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Blender reference links

Black and white rendering of an 8 page gate fold leaflet done with the Blender Internal engine by Piper Haywood

Render of 8pp gate fold, done with Blender Internal engine

Been experimenting with Blender these past few months, pretty incredible free/open source 3D software. Definitely a bit of a learning curve, but very addictive and satisfying once you get the hang of it.

Links to some of the more helpful tutorials and info I’ve found are listed below. I switched from the Blender Internal engine to Cycles recently for improved results w/ architectural rendering, so some of these links are specific to Cycles.

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Cobbler’s work on Loake chelsea boots

Work slip from Daniel, the cobbler on Francis Road

The cobbler on Francis Road did great work fixing up a second-hand pair of Loake chelsea boots recently. The uppers were in pretty good condition except for some salt damage. The elastic was perfect, surprisingly. The leather soles on the other hand were nearly shot, the right one in particular. The stitches were worn through.

Daniel pinned the leather sole to the welt, slightly built up the nose, built up the super-thin area under the ball of the foot, and then he glued and pinned a thin, black rubber sole to the leather outsole. The rubber sole says “Longlife Indiana”. He write “High-life sole” in thin silver pen on the left shoe near the heel, and “Francis Cobb” on the right. Though the heel didn’t need replacing, he did pin it down to make sure there’s no way it’ll peel away. Really, really pleased with the results.

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On finding a suitable replacement for a Weinmann Type 730 sidepull bicycle brake

A small bike-related victory today. Converting my bike to a single speed went relatively smoothly, but as suspected, the front Weinmann Type 730 caliper brake is pure trouble with the new slimmer road wheel. Centring this brake is no small task. The whole mechanism spins freely around the bolt — seems ridiculous for a side pull — so the only way to centre it is to alter the spring tension. To do this, you need a specific female allen key to take apart the brake and adjust the spring against each arm, hopefully without harming the plastic bushing in the process. It’s all a bit much. I’m not bothered about it being an era-appropriate item, so I started looking for a replacement brake.

In the end I went with the Condor Strada XL deep drop (55-73mm) nutted front brake in silver for £17.99. It was purchased in-shop, can’t seem to find it on the Condor website at the moment. I’m pretty darn pleased with it, particularly since there aren’t that many traditional nut-style brakes to choose from. It’s a great brake at a great price, and it’s always a pleasure supporting that shop. Of course I forgot to grab a pack of cable end caps… It’s getting there.

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Article on digital preservation for artists by Ben Fino-Radin

Off the back of some recent thoughts regarding the archiving of websites, SB sent me a link to “Digital Preservation in the Artist’s Studio” by Ben Fino-Radin. The article provides an extremely thorough overview of what steps might be involved in digitally archiving studio output, along with a few real-world examples. Love this stuff.

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On archiving/preserving websites

SB and I have been chatting about the whys, whens and hows involved in archiving a website. Archiving is always an uphill battle. It’s hard to take care of things as they age no matter what the material, and ageing code comes with a specific set of worries.

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Regarding single speed bicycle assembly

I need a bike that I’m comfortable with for getting around London. My Claud Butler steel mixte frame is in good condition and I’ve always wanted to learn more about bikes, so I’ve started to replace the heaviest and most problematic bits myself. Over time, the project evolved in to a single speed conversion. The notes below are an overview of the work and research I’ve done thus far. Expect misused terminology ahead, bumps in the road, etc.

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The Peter Principle in management theory

I had a spectacularly inarticulate moment recently trying to recall a management concept I read about a while back. By chance, I came across it today, so note to self: the Peter Principle is the theory you’re looking for. “Managers rise to the level of their incompetence”, or “anything that works will be used in progressively more challenging applications until it fails”.