Another side project

Here's yet another karakuri project I've started. Actually to be honest it's a couple months old, something I've been fiddling with every once in a while. It will be a 'fish merchant' karakuri that will have a figure cutting up a big fish. This photo shows my second attempt at making the mechanics for this one. Of course this started as a 'oh I can finish this one quickly' sort of thing, but like most of my projects it's turned into a bit of a monster...
I ran into a Makerfare contributor recently at a craft fare, and realized I'm not alone in having so many projects on the go. Still, must finish projects!
Back to the grind!

Snailing Along...

So here's the latest.


I've completed the surface of the Mars globe and spent about 4 hours or so sketching out the 18th century version of the surface of the planet, canals and all. Tonight I finally had the time to start the process of painting the surface. As I mentioned in the last post I've got about 6 layers of gesso and than about 5 layers of pink tinted absorbent ground. This works nicely with water colour paint, and the only issue so far that I can tell is dealing with gravity. Painting watercolor on a curved surface does not lend itself to the usual charms of watercolour, so slow thin coats of paint layered up carefully does the job.
Here's a couple of photos of the sketch then the beginning of the painting...

Good news on the Archer Karakuri front, I have found some small plastic pulleys! That project can now get some long overdue attention. Time willing!

Its been a while, but much to report...

So it's been a few months since I posted. Mostly this is due to work issues, I've been working 6 days a week to make ends meet. However I have been finding time to work on the various projects I've posted here.
I have been feeling a bit of shame because most of these grand ideas have not been completed for you to see the final result, so I have been returning to a couple projects to finish them once and for all.
Be for I go on, The Karakuri Archer project is on hold until I find some small strong plastic pulley wheels so I may minimize the friction while trying to turn the crank on the devise. So far no joy. But for now it will be looking down from the shelf above my workstation reminding me to get on with it.
I have returned to the Mars Orery project. Currently I've been working on hand making the beveled gears to drive the device. Whether or not they will be strong enough is another thing. I have thought to maybe send the cad specs off to one of many prototype companies and have some UHMW versions of these made because of the stress they'll be under. We'll see...

The other part of the Orery that will be complete soon is the globe of Mars. As you can see from this image I have been slowly adding layers of plaster over a foam ball. Sanding between layers the globe is slowly smoothing over nicely. Next is a few layers of gesso, and then a couple layer of absorbent bond. This will allow me to paint the surface with watercolor paint and avoid the 'plastic' look of acrylic paint. More on the antiquing of the globe as I progress.
That's all for now, more posting soon.