Hobbies

Creating Rubber Stamps: Not All Methods Created Equal (Part 2 of 3)
 by: Gwendolyn Lee

Welcome back! In part one of this three-part series, the advantages and disadvantages of laser-engraved rubber stamps were discussed. As discussed in the first article, although laser engraving has a high start-up cost, its quality and efficiency are second to none. In this segment, you will learn the benefit and fallbacks of a photoengraving stamp-making method.

Making a rubber stamp through a chemical or photopolymer process will also require significant start-up costs. Depending on the equipment capabilities, quality, or size, a photopolymer stamp-making kit may cost anywhere from $400-$4000. This process requires a significant amount of labor and tends to have a higher turnaround time.

The first step of the photopolymer process involves creating a negative of the image to be engraved. To begin, create or obtain a completely black graphic on a completely white background. If the graphic has colors, save or convert it to a monochrome or two-color format. A simple graphics editor, such as Paint (which automatically comes with a Windows OS) will allow the user to “Save As” and choose a “Save as type” as “Monochrome Bitmap.” This will convert the colored graphic into a black-and-white bitmap file. Once the image is completely black and white, using a graphics editor (again, Paint will work), invert the colors. This will create a white image on a black background.

Those Amazing Penguins
 by: Richard Monk

The movie, The March of the Penguins, has raised a great amount of interest in penguins. One never imagined penguins to be so driven. Here’s an overview of the amazing penguins.

Known as the little tuxedos, penguins have always seemed a bit odd as animals go. All of that changed, however, with The March of the Penguins, a movie about Emperor Penguins. The movie focuses on the incredible hardships these penguins undergo to be parents. If you haven’t seen the movie, rent it now. It will make you laugh, cry and develop a healthy respect for these majestic animals.

Penguins live in a fairly limited area. They’re primary home is Antarctica. Penguins can also be found in the cold costal areas of New Zeeland, Australia and South Africa. There are no penguins in the Arctic. This is the opposite of polar bears which are not found in Antarctica.

There are seventeen species of penguins. The smallest are Rockhoppers, which average roughly twelve inches in height. On the other end of the spectrum are the Emperor Penguins, which average nearly 48 inches in height.

Two Styles of Mystery Writing: Cozy and Hard-boiled
 by: Mary Arnold

Cozy novels do not have graphic violence, and little or no sexual content and abusive language. Society is “viewed as orderly and controlled, and the crime is a failure of the society to function correctly” (Niebuhr 7). In this type of novel, right and wrong are clearly defined, and the murder is considered to be an aberration, not something that is seen on a daily basis.

The detective in these novels is usually an amateur, although there are exceptions such as Agatha Christie’s Superintendent Battle of the CID. And the murder victim tends to have some inherent moral flaw that leads to his or her death. This doesn’t mean that the murder victim must be a monster. Take, for example, the character of Mrs. Argyle in Christie’s Ordeal by Innocence. She was a wonderfully kind woman who turned her home into a safe haven for children during World War II. After the war ended, she adopted five of the children. She loved and cared for her adopted sons and daughters very much and did everthing she could for them.

Collectors Of Wildlife Figurines Will Often Be A Reflection Of The Animal They Collect
 by: Dean Whittingham

A passionate collector can depict a sense of what makes them who they are by simply surrounding themselves with an animal that display’s the same attributes in the wild.

Wildlife Figurines are being sought after by a large cross section of society and one has to wonder what makes collecting wildlife figurines such a popular past time. It could be assumed that people feel a sense of emptiness when they think of how quickly the habitat of the earth’s wildlife is diminishing, or they feel in awe of an animal or birds unique presence in the wild. Either way they feel an attachment and decide to surround themselves with wildlife figurines, art, sculptures, decor and so on. So if this is the case, then how does one choose the animal? Well I believe in most cases they don’t, the animal chooses them.

It’s obvious to me that the material used to make a wildlife figurine does not seem to matter as much as the actual animal itself. When people come to our site searching for wildlife figurines, rarely do they search for the form or material along with the animal, and I think it’s because people are what they collect.

Here are six very good reasons to learn how to play piano in the New Age style:

1. It’s easy. No months spent learning theory here. Just a few chords and you’re off enjoying the joy of improvisation. Learning chords is the key to playing easily and effortlessly! And with New Age piano, the chords you learn can be used right away!

2. It’s fun! You can actually create your own music! In the classical music world you spend all your time learning how to play other peoples music. With New Age piano, you can sit down and “compose” a piece of your very own

3. It sounds good. You can, by using a few modern sounding chords, sound good playing piano right away.

4. Techniques are easily learned. New Age piano uses techniques that anyone can learn how to play in a matter of minutes.

5. No note reading involved. New Age piano is very much an improvised music. This being the case, chords are really all that you need to know. Although note reading is nice, it’s not necessary in order to create your own music

What Maks Fiction Special
 by: Rebecca Guevara

I was in a brisk discussion about whether a woman ‘would’ or ‘would not’ leave her wayward husband when a man interrupted and said, “But he’s not real! It’s fiction!” It was time to end the talk before I began my ten minute soliloquy that would have sent everyone in the kitchen for one too many drinks before going home. I knew the difficult husband in The Trading of Ken was not real because he fell out of my head and ended up on paper over a year’s time as I had fun punching him, his wife and girlfriend about. That’s exactly the point. Fiction has helped me put life in fascinating perspectives that allegedly truthful biographies, gooey memoirs, self-righteous improvement and dry scientific report studies can’t touch. Imagine:

Fiction makes judging human nature and gossip acceptable. Sunday school and ethics lessons can be overlooked when we dissect the behavior of Flaubert’s Madam Bovary. We can be arrogantly appalled, giving approval to our cherished ideas. Without apology or deference to a human being’s frailties we can smack our opinion about like a tennis ball hoping to aim and hurt. Or an author can give us that information on a character that forces our play; makes us look again and reconsider. Madam Bovary ‘loves without guile’ to gain sympathy and twist our presumptions. Then we can smack our ideas against the wall again because they’re not based on ‘real’ people and we can dissect them like an orange.

Imagine a beautiful pattern of paving stones as the central focus of your new patio. Stone circle kits are one of the most popular new products offered by suppliers of flagstones and pavers for patios. Stone pavers, such as sandstone paving slabs offer a wide range of beautiful styles and colors and can be the basis of an inviting and classic patio that is one of the most-used areas of your home.

Traditionally, the paving stones used in the construction of patios, drives and walkways have been York stone - stone cut from the quarries in York - granite, slate and sandstone. The increasing availability of imported stones from markets in India, China and Brazil have added some intriguing and stunning patterns and colors to the tried and true and still popular native stones. Because of the low cost of labor to quarry those stones, natural stone paving is as affordable as concrete and aggregate paving slabs, and natural stone patios have been rising in popularity over the past two decades.

Basic Preparations for Canvas Work
 by: Jo Kefford

To begin canvas work, you must first prepare a piece of canvas large enough to receive the design. ‘Large enough’ means the finished size of the design plus a margin of at least 5cm along each edge. When you are working with an uncharted design, finish size equals the dimensions of the drawing you will follow.

When a design is charted, finished size depends upon the number of canvas threads called for by the chart in relation to the threads per inch in the canvas. If the canvas is too narrow, lengths can be joined to get the necessary width. Make a pattern of the prepared canvas - it will be need when it is time to block the worked canvas.

Placing the design on canvas - method 1

This design transfer method places both the shapes and the colors of the design on to the canvas. The stitches are then worked right over the painted design. This method is recommended for use with any uncharted design, especially one that uses tent stitches only.

Feeding And Keeping Your Dog Healthy
 by: Peter Garant

A healthy puppy should be clear-eyed, somewhat roly-poly, loose-skinned, free from any skin trouble, hungry for its meals, and lively. It should not be timid or shy.

If the puppy seems warm or sleepy most of the time, ask one of your parents to take its temperature. A dog’s temperature normally is between 38 and 39 degrees Celsius. If its temperature rises above 39 degrees, call your veterinarian.

When you buy your puppy, ask what shots it has received and when it got them. If it has not received shots to prevent distemper, infectious hepatitis, leptospirosis, and rabies. take it immediately to a veterinarian to have them. Then get yearly boosters.You should also find out whether your puppy has been wormed. Most puppies have worms at some time.

For the first few days, you should feed your puppy the same diet as the owners did. If you wish to change the diet, do so gradually. Each day, feed a little of the new food mixed with the old.