rectangularcat, posts by tag: help! - LiveJournal

Some of you may not know, but I am now the new Regent of Their Highnesses University of Avacal.

One of the many things on my plate is to get our website up and running with good content.

Question for you all - apart from An Tir's Ithra website, are you aware of any other websites in the Knowne World that manage registrations, keep student and teacher records on line?  If so, can you comment here and let me know.  I will try to contact them and see if their code is easy to maintain and if we can use a version of it for our website.  I am all about re-use.

Calontir isn't one - they have the students manage their own paper records.  Since every kingdom call their universities by different names and some like us have principality universities as well, it's a bit hard to figure it out myself.  Hence I am polling the collective mind of LJ.  Yay for all my out of kingdom friends!

Thank you in advance.

Anyone pruning a cherry, plum or apricot tree this spring?

I need some of the gum that would exude eventually after you cut into your tree. 


Why do I need this type of gum over the more available kinds?  Well according to my research (that site is from an Estonian university and shows you the IR spectra of cherry gum... nifty):

Cherry Gum is from the cherry, mahaleb-cherry, apricot and plum trees. It swells in water. Cherry Gum may be emulsified with fatty oils and balsams. It gives great transparency to color. When added to an egg or casein emulsion, it gives a brilliant, enamel-like effect. It is mentioned as a painting medium in some treatises, particularly of northern origin and probably had occasional use as late as the XIX century.

I want it to make fake amber.  How much of it do I need?  Well as much as possible.  And of course, I will find a way to compensate you for your trouble.

I am going to try to make fake amber beads and fake coral beads this summer.  As such, I am now starting to look for the ingredients required.  A lot of these are used in making period scribal supplies so if that's your thing - please read on.

I need colophony (pine rosin), cherry gum, roche alum, white horn of a cow, raw linseed oil, dung, saffron and ball shaped moulds.

I am also looking for amber resin for putting into my filigree beads for scent.

I found a canadian online source for the colophony and the raw linseed oil - http://www.kamapigment.com/asp/mai…

I found some amber resin in the States - http://www.somaluna.com/cat/powder…

And these guys used to sell cherry gum *sad face* - http://www.zecchi.com/pag1.htm

I am thinking of substituting just plain alum for roche alum and if so, then it's not a problem to find as it is a dyeing mordant.

I think for the saffron I can just visit Chinatown (when in Vancouver next) and get Spanish saffron pretty cheap.

I am totally at loss for the white horn of a cow - if I remember well Tandy Leather sells bull horns but they are kinda brownish.  EDIT - found some here but they aren't mostly white - http://www.hideandfur.com/inventor…

Dung, that should not be a problem - I will just go visit the owner of the horses on Matevic.

And for the ball shaped moulds.. no idea.  Only found some huge ones for soap making online.  I want something more in the 15-30mm diameter range

Advice, experience, anything appreciated.

A question for the health-care/ therapist types amongst you

How do you help someone without becoming totally emotionally invested?  How can you be concerned yet keep that distance so that the worry and turmoil doesn't consume you?

I am exhausted today.  Don't get me wrong, I do not regret any thing I have freely given but I wonder how people whose full-time job this is get through their day.

If anyone localish to me has these in their personal collections let me know.  I am going to be at KA&S and plan to bring my super duper camera to take pics of the pages/chapters I need.   I will reward you for this by making you your very own rosary!

Otherwise, I am going to have to revise my handout days before my class with new information from these books.  I am heading to Vancouver in early April (where 2 of the 4 books are), then to Danescombe where I will be teaching a class on Historical Paternosters and Rosaries and getting people to make their own from awesome materials I provide.  Just placed an order for the beads and the silk (via the faboo Nim!)  Woot woot!  Getting people to make cool authentic stuff just rocks my boat!

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I have a huge yarn stash and have issues knitting (it messes up my hands).  I am considering getting a knitting machine such as this one - http://www.joann.com/catalog.jhtml…

Anyone have any experience with these?  

Although you know, I do not really have a need for something that can make me sweaters and such.  I prefer small projects like hats and socks.  So really a sock knitting machine would rock... http://www.countryrain.com/CSMForSale.htm

Except they are only antiques.  *sigh*  Cheapest one I found available is around $700.  Yikes.