So Sam called Richard Lamb, his son and asked if he would be willing to talk to me about making all the embossed papers for the course.  It turned out that it peaked his interest and I could come over to discuss it.  So I trucked off with the skanky casket and nice one I have to show him and to talk about the nitty gritty of trying to do something like this.

I had thought that the edging was embossed in situ after the papering of the casket.  Turns out I was right, from looking at the clues, and so how to do that for your caskets???  We all agreed that the labor to do the paper install and then emboss was just out of the question – students would need to do the paper install themselves.  So could we make strips of embossed paper for them to put on the casket?

We tossed around all kinds of ideas.  I brought Richard a sample of paper we were considering to see how well it could be embossed and gilded.  This is usually done on leather which is thicker and thus gives more to the tool.

Our experiments in the next blog…

I mentioned the wheel that finally arrived yesterday for our edges on the caskets.  Well, let’s hit the rewind button and talk about how I got to that place!

So I recognized a very long time ago that bookbinding stamps were used on the edges of the drawers and other exposed edges.  They were embossed on paper that covers the wood.  So far, they have all been embossed in silver. I started to collect pictures of the stamps – in the hopes that somehow that might link up to makers or merchants.  Not sure yet, but who knows someday!

So if you don’t know what I am talking about – here are a few pictures from the first two caskets we have looked at in class in detail.

BTW – the UPS guy has gotten a few smiles from me this week – there were a few other great packages to be had, those stories soon!!

Today I got another item for the casket in the mail!  It’s like Christmas!  In this case it came from P&S Engraving in England.  They specialize in making stamps and rollers for bookbinding.

Those in the course are getting a huge amount of info thrown at them about this (and will have a big chapter on it later this year).  But in a nutshell, the edges of the casket drawers and interior are all stamped in silver using bookbinding stamps.  I won’t get into all the evidence, etc. – that is for the class.  But we would need to replicate that.  I could have gone with existing patterns, but this is a great place to leave a marker – a trail for future historians, curators, conservators, and antique dealers.  Something that says – this is a modern piece and belongs to the grouping of this teacher.

So I spent a lot of time a few months ago trying to design a period looking logo and branding for the Cabinet of Curiosities.  Something that would carry through the packaging, instructions, and caskets themselves.  That way there would be enough clues left to help identify the worked caskets as modern.

I will discuss this in detail for the next few blogs – an important part of leaving a digital signature out there for the future – but first here is the wheel that will be used for everyone’s papers!

Tricia

I know many were wondering if I would ever give the answer to the question – how many hours did that post on being dyslexic take me.  7 1/2 hours.

Why so long to post the result?  I was emotionally exhausted and had to ignore it to get back to the business of getting the casket class up and running.  But I ran into friends at my son’s school this morning after an event and knew it was time to post.  They are also an over-achieving family full of creative dyslexics, and their son will be attending the famous Carroll School next year, leaving his friends behind.  So the two couples compared notes about having dyslexic children and why can’t schools get it right and we both agreed that the worst part was having to relive your own personal pain through their eyes – long after you had pushed it away into a dark place.

Every time I have to meet with educators about my children, I find the process full of minefields of my own despair at a young age.  I would much rather get into a yelling match about some detail about a military system I am working on with a general than talk to a 1st grade reading teacher or principal.  Those people scare me and reduce me to mush with their scorn because they just don’t get it.  So I had to walk away from it for a bit, although you never quite walk away, my kids bring it up daily.

I was inundated by entries – and some really wonderful creative ones as well.  I laughed a lot and cried some too.  I have still been getting emails from people who went out and read more or just had the link sent to them.  It also spurred on some very interesting conversations at home.  I told my kids about the pallet vs palette email and the response from the back seat was enlightening.  The older one has internalized my messages and is now accelerating at school (a late bloomer effect common to dyslexic children and adults).  He was all about ‘go to it mom – teach the world we have strengths, etc’.  The younger one was horrified.  He has just been diagnosed and is horrified that I might let anyone know I was dyslexic, and on the internet no less!  I asked him why.  He told me in no uncertain terms how I would be cast as a stupid person the rest of my life.  So sad and the root of all the pain we are going through with him at the moment.  The funny thing is that my kids are interracial and the school has all these opportunities for them to do things in affinity groups, etc.  They never do – that is not what labels them.  It is being ‘stupid’ for their difference in thinking.  There is no affinity group for those that ‘Think Different’.  Used to be, it was called the dunce cap.  (Had to explain that this week when the younger came home after that slur was tossed at him).

I did take the opportunity to do some reading and finished the Dyslexic Advantage in only two days (a record for me).  For a dyslexic, reading (or listening to the mp3 version, available through Amazon) that new book is life changing.  And I knew so much beforehand, but the perspectives and additional research I wasn’t aware of… wow.  Their website is full of amazing information.  I love the way the blog it structured.  Just for people like me.

Read the essay by a dyslexic MIT student – you will be impressed.  I think the quote that sums it all up is this:

It is important for us to stop seeing dyslexia as a learning disability and start seeing it as an alternative way of perceiving and processing the world, with benefits as well as drawbacks, and with the potential to contribute creative approaches to our world’s problems.

Lydia K. ’14

We have taken a new tactic since reading the Dyslexic Advantage in our house.  We like to thing of ourselves as superheros with some kryptonite to sap our strength.  I am going to have T-Shirts made up.  It is an image that resonates well with young children and says so much.  We were able to lable the older one’s superpowers quite quickly.  For the younger, we talked about the movie The Increadibles and how nobody thought Jack-Jack had superpowers until the end.  And he had a ton and had to learn how to use them like the older kids did.  That really resonated with him.  We go around theorizing about what my young guy’s powers might be as a family game.  Something to hold on to on dark days.

As dyslexics often become entrapenurers, my older son is wanting to go into a socially concious-business with this idea.  Something that we just might do.  He decided to write his middle-school essay on this topic last week, and just yesterday asked me if I would post it on the internet for him.  I will tomorrow.  I am so proud of him – not because of the content – but because he has embraced it and come to know himself and he wants to use his experience to help other kids.  That is powerful.

So who won the contest and the lovely spools of GST???  In terms of people closest to the number:  Wendy H (7 hr 16 min 35 sec), Carla B (7 hr 30 min), Laurie S (8 hr) and Penelope D. (8 hr)

Then there are those entries that just tickled me.  A spool goes out to all these readers as well:

I have to give a spool to Diane T. for this gem of an entry:

 Calculations:
52 min per diet coke so
52 min x 3 = 156 min
x dyslexia factor (I choose to use pi in celeberation of pi day last week)
156 min x 3.14159 = 490.08804 minutes
+ 21 minutes of walkabout breaks = 511.08804 minutes
divided by 60 minutes = 8.518134 hours

Plus an extra spool for Trish S. whose equation was:

Now let’s get to the heart of the matter.  Your Time.    I would have started with a good half hour of fuming time (FT).  Then, because I was passionate I would have dashed off the fruits of the fuming.  I am a moderately fast writer so I would take my time (MT) 3 hours and triple it for someone who has difficulty (3MT).  However, I would have to subtract a half hour for  passion (P) and an hour and quarter for a full bank of previously unwritten mental rants (UR).  I would also have to subtract an hour and a half for writing practice and hard won skill (WS).  I would use the three coke time (3CT) at an hour and a half each as a check on the correctness of my figures. (Such as they are…)

Calculations

FT+3MT-P-UR-WS=Tricia’s Time

 .5+3(3)-.5-1.25-1.5=Tricia’s Time

                         6.25=Tricia’s Time

Check

  CT=1.5

3CT=4.5

Based on my check, I have you at too long but I am going to split the difference and convert to approximately 5 hours and 22 minutes.

You grab a coke to sit down to do your post. You are pretty frustrated about the pallet -palette thing. I would suspect you could write the post in about an hour. But to edit, re write to clarify specific thoughts, check grammer (or is that grammar?)and check the spelling on the first draft about another hour. Then you re read it to do the second edit for clarification, spelling and grammar checks. By now I suspect you are pretty exhausted with the whole thing and grab the second coke. Then you start to wonder if all this is worth the effort and consider deleting it and just posting a pretty picture for everyone to enjoy – perhaps it is best to keep your personal issues to yourself.But, then you sit back and re read your writing and as you do so you realise that some things just need to be said and the devil be – with what comes from it. You have to make a statement and now is the time to do it. So you start to edit the piece again adding a bit here and there, and as you do so you know you will have to re check the spelling and grammar again…. this is exhausting and takes another coke to accomplish.

Now it is time to push the computer key that will actually put your thoughts out there for the world to judge you by and you think “just one more quick read and edit”. Then you press the enter key and hope your readers understand your thoughts, your feelings, and will learn a bit from what you have written.

My guess is 3 hours, 8 minutes, and 24 seconds.  I’m thinking a shorter time than some guesses because of the passion and personal emotion surrounding the topic.  That could make the entire writing process more inspired and much quicker.  As for the exact time breakdown, expressed as hours, this is 3.14 hours. . . which is pi. . . which would be a likely number for an engineer to hit. . . even subconsciously!

I think I heard a collective head slap there over the last post.  A ‘Duh’ uttered around the world.  Every time I have presented that visual picture to a group in front of an embroidered casket, that is the reaction.  Human wants and desires are universal and product marketers are quick to fulfill that need – no matter the century.

I spent a good deal of time in my past working with industrial designers.  They taught me that the fastest way to design a hot toy for the market was to look at some ‘classic’ toy and bring a twist to it that is modern in feel, but to preserve the essence of the play factor.  Maybe add enough variation to bring the ‘collector’ instinct out that is so human and part of a young child’s existence.  If you can add some ‘trade-ability’ to the toy – even the better as it enhances the social aspect.

You might not live in the same world I do of boy’s toys, but the hottest stuff out there in the last five years:

Bakugan (marbles that explode into a mini-collectible monster when they hit the opponents piece) = Marbles

Beyblades (constructable, collectible spinners used in a bowl shaped arena) = Tops

Pokemon Cards (obvious analogy) = Baseball Cards

It is the same for kids over the centuries.  Wrap the toy in the new colorful package, add some Japanese graphics, and do what you can do today with modern materials and injection molding that you couldn’t do with a hand plane and chisel and you have a winner.

What I CAN’T wait to show everyone in class are the rare toys and trinkets that the little girls of the 17th century made and most likely traded.  They are very rare to find, but exist.  That is what sent me over the moon.  Forget the secret drawers…It’s what was in them!

How about that for a tease?

Tricia