Rugs and buttons

Jo and I were at my parents yesterday evening, to enjoy a dinner prepared by my brother and his wife. While I was there, I took pictures of the oriental rugs, with particular attention in this one, which was in front of the fireplace when I was a wee tyke in Portland, and which provided what I considered a highly satisfactory play area.

A recent alt.support.autism discussion of buttons reminded me of the old family button box that my great grandfather made in 1921.

Note the reversable lid. I'm sorry that the contents, which I remember as being wonderful, are no longer worthy of a photograph. It seems that a large percentage of the buttons have wandered off, but perhaps it is my memory that is at fault.

Fine cats

We have fine cats.

I got another Czech glass ball mosaic, this one with a hexagonal layout on one side, and square on the other. Some of the glass balls were missing, but I could borrow from the first set -- close enough in size to look okay, different enough to be able to sort back out. (The larger, darker red, and larger black, are from the earlier set.)

This is the glass block from the earlier set, with some faceted beads of just about the right size, just for the heck of it.

Another picture of the first set, and more info, is in my blockplay blog.

Wheel Kaleidoscope

This is an interesting wheel kaleidoscope I found in a local store.

Wheel kaleidoscopes have disks with patterns and colors that rotate independently in front of the mirrors, instead of chambers full of loose objects which tumble into different patterns in typical kaleidoscopes most of us knew as kids.

In the wheel kaleidoscope, as two wheels with their transparent patterns overlap differently, a wide variety of image effects can be formed. By exchanging the wheels, even more patterns variety can be achieved.

This inexpensive toy came with two acrylic disks painted with smears of various colored transparent paint, and thin squiggles of opaque paint. The images produced are lovely.

But I wanted a little more variety and didn't have any blank disks, so I turned to transparent fusible beads (by Perler or Hama). Wow! Wonderful results, either in combinations with one of the acrylic wheels, or paired with another bead disk. That's one of my disks between Archie's paws.

I omit beads in every other row, so that more of the colors of the second disk show through, though the gaps between the beads and the holes in the middle already provide some show through, and of course you get color modifications through the combinations of colored beads. Various disks have either odd rows or even rows gapped, and one of each is chosen when they are paired.

The arrangement for mounting the wheels intrigues me as well. Rather than mount the axle to the cardboard kaleidoscope tube, which probably isn't strong enough, a wood block with two holes is used: a large hole into which the mirror tube fits, and a small hole which mounts the axle with sturdy support. Since the axle is off center to the block, the block extends beyond the disks on one side, and provides a rest when the kaleidoscope is set down, rather than having it rest on the disks.

[As always, click on an image for a larger version.]

Friends

Kaleidoscope Image - Marbles

I haven't lost all my marbles, I found some to put in a kaleidoscope.

Kaleidoscope Image - Rainbow Glitz

These large semi-soft jacks were not difficult to cut with a sturdy pair of sharp scissors.

I have to confess that this wasn't much of a kaleidoscope experience -- the large pieces fit tightly enough that they didn't move around much unless I pulled the cap off and shook things up.

Smaller pieces might work better. And perhaps mixed with something slipperier.

Kaleidoscope Image - Fiber Optic

I have to admit to a bit of false advertising here: What you see by eye doesn't look like the photograph!

In real life, the dots are colored against a black background. But the autoexposure function of my digital camera managed to make the dots white, and in doing so, surrounded each dot with an aura the color the dot should have been.

Eventually I may experiment with taking an accurate picture, but in the meantime, I think this is downright cool, so this is what I am posting.

This came off a peg at the dollar store, but actually cost $1.39. I wasn't terribly put out, and not at all disappointed when I opened it up and tried it out.

The image was made by removing the ampules from the X-Motion, stuffing the fiber optics into the object end, and wiggling things until the results looked good.