures (click to embiggen) of our letterpress studio in the spare bedroom.  

Standing in the doorway at the southwest corner of the room, looking at the north wall:

You're looking at the Ikea gate-leg table, with the big bench off to the right. The stuff in the foreground is on top of the set of Elfa drawers holding the slide rule collection. The space where the folding chair is between the gate-leg table and the big bench is where I'd planned to put the file drawers. (I very briefly considered removing or raising the lowest shelf of books, but then we'd have the problem of what to do with the books.) There is room to open the other wing of the table, if we want the table space and I don't need to use my press. The box on the table is full of the MuseCon coasters, ready for Capricon.

The air conditioners are in front of the (full of rarely-needed stuff) closet door. When we take them out of the windows next fall they probably won't be coming back into this room. I'm also thinking of replacing the big one for our room with two smaller units like Robin's, which will at very least be not quite so large, heavy, and awkward.

Here's the big bench (an Ikea kitchen counter unit) that the presses sit on, on the east wall:

About the only change from the previous picture I've posted is where things are on the shelves underneath. You can see a bit of the folding chair and the very corner of the gate-leg table on the left side of the picture. That is another bookshelf tucked into the corner to the right of the bench.

Turning 180 degrees, here's the west wall:

In the center are the 5-drawer small flat-file cabinets, on top of their Elfa drawer unit stand (from the Container Store). On the left, the black thing is the paper cutter, the thing on the right is the paper creaser. They sit on the small Ikea kitchen carts.Off on the left are most of our CDs, some of which are piled higgledy-piggledy on top of the air conditioners, and a bit of the gate-leg table. Once we put the air conditioners in the windows come spring, hopefully the CDs can go back on the shelves.

On the bottom shelf under the creaser you can see the new, more defininitely green paper. The package of paper next to it is the very pale green (the pictures are kind of yellow, I forgot to color-correct before uploading). The thing(s) on top of the filing cabinets is a power squid.

We did not clean up the room for these pictures, although the cleaning fairies did come yesterday, which meant the floor was vacuumed. We've been trying hard to keep the room neat. The pile of things to the left of my press on the big bench is actually not quite as disorganized as it appears. Can't quite say the same for the odds and ends piled on the paper cutter, though.

Not pictured is the south wall of the room, which has a set of shelves along it, filled with things that have nothing to do with printing, and the Elfa drawer unit housing the slide rules.

I was somewhat surprised to discover that an air mattress will still fit in the open floor space, even without dropping both wings of the table and rotating it against the wall. We didn't end up needing the air mattress, but now we know it is usable. Not sure if the cot will fit, though.

I have tracking numbers for the new banners and polymer plates. I expect the plates tomorrow and the banners on Friday, yay!  I'm impressed that the banners went out yesterday, as I didn't get the file for the smaller banner sent to the printer until the afternoon on Monday. 

Didn't make any progress on an order form for business cards last night, but I did make cut up a rather large piece of beef, and from it made dinner for last night (curry), tonight (vaguely chili-ish stew), and cooked strips to have on dinner salads tomorrow, plus doing dishes and all while not making a mess out of my nice clean kitchen. I love my cleaning fairies! (the "fairies" part referring to the magical aspect of the house getting clean)

Paper and Piggies and Other Things

We got the colored paper I ordered. The green I ordered is very very pale, more so than I was expecting from the approximation in their utility guide book. I'd been debating buying a sample pack of almost all of their paper, both weights and colors, so on Saturday afternoon I did. I also ordered what should be a darker green, Pop-Tone "Limeade". I waffled a bit about the green, but I decided to go for it as it didn't increase the shipping, which is a consideration when buying paper. They're out for delivery today.

Going back a couple blog entries, prior to my thoughts on the Chi-Fi thing, I talked about getting some Bisley filing cabinets from The Container Store.  After googling and determining there are no other good options for small flat file drawer units, on Sunday morning Ron and I got two of the smaller 5-drawer units (in orange) for the letterpress studio. The price of the 10-drawer unit had gone up by $20, so it was cheaper to buy the two 5-drawer units than the 10-drawer. The Container Store didn't have the wheeled base unit, and the casters on the base for a larger Bisley filing cabinet were craptastic. We discussed getting a small furniture dolly from Ace Hardware, but ended up being seduced by The Container Store's annual Elfa sale. We got the parts for a small wheeled mesh drawer unit, "cabinet size" (shallower), 4 drawer units high. 

The Elfa base we created is just about a perfect size, but it has one problem - the combination of base and Bisley cabinets is too tall to sit between the big bench and the composing gate-leg table, which is where I was thinking of putting it. So we put it between the paper cutter and creaser. 

When we got home from that shopping trip, we sorted blocks and put them away. IIRC we have 1 drawer for polymer plates, 2 of Christmas blocks, 1 of chickens (Ron's) and pigs (mine), 2 of other animals,  2 of "everything else", and one empty. Which only adds up to 9 drawers.  Oh, I remember now, there was one of frames and bookplates. So, we'll probably be getting a couple more 5-drawer cabinets and a small furniture dolly to put where I'd originally thought. Because we keep buying blocks.

A little bit ago I won an eBay auction for a herd of 6 piggies grazing. I think it needs to be an invitation or some kind of card, but I'm not sure exactly what.

No, I don't know why I've got a thing for pigs, nor can Ron say what's up with his chicken thing. I'll blame my maternal grandmother, she liked pigs too.   

Saturday afternoon I updated the banner designs I'd come up with in the past to use the Parsnip font I talked about earlier this month, and ordered two new banners, one 2' x 4' long, and one 2' x 2'. Yesterday I got e-mail that the file for the square one got eaten by the printers' system, but we got home from the funeral (see the personal blog) at a reasonable time and got it sent.

Did I mention Saturday was busy?  It was. Another Saturday accomplishment was finishing up the design for the new business cards, and sending the files off to get polymer plates made. I had time after the funeral and before the luncheon started to call the company making the plates and confirm that the files I sent would work, as this time around I sent images with shading. They were made today and I should have them before the weekend, so I could have some made for Military History Fest.

I think it was Sunday that we brought the proofs (sample prints) we have for most of the letterpress blocks downstairs and Ron scanned them. I started to try to come up with a business card order form yesterday afternoon after we got home, but I was just to tired to think straight. I did get an InDesign set of paragraph styles made of the digital stand-ins for the metal type we have. Yes, that was an accomplishment, after not sleeping at all well Sunday night/Monday morning, and then getting up at 5 am to go to Michigan for a visitation and funeral. 

Hopefully I can make some progress on making a business card order form tonight. I think I've pretty much given up on getting any new leather goods done for Military History Fest. I meant to at least try to get the valise I started finished, and it isn't a completely forlorn hope, but I'm not holding my breath. I'd hoped to at least lay out some signs to print (prices, "we do custom work", etc.), but we went shopping for the filing cabinets and organized blocks instead. Oops. 

More About Chi-Fi

Amazing Stories magazine did a story about the Chi-Fi vs. hotel controversy. Not surprisingly, they came to many of the same conclusions I did, with more, although not definitive, evidence:

http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/01/pushing-fannish-buttons-chi-fi-vs-westin-river-north-hotel-chicago/

Chi-Fi is Definitely Off the Schedule for 2014

Back in October I posted an entry nattering about possible events to go to. One of them was Chi-Fi, a new SF convention to be held in downtown Chicago at the end of March. I had this to say about it at that time:

"Chi-Fi:  SF/Geek. Conflicted. Prices not unreasonable. Downtown Chicago does not thrill us for getting the trailer there (much less parking - would probably haul it back home), or getting there ourselves. 1st year, wondering what attendance they'll get. Xap pointed out that they have some good musicians coming, though. Currently leaning away."

I e-mailed for more information, and got some (attendance hopes), but not other bits (trailer parking/storage options). I decided that their vendor prices and attendance hopes were higher than I was comfortable with for a first year, especially when coupled with the whole location/parking issue, so we decided "maybe next year".

This morning I saw the news via social media that Chi-Fi as a weekend-long convention will not be happening this year.

The convention chair has stated that the hotel had issues with the convention's anti-harassment policy, and hotel staff (managment?) referred to fen as freaks. The hotel has countered that the issues were not as stated by Chi-Fi, but they and the convention could not come to agreement on certain issues, and that the convention requested an out, which the hotel granted. 

On social media the majority of commenters seem to be assuming absolutes - truth by the convention and lies by the hotel.

I'm not one of them. I'm betting that the truth is somewhere in-between the two. My guess is that the word "freaks" was used by someone at some time, and that there were discussions about how the convention's anti-harassment policy would apply to hotel staff. And I'm also guessing that there were issues from the convention's end.  I suspect there's been a lot going on that neither side is talking about. 

The upshot is that Chi-Fi is mostly off for this year - they will be doing a Saturday-only event at a different venue. They have stated this is not a cancellation, just a delay on holding a full convention until next year. They've also stated that refunds are available. These are encouraging signs for Chi-Fi's continued existence. 

To wrap it all up with as somewhat on-topic, I'm glad we decided not to do Chi-Fi this year, and Otter Necessities is still at "maybe next year".

Bookwork, and Some More Entertaining Work

Yes, I have finally been working on the books. Over the last two weekends I got all the 2013 transactions entered into my spreadsheets. 

I started the first weekend this month with entering purchases, which took a good chunk of Saturday. On that Sunday I did on-line sales. Not that I had a lot of them, but I had to go through and make sure I had copies of all the necessary bits and pieces of each transaction - Etsy, PayPal, and the USPS. 

Yes, these tasks would be a lot easier if I'd kept up with the books throughout the year. I'd started out the year well, but things went to heck in a handbasket about the time we decided to do ACen. Getting ready for ACen ate my brain for a month, doing ACen and going to Wiscon on back-to-back weekends killed it some more, and the bookwork never really recovered. 

Last weekend on Saturday we got all the sales done on the iWhatsit Point of Sale application in. The app happily spits out a CVS file that's easy to import into a spreadsheet, especially since I was willing to let the sales we'd done that way be in a different format in the books. But I also shift records from my inventory spreadsheet to my items sold spreadsheet. The POS (Point of Sale, not Piece of S***, which I always want to read POS as) actually made that easier - I dropped each event in as a individual spreadsheets, which I can sort, and re-sort as necessary to make various parts of the record-keeping process easier.

Sunday I was feeling very meh, so I didn't do any more with the books. We went shopping instead. We got a gate-leg table to put where the shelves were in the spare bedroom, for composing text on (on the wall to the left of the big bench): 

The table has been declared a "clean" surface - which means it should be safe to set paper on, as it shouldn't be grubbied up with ink, oil, etc.
 
The previous Friday we'd gotten two smaller kitchen carts, for the paper cutter and creaser:

Yeah, this Ikea thing is becoming a (very bad) habit.

The default state of the gate-leg table is with only the left wing up (facing it, big bench along the wall on the right). With the right wing up, you can't work at my press or open the end drawer of the big bench. But that wing can be put up if we need the table space. And if we want more space in the room we can drop both wings, and rotate the resulting very small thing parallel to the wall. An all-around win.  Ron modified three of the six drawers so that they can all be put in and taken out from one side, since the other is against the wall in the default position.

I need to get pictures of the whole room to give an idea of how its laid out.

Next furniture-ish purchase is probably shallow flat file drawers. A small set for the dining room for patterns, and a larger set for the print studio for paper, polymer plates (which should be stored flat), etc. I was planning on putting those where the gate-leg table is, but I have some other options. 

The 5-drawer units are about half the height of the larger units, same depth drawers, IIRC, as the ones in the dark large unit - pictures are not to scale.

Saturday and Sunday I also poked at new business card ideas/layouts. Still working on those.

Sunday evening we used one of the new polymer plates on a small piece of base in Ron's press, and printed "Letterpress Printing by Otter Necessities" and the website URL on the back of all 750 MuseCon coasters.

Colored Paper

I ordered paper today, several colors.

I was going to get off-white, pale green, and pale blue. But then an orange that is anything but pale jumped off of a blog page and said "YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS WITH ME". I failed to resist. And then I decided what the hey, I'll add pink and gray and put it on Otter's credit card.  

So I did.

I got, all from French Paper Co.

From their "Construction" line (as in heavy-duty construction equipment, not the awful construction paper we used in grade school), Whitewash (off-white) and Insulation Pink.

The light blue is Dur-O-Tone Butcher Blue.

For light green I got Speckletone Starch Mint. Speckletone is recycled, and has flecks and bits in it. 

The grey is Parchtone Gunmetal. Parchtone is animal-free pseudo-parchment.  

And the rather shocking orange is Pop-Tone Tangy Orange.

Sorry, I can't find a way to link directly to the French Paper blog post that grabbed me. This should get you close, then scroll down to the August 13th entry that's business cards that look like movie tickets.

Leterpress Printing Process

So, as threatened, here's the post with even more pictures going through the printing process. Click pictures to embiggen.

Here is my press. To the left is a piece of almost-white tile where I've been mixing up orange ink. The semi-circular part of the press disappearing off the top of the picture is the ink disk. In front of the tile is the end of a slinky-board. And in front of the press to the left is a small stack of coasters.

My press is a 6x9, which means that the chase, where the type, etc. goes has an inside dimension of 6" by 9". Here's the chase, locked up with my aluminum base plate for sticking photopolymer plates to, with the smaller of our two MuseCon logo plates:

The dark metal blocks, two along the top and one on the right side, are quoins - you put a key in the holes and they spread open to lock things in. Ron's chase uses a different system, which I could use on mine, but don't. More on that below. The white tape on the sides of my chase are holding thin wood on, so that it can't wiggle from side to side in the press. 
  
Here's a closer shot of the plate and base, in the press. That shiny thing down on the bottom is one of the rollers.

 Here's a better idea of what it looks like in the press: On the opposite side is the platen, where I've mounted a frame made out of heavy cardstock, with a cutout for a coaster and a notch. Don't worry, the masking tape is augmented with double-sided tape. I've also augmented the bottom edge of the frame with another layer of cardstock to help the coaster stay in:

 A blank coaster in the frame. I've skipped the boring bits of setup, which involve getting enough layers of paper underneath so that you get a good print, and getting ink spread out on the ink disk.

 As you pull down on the handle, the rollers roll up across the chase, inking the type/plate, and the platen closes toward the chase:

The press in the closed position. No, the rollers don't go all the way to the top of the disk, but the disk rotates with each cycle, so the ink stays evenly spread. I have to use both hands to run my press, as it is all cast iron, heavy heavy heavy.

4 of the 5 bolts you can see in the back of the platen are so that you can adjust it so that its parallel to the chase bed. The center one holds it to the rest of the press. The rails that the rollers ride on as they pass over the chase have been built up with strapping tape, so that they don't apply too much tape. Another fiddly adjustment job that had to be done (Ron's press was less worn, so didn't need the rails taped).
 
One coaster printed. Take it out with one hand while the other puts a new one in:

 Except when the coaster falls out of the frame:

 Retrieving the fallen coaster; carefully, so you don't bump the inky rollers:

On Wednesday I finally added a strip across the bottom quarter-inch or so of the frame opening, to prevent this. Even if you see something shift while you're closing the press, you DO NOT reach in. Metal hard. Fingers squishy. Guess which is going to win?  Fortunately, I only had one coaster get mangled, the rest fell out when the press was opening, with only a few stray ink speckles resulting.

Ron's press is a 3x5. Here's his chase locked up with the text for the coasters:

Ron's chase uses screws that go through the chase frame, two the top and two on the left. I can tell which sides, because that's where the chase irons are - you could screw against the wood furniture, but that would leave divots in the furniture. 

The little things holding the coaster in place are gage pins. These are new-fangled foam and plastic ones.

 Older style gage pins are metal, and can damage type or be smashed against the chase or the metal base for polymer plate. We have some, but haven't used them yet, because the foam ones have been working just fine, despite statements by some people that they should only be used in blah blah blah situations.

A finished coaster:

 The metal bar on the right side is a gripper arm. We have pairs of them for each press, and when printing on larger pieces of paper you position them so that they catch the paper and help peel it off the type, as the ink is sticky. 

But gripper arms are another thing that you have to worry about smashing or being smashed - You don't want to catch them between the chase and platen  or the aluminum base for photopolymer plates and the platen (would damage the gripper arm and/or the aluminum base), or between the type and the platen (damage the type).

I've posted this picture before, on one of the blogs, but I'll post it again so you can see the relative sizes of the two presses. Ron's press I can run one-handed:

 

I can do a lot more with Ron's press before getting tired, but mine has a bigger print area. The aluminum base we have doesn't fit in his chase, but we did buy some scrap, which we can put some of the smaller photopolymer plates on, so we can use them in Ron's press, or in either press in combination with type.

Coasters!

Monday I got to work, was at the office for about a half-hour, and then went home, when the governor closed down State offices due to the weather. Tuesday morning I got to work, the office was cold because the boilers were broken and off (1 in each state), so we were sent home at noon. Yesterday the assistant director of awesome went into the office at about 6 am, determined that it was still freezing cold and e-mailed us to stay home. And didn't leave the office for the night until sometime after 9 pm (at which one of the boilers had been replaced and the office was back up to reasonable temperatures). Hopefully she got home for a while in there somewhere. 

Monday afternoon, the photopolymer plates arrived. Well, plate - it was one big sheet, as shown in my previous post in the low-resolution facsimile of the PDF we sent to have it made. The plastic is relatively soft, easily cut apart with scissors.

I started printing the first pass of coasters for the Capricon Cafe, which MuseCon is sponsoring. 250 coasters later, I called it a day. Tuesday I did the other 250. The first pass looks like this:

This is one from Monday: Monday I started out with this pale green, and kept adding (evil messy) blue until I finished up with a dark pine green:

 

Tuesday I started with orange, and either orange is stubborn, or I was being restrained when I was adding red, because there isn't much change (these are from the end of the day's run):

Monday and/or Tuesday evening (I forget exactly what we did when) Ron did the backs of some business cards he'd made over the weekend for advertising the cafe:

Tuesday night we set up the text and on Wednesday I did the words on all 500 coasters. I started out with light blue, darkened it up, added red to make burgundy, then added yellow to make light brown, then black to make bronze, although these are the light blue and burgundy:

The coasters are soft and porous enough paper that that we could stack coasters as they were done. Ron came home in the early afternoon, and then we did 250 more coasters, for the MuseCon party at Wiscon. He did the words, then I grabbed stacks and did the logo. Except when we switched places, because my shoulder and back got tired, because my press is a lot bigger and heavier to run. I'd left the bronze on his press, and I loaded up mine with (evil) blue:

Then Ron did some sample business cards. Those are in the slinky-board on the left in this picture. The other 3 slinky-boards are holding about 250 coasters (if you count the ones laid on top):

Why do I keep referring to the blue ink as evil blue?  Because it is. The can got packed upside-down for shipping, but even now that the ink has settled back to the bottom of the can (its really thick), it still gets everywhere. We've wiped the outside of the can off countless times, and you still can't touch it without getting blue on your hands. And it leaps off the press onto you like no other color does. The blue is evil. Pretty, but evil. 

This post is probably long enough. I have another whole string of pictures documenting the printing process, I think those will be a separate post.

Sorta-Kinda Progress

Almost no progress on leatherworking.
No progress on doing the books. 

Did do a little putzing around with letterpress.

I fooled around with laying out Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" and Clement C. Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" on the computer with different page sizes and close approximations of our metal type faces. I got "Jabberwocky" into a shape we both liked, printed it out as printer's spreads, and taped the pages together (because I was too lazy to mess with duplexing the right bits together) to create a page-layout guide to make an 8-page book. 

I meant to mess about with some short Lewis Carroll poetry and business cards, but got distracted by visiting with Ron's sister and nephew, and making a tunic for Wash. While I was working on that Ron, Xap, and Wash were looking at examples of leather armor for LARP/SCA-ish combat, and playing with the leather scales we haven't done anything with since for quite a long time. Maybe with Wash's help we'll actually get some quantity estimates and a start on instructions. 

We also picked up a couple Slinkies (it's fun it's a wonderful toy . . .), which have been tacked down to boards for drying stands for printed material - the line in the dining room works, but it isn't perfect. So we'll try the Slinkie-stands. 

I got my Uhlen Rundgotisch yesterday. Still waiting for the spaces, as the font didn't come with them. I've laid out the promotional Capricon Cafe by MuseCon thing we're going to do using my Uhlen Rundgotisch electronic stand-in, so once the spaces come in I can start them. The USPS said the thin spaces were supposed to be delivered yesterday, but they didn't leave the sort facility in Colorado until some time late last night, so I'm thinking the USPS is still cleaning up the last of the pre-Christmas shipping deluge.

Saturday night we uploaded a file of images we'd like to get made into plates to Boxcar Press, and ordered a base. The plates are in production, but because of UPS' holiday schedule won't go out until Thursday (normally they'd go out today). But Boxcar is only in New York state, so there is an off-chance we'll get them Friday (I don't think standard ground service includes Saturday delivery). 

 
This is a JPEG created in Paint via cut and paste from a PDF, useful only for illustrating this post. The format is long and narrow because the platemaker spits out a piece of film 17" by up to 22", so I packed what I could into 17" by enough the other way to be at least 50 square inches, with at least 3/8" between images (hence the upside-down Otter logo - it allowed better packing). I did pretty well, our end area was billed as 51 square inches. Yes, I am having some text printed as plates, so we can have a consistent font and not always be setting the same bits of text from type.

Robin's finished a bunch of trays. The base size is the 12-1/2" by 12-1/2" type cases we got with the presses, and then he's also making quarter size, and for himself, half-size for transporting miniatures. Over the weekend he finished up the first few quarter-size trays, which are deep enough for our border sets to stand up in without being taller than the trays. Here's a couple pictures:

 
The large trays have shorter and narrower sidewalls, which caused some assembly problems. Robin's got plans to offer trays for sale, he thinks other miniature gamers might be willing to buy them. For gamers he's going to stick with the taller and thicker sides. And I need to proof-read his first draft of website verbiage. He also needs to price lumber to come up with tray prices, since we only bought the fiberboard for the bottoms, and he's been using lumber from the stash for the sides. 

Last night I sorted the wooden furniture for setting up the presses into the large trays. Most of it fits into two large trays, and there's a few pieces of really wide stuff to go in a third (when Robin finishes one - he's limited by glue drying time and number of clamps). We also have some furniture that's too long to be used (unless/until we get a bigger press...), that I moved to the back of a shelf.  

New Font/New Look

One of the things we want for letterpress printing is a "Boxcar Base", which is a slab of machine aluminum, on which you mount photopolymer (fairly thin plastic) printing plates to bring them to the right height for presses designed for metal type. Its called a "Boxcar" base because its made/sold by Boxcar Press. The minimum order of photopolymer plate is 50 square inches, so Ron has been working on packing images that we want plates of to get our first plate run made.

One of the things we definitely wanted was an Otter Necessities logo, with the O-Otter for the O. In the past I've used Papyrus font for the words, which is a font that gets a lot of scorn. Last year I used this font, which is I like (which is good, since its one I bought), but the knockout inside the letters could be iffy to print letterpress, especially at small sizes:

 
As mentioned elsewhere about letterpress, we bought a font of Parsons in metal type. Its Art Deco, but not too over the top. A digital revival of Parsons is Parsnip NF, which includes the cool swashy capitals and italic text. Which looks like this for the basic font:

(the gray background is an artifact of generating sample text from the Linotype website) 

So, when Ron discovered that Papyrus wasn't installed on his laptop, I decided to switch to Parsons/Parsnip, and bought Parsnip. And now we're blaming MS for not installing the font in any rational way so that you can get to the cool swashy alternate capital Ns. AAARGH!

Anyway, we're also planning on having photopolymer plates made of "Letterpress printing by Otter Necessities" and our URL. Because I am feeeelthy merchant scum, yes I am. 

Ron's currently got a bunch of Christmas gift tags half-done. They fold up to about a 2"x2" square, with a picture on the outside and "To:" and "From:" on the inside. IIRC he's done 3 or 4 Santas in red ink, and a Christmas tree in green, and the insides will all be green. Now we just need a hole punch to put holes in the corners. 

Definitely working on taking orders for Victorian/Steampunk calling cards for Military History Fest. It would be cool to bring Ron's little press, but the problem is the solvents used for cleanup. Even Goo Gone/citrus oil has a certain fragrance to it. Hmm . . . Goo Gone does make "paint clean-up wipes" that could be useful. We shall see what happens.

Printing Christmas Cards and Other Natter

Since my last post, I've done very little leatherworking. I did get the belt section ordered at Windycon made and sent out.  The valise is still stalled with decorative stitching on the endpieces in progess.

Doing the books will happen really really soon now, as the end of the year, and the need to file and pay sales taxes is looming. You don't get until April 15th for sales taxes. More like January 15th.

I have printed Christmas cards. Personal blog readers will recognize these:

Both are quarter-sheet size, when folded. The one with the Santa is actually on white paper, but I didn't get the color/temperature balance corrected on the photo. The snow maiden card is on gray, and has the words on the inside. It also has bleed-through problems because of using inexpensive paper; and I was having problems getting the bottom edge of the block to print. I decided to proceed with a faded-out lower edge of image. The ink bleed-though I didn't realize was going to happen, and didn't discover until I was starting to print the words on the inside a few days later, but it isn't so bad that I'm not willing to use the cards myself. 

I'll probably resume leather production, specifically more reenactment pouches for Military History Fest, with the New Year. 

Merry Christmas!

Oops, Been a While

Sorry, I didn't mean to fall off the face of the blog.  I think I'll play catch-up in bullet points (Oh nooooo! Not bullet points!), which are not necessarily in chronological order:

• Click to embiggen pictures.
• Found a contact for what appears to be Anime Midwest's parent organization, and poked that. That finally got me a response, but not a very useful one, essentially "we've got some apps we still need to review, don't know when we'll get around to it".  I poked again as they completely ignored the question if they had our app, and finally got an answer that they do. Feh.
• Poked the grommet supplier, poked them again, and finally a third time. They showed up this week, a month after they were ordered. The excuses are plausible, although the delay was certainly annoying.
• I finished the map case in time for Boar's Head. Its very nice:
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• I've started on a black (saddle) valise from the same leather. So far I only have ends, so there's not a lot to say about it. This one will be simple - one-piece body/flap, no inner rain flap, no liner. It'll be a lot like this one:
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• I also finished some pouches. Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but I discovered that the construction is good enough to hold water:
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• I was actually soaking them so they could dry stuffed with newspapers, so they'd hold their shape better, instead of wanting to bow in, because I store leather rolled good side in. The wetting and drying were successful.
• One of the pouches I finished is based on this replica of a WWII-era Japanese small map case. Mine, which I forgot to photograph, seems taller, and I didn't add the pencil/pen pockets on the sides.
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•  I also dyed it black, because black sells, and prototypes sometimes have the odd bug that being black can help overcome.
• The book-keeping?  Don't ask.
• Working on a new product line, letterpress printed cards. Because on the mumble-th time of being tempted by letterpress I mentioned it to Ron and we both failed:
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• The bigger press is mine, the smaller one is Ron's. See my personal blog for lots more letterpress natter. 
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• I also have plans to print signs (prices, etc.).
• And steampunk calling cards. 
• Boar's Head went pretty well. We sold a little bit of everything. I don't think the map case got a lot of attention, but it wasn't displayed as well as it could have been.
• The weather was cold for Boar's head, but clear and dry. So I didn't complain about the snow on Sunday.
• Sunday we got new rollers for the small press with some of the Boar's Head proceeds. 
• Regarding Boar's Head food, the lunch sounded like it was going to be pretty much inedible for Ron and I (hard to swallow/digest), as well as high-carb and pretty questionable in an overall attractiveness, but we didn't check that until Friday evening, at which point it was a little late to contact the group running the event and try to get a medical pass on the "no outside food" rule. So we went to the grocery store, stocked up on meat and cheese, and took turns going out to the truck to eat lunch.
• The very cold weather was a bonus, as we left the food in a cooler in the truck overnight both Friday and Saturday nights with no worries, and the cooler only acting as food containment. 
• The Pippin containment measures mentioned in the last post continue to be effective. 
• On the other hand, last night while Ron and I were out running an errand and Robin was upstairs, he stole a jar of printing press roller cleaner. Fortunately, he was either distracted or decided it didn't smell very interesting once he got it outside, so there's only some superficial teeth marks on the outside. 
• Plans for this weekend: Belt piece that I ordered the grommets for, printing Christmas cards, Cookie Lab. 
• I probably should be working on pouches, but, oooh, shiny, printing!

Successes and Progress

I think we're finally making progress on some things that have been issues.
 
Finally got notice that I could pay for our ACen exhibitor space, and have done so. (You may have noticed a giant sucking sound from the direction of our bank). That should mean that we've finally completed the registration process. If we want to get services (pipe & drape, electrical, etc.) from the convention center, which I don't plan to, that will be handled a little closer to May. We do still need to figure out if there's anywhere nearby we can park the truck & trailer Thursday and Sunday. 

The check for our Reenactor Fest spaces has been cashed, and the check for Boar's Head is listed as "in clearing", so I'm comfortable with where we are for those events.

Still haven't heard back from Anime Midwest, but I'll give it until at least Sunday afternoon/evening, if I don't hold out for a solid week. 

Pippin got out of the yard again yesterday. Robin called me just as I'd arrived at work. As I arrived home he was down the street, and happily came when I called - he's happy to go exploring, and he's happy to come home. Ron and Robin procured 6x6 landscaping timbers, a new chain for the chain saw, and we think we've got the problem areas dealt with - except for a couple small spots Robin is supposed to deal with . . . any time now.  

Last night I tried to order some clear sheet vinyl for one or more additional new projects, but the web site in question was not playing nicely with my iWhatsit. This morning I tried again with better success. 

The pebbled black leather that arrived Thursday is very nice. I don't think it's going to last long - besides the small project I ordered it for, I'm going to make it into sporrans, belt satchel, and satchels. Still waiting on the grommets to finish the small project. Had a "duh" moment on the way to work yesterday (the first trip) about a simpler way to put dees on pouches for use as sporrans. Which means more shopping. Its been a busy month for shopping.

Not sure the piece of black leather I got a couple weeks ago is large enough for both a map case and a valise. I'm going to do the map case first, as I think it'll sell sooner. Ron suggested a slightly smaller valise, which is an option, as they don't seem to have been standardized like some accoutrements. 

I probably could/should work on the books some more, but I'm going to start the map case this afternoon. Dammit.

About That Thing . . .

Being a Post About Things Which Are Not the Things Which Were Expected

A Map Case Type of Thing:

I still have not started the map case. While I was working on dinner(s) (1) on Monday a single-serving bottle of Moscato (a white wine made from Muscat grapes) demanded that I drink it. I decided that making critical decisions on a new project and working with sharp pointy things and somewhat expensive leather while under the influence was not the wisest idea, so I sorted paperwork. Then I attacked acorn squash with a kitchen knife, thus proving that alcohol impairs judgement. No injuries. 

Things of a Record-Keeping Nature:

As noted above, I've finally started getting the books for this year in shape. Trying a different way of sorting purchases this year, we'll see how it works out. Still have not dealt with sales since we started using the PoS software.

I'm Annoyed About a Thing:

At Windycon I was rather annoyed about our Virgin Mobile coverage, and the lack of clarity on their webpage. Alternatives seem to be thin in the ethernet. (2)

And Another Thing I'm Annoyed About, or Rather Two Related Annoying Things:

Received and returned my ACen contract, still not able to pay, as of this morning, although the message on login says my exhibitor space invoice is available. This is likely due to the contract not being processed yet, and was specifically mentioned in the e-mail exchange last week as frustrating. 

When I submitted my exhibitor/vendor application to Anime Midwest on the 31st of October, via web form, I did not receive any sort of acknowledgement or echo back of what I submitted. Therefore, on Tuesday I sent e-mail to their general contact e-mail address, and asked for confirmation my application was received, and an estimate of when I could expect acceptance or denial. Response has been the chirping of crickets.  

E-mail Things:

I've realized I will need to go through all my e-mailed purchase receipts (and probably receipts for on-line sales) and make sure they get into the books. This realization led me to break down and sort my @otternecessities.com e-mail in-box. Over 400 messages. Now I have a better chance of finding things. (4)

Pouch-Type Things:

Working on the fourth belt pouch that I took to Windycon. Still need to do various finishing bits on all the others.

Shopping for Things:

Today I bought silk and silk-wool blend fabrics. For a leatherworking project. Specifically for lining a music roll/portfolio. 

Yes, you may have noted that I sayd "fabrics" plural for a "project" singular. So shoot me, the second fabric jumped into my cart. I have other projects in mind that would warrant a fancy-schmancy fabric lining. Or maybe I want it for . . . meeeeeee!

Personal-Type Things, Since I've Been Remiss in Posting on My Personal Blog:

Yesterday Pippin escaped from the yard, by going under the fence where it doesn't quite come down to the ground, again. Robin has been assigned the task of moving (more) rocks (5) back to that side of the yard to prevent discourage further escapes. 

More Project-Type Things:

Ron and/or Robin will be doing the required woodworking to make molds to form leather sockets for small cobalt blue potion bottles by the end of this coming weekend. Expletive. 

Have to figure out a way of holding the plastic bottles I got, as they aren't as sturdy/rigid as glass bottles, and wrapping a leather strap around them tightly may result in crushing. 

See above note about shopping for lining fabric for a music roll. 

Late last week I received footman's loops for making a saddle valise.

Perhaps the leather and grommet setter I ordered Monday to make a piece commissioned at Windycon will (or has) arrived today. Also waiting for black grommets, from a different supplier. 

Need to update inventory to reflect sales at and since ACen, and figure out what we need to make in the way of pouches. I should also probably check to see if I made myself any notes. Because that would (have) be(en) S-M-R-T smart. 

Footnote Types of Things:

(1)
Dinners plural, because I made both Monday's (pot roast and acorn squash) and Tuesday's dinners (kibbeh and cucumbers & onions in yogurt) on Monday. 

(2) 
At least that fall within the ill-defined matrix of price, contracts, and data allowances that we have in mind. Cricket seemed like a front-runner until I realized they don't actually have WiFi hotspots. (3)

(3)
Or they do not any more, which boils down to the same thing.

(4) 
Yes, I know how nice/easy it is to search gmail, which the account in question happens to be, but some tasks are not as well suited to a google search of everything as they are to scanning a set of sorted messages. 

(5)
Rocks, of a reasonably rectangular prism-ish blocky nature, that were originally dug out of the ground along that side of the yard because they were right on the lot/fence line, and piled up on the other side of the yard.

International B-to-B Commerce

The internet has really changed business-to-business commerce, at least in my experience as a small business order.

Today I ordered button studs from Thailand and Japan. I also ordered leather and hardware from Ohio, and grommets from a manufacturer in New Jersey. I phoned in the order to Ohio (because their on-line ordering is for retail customers, and I'm wholesale), but the rest were all on-line. 

I've also looked at reproduction brass navigational equipment (box sextants) from two suppliers in India in the past. 

My mind kinda boggles at this all.  

In other news, I got the sewing done on three pouches while at Windycon, out of the four I took. My version of the Japanese map case needs to have the flap trimmed to the right length and then a tab sewn on - about 1" of sewing. All three pouches also need some finishing work, but they're substantially done.

I probably could have sewn the fourth pouch yesterday after I got home with the dogs, but we weren't that ambitious. 

Once I go make dinner for tonight and tomorrow I think I'm going to start on the new tubular map case. 

Registration Frustration

Just fired off e-mail to the Anime Central Exhibit Hall (vendor) staff. To simplify to the bare essentials, their described process for registering as a vendor, choosing space, receiving the vendor contract, and remitting payment appears to be . . . not actually as described.

Headdesk, headdesk, headdesk . . . the profits will be worth this . . . the profits will be worth this . . .

Busy-Ish Weekend

Ron and I have spent the last week looking at/for pictures of various map cases and other pouches, mostly from the WWII era. We have a bunch of ideas, and one Russian example on order. 

One that we both liked is a reproduction of a Japanese map case, which isn't obviously for maps:

It's about 6" tall by 4" wide, and hangs from the belt by that brass hook. 

I decided to make my own version. I started converting the dimensions from centimeters to inches, then realized that was stupid, and set my CAD program units to centimeters. 

I've come up with a design and cut out a prototype, which is going to be dyed black, because the selling power of black will overpower any imperfections in the prototype. The belt clips I have are black, need to see if I can find some brass ones similar to the ones in the picture.

I also cut out three Civil War-era belt pouches while I was at it, also to be dyed black. If I'm really ambitious, I'll get several things ready to sew together and can work on them at Windycon (not vending there, though).

I didn't get as far as starting a new tubular map case, although I got my thinnish-wall PVC in last week and meant to. I've decided how I'm going to construct it, though. I think this version will be more successful than the first one. And black, because . . . you know.

Saturday we went to the local Tandy/Leather Factory store, with Xap, who hadn't been there before. Some dark teal heavy garment/upholstery leather followed us home, as well as some more . . . interesting colors: metallic purple-ish that called to Ron, and screaming sparkly metallic magenta. It isn't a large piece of magenta, but big enough to do several soft belt pouches, because I think it may go at anime cons. 

I also got some black button studs, a couple steampunk-ish belt buckles, and nickel hardware to use on the black map case. And then we got home, and I ordered some shorter button studs, and footman's loops. The loops are to use for making a saddle valise/portmanteau, as is the ticking material I ordered last week. Nice sturdy twill-woven blue-striped old-fashioned pillow or mattress ticking, with an honest-to-bob woven-in (not printed) stripe. That will be the lining for the valise.

Ordered a couple books on WWII German cavalry from ABE, turns out from the same seller. Today a book I ordered last weekend, "Art Nouveau Designers at The Paris Salons, Volume VI: Textiles & Leather", arrived. From a quick flip through, most of the leather is in the form of bookbinding. 

Still waiting to hear back from Anime Midwest on my initial application, and ACen on my contract/payment information. Its been over a week since I chose my ACen space, my opinion of their process is not improving. Trying not to make any judgements yet on Anime Midwest. 

The shutdown of our ArtFire store is completed, as of October 31. I think I got all of one sale on ArtFire, it definitely was not working for us.