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As a special treat, i spent my tax return on a custom professional rounding jack from woodworker/artisan De Cou Studios!
Want to see? ( Read more... )
Want to see? ( Read more... )
I can't even begin to express how excited i am to have run across Mark DeCou, an artist and artisan woodworker who has recently begun producing functional reproductions of hard-to-find antique hat blocking tools.
DeCou has been working with some hatters in his community on the development of these tools, and taking his inspiration out of the 1919 text Scientific Hat Finishing and Renovating by Henry Ermatinger, which is a wonderful resource on blocking and finishing of men's hat styles.
( check out the tools I received in today's post... )
DeCou has been working with some hatters in his community on the development of these tools, and taking his inspiration out of the 1919 text Scientific Hat Finishing and Renovating by Henry Ermatinger, which is a wonderful resource on blocking and finishing of men's hat styles.
( check out the tools I received in today's post... )
Company foci: Micromark and We've Labels
Aug. 27th, 2008 09:06 amThere are a couple of companies I've recently ordered from that I'd like to mention in here--Micro-Mark and We've Labels.
Micro-Mark is known as "the small tool specialists," and they cater to industries like miniature and model builders, dollhouse carpenters, jewelrymakers, as well as film/tv/theatre artisan shops. They sell a huge range of tools that are small-scale--everything from miniature tabletop drill presses to needle-files. I recently got a hand bender from them for a very reasonable price ($65).
We've Labels is, i believe, a cottage industry that i stumbled across in a websearch. I had been looking for somewhere to do some basic woven labels for me to put into the hat collection i'm doing this year--i wanted something around an inch wide, basic old-fashioned script font, that said "La Bricoleuse." They got them to me in a prompt fashion for a good price.
( Want to see? )
Micro-Mark is known as "the small tool specialists," and they cater to industries like miniature and model builders, dollhouse carpenters, jewelrymakers, as well as film/tv/theatre artisan shops. They sell a huge range of tools that are small-scale--everything from miniature tabletop drill presses to needle-files. I recently got a hand bender from them for a very reasonable price ($65).
We've Labels is, i believe, a cottage industry that i stumbled across in a websearch. I had been looking for somewhere to do some basic woven labels for me to put into the hat collection i'm doing this year--i wanted something around an inch wide, basic old-fashioned script font, that said "La Bricoleuse." They got them to me in a prompt fashion for a good price.
( Want to see? )
Today was the second day of the symposium; while we waited for our output from yesterday's classes to cure/dry/etc., we toured three companies and organizations in the Carolina piedmont whose work is of related interest to costume professionals.
The first stop of the day was a non-profit development and consultancy company called [TC]2. They do a huge range of research and development of technology for the apparel and textile industries. One of their ongoing projects is body-scanners and related software. They market it in a variety of areas (the ImageTwin website being one example, and the online resource archive Tech Exchange), and they are apparently taking a body-scanner to SIGGRAPH this year as well. They also have developed a lot of new products and equipment for the digital textile printing industry and are the folks who conducted the landmark SizeUSA study of anthropometric measurements across a range of USA demographics.
The second stop was at the offices of the non-profit advocacy and development group, Cotton Incorporated, a resource and research organization that furthers the development of the international cotton industry, and the third stop was the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University.
( Photographs and more info... )
The first stop of the day was a non-profit development and consultancy company called [TC]2. They do a huge range of research and development of technology for the apparel and textile industries. One of their ongoing projects is body-scanners and related software. They market it in a variety of areas (the ImageTwin website being one example, and the online resource archive Tech Exchange), and they are apparently taking a body-scanner to SIGGRAPH this year as well. They also have developed a lot of new products and equipment for the digital textile printing industry and are the folks who conducted the landmark SizeUSA study of anthropometric measurements across a range of USA demographics.
The second stop was at the offices of the non-profit advocacy and development group, Cotton Incorporated, a resource and research organization that furthers the development of the international cotton industry, and the third stop was the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University.
( Photographs and more info... )
Tools: Duo-Mite Hand Bender
Jul. 22nd, 2008 09:23 amEver get frustrated making something with wire--a wire-frame hat, or a wire structure to support some kind of crazy collar or ruff, or even a wire puppet or mask foundation--when you cannot get good clean accurate bends? Your curves are wobbly and assymetrical, your angles woodgy and not at all sharp? This can be a huge issue, particularly if you are trying to shape wire of a beefy gauge.
I've been making a batch of underproppers for large Elizabethan-esque collars out of heavy gauge piano wire, using a Duo-Mite Hand Bender.
( What's that? )
I've been making a batch of underproppers for large Elizabethan-esque collars out of heavy gauge piano wire, using a Duo-Mite Hand Bender.
( What's that? )
I am totally a big drooly nerd for fabulous tools, particularly power tools.
I thought i would share some images and info on one i've been using sporadically at work to cut huge amounts of heavy cotton velvet, the ( Wolf Blazer Round Knife! )
I thought i would share some images and info on one i've been using sporadically at work to cut huge amounts of heavy cotton velvet, the ( Wolf Blazer Round Knife! )
I have just received delivery of hands-down the best new-to-me piece of equipment i could ask for: an industrial patcher machine, aka a shoe and boot repair machine.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Product/Tool focus: Industrial heat press
Nov. 27th, 2006 12:21 pmIn the safety course i'm taking (Principles of Industrial Health and Safety for the Entertainment Industry), we have recently conducted formal hazard assessments for various tools and equipment commonly--or not-so-commonly!--found in our shops. We were encouraged to choose either a tool currently owned by the shop that might present particular safety issues, or a tool that we would like to purchase for the shop but not currently available.
I thought i'd share my overview here, both in terms of discussing costume craftwork applications for the tool i chose (an industrial heat press) and to present a framework you might choose to adopt or adapt, should you find yourself in a position to be documenting tool hazard assessments for your own facility.
The particular products i chose were these heat presses by Geo Knight & Co., designed for light usage. I chose the light-usage press because even with frequent use in a theatrical costuming context, they don't need to stand up to the sheer volume of usage that, say, a t-shirt manufacturing house might put them through, setting thousands of transfers per day, all day every day. They also fall into the range of being fairly affordable--$279 and $495 respectively.
The obvious use for the professional costumer is in transfer applications--it's very effective with the various "iron-on" printer papers, hobby and industrial heat-transfers, iron-on fabric applique techniques, and in quickly processing the application of a large amount of fusible interfacings and the like. It is also helpful in heat-setting textile paints and screenprinting inks, and can be used to stiffen up Fosshape thermoformable felt as well. These presses are fairly straightforward and simple to operate, and not very hazardous providing the user has been properly trained in their use.
I last worked with a heat press of this sort in the craft shop of the Los Angeles Opera, where we used it for a variety of craft and millinery applications, and boy, have i been starved for one here at my current employer! My dyeing and painting students have been heat-setting various class projects using a standard industrial iron, which allows for a much higher margin of operator error than these presses do. Instead of trying to get a uniform coverage and uniform temperature/time application by moving a hand-iron over an area, the presses allow you to accurately set the temperature of the heat surface (called the "platen") and the duration for which the press will engage.
Note: Usages above require the guarding of the platen with a presscloth or other barrier. Melting plastics and inks to the platen is hazardous and may also damage the press.
Also! I do not recommend the use of these types of presses to apply dimensional heat-transfer products such as heat-set rhinestones and nailheads. There are better tools for applying these products, such as jewel-setting irons.
So, what does an "official" tool hazard assessment of this piece of equipment look like?
( This! )
Ideally, you would create these kinds hazard assessments for all the equipment in your shop. You would keep these on file in your record library and use them to determine proper operating and training procedures.
I thought i'd share my overview here, both in terms of discussing costume craftwork applications for the tool i chose (an industrial heat press) and to present a framework you might choose to adopt or adapt, should you find yourself in a position to be documenting tool hazard assessments for your own facility.
The particular products i chose were these heat presses by Geo Knight & Co., designed for light usage. I chose the light-usage press because even with frequent use in a theatrical costuming context, they don't need to stand up to the sheer volume of usage that, say, a t-shirt manufacturing house might put them through, setting thousands of transfers per day, all day every day. They also fall into the range of being fairly affordable--$279 and $495 respectively.
The obvious use for the professional costumer is in transfer applications--it's very effective with the various "iron-on" printer papers, hobby and industrial heat-transfers, iron-on fabric applique techniques, and in quickly processing the application of a large amount of fusible interfacings and the like. It is also helpful in heat-setting textile paints and screenprinting inks, and can be used to stiffen up Fosshape thermoformable felt as well. These presses are fairly straightforward and simple to operate, and not very hazardous providing the user has been properly trained in their use.
I last worked with a heat press of this sort in the craft shop of the Los Angeles Opera, where we used it for a variety of craft and millinery applications, and boy, have i been starved for one here at my current employer! My dyeing and painting students have been heat-setting various class projects using a standard industrial iron, which allows for a much higher margin of operator error than these presses do. Instead of trying to get a uniform coverage and uniform temperature/time application by moving a hand-iron over an area, the presses allow you to accurately set the temperature of the heat surface (called the "platen") and the duration for which the press will engage.
Note: Usages above require the guarding of the platen with a presscloth or other barrier. Melting plastics and inks to the platen is hazardous and may also damage the press.
Also! I do not recommend the use of these types of presses to apply dimensional heat-transfer products such as heat-set rhinestones and nailheads. There are better tools for applying these products, such as jewel-setting irons.
So, what does an "official" tool hazard assessment of this piece of equipment look like?
( This! )
Ideally, you would create these kinds hazard assessments for all the equipment in your shop. You would keep these on file in your record library and use them to determine proper operating and training procedures.
