belljohn.com

Cocoa Town

Tinamou — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:11:22 +0000

After eating some homemade chocolate at Olbrich Gardens wine and chocolate night, I had to post what I have about making chocolate.

This looks like a great machine - Cocoa Town.
This is a cheaper machine – Santha

Here are some good forums-

Projects for NXT 2.0

Tinamou — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:06:07 +0000

Great resources for robot plans.

Projects for NXT 2.0.

BuildItSolar

Tinamou — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:51:33 +0000

BuildItSolar: Solar energy projects for Do It Yourselfers to save money and reduce pollution.

From browsing around this site, it appears to be the best. The resources are up to date and they had everything I knew about plus more.

Search for Organic Bath Towels

Tinamou — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:33:14 +0000

There are so many choices in organic cotton and other fibers. After 12 years my JC Penney towels are starting to fray and I am beginning to feel embarrassed to have guests use them.

The two main choices are waffle weave and thick terri cloth. Thick towels are soft and sensuous, but scratchy when dried on the line. Waffle weave save a lot of energy in the dryer, but do they seem too frugal? Here is what I have found so far. Note that gsm stands for grams per square meter. The higher the number the thicker the cloth.

$70 – Hand-loomed in Turkey with intricate designs or 1200 gsm from EcoChoices
$30 – 700 gsm cotton towel from GoodFIbers
$28.50 – from India 600 gsm – Green Nest
$30 – 500 from Turkey with low impact dyes – Gaiam
$30 – Set of cheap looking but organic towels – Sears

Looking at this list, I think it is fair to say that you get what you pay for. I haven’t reviewed all of these towels in person, but the one from EcoChoices certainly looks nice. Let me know if you try them.

Selling Photos

Tinamou — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:04:08 +0000

I have been uploading some photos to stock photography sites. So far my best sellers have been of confetti and an empty plate of chocolate chip cookies.

-you can sign up to sell your own photos too-

-my Shutterstock portfolio-

My most popular images for sale at
Shutterstock:

Tomato Paintings

bbj — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:45:24 +0000

This is an old post from another place. I decided to repost it to remind myself of summer.

As the end of summer is near, tomatoes are on my mind. The current art project in our house is the tomato. I thought that I would share my attempts so far to find paintings with tomatoes in them.

Vincent van Gogh – Still Life with Mackrels, Lemons and Tomatoes

Still Life with Mackrels, Lemons and Tomatoes

Pablo Picasso – Tomato Plant

Tomato Plant

Nathan Altman – Jug and Tomatoes, 1912

Jug and Tomatoes

Tea Bowl Books

bbj — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 04:25:36 +0000

I am trying to make a reference for where to find more information about tea bowls. Here is what I have so far.

Best books in print

Shoji Hamada: A Potter’s Way & Work - Amazon Link

Out of print but available books

Hamada Potter by Bernard Leach- Amazon Link
There are cheaper places to find this book used, but Amazon has a nice photo of the cover and will get your search started.

Hard books to find
If you you like to part with any of these books, please let me know.

Cort, Louise Allison
1992 Seto and Mino Ceramics: Japanese Collections in the Freer Gallery of Art. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu
Plumer, Caroline I.
1972 Temmoku: A Study of the Ware of Chien. Idemitsu Art Gallery, Tokyo
Shoji Hamada 77 Tea Bowl Book - www.teaceramics.com/html/chawan-2004.html

Web Sites